The vote at a national conference removes a rule forbidding “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ministers in the church.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — United Methodist delegates repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy with no debate on Wednesday, removing a rule forbidding “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as ministers.
The change doesn’t mandate or even explicitly affirm LGBTQ clergy, but it means the church no longer forbids them. It’s possible that the change will mainly apply to U.S. churches, since United Methodist bodies in other countries, such as in Africa, have the right to impose the rules for their own regions.
Michigan Bishop David Bard presides at a session of the General Conference of the United Methodist Church on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. The consensus was so overwhelmingly that it was rolled into a “consent calendar,” a package of normally non-controversial measures that are bundled into a single vote to save time.
Delegates are also expected to vote as soon as today on whether to replace their official Social Principles with a new document that no longer calls the “practice of homosexuality … incompatible with Christian teaching” and that defines marriage as between “two people of faith” rather than between a man and a woman.
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United Methodists repeal longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergyUnited Methodist delegates have repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy with no debate.
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United Methodists repeal longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergyUnited Methodist delegates have repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy with no debate.
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United Methodists repeal longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergyUnited Methodist delegates have repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy with no debate.
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United Methodists repeal longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergyUnited Methodist delegates have repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy with no debate
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