In our journey to pursue reconciling congregation status, we asked members to share their thoughts about why becoming a church that was more accepting of LGBTQ people was important. Here are their thoughts.
The Newer Hip Churches 1
A Message from Pastor Steve Donat
It’s the Same, But It’s Different
What Does a Reconciling Congregation Look Like?
Same Sex Intimacy
The Bible, Pre-1946
On the Fence
You Don’t Get to Choose
All “Sins” are Equal?
Welcoming Enough?
Methodists and Divorce
What is “Reconciling” ?
The BoD and LGBTQ
Who is Entitled to Grace?
Cherry Picking
Reaching Out
Love is My Motivation
Isolation
Why Now?
April 2018. The Baltimore-Washington Conference’s Board of Ordained Ministry (BOOM) recently released its new policy for examining candidates for ministry. The policy states that, “Knowing each of us is a child of God, made in God’s image, and a recipient and vehicle of God’s grace, we do not view race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or marital status as a barrier to ministry. We will not consider or evaluate sexual orientation or gender identity, nor see them to be sufficient reasons to deny a candidate’s ability to live up to our United Methodist standards.” The policy was approved by a significant consensus of the 54-member board. READ IT HERE.
March 2018. Two Dallas area Methodist churches have voted to allow same-sex weddings in their sanctuaries. St. Stephen’s congregation voted to approve a proposal to, “support and honor marriages of couples without regard to their sexual orientation. We will offer the use of our church, including our sanctuary, for ceremonies of marriage to all couples, including same-sex couples. We pledge our full support to any of our clergy who choose to perform marriages without regard to sexual orientation.” Oak Lawn United Methodist Church approved a consensus statement stating that the church, “should open our doors to support and honor marriages of all couples licensed to be married. We also agree that our church property, including our sanctuary, should be available for all ceremonies of legal marriage.” READ IT HERE.
March, 2018. The Reconciling Team is encouraged by the recent proposal from the Commission on the Way Forward to the Council of Bishops. Both of their proposals recognize that the status quo is not the best option for the UMC to move forward. The Reconciling Team remains committed to work at FUMC towards wider, deeper acceptance of those in our family and community who are LGBTQ. READ IT HERE.