What Does This Mean? | Looking Forward
Today, QCF’s Communications Manager, Aiden Nathaniel Diaz, who is currently in the UMC ordination process, speaks to us about what the changes from the postponed 2020 United Methodist Church General Conference actually mean for our everyday lives and how we continue to move towards inclusion in all of our ministries, churches, and communities of faith. You can read his bio here.
Photo of Aiden Nathaniel Diaz.
You may have heard a lot of news coming out of Charlotte, North Carolina over the last week or so in reference to all of the passed petitions at The United Methodist Church’s General Conference. Now if you are not a “methonerd”, someone who nerds out about United Methodist discipline and polity, as Bishop Karen Oliveto puts it, the new petitions may be a little confusing. You may find yourself wondering, “What does this mean?”, and “Well, what happens next?”
Here are some of the big pieces that passed relating to LGBTQ+ Christians:
Elimination of the language that “the practice of homosexuality… is incompatible with Christian teaching.” from the UMC Social Principles.
The redefinition of marriage in the United Methodist Book of Discipline as, “marriage as a sacred, lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith (adult man and adult woman of consenting age or two adult persons of consenting age) into a union of one another and into a deeper relationship with God and the religious community.”
Ended a 40-year-old ban on recognizing, commissioning, and ordaining “self-avowed practicing homosexuals”.
Clergy and churches cannot be penalized for holding or declining to hold same-sex weddings.
Ended a ban on UMC funds going to support LGBTQ+ causes.
People who lost their ordination due to being LGBTQ+ or for officiating a LGBTQ+ wedding can have their ordination/ordination process reinstated.
These changes within the United Methodist system are liberating and lend to a flood of powerful emotions for LGBTQ+ United Methodists and LGBTQ+ Christians overall. There is so much to celebrate here because a huge barrier that codified and required enforcement of discrimination for so long has been dismantled. This is a huge victory indeed. This is a ‘yes, and’ moment for us to acknowledge that alongside this momentous step towards progress, there is still so much to do in the UMC and in the church more broadly!
These pieces of UMC legislation offer a choice to those in the UMC and at the same time offer protections for LGBTQ+ individuals within the denomination. As always, pastors have a choice to officiate over the weddings that they want to officiate over, and importantly, they can no longer be penalized for that choice! This means that pastors can also decide that they do not want to officiate a wedding where the individuals identify as LGBTQ+. This means that on the local church level, clergy can still discriminate against LGBTQ+ people.
Those who seek ordination will be evaluated on their heart and call, and not their sexual orientation or gender identity. This too marks a huge denominational victory! However, local churches can still decide whether or not to receive a pastor who is LGBTQ+. This means that jobs for LGBTQ+ clergy within the denomination may sometimes be few and far between because each Conference works to pair pastors with churches that meet an appropriate need rather than just placing a person in a role.
All in all, church law can and must change at a denominational level, yet the harm still continues if there is no active change in our individual churches. It is critical for LGBTQ+ Christians and allies to continue to be witnesses to the church and to challenge bigotry against LGBTQ+ people worldwide. To empower our stories when it is safe to do so, and/or lift up the public stories and writings of LGBTQ+ people of faith who continue to do this work. It is important for us to still be in discernment on which churches and spaces will be safe for us as LGBTQ+ people of faith - and to help create our own community spaces when we have the energy and safety to do so. The role of allies is crucial in this work because they have a distinct voice and can help bear the load that LGBTQ+ people cannot possibly bear alone.
So, beloveds, let us continue to live out our vision to prophetically model a world where all LGBTQ+ people are fully loved by family, church, and community, and Christians worldwide live up to their calling to be instruments of grace and defenders of the outcasts. Let us continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the ways that we are called to be - inside and outside of the church. Amen.
