COLUMBUS – A handful of Methodist leaders in central Ohio are among the more than 100 clergy members and clergy candidates who publicly came out on Monday as having gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and other orientations in defiance of the United Methodist Church’s rules governing sexuality.
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The group of 111 came out in a “love letter” to the church a day before the denomination opens its 10-day general conference in Portland, Oregon, where issues of sexuality will be debated by 864 delegates from around the world.
“We love you, dear church. Through you, we have stood on sacred ground and seen the face of God more clearly. Our prayer, as the church begins its time of discernment, is that you will remember that there are nameless ones around the world, hungry for a word of hope and healing,” the letter says.
The letter is part of the “It’s Time” campaign of the Reconciling Ministries Network, which advocates for LGBT people in the Methodist church. Among the signers is the Rev. Laura Young of Westerville, who said the denomination left the clergy members no choice but to make a public statement.
“The United Methodist Church urges us to hide our light under a bushel basket, and God calls us to shine our light brightly,” she said. “The don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy is damaging to a person’s soul, and we can’t allow it to go on any longer.”
Young serves the denomination as executive director of the Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. Said that other local ministers who have signed the letter are the Rev. John Wooden, pastor of Stone Village Church in Italian Village, and the Rev. John Girard, associate pastor at Worthington United Methodist Church. A local candidate who currently lives in San Francisco also signed the letter.
The church’s Book of Discipline calls homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching” and prohibits ordination of self-avowed practicing homosexuals. The book also prohibits Methodist minister from conducting ceremonies celebrating same-sex marriage and Methodist churches from hosting them. Violating the rules could result in discipline, including suspension or defrocking.
Since 1972, the church’s general conference, held every four years, has hosted difficult debates on sexuality issues. More than 100 pieces of legislation on sexuality will be considered at the current conference, which ends May 20 and is the first since the U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion that legalizes civil same-sex marriages.
The letter comes two days after the Rev. David Meredith, a Methodist minister, married his same-sex partner at a Broad Street United Methodist Church in Downtown Columbus. The move prompted the Evangelical Fellowship of West Ohio, which seeks to uphold traditional Methodist values, to ask West Ohio Conference Bishop Gregory Palmer to suspend Meredith and two other clergy members upon the receipt of formal complaints.
Meredith signed the Monday letter, and is attending the conference. He said that he believes the church can withstand this debate: “I trust God, and God has never let the church destroy itself.”
By JoAnne Viviano for +The Columbus Dispatch