Fear of violence recently prompted Grace United Methodist Church’s pastor to join Choices and Voices for Peace, a coalition of faith leaders from across the state.
Protests broke out on Sunday at the New Georgia United Methodist Church in Monrovia over the suspension of an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage. The protests spread to other churches in the capital, prompting riot police to intervene.
The building, built in 1923, was funded entirely by women.
The new denomination, with 4,715 congregations, will meet to adopt a constitution and iron out its governance structure.
Kristin Stoneking will replace Bishop Karen Oliveto, the denomination’s first openly gay married bishop, who, at age 66, is retiring.
This issue of A Public Witness looks at an Episcopal Church resolution, a PC(USA) recommendation, and a regional UMC resolution to see how some mainline Protestant groups are wrestling — or not — with their own complicity in spreading Christian Nationalism.
‘You don’t throw away the relationship of your sibling because you do not agree on an issue,’ said a former UMC bishop from Nairobi.
Earlier this month, delegates at a United Methodist Church conference struck down the UMC’s longstanding anti-LGBTQ policies and created a path for clergy ousted because of them to return.
On the first Sunday after the conclusion of the denomination’s General Conference, many queer United Methodists celebrated their release from the tight and narrow spaces that had confined them.
The nation’s largest Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and Lutheran denominations have all now removed barriers to LGBTQ participation in the pulpit and at the altar.