Minnesota Methodists endorse gay marriages

[Aquila calva]

Minnesota Methodists endorse gay marriages

 

The approval of gay-rights petitions are recommendations to the national church.

 

Pamela Miller, Star Tribune

 

After passionate but resolutely civil debate, Minnesota Methodists voted Thursday to urge the national church to fully welcome gays and lesbians and to support gay marriage and the ordination of gay clergy.

 

A majority of voting delegates at the annual state convention in St. Cloud approved nine petitions on gay-rights issues, said Victoria Rebeck, communications director for the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. About 500 lay people and an equal number of clergy are at the conference, which wraps up today.

 

"The biggest news is that we had a good, respectful discussion of these very emotional issues and people really listened to each other," Rebeck said.

 

The Minnesota decisions are recommendations to the national denomination, which will decide whether to change language in its governing Book of Discipline at its General Conference in 2008.

The closest vote (358-356) came on a petition to change language about marriage from "a man and a woman" to "two adult persons," and to cut a sentence supporting laws that define marriage as between a man and a woman.

 

Issues surrounding homosexuality have fostered heartfelt debate among Methodists in the 150-year-old state group and nationally, as they have in many Protestant denominations and the broader culture.

 

Bishop Sally Dyck presided over the discussion, which employed a method called "holy conferencing" to ensure civil, balanced discussion. Dyck said delegates approached the issues "as Christians in the best sense of that word -- loving and humble, trying to be careful with each other."

 

The Rev. Carl Caskey of Northfield, part of a caucus of retired clergy advocating for change, said, "We think the future is with us" in the push for greater acceptance of gays.

 

"Many of us are greatly concerned about the direction the [denomination] has taken toward exclusion," he said. "We'll keep putting the pressure on."

 

The Rev. Phil Strom of Elk River United Methodist Church, who has argued that homosexual behavior is sinful, said both sides "feel grief and sadness, because the vote reminds us of how deep this division is, how irreconcilable."

"It's important to note that the vote doesn't change a thing," he said, because the current Book of Discipline language stands for now. "We'll continue to stand for what we think is right."

 

The Rev. Dan Johnson of Good Samaritan United Methodist Church in Edina said, "The half-dozen biblical references to homosexuality do not reflect what we understand today about loving relationships. This is an identity, not a sin."

Johnson said supporters of greater inclusion were especially pleased that delegates favored deleting a 1972 addition to the Book of Discipline that says, "The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching."

 

The Rev. David E. Brown of St. Croix Valley United Methodist Church said he had a strong sense after the vote "of living in a paradox, where our state conference would vote as it does, but the denomination's language is very clear in the opposite direction."

 

He said he does not believe the denomination will follow in Minnesota's footsteps.

The Rev. Daren Flinck of Grace United Methodist in Fergus Falls said that as a lifelong Minnesotan and United Methodist, he "suddenly feels like an alien in my own land."

 

"Like those on the other side, I wish we could get beyond this issue to do the things we're called to do," he said. "We are united on issues like serving the poor and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ."

 

Dyck and Johnson echoed the concern that non-Methodists will see the denomination as focused solely on gay issues and as deeply divided.

"We're a church that has a lot of other things going on, from social justice work to church dinners with Jell-O," Johnson said of his Good Samaritan congregation.

 

2006 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/467336.html

 

 

[Bobanon]

Good for them. If I were a Christian I would be either a Presbyterian, Episcopalian or a Methodist.

 

Denying same-sex couples the right to marry amounts to a refusal that gays and lesbians are capable of love. I see the gay rights debate, or fight if you like being where the civil rights fight was in 1965. At sometime in the future society will accept gay people without a moments notice. Discrimination is wrong no matter what the reasons for. All people deserve to be treated as equals until their own deportment proves otherwise.

 

And at that day in the future when all are accepted the colsed minded ones like Fred Phelps will be fully outside the norm of society.

[funscout]

I highly doubt Minnesota's vote will be enough to sway the National Methodist church. Instead, I foresee churches being split.

[Hunt]

I don't know about in Minnesota, but in most places the leaders of the Methodist Church are significantly more liberal than the rank-and-file members. There would probably be a signficant schism of the church if the National church changed its position on this issue. It would be extremely ugly, too, because of the way the church properties are owned.