United Methodist delegates are heading into the homestretch of a legislative gathering that appears on track to make historic changes in lifting their church’s longstanding bans on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy.
First United Methodist Church congregants pray for members attending the United Methodist General Conference, including Tracy Merrick, left, a delegate representing Western Pennsylvania, The Rev. Anais Hussian, a reserve delegate, and Joshua Popson, who is advocating for LGBTQ inclusion with the Love Your Neighbor Coalition, Sunday, April 14, 2024, in Pittsburgh. The 11-day conference is the denomination's first legislative gathering since a special session in 2019.
But whether that measure maintains church unity remains to be seen. The General Conference comes as the American portion of the United Methodist Church, long the nation's third-largest denomination, has shrunk considerably.between 2019 and 2023 amid conservative dismay over the church's failure to enforce its LGBTQ bans amid widespread defiance.
The denomination has debated homosexuality for more than half a century. Its Book of Discipline bans “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from the clergy and forbids clergy from presiding at same-sex marriages. It also forbids church funding of any advocacy for the “acceptance of homosexuality.” Some are proposing that African and other churches be given the same chance that U.S. churches recently had to disaffiliate under favorable terms.
The denomination had until recently been the third largest in the United States, present in almost every county. But its 5.4 million U.S. membership in 2022 is expected to drop once the 2023 departures are factored in. The denomination also will be debating policy stances regarding fossil fuels and other issues as well as voting on major budget cuts to denominational programs, reflective of losing thousands of congregations.
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