(ZENIT News / Rome, 14.05.2024).- On May 1, in the Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, the highest legislative assembly of the United Methodists, a Protestant community, lifted by a large majority the prohibition to “ordain” homosexuals clerics.
Several Methodist leaders regard the decision as a solution to keep the church united, although the division is patent when it’s a question of marriage between same-sex individuals and the “ordination” of LGBTI persons.
The decision was taken by a simple vote with no debate, doing away with the prohibition, established in 1984, to ordain “self-declared practicing homosexuals” clerics.
Later, during the Methodists’ General Convention in 2019, the delegates tightened the prohibitions for the ordination of gay clergy and marriage between same-sex individuals. After that General Convention, some 7,600 traditionalist churches in the United States, which implied 25% of the total number of Methodist churches in the country, left the denomination, considering the tightening of prohibitions temporary.
The absence of the delegates of those churches that left the denomination explains the swift change in policies. With this vote, the Church’s 11 million members follow the trajectory of the majority of liberal Protestant Churches, which ordain LGBTI clerics: Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Evangelical-Lutherans in America and the United Church of Christ.
The first vote included the prohibition of punishment for clerics that perform marriages between same-sex individuals, although the prohibition of marriages between same-sex individuals in the churches has not been voted on.
A second vote established the prohibition of financing LGBTI causes that “promote the acceptance of homosexuality.”
The main group that rejected the changes that favour the LGBTI community were the African delegates, in whose countries homosexuality is illegal. The United Methodist Church is a global denomination and its greatest presence outside the United States is in Africa.
Forbes Matonga, Pastor of a church in the West of Zimbabwe, said: “We consider that homosexuality is a sin. So for us, this is a fundamental theological difference, in which we think that others no longer consider the authority of the Scriptures.”
A vote has yet to be taken on a broader measure that would do away with rules of the so-called Book of Discipline, a 1972 addition, which states that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.” The Book of Discipline also defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
Bishop Ken Carter of North Carolina, expressed this historic step of the Church towards inclusion: “We have been attacking a group for discrimination for years. And we did so from an understanding of homosexuality whose origins go back to when it was considered a sickness and a disorder. People are increasingly seeing that God’s spirit is in gay and lesbian people.”
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