The Daily Populous Thursday May 2nd, 2024 day edition
Authored by npr.org and submitted by Birdy_Cephon_Altera

United Methodist Church lifts bans on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings

Enlarge this image toggle caption Chris Carlson/AP Chris Carlson/AP

The United Methodist Church, one of the largest Protestant denominations in the U.S., has voted to repeal its ban on LGBTQ clergy as well as prohibitions on its ministers from officiating at same-sex weddings.

Delegates overwhelmingly approved the changes, 692 to 51, during the United Methodist Church's General Conference.

The meeting is taking place this week in Charlotte, N.C. after the pandemic delayed the 2020 General Conference where these decisions had been slated to take place.

The tone of the Charlotte meeting has been decidedly upbeat, in sharp contrast with the last, highly contentious global meeting back in 2019, when heated floor debates left many feeling hurt.

In fact, there was no floor debate over the clergy and marriages rules this time around. Rather, they were included on a consent agenda.

However, in the years leading up to this General Conference, about one-quarter of United Methodist congregations in the U-S left the denomination. Those congregations tended to be among the most conservative in the church. Their departure made the decisions this year less fraught.

Some of those departing congregations left to form the more conservative Global Methodist Church and others decided to become independent. The main reason many of those congregations left the denomination is that despite the church's official rules against LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings, some local geographic conferences chose to not enforce them.

Last week, the United Methodist Church voted on a "regionalization" plan that would allow various geographic regions of the church — North America, Europe, Africa, and elsewhere — to make their own rules regarding LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings. That move eased the way for United Methodists in more conservative parts of the world to develop their own rules for ministers and marriages.

Shortly after the vote today in Charlotte, spontaneous celebrations erupted on the conference center floor. Hundreds of people began cheering and singing. One of the hymn lyrics distinguishable in the crowd was, "You are a child, you are a child of God."

866902 on May 2nd, 2024 at 07:24 UTC »

My parents are both Christian and they did not take it well when I came out to them as a teen.

At the time my mom worked at a pre-school with a small group of older ladies. It was the same pre-school I had attended, and all those ladies had once been my teachers. (My mom started working there after I went on to "big school").

Anyway, those ladies all went to a different church than my mom which preached more progressive views on gay marriage and lgbt people in general. When she went to them for advice on what to do, they basically said "get over it, and keep loving him like you always have".

Both my parents eventually did get over having a gay son and my mom cites those ladies as one of the major reasons she changed her views.

My point is that these things MATTER and have real impacts of people lives. When one church opens its arms to lgbt people, the congregation of that church can "minister" to people of other denominations. Christians are generally more willing to accept the differing opinions of other Christians.

j54t on May 1st, 2024 at 18:52 UTC »

Wasn't there like a full blown schism in the church over this?

guacasloth64 on May 1st, 2024 at 18:47 UTC »

I am not religious myself, but my family went to a Methodist church during my childhood and a different church for a while in 2018-2019. Our congregation was in favor of this rule change in the lead up to the 2019 congress that caused the schism. I was even present at the congregation meeting on the subject. It was a bit surreal to see a bunch of white haired churchgoers be so unanimously supportive of LGBT clergy and same sex weddings.