The United Methodist Church could have openly gay clergy and clergy could officiate at same-sex marriages if a proposal affirmed by a denomination-wide leadership body prevails.
The Connectional Table plans to draft legislation that members hope can be “a third way” in church’s long debate over homosexuality.
The body on Feb. 10 overwhelmingly affirmed a proposal to remove prohibitive language that makes it a chargeable offense under church law for clergy to be “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” or to officiate at same-sex weddings.
The action was not a formal vote, but the reported results of two hours of small-group discussions. The Connectional Table will take up proposed legislative language for an actual vote when it meets in May in Nashville, Tennessee.
Again, I don’t think the people in the pews would know what the Connectional Table is, let alone consider it a “denomination-wide leadership body.” But, title inflation is all the rage, and if it can add some to the thousand cuts it will kill that church as well as anything else.
This issue would still be subject to a world wide Methodist Church vote. The African Methodists have resoundingly defeated similar proposals.
This comes up every several years, and the worldwide governing body of United Methodism keeps voting down these proposed changes in church teaching. Methodist polity is a good deal different than Anglican polity. One possible outcome is the secession of “progressives” from the church, and their creation of their own liberal denomination.
From what I read on Facebook (that that as you will) it looks like the more orthodox are the ones ready to bolt.