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Western Bishops Push Back

LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C., Nov. 6 – As new restrictions loom against LGBTQ+ persons in The United Methodist Church, the five active bishops in the Western Jurisdiction (region of the United States) are offering a Safe Harbor to LGBTQ+ clergy and are urging bishops and other United Methodists to join them.

The bishops have asked their colleagues on the denomination’s Council of Bishops to sign their declaration and urged other clergy and laypersons across the church to join them in supporting the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in all parts of the life of the church. They made their request during the Council’s meeting at Lake Junaluska, N.C.

Their action comes as a series of new restrictions tightening the denomination’s prohibition barring LGBTQ+ persons from ordination as clergy goes into effect on Jan. 1.

“We intend to provide safe harbor for clergy under our care who may be at risk under the new provisions, prohibitions, and punishments,” the bishops said.

“We do not believe that The United Methodist Church has the authority or the power to impose limits on the movement of God’s Holy Spirit in the lives of God’s beloved LGBTQ+ children.

“We intend to exercise our authority as bishops of The United Methodist Church to encourage and protect the full participation of LGBTQ+ persons as beloved children of God, embraced in God’s reign of grace.”

Understanding that it is impossible to accomplish this without recognizing how God calls people of all sexual orientations to ministry, they write, “We do not intend to withhold or challenge ordination based solely on a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation. We are unwilling to punish clergy who celebrate the marriage of two adults of any gender or sexual orientation seeking the blessing of God and the Church for their covenanted life together.”

The new restrictions will make it easier to file complaints against LGBTQ+ persons seeking to enter into ministry and provide for mandatory punishments against clergy convicted of presiding over same-sex weddings. There is no other place in church law that requires mandatory punishments.

To sign and show support for the bishops’ declaration, click here.

Click here for the full text of their declaration.

Click here to watch a video of the bishops talking about this statement.

What Does the Bible Say About Sexual Orientation?

From Father Richard Rohr: “Today I share thoughts from Episcopal priest and CAC faculty member Cynthia Bourgeault on an important question, ‘What does the Bible say about sexual orientation?’ For the record, I couldn’t agree more with her response, so I will allow her words to stand on their own. I hope you will take them to heart.”

How you answer this question depends hugely on what you take the Bible to be. If you believe that the Bible is a single, timeless, internally consistent teaching on matters of human morality dictated by God then yes, the Old Testament book of Leviticus is definitely uncomfortable with “homosexuality.” But it is also uncomfortable with menstruating women, shellfish, and pigskin. (And for the record, it has some very harsh words to say about lending money at interest, a prohibition that even biblical literalists seem to find it perfectly permissible to disregard!)

Like most other critically thinking Christians, I see the Bible as a symphony (sometimes a cacophony!) of divinely inspired human voices bearing witness to an astonishing evolutionary development in our human understanding of God (or God’s self-disclosure as we grow mature enough to begin to comprehend it, another way of saying the same thing).

As a Christian, I am bound, when I listen to this diversity of biblical voices, to set my compass by the teachings and the path walked by Jesus himself. Where biblical testimony is internally inconsistent (and even Jesus experienced it this way!), I am bound to honor Jesus as my final court of appeal. And thus, the bottom line must inescapably be that nowhere does Jesus condemn gays or lesbians (or any other person identified in the diverse range of LGBTQ+), and certainly nowhere does he wish harm upon anyone, even those whom the religious culture is so quick to condemn as sinners. His harsh words are reserved entirely for those whose certainty about their religious rectitude causes them to condemn others. Jesus is all about inclusion, forgiveness, and empowerment. In the light of his compassionate presence, people are set free to live their lives in strength and hope, regardless of whether they be considered outcasts by those in the “religious know.”

There’s a part in each one of us that would prefer the certainty of an unchanging rulebook to the radical open-endedness of God’s ongoing self-revelation in love. But as a Christian, when confronted by a tension between a religious certainty which leads me to violate the law of love and a deep unknowing that still moves in the direction of “loving my neighbor as myself,” (Matthew 22:39) I am bound to choose the latter course. 

“I will be what I will be” is the name God asked Moses to know God by in the book of Exodus (3:14). With that as one line of bearing on my thinking, and the steadily increasing revelation of God’s mercy and compassion as the other, I am compelled by my Christianity to refrain from any behaviors or judgments which arrogantly demean the dignity of another human being or cause them to lose hope.

