A Letter from Pastor Gene - General Conference 2024
The United Methodist Church has just completed its first General Conference since 2016 and since we’re supposed to conduct our business every four years, if you guessed that there was a huge backlog of items to get through, you’d be correct. Over 1,000 petitions came to the floor in just ten days of activity and over 700 delegates were called to a time of Holy Conferencing. There were so many issues, both small and large, that came to the floor that Deacon Deb and I have chosen to write two separate newsletter articles to bring you all up to speed, but even those will fall woefully short. If you’d like to learn more, or perhaps we didn’t cover the issue you were interested in, I encourage you to check out the website (UMNews.org) for more information.
Though far from the only issue to be discussed this year, much of the interest and indeed clicks were around the UMC’s position on LGBTQIA inclusion. Since 1972, the UMC has officially barred “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals” from being clergy or entering the process towards becoming clergy. Additionally, the Discipline stated that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” Over the decades, further language was added baring same-sex weddings in UM churches, pastors were called to a life of “celibacy in singleness” which was often seen as a further restriction to LGBTQ clergy since it was never mentioned prior to 1972, and marriage was defined as being between a man and a woman.
Over the years, and numerous general conferences, these items have been prayed over, debated over, argued over, cried over, and legislated over time and time again. In fact, the last time these items were before a special called session of General Conference in 2019, we at SUM joined the conversation locally. Over the course of nine months, we studied scripture, asked hard questions, held round-table meetings, prayed a lot, and eventually decided at better than 90% that we believed SUM was called to welcome everyone. Since then, Deacon Deb and I have worked to make SUM a welcoming congregation to people wherever they are on their journey and to always err on the side of love even when (especially when) we don’t all agree. Undergirding all the above at SUM are the UMC’s General Rules; 1. Do no harm 2. Do good 3. Stay in love with God.
So, what happened in Charlotte this time? Well for a start, over the last year, many churches from the more conservative areas of the country (and to a lesser extent the world) have left the denomination. This of course is a larger conversation about disaffiliation, but many of those churches don’t seem to have been necessarily anti-LGBTQ, but rather anti-Methodist meaning they simply didn’t want to be connectional anymore. When clergy and laity gathered this year, folks were fully committed to being Methodist and being joyful. From conversations with friends, news reports I’ve read, and even pictures that I have seen, this seems to have been accomplished.
In short, General Conference 2024 lifted the ban on LGBTQ clergy, removed prohibitions on officiating at same-sex weddings, and removed the restrictive language from the Book of Discipline and the Social Principles. For clarification, I was asked by a good friend about officiating weddings and whether Methodist clergy would now be required to officiate due to the change in language; my answer was that, as always, we are asked to use our discretion before signing any marriage license and nothing has changed that. Further, the UMC now recognizes that “marriage is a sacred lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith (adult man and woman of consenting age or two adult persons of consenting age) into union with one another.” This last item was a beautiful moment between two different cultural expressions at work (a person from North America and a person from Africa) and how the Methodist church was able once again to live into a “big tent” ministry model by including two different viewpoints in the same legislation.
That last point is perhaps the most profound takeaway for me from General Conference 2024 and one that I’ve always valued about being a United Methodist. We are not required to agree on all things, read the Bible the same way, worship the same way, or run our churches the same way. Methodism has always been a deeply contextual faith that values scripture, tradition, reason, and experience in making decisions. It has always valued that what the church looks like, thinks like, prays like, etc. needs to be able to change to reach people in need of Jesus. For us at SUM we will continue reaching the least, the last, and the lost, because we believe that no matter who you are, what you believe, or where you’re from, you are loved.
OTJ,
PG