(RNS) — Under the new restructuring plan, called 'regionalization,' the denomination's nine regions will be equal partners with greater freedom to tailor church life to their own customs and traditions.
The plan decentralizes the role of the U.S., which gave birth to churches in Europe, the Philippines and Africa. Each of its nine regions across four continents will now have the ability to set its own qualifications for ordaining clergy and lay leaders, write original hymnals and rituals, compose their own rites for marriage and establish judicial courts.
2·1 month ago