Pro-Gay Methodists Prepare to Challenge Church

Activists for LGBT equality within the United Methodist Church are meeting in Ohio this weekend to make plans to challenge church policy on homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

The Reconciling Ministries Network and the Methodist Federation for Social Action are holding their first joint meeting as they prepare to lobby the denomination to ordain openly gay clergy, bless same-sex unions, and discard its tenet that "the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching."

Nearly 700 Methodist clergy and laypeople from around the nation are attending the four-day gathering, called Sing a New Song, which opened Thursday in Huron, Ohio. They are strategizing for the Methodists' General Conference, a policy-making meeting that convenes once every four years; the next one will be held in April in Tampa, Fla.

"We might not get everything we want, but we'll get some of it," the Reverend Troy Plummer of Chicago, an organizer of the Huron conference, told Religion News Service. "I think something dramatic will happen in Tampa. The vote will be close, by just a handful of votes this time. We're about to make it happen."

John Oda, chair of the Reconciling Ministries Network, noted to The Blade of Toledo that the Methodist Church is "the last holdout" among mainline Protestant denominations, as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the United Church of Christ all now ordain gay ministers and bless same-sex unions.

Nationwide, 