United Methodist Church Lifts 40-Year Ban on LGBTQ Clergy
proposed a plan to disaffiliate from the larger church and form a separate, more “traditionalist” Global Methodist Church taking a harder line on social issues, including same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy.In total, 7,600 congregations — constituting one-quarter of all U.S.-based congregations — have severed ties with the church.As a result, the overall church has moved toward embracing more progressive positions on various issues, including LGBTQ inclusion.
The consensus on repealing the ban on LGBTQ clergy was so overwhelming that it was rolled into a “consent calendar,” a package of normally non-controversial measures.The change doesn’t mandate or affirm LGBTQ clergy — it simply no longer forbids LGBTQ people from joining he priesthood.The change appears like it will only apply to U.S.-based churches, as United Methodist bodies in other countries, including those in Africa, have the right to impose their own rules for their respective regions, reports The Associated Press.The repeal of the ban will take effect immediately upon the conclusion of the General Conference on Friday, May 3.Delegates also approved a measure forbidding district superintendents who oversee various regions from penalizing clergy who either perform — or even refrain from performing — same-sex weddings.Superintendents will also be prohibited from forbidding a church from hosting a same-sex wedding, or requiring it to host same-sex nuptials.Delegates are expected to vote soon on proposals to replace the church’s official Social Principles, adopted in 1972, with a new document that no longer calls the “practice of homosexuality … incompatible with Christian teaching” and will now define marriage as between “two people of faith,” rather than a man and a woman.Following the vote to repeal the ban on clergy, applause broke out in parts of the convention hall as pro-LGBTQ advocates celebrated and embraced each other, with some even crying, according to the Methodist Church’s news service.
