“We welcome and celebrate the diversity of God’s children.”

                             --Vision Focus, First United Methodist Church-Omaha

 United Methodist Church Membership—Open to All?

 

By Bob Dorr

 

In early 2007, the Church Council of First United Methodist Church by unanimous consent urged that no person be excluded from membership in a United Methodist Church because of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity.

 

FUMC-Omaha’s action responded to a decision by the Judicial Council—the Supreme Court of the United Methodist Church—that upheld a Virginia pastor’s decision to deny a gay man church membership solely because he is gay.

 

Reversing that Judicial Council ruling would take action by the United Methodist Church’s General Conference, which meets once every four years. Thus, petitions expressing FUMC-Omaha’s non-discriminatory view on church membership went to the UMC’s General Conference held in late April-early May, 2008, in Ft. Worth, Tex. Nine other Nebraska groups endorsed those petitions. The Nebraska petitions were among many petitions submitted to General Conference on the membership issue.

 

Four FUMC-Omaha members attended General Conference. Dave England and my wife, Betty, and I went as visitors and as representatives of our church’s Diversity, Inclusiveness and Reconciling Task Force. Joan Byerhof had official duties as a convention marshal. To this writer, the actions of General Conference seemed overwhelming, confusing and occasionally contradictory. The story of what happened on the membership issue is an excellent example.

 

The Nebraska petitions on membership, along with the others, went to a committee of delegates for consideration. A majority on that committee approved a report that would change Book of Discipline language and make it clear that a pastor can’t deny membership based on sexual orientation or gender identity, overturning the Judicial Council’s Decision 1032. On the other side, a committee minority submitted a report that would maintain the status quo.

 

Both reports went to the General Conference floor. During debate, the committee majority and its supporters contended that the United Methodist Church has a strong tradition of welcoming everyone, a tradition reflected in the writings and teachings of John Wesley. The minority said pastors should have authority to deny membership for what they believe is good reason, and changing the Book of Discipline’s language would erode that authority. The specific matter at issue, the Judicial Council’s decision to uphold the Virginia pastor’s denial of membership to a gay man, got only passing mention during floor debate.

 

Keeping the status quo was approved by the narrowest of margins, a 12-vote majority among the 900 or so voting delegates. As things turned out, that was not the end of the story. At worship the next morning, Bishop Hue-Soo Jung of the Northern Illinois Annual Conference preached a sermon contending that “all really means all.”

 

Later that same morning, General Conference business stopped temporarily while two lines of people entered the General Conference meeting place. A coalition of groups including the Reconciling Ministries Network, to which FUMC-Omaha belongs, was conducting a peaceful protest. That protest was in response to the previous day’s church membership action and other actions of General Conference that the coalition regarded as anti-gay. During the protest, Bishop Melvin Talbert read a statement comparing General Conference actions regarding gays and lesbians to our denomination’s 1939 decision that for a number of years separated black Methodist churches into a Central Jurisdiction. Talbert asked General Conference delegates to reconsider what they had done.

 

The next day, something unexpected happened. General Conference delegates voted by the required two-thirds majority to amend Paragraph 4, Article IV, of our denomination’s Constitution to read:

 

“The United Methodist Church acknowledges that all persons are of sacred worth and that we are in ministry to all. All persons shall be eligible to attend its worship services, participate in its programs, receive the sacraments, and upon baptism, be admitted as baptized members. All persons upon taking vows declaring the Christian faith and relationship in Jesus Christ shall be eligible to become professing members in any local church in the connection.”

 

Reconciling Ministries Network praised that action. However, to become effective, that constitutional change must cross another hurdle. It must be approved by an aggregate vote of two-thirds of all the people voting in all of the 2009 Annual Conferences worldwide.

 

So the story continues. Stay tuned for further developments.