Gateway to Presence:
If you want to go deeper with today’s meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation.

Adapted from Cynthia Bourgeault, “Cynthia Bourgeault on Homosexuality in the Bible,” Goop, https://goop.com/wellness/spirituality/homosexuality-in-the-bible/.

Guiding Coalition Formed

In the wake of the exclusionary and punitive actions of General Conference 2019, Bishop Elaine JW Stanovsky is announcing the formation of a Greater Northwest Area Guiding Coalition. The coalition will help to shape and lead a new movement of Methodism in the Northwest that fully includes LGBTQIA+persons in membership, participation and leadership, both lay and ordained.

In conversations with people inside and outside our churches, listening deeply to voices on the margins, the group will develop proposals for United Methodists across the Greater Northwest to move into a future of vital, inclusive, innovative, multiplying, engaged Christian ministry in the Wesleyan Tradition.

“We are forming this Guiding Coalition in response to many conversations since last February, and to legislation passed at the annual conference sessions earlier this year,” shared Stanovsky. “It is clear that we need to be both strategic and collaborative in this moment, when the generous practice of United Methodism is under attack. The coming months may require us to move quickly and rely on our collective strength.”

The Guiding Coalition is comprised of representatives from the three conferences that make up the Greater NW Episcopal Area – The Alaska Conference, the Oregon-Idaho Conference, and The Pacific Northwest Conference.

According to Stanovsky, the coalition will embody practices and values that build on strengths already present in the Greater NW Area. Previous discussions in the area have identified the need for deeper Christian discipleship and community engagement, including stronger ministries of solidarity, justice, and mercy.

The Guiding Coalition will invite work groups of laity and clergy to examine areas where the conferences can shape or define a way forward. One group will consider how the area can continue to resist the harmful remnants of the Traditional Plan that were passed by the 2019 General Conference while seeking to reform the Church through legislative action in 2020. Another will look at financial resources, including apportionments, seeking to align them with the values and concerns of United Methodists in the Northwest. And yet another will strive to discern what a new expression of Methodism might look like if designed for 21st century people living in the Greater Northwest Area.

One group will envision what a “grassroots” connection might look like, built on authentic relationships. Vital conversations across difference — between established and emerging leaders, churches of different hearts, minds, and experiences — will be explored. The group will also look forward to the 2020 Shared Greater NW Annual Conference Session in June, with anticipation for the potentially monumental decisions that may need to take place.

Members of the Greater NW Guiding Coalition include: Jim Doepken, Jo Anne Hayden, Kelly Marciales and Carlo Rapanut from the Alaska Conference; Wendy Woodworth, Jan Nelson, Mark Bateman, Rick Shewell, Jeremy Smith, Paul Cosgrove, Karen Hernandez, Allen Buck, Carter Lybeck, Laurie Day, and Donna Pritchard from the Oregon-Idaho Conference; and Skylar Bihl, Brant Henshaw, Joe Kim, Marie Kuch-Stanovsky, David Reinholz, Katy Ritchey, Elizabeth Schindler, Dionica Sy, Kathleen Weber, Karen Yokota Love, David Valera and Kristina Gonzalez from the Pacific Northwest Conference.

Many more people will participate in the workgroups as they form in the weeks ahead.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

United Methodist bishops and delegates gather together to pray at the front of the stage before a key vote on church policies about homosexuality on February 26, 2019, during the Special Session of the General Conference of The United Methodist Church, held in St. Louis, Missouri. Photo by Paul Jeffrey, UMNS.

Will the 2020 United Methodist General Conference bring everyone back to the table or will delegates go off in their own corners to divide the church?

At issue is the denomination’s now 47-year-long debate about the role of LGBTQ people in church leadership.

The phrase that has brought the church to the brink of breaking up was introduced into church law in 1972 when the denomination’s top lawmaking body declared the practice of homosexuality was “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

Every General Conference since that 1972 gathering has debated that phrase. But at the end of the day, the language has stayed in the United Methodist Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book. Also, church law has stated no “self-avowed practicing” gay person may be ordained, no same-sex marriage ceremonies can be held in a United Methodist church and no United Methodist clergy can officiate at a same-sex union.

However, the church policy book states LGBTQ people are welcome in all United Methodist churches and are of “sacred worth.”

