The Evangelical Methodist Church in Uruguay is a member of the

World Methodist Council The World Methodist Council (WMC), founded in 1881, is a consultative body and association of churches in the Methodist tradition. It comprises 80 member denominations in 138 countries which together represent an estimated 80 million people; this ...

. It has 1,000 members and 12 congregations. It is also an autonomous affiliate of the

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was a leader in evangelical ...

History

The church was founded by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

missionaries in the mid-1800s. In 1893 it became a district, when the Latin America Conference was formed. In 1952 the Uruguay provisional Conference was formed; in 1968 it became autonomous.

Social issues

Women are able to be ordained in the denomination, and from 1994 to 2000 the president of the church was a lay woman,

Beatriz Ferrari Beatriz Ferrari De Arias is a Uruguayan church official. She was president of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Uruguay from 1994 until 2000. Life Ferrari worked for three years as a volunteer missionary, working with young people in Spain. For ...

. The church has also "resolved that pastors that wish to minister to homosexuals could do so freely". As a result, some congregations and ministers have provided blessing services for same-gender couples.

References

Methodism in Uruguay {{uruguay-stub