United Methodists are beginning to reverse long-standing anti-LGBTQ policies

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — United Methodist delegates began making historic changes to their policies on sexuality Tuesday — voting without debate to undo a series of anti-LGBTQ policies.

Delegates voted to eliminate mandatory penalties for performing same-sex marriages and to end their denomination’s ban on considering LGBTQ candidates for ministry and on funding gay-friendly ministries.

The 667-54 vote, which came during their General Conference, removes some of the scaffolding surrounding the United Methodist Church’s long-standing ban on LGBTQ-affirming policies regarding ordination, marriage and financing.

Later this week, votes will take place on the core bans on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage in church law and policy, which could spark more discussion. However, the large majority achieved by Tuesday’s votes indicates the tenor of the General Conference. The consensus was so overwhelming that these topics were included in the legislative “consent calendar,” normally reserved for non-controversial measures.

The actions follow a historic schism in what was long the third-largest denomination in the United States. About a quarter of U.S. congregations left between 2019 and 2023, mostly conservative churches upset that the denomination was not enforcing its longstanding LGBTQ bans. With the absence of many conservative delegates, who had solid majorities at previous general conferences and had steadily strengthened such bans over the past decades, progressive delegates are moving quickly to reverse such policies.

Such actions could also lead to the departure of some international churches, especially in Africa, where more conservative sexual values ​​prevail and where homosexual activity has been criminalized in some countries.

The United Methodist Church’s law still bans the ordination of “self-identified practicing homosexuals” to office — a decades-old rule that will be voted on later this week.

On Tuesday, however, the General Conference voted to lift a related ban on church officials considering for ordination anyone who fits that category.

It also scrapped mandatory penalties – imposed by a 2019 General Conference – for clergy who conduct ceremonies celebrating same-sex weddings or unions.

And a moratorium was placed on all legal processes in the church that seek to discipline clergy for violating LGBTQ-related rules.

Additionally, the General Conference took action to be openly LGBTQ-affirming.

It rescinded a longstanding ban on any United Methodist entity using funds “to promote acceptance of homosexuality.” That previous ban also banned funding of any effort to “disavow or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends” and explicitly supported funding responses to the anti-HIV epidemic. However, the mixed wording of the old rule has been replaced with a ban on funding efforts to “disqualify any LGBTQIA+ person or openly discriminate against LGBTQIA+ people.”

“It is a very liberating day for United Methodists who are actively involved with LGBTQ people,” said the Rev. David Meredith, board chairman of the Reconciling Ministries Network, a group that has long advocated for the inclusion of LGBTQ people in the church.

Compared to previous, controversial general conferences, this one is “much more optimistic,” said Jan Lawrence, the network’s executive director. ‘Yes, there will be things we disagree on. But the vitriol we saw in 2019 is not evident at all.”

Other rule changes called for consideration of LGBTQ people and other demographics in appointments in an effort to bring diversity to various church boards and entities.

The General Conference is the UMC’s first legislative meeting since 2019, a meeting that features the most progressive slate of delegates in recent history following the departure of more than 7,600 mostly conservative congregations across the United States as it effectively stopped enforcing the ban on gay marriage. and LGBTQ ordination.

This departure occurred during a period between 2019 and 2023, allowing them to leave with their properties, which were in trust for the denomination, on friendlier than normal terms. Conservatives are expected to ask that such deadlines be extended for international and U.S. churches that disagree with the General Conference’s actions.

Final votes remain this week on whether to lift the ban on LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage, and whether to replace a long-standing document that has called the “practice of homosexuality … incompatible with Christian teaching.” .

All of these proposals received overwhelming support in committee votes last week.

The changes would be historic in a denomination that has debated LGBTQ issues for more than half a century at its General Conferences, which typically meet every four years.

Last week, the conference approved a regionalization plan that would give the churches of the United States essentially the same autonomy as other regions of the global church. That change — which still requires local ratification — could create a scenario in which LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriages are allowed in the United States but not in other regions. Delegates approved a related measure Tuesday tied to regionalization.

Last week’s conference also approved the departure of a small group of conservative churches from the former Soviet Union.

The denomination was until recently the third largest in the United States and present in almost every county. But U.S. membership of 5.4 million in 2022 is expected to decline once 2023 departures are taken into account.

The denomination also has 4.6 million members in other countries, mainly in Africa, although previous estimates were higher.

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