05/02/2024
Below is the outcome of some of the recent legislation from General Conference and a word from our Bishop. After service this Sunday, Pastors Claudia and Karen will have a brief time of discussion with answering any questions or concerns.
The New York Times-
By Ruth Graham
May 1, 2024
The United Methodist Church removed on Wednesday its longstanding ban on ordaining gay clergy, formalizing a shift in policy that had already begun in practice and that had prompted the departure of a quarter of its U.S. congregations in recent years.
The overturning of the 40-year-old ban on “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” passed overwhelmingly and without debate in a package of measures that had already received strong support at the committee level.
Delegates, meeting in Charlotte, N.C., also voted to bar local leaders from penalizing clergy or churches for holding, or declining to hold, same-sex weddings. The vote effectively allows same-sex marriage in the church for the first time, although the original penalty was already unevenly enforced. Some clergy may still decline to perform same-sex weddings.
Further votes affirming L.G.B.T.Q. inclusion in the church are expected before the meeting adjourns on Friday
“We’ve always been a big-tent church where all of God’s beloved were fully welcome,” said Bishop Tracy Smith Malone, the new president of the denomination’s Council of Bishops and the first Black woman to serve in that role. She called the vote “a celebration of God breaking down walls.”
She described the atmosphere in the room as a “Pentecost moment,” in which the presence of the Holy Spirit was palpable.
In a meeting on Wednesday, church leaders also voted to allow L.G.B.T.Q. weddings.