The debate reached a crescendo in 2016 and the whole issue was put on pause. The Council of Bishops was asked to appoint a commission to come up with a way forward to present at a special called General Conference.

In the meantime, the Western Jurisdiction elected the Rev. Karen Oliveto as the denomination’s first openly gay bishop. She was consecrated on July 16, 2016. The married lesbian has been leading the Mountain Sky Area since her election, even though The United Methodist Church’s top court ruled consecrating a gay bishop violates church law.

That 2017 ruling, which did not specifically name Oliveto, said a gay bishop who had been consecrated remained in good standing until an administrative review process was complete.

Three months after the end of GC2016, the bishops announced a 32-member Commission on the Way Forward charged with completely examining every paragraph in the Book of Discipline related to human sexuality. A special called General Conference was set for February 2019. Based on the commission’s work, the Council of Bishops recommended a plan that would have left questions of same-sex weddings up to individual clergy and congregations — and questions of gay ordination up to individual conferences.

The 2019 General Conference ended with a vote to reinforce the current language in the Book of Discipline concerning homosexuality, strengthened enforcement for violations and provided a process for those who cannot live with the Discipline to leave.

But that is not the end of the story. Rolling into the 2020 General Conference, rebellion has broken out and plans to split the church have been floated.

Most recently, the Filipino College of Bishops “intensely” opposed dissolution of The United Methodist Church and called for regional autonomy to deal with divisive issues like homosexuality.

The African College of Bishops also stated they oppose a split in the denomination but reiterated their stance that homosexuality is incompatible with the teachings of Scripture.

Since the Feb. 23-26 special session in St. Louis, giving to general church ministries has dropped.

An investigation into voting at the February 2019 General Conference found evidence of four ineligible people casting votes using the credentials of delegates who were not present. Because of that investigation, a key vote on how congregations can leave the denomination was nullified.

However, seven Mississippi churches already have left the denomination using that legislation’s provisions.

Several of the denomination’s U.S. annual conferences meeting this summer looked at plans for a new Methodism centered around how to divide The United Methodist Church.

More than 20 of the regional gatherings rejected the Traditional Plan approved by the 2019 General Conference and voted to remove the phrase that the practice of homosexuality “is incompatible with Christian teaching” from the denomination’s policy book. The 54 U.S. regional conferences met in May and June.

Other conferences had passionate discussions about the future of The United Methodist Church but stood by the action of the 2019 General Conference.

At least nine U.S. conferences commissioned or ordained openly LGBTQ individuals including Baltimore-Washington, Michigan, North Texas, New York, Northern Illinois, Oregon-Idaho, Desert Southwest, Mountain Sky and California-Nevada.

U.S. conferences also elected a significantly different slate of delegates to make the big decisions in 2020.

The pain over the deep divide that has occurred among United Methodists since February’s General Conference has permeated all parts of the denomination, raising questions about the impact on its mission projects and goals.

Roland Fernandes, in his general treasurer’s report for United Methodist Global Ministries, pointed out that most Advance projects — mission work that relies on voluntary contributions — had a significant income decline in the first quarter of this year.

Overall, Advance giving to the United Methodist Committee on Relief dropped by more than $24 million from $58.4 million in 2017 to $34 million in 2018. But the higher funding in 2017 reflected donations aimed at responding to hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

The 2020 General Conference in Minneapolis will have 862 delegates overall, equally split between clergy and laity.

Of the 2020 delegates, 55.9% will be from the U.S., 32% from Africa, 6% from the Philippines, 4.6% from Europe and the remainder from concordat churches that have close ties to The United Methodist Church. Compared to the 2019 session, the U.S. will have fewer delegates overall while African delegations gain 18 and the Philippines gain 2.

Delegates to General Conference make decisions that affect the entire denomination and they vote by secret ballot as moved by the Holy Spirit.

This principle is underscored in the words of the denomination’s top court, Judicial Council.

“Delegates to General Conference, just as members of an Annual Conference, are bound to do as their conscience dictates what is good for the Church of Jesus Christ, The United Methodist Church, in particular, and that only.”

Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. Information for this story was compiled from reports by UM News reporters Linda Bloom, Eveline Chikwanah, Heather Hahn, Sam Hodges, Gladys Mangiduyos and Jim Patterson.

Cindy Caldwell, United Methodist Communications, created the timeline graphic. Updated by Laurens Glass, UM News.

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