I don’t fully understand the resolve here but legal speak is not my first language. It’s truly a shame that these charges had to be brought in the first place. I mistakenly thought the UMC was open to same sex unions, but then again I’m sheltered by life in California.
Hey FB! This was called “Just Resolution” and is intended to seek God’s justice and healing to harmed parties involved. If a resolution had not been reached, the charges would have gone to church trial on the denominational level.
The United Methodist Church prohibits clergy from conducting marriage ceremonies for couples who aren’t hetero. If ministers choose to do so, they are brought up on disciplinary charges for violating the polity they swore to uphold. The Reverend Harriet Bryan has created a middle way that didn’t exist before, one that, of signed by the bishop, will prevent the minister being brought to trial and losing ordination. The matter of the ordination of LGBT clergy and of conducting weddings can’t be addressed again until General Conference, 2016. Meanwhile, I think this document should be taught in divinity schools along with the Barmen Declaration. It’s the most graceful statement I’ve seen on the topic.
I’m still waiting on pastors to be brought up on charges for refusing to uphold their baptismal vows to “seek justice and resist evil” — discrimination and denial of life-long commitment of LGBT members certainly violates this.
Though same-sex marriage was not legal in the jurisdiction in which it was performed in this case, since the recent Supreme Court decision, marriage is considered a civil right that must be made available throughout the nation to same-sex couples as well as opposite-sex couples. Our statement on human sexuality says the following: “All persons, regardless of age, gender, marital status, or sexual orientation, are entitled to have their human and civil rights ensured and to be protected against violence. ” It also says the following: “Although all persons are sexual beings whether or not they are married, sexual relations are affirmed only with the covenant of monogamous, heterosexual marriage.” The General Conference will need either to put a qualifying statement on the first, indicating that, although we will support same-sex marriage, our clergy may not officiate at one, nor may one be conducted in our churches; or, it will need to change the second statement by eliminating the word “heterosexual,” since same-sex marriages that are deemed to be civil rights are only monogamous. Which will it be? Or will there be another resolution that draws the UMC further from or closer to the movement of God’s Spirit in expressing God’s love for all those who bear the divine image?
I wouldn’t call it graceful, if by the word you mean divine grace. If you mean the sort of grace that a dancer uses to avoid obstacles or a politician uses to avoid the truth, then I agree. It is an attempt to avoid the troublesome grace with which God created humankind and by which God has ordered, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
It is a wonderful congregation, one of three welcoming UMC families to which I have belonged. It is an immense blessing to go where LGBT people are not spectacles, not poor lost souls, not condescended to. We are just folks who belong there like all the other folks. I look forward to the day the denomination catches up with the local churches.
I left the UMC for forty years because I was told I did not belong. I was not acceptable. As a life long member of UMC, singing in the choir from childhood to adulthood and participating in very way, it was a terrible loss. I was, literally lost. Now, after a forty year exile, I found a UMC church that accepts me and my husband, legally married by the State of Texas. I hate to think of leaving again thinking we are not welcomed. Just remember this Bishops….we have the right to pray, too.
Youre absolutely right. The church teaches us to follow in Jesus and live our lives as he would. When they exclude us, who are marginalized like the woman at the well, then people leave the church. When the people leave so does the money. Wake up UMC……you could be extinct too.
icanhasgrace 
This make me very, very angry. After what they’ve done to this minister, I would never consider joining that congregation.
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I hear you, Bette. But it’s important me to say that the local church has been wonderfully supportive in every way.
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I don’t fully understand the resolve here but legal speak is not my first language. It’s truly a shame that these charges had to be brought in the first place. I mistakenly thought the UMC was open to same sex unions, but then again I’m sheltered by life in California.
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Hey FB! This was called “Just Resolution” and is intended to seek God’s justice and healing to harmed parties involved. If a resolution had not been reached, the charges would have gone to church trial on the denominational level.
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It’s my understanding that California is handling similar situations differently. You’re understandably confused.
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The United Methodist Church prohibits clergy from conducting marriage ceremonies for couples who aren’t hetero. If ministers choose to do so, they are brought up on disciplinary charges for violating the polity they swore to uphold. The Reverend Harriet Bryan has created a middle way that didn’t exist before, one that, of signed by the bishop, will prevent the minister being brought to trial and losing ordination. The matter of the ordination of LGBT clergy and of conducting weddings can’t be addressed again until General Conference, 2016. Meanwhile, I think this document should be taught in divinity schools along with the Barmen Declaration. It’s the most graceful statement I’ve seen on the topic.
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I’m still waiting on pastors to be brought up on charges for refusing to uphold their baptismal vows to “seek justice and resist evil” — discrimination and denial of life-long commitment of LGBT members certainly violates this.
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Though same-sex marriage was not legal in the jurisdiction in which it was performed in this case, since the recent Supreme Court decision, marriage is considered a civil right that must be made available throughout the nation to same-sex couples as well as opposite-sex couples. Our statement on human sexuality says the following: “All persons, regardless of age, gender, marital status, or sexual orientation, are entitled to have their human and civil rights ensured and to be protected against violence. ” It also says the following: “Although all persons are sexual beings whether or not they are married, sexual relations are affirmed only with the covenant of monogamous, heterosexual marriage.” The General Conference will need either to put a qualifying statement on the first, indicating that, although we will support same-sex marriage, our clergy may not officiate at one, nor may one be conducted in our churches; or, it will need to change the second statement by eliminating the word “heterosexual,” since same-sex marriages that are deemed to be civil rights are only monogamous. Which will it be? Or will there be another resolution that draws the UMC further from or closer to the movement of God’s Spirit in expressing God’s love for all those who bear the divine image?
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I wouldn’t call it graceful, if by the word you mean divine grace. If you mean the sort of grace that a dancer uses to avoid obstacles or a politician uses to avoid the truth, then I agree. It is an attempt to avoid the troublesome grace with which God created humankind and by which God has ordered, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
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Question: how many places in this can you find Jesus?
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Beautiful question.
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They keep him in the back of their closet. It’s so full of Methodist homosexuals no one will ever find him.
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It is a wonderful congregation, one of three welcoming UMC families to which I have belonged. It is an immense blessing to go where LGBT people are not spectacles, not poor lost souls, not condescended to. We are just folks who belong there like all the other folks. I look forward to the day the denomination catches up with the local churches.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I left the UMC for forty years because I was told I did not belong. I was not acceptable. As a life long member of UMC, singing in the choir from childhood to adulthood and participating in very way, it was a terrible loss. I was, literally lost. Now, after a forty year exile, I found a UMC church that accepts me and my husband, legally married by the State of Texas. I hate to think of leaving again thinking we are not welcomed. Just remember this Bishops….we have the right to pray, too.
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Life is about choices. If you choose to do something explicitly forbidden by the vows you have taken, there may be consequences. Welcome to adulthood.
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Youre absolutely right. The church teaches us to follow in Jesus and live our lives as he would. When they exclude us, who are marginalized like the woman at the well, then people leave the church. When the people leave so does the money. Wake up UMC……you could be extinct too.
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So, which progressive denominations are thriving?
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