Oregon Methodist
Church Votes to Accept Gays

An Oregon Methodist church that previously did not welcome LGBT congregants has decided to embrace interested churchgoers regardless of sexual orientation. According to The [Eugene] Register-Guard newspaper, the governing body of the First United Methodist Church in downtown Eugene voted 168-10 to become the third "reconciling" Methodist church in Lane County and ninth in the state.

In 2005 the church's Judicial Council ruled in support of a Virginia pastor who barred a gay man from formally joining his congregation because of his sexual orientation.

The decision comes on the brink of the quadrennial General Conference of the United Methodist Church, which takes place April 23-May 3 in Fort Worth, Texas. (The Advocate)