Methodist Church Will Meet to Decide on Same-Sex Marriage and LGBT Ordination

“The United Methodist Church teetered on the brink of breakup Monday after more than half the delegates at an international conference voted to maintain bans on same-sex weddings and ordination of gay clergy.

Their favored plan, if formally approved, could drive supporters of LGBT inclusion to leave America’s second-largest Protestant denomination.

A final vote on rival plans for the church’s future won’t come until Tuesday’s closing session, and the outcome remains uncertain. But the preliminary vote Monday showed that the Traditional Plan, which calls for keeping the LGBT bans and enforcing them more strictly, had the support of 56 percent of the more than 800 delegates attending the three-day conference in St. Louis.”

https://www.chron.com/news/us/article/United-Methodist-Church-on-edge-of-breakup-over-13643779.php

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/us/united-methodists-vote.html

The United Methodist Church on Tuesday voted to strengthen its ban on gay and lesbian clergy and same-sex marriages, a decision that could split the nation’s second-largest Protestant church.

After three days of intense debate at a conference in St. Louis, the vote by church officials and lay members from around the world doubled down on current church policy, which states that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” The vote served as a rejection of a push by progressive members and leaders to open the church to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Now, a divide of the United Methodist Church, which has 12 million members worldwide, appears imminent. Some pastors and bishops in the United States are already talking about leaving the denomination and possibly creating a new alliance for gay-friendly churches.

“It is time for another movement,” the Rev. Mike Slaughter, pastor emeritus of Ginghamsburg Church in Ohio, said in a phone interview from the floor of the conference. “We don’t even know what that is yet, but it is something new.”

The decision, passed in a 53 percent to 47 percent vote, is the latest eruption in the fight over the future of American Christianity and over whose views of human sexuality are enshrined as Christian.

Conservatives have left the Episcopal Church over gay rights, Presbyterians have split, and many young evangelicals are leaving their churches over the lack of inclusion of L.G.B.T. people.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/02/united-methodists-…

Now that the UMC has voted to reaffirm its stance against homosexuality and toughen punishments for churches and clergy that violate its teachings, a number of progressive churches may consider leaving the denomination. Before the meeting had even begun, churches from across the theological spectrum had begun looking into this possibility—Daniel Dalton, a lawyer in Michigan who specializes in religious-property issues, says he has talked with more than 700 churches that are thinking about making an exit. In the past, this hasn’t always been so simple: While local churches build and run their own congregations, bishops largely have control over what happens to their assets when they want to leave the denomination. “Everybody wants out,” Dalton says. “The only thing that’s holding them back is that their property could be taken away from them.” For some churches, this is about theology and unity. For others, “it’s a battle over money,” Dalton says.

…

Some Methodists, however, seem determined to keep fighting this battle within their denomination. “I am a 32-year-old, and I am one of the youngest delegates here. For a denomination who claims so desperately to want young people in our churches, maybe we need to reevaluate,” said Alyson Shahan, a delegate from Oklahoma who seemed to support LGBTQ inclusion in the denomination. “This body is not where the disciple making happens. Thank the good Lord, am I right?”

Another General Conference will take place in 2020, where any of these issues or proposals could be taken up again. “With the Traditional Plan, that adds teeth. You’ve not only alienated progressives, but also centrists,” Hamilton said. “Do you think these churches will quietly accept this regressive Traditional Plan with teeth? Will these churches protest less, or more, for LGBTQ persons in the future?”