It took just a few days for United Methodist delegates to remove a half-century’s worth of denominational bans on gay clergy and same-sex marriages. But when asked at a news conference about the lightning speed of the changes, the Rev. Effie McAvoy took a longer view. “Oh, it didn’t take days, honey,” she said. It took decades of activism for a change that was “so very healing,” said McAvoy, pastor of Shepherd of the Valley United Methodist Church in Hope, Rhode Island. A member of the Queer Delegate Caucus at last week’s UMC General Conference in Charlotte, she was grateful to be part of the historic moment. The reversals can be seen as marking the end of a half-century of epic battles and schisms over LGBTQ involvement — not only in the United Methodist Church but in U.S. mainline Protestant denominations overall. Those are the tall-steeple churches in myriad town squares and rural crossroads, traditionally “big-tent” and culturally mainstream congregations — some predating America’s independence. The nation’s largest Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal and Lutheran denominations have all now removed barriers to LGBTQ participation in the pulpit and at the altar. But this comes amid long-term declines in membership and influence. Surely there will be skirmishes to come. Individual congregations, and entire regions across the world, will sort out the implications. Controversies have grown among some conservative evangelical churches and colleges, which largely avoided past battles. But for mainline Protestants, last week’s General Conference looks like a landmark. It was a relatively quiet coda to what had been an almost annual scene on America’s religious calendar — impassioned showdowns at legislative assemblies of Protestant denominations, marked by protests, political maneuverings and earnest prayers.

Methodists lift LGBTQ ban

Photo credit: Dwight Burdette, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia. GET THE FULL STORY Methodists lift LGBTQ ban.

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This Affiliation

But Saul began to destroy the church. Acts 8:3 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Acts 9:31 Do you know what happened between the first scripture and the second? Jesus happened. On the road to Damascus, Jesus spoke to Saul and brought about a complete reversal in that man’s life. Once Saul stopped persecuting the church, he became…

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Reflections on I Peter 4

3.14.24 Beardcast with Rev. Matt Miofsky

This week we sat down with Matt Miofsky and talked about his new book ⁠The Methodist Book of Daily Prayer ⁠ You can buy the book and his others at ⁠⁠http://mattmiofsky.com/ ⁠⁠ Connect with the Bearded Theologians at ⁠⁠⁠https://www.linktr.ee/Beardedtheologians⁠⁠⁠ You can find the Beardcast on ⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Apple⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Castbox⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Google⁠⁠⁠, or wherever else…

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"Lord Have Mercy" Pastor Jeff Lust, November 26th 2023

Pastor Jeff Lust preaches "Lord Have Mercy" based on Luke 17:11-19   during 9 am Worship on Sunday November 26th, 2023. 

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Disaffiliation

I am disappointed that you’re considering it. Your hatred of God’s children should not be strong enough to drive you to abandon them.

formerly: pioneer united methodist church // st. johns, portland, oregon

Darkesville United Methodist Church. Darkesville WV. I just like saying “Darkesville”.

http://www.bcwvumc.org/darkesvilleumc.html

https://www.facebook.com/DarkesvilleUMC/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkesville,_West_Virginia

Jason DeRose at NPR:

The United Methodist Church, one of the largest Protestant denominations in the U.S., has voted to repeal its ban on LGBTQ clergy as well as prohibitions on its' ministers from officiating at same-sex weddings. Delegates overwhelmingly approved the changes, 692 to 51, during the United Methodist Church's General Conference. The meeting is taking place this week in Charlotte, N.C. after the pandemic delayed the 2020 General Conference where these decisions has been slated to take place.

The tone of the Charlotte meeting has been decidedly upbeat, in sharp contrast with the last, highly contentious global meeting back in 2019, when heated floor debates left many feeling hurt. In fact, there was no floor debate over the clergy and marriages rules this time around. Rather, they were included on a consent agenda. However, in the years leading up to this General Conference, about one-quarter of United Methodist congregations in the U-S left the denomination. Those congregations tended to be among the most conservative in the church. Their departure made the decisions this year less fraught. Some of those departing congregations left to form the more conservative Global Methodist Church and others decided to become independent. The main reason many of those congregations left the denomination is that despite the church's official rules against LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings, some local geographic conferences chose to not enforce them.

At the United Methodist Church's General Conference today, the UMC voted overwhelmingly to lift its ban on LGBTQ+ clergy and denominational clergy officiating same-sex weddings.

This is made possible in party by the departure of more conservative churches to either the Global Methodist Church, independent of any denomination, or other Wesleyan denominations.

See Also:

LGBTQ Nation: United Methodist Church ends ban on LGBTQ+ clergy in historic vote

CNN: United Methodist Church lifts 40-year ban on LGBTQ clergy

United Methodissed

Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice.Ephesians 4:31 If this were a playground bully I was facing, would I stand up and punch them in the nose? I sort of did that, once, on the playground. The guy reached behind me and grabbed my neck. I instinctively grabbed his arm and flipped him over my shoulders. He stood up, embarrassed,…

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Folks. Once again I come asking for help with my quest for a particular picture that I'm sure I originally saw on Tumblr.

The photo showed a person wearing a bear costume (similar to the one shown here). They are standing on a sidewalk in front of a small, white church, with a wooden cross in its front yard. They are holding a portable television.

Something about the scene reminded me of Seattle, where i lived in the mid '80s. A street sign was visible in the photo. After some searching I was able to confirm the location of the church. That was the end of it.

Now I am back in Seattle after many decades. I began thinking about that picture, and that it might be fun to visit the spot. But I couldn't remember it. And I can't find the original photo anywhere, either on Tumblr or the web at large.

After exhaustive searching on Google Maps, I am now 99% certain that the original location is what is shown in the first two photos above. It is currently called Trinity United Methodist Church. Some years back it was called Crown Hill United Methodist Church. The address is 8500 14th Avenue NW, Seattle. It is located in the Ballard neighborhood.

If anyone knows of the original photo, please let me know. Thanks.

2.15.24 Beardcast with Dr. Ashley Boggan

This week on the Beardcast Matt and Zach sit down with Dr. Ashley Boggan the General Secretary at Commission on Archives and History of The UMC Find the Radicle Methodism course (HERE) Find out more about the UMC Archives and History (Here) Connect with the Bearded Theologians at https://www.linktr.ee/Beardedtheologians You can find the Beardcast…

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