World Methodist Council

In 2016, the World Methodist Council was made up of 80 member denominations:^[11]

In 2024, the Thailand Union Methodist Church was received as the 81st member denomination.^[2]

The WMC is made up of around 81 member denominations.

In 2014 it was estimated that together, the member denominations had about 39,745,196 members and 51,286,152 adherents.^{[n 3][5][38]}

According to the most up-to-date statistics available, among member denominations, the United Methodist Church represents 18.88% of individual members, other Methodist churches are 45.52% and united churches represent 35.60% of individual members.

However, some of the largest WMC member denominations face a rapid decline in membership between 2000 and 2024.^[24][39][40]

In 2018, the WMC disclosed that its 80 member denominations represented an estimated 80 million people^[41] These numbers would supposedly include around 60 million members and 20 million adherents.^[42][10]

However, the 2018 figures contradict all independent statistics based on national censuses, as well as the combined statistics released by member Methodist and United churches themselves. According to several independent sources, Methodist churches have about 40 million members worldwide.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

A 2011 report by the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life estimated that members of Methodist churches (excluding United churches) represent 3.5% of the world's approximately 801 million Protestants, or about 27,234. 000 people.^[43]

According to Christianity Global: A Guide to the World's Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, in 2020, there were 31,683,000 Methodists in the world (not including United Churches), corresponding to 0.4% of the global population and 14,706,000 members of the Holiness Movement (0.2% of the world population), with a total of 46,389,000 members of the Methodism and Holiness Movement, or 0.6% of the global population .^[44]

The WMC does not represent all Methodists in the world and the organization's member united and uniting churches total only 14.3 million members, according to their own denominational statistics.

Therefore, WMC statistics from 2014 are considered more reliable compared to independent sources.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

Among the 81 member denominations, 8 permit or support same-sex marriage or blessings for same-sex unions. These are: United Methodist Church,^[45] Methodist Church of Great Britain,^[46] Spanish Evangelical Church,^[47][48] United Church of Canada,^[49] Uniting Church in Australia,^[50] Uniting Church in Sweden,^[51][52] United Church of Christ in the Philippines^[53] and United Protestant Church in Belgium.^[54][55]

The highest organ of the World Methodist Council is the World Methodist Conference, which meets every five years. The 22nd Conference was held in Gothenburg, Sweden in 2024.^[56] The theme was 'On the Move' and focussed on migration.

The 21st Conference was held in 2016 in Houston, Texas in the United States. The theme was "ONE". Organized around four sub themes – One God, One Faith, One People, One Mission.^[57]

The 2011 conference, gathered under the theme "Jesus Christ - for the Healing of the Nations", was held in August 2011 in Durban, South Africa.^[58] On 24 July 2006, Sunday Mbang stepped down as chairperson of the council and John Barrett took over his position as well as elected president for the council.^[59]

In 2006, it formally approved the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.

Current officers are:

• General secretary: The Rev Reynaldo Ferreira Leão Neto
• President: Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett
• Vice-President: Joshua Rathnam
• Treasurer: Myron Howie
• Youth and young adult coordinator: Stefanie Gabuyo

The World Methodist Council has offices in Methodist Central Hall Westminster, London.

In the 1950s, area residents and Methodists from the Southeastern United States raised money for the construction of a building in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina to attract the World Methodist Council headquarters. Until the 1970s, the museum building was to go to the Lake Junaluska Assembly if no longer needed, although that plan was changed. The Royce and Jane Reynolds Headquarters building, intended to resemble the house where John Wesley lived when he was young, was added in the 1990s after a donation from the Reynolds family. The museum housed letters written by Wesley,^[61] a pulpit Wesley used,^[62] and a 1594 Geneva Bible, as well as ancient items from the Holy Land. Starting in 2013, with the museum having problems, the sale of the building was considered but the assembly made no formal offer. The COVID-19 pandemic finally made closing the museum necessary, and its contents went to Bridwell Library of Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. In Spring 2021, the World Methodist Council sold its headquarters building, including a museum, to the assembly for $1.25 million. The World Methodist Council moved to offices in nearby Waynesville, North Carolina.^[61]

At a Lake Junaluska Board of Trustees meeting in March 2022, Lake Junaluska Executive Director Ken Howle announced a $1.1 million gift from Anne and Mike Warren, who also gave $625,000 toward the purchase of the headquarters building and part of the Susanna Wesley Garden next door.^[63] The gift from the Warrens helped with $2.5 million in renovations to what is now called the Warren Center, for smaller group events.^[64]

• List of Methodist denominations
• List of the largest Protestant denominations