I agree with you about the hand-wringing. I think the UMC is actually in better shape now strategically, since voting at General Conference is weighted by membership, which favors the conservative conferences in the southern US and global south. The current problem is that infractions of the Book of Discipline in some US conferences are overlooked or given token punishments. Even bishops are complicit. But still, the GC in 2016 will doubtless be the scene of much more hand-wringing if not a change to the Discipline.
Wasn’t there a Methodist Conference that overturned Discipline meted out to a pastor that performed a gay “marriage?” If I recall correctly, the pastor was removed, appealed to the Conference and the Conference had him reinstated. It might have been out east in Pennsylvania?