Last week it was announced that a new denomination, the Global Methodist Church or GM Church, would be launching on May 1st. This new denomination is a conservative offshoot of the United Methodist Church. This has been a long time coming. It feels like ever since I was old enough to be aware of United Methodist Politics we have been talking about queer folx and if they are allowed to be pastors, members of churches, serve in certain roles, or be welcomed at the communion table. In the last several years this has been ramping up. When the Western area of the United Methodist Church selected a happily married lesbian woman as bishop in 2016 other parts of the church pushed back against this, resulting in a special series of meetings in 2019 on the matter of human sexuality. The end result of these meetings were punitive rules that hurt queer and queer affirming clergy, banned weddings of same gender people, and over all took a very unwelcome and unwavering stance on LGBTQ+ people in the life of the church. Since then we have known that the United Methodist Church would have to figure out a split or some other way forward as many people, churches, and systems of the denomination have rejected these new rules and, like our own Parish, have continued to chart a course to full acceptance and celebration of people as they are made to be: queer, trans, gay, pan, bi, and more.
The new denomination won’t really affect our day to day life as a faith community here in the Parish. As global leaders wrangle over money, property, pensions and questions like who can use what hymnal we will continue on living in to the values we enshrined when we joined the reconciling movement this fall:
“We celebrate God’s gift of diversity and value the wholeness made possible in community equally shared and shepherded by all. We welcome and affirm people of every gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, who are also of every age, race, ethnicity, physical and mental ability, level of education, and family structure, and of every economic, immigration, marital, and social status, and so much more. We acknowledge that we live in a world of profound social, economic, and political inequities. As followers of Jesus, we commit ourselves to the pursuit of justice and pledge to stand in solidarity with all who are marginalized and oppressed.“
It is important that we know about this, that we continue to speak up for our values of inclusion and welcome. As the news breaks and the chaos of this transition unfold we are called to remind people that the way of Jesus is about justice, love, and connection.
I am so grateful to serve a faith community that honor and celebrates all of our members as they are and will continue to advocate for full inclusion of all people in every level of church life.
-Eilidh
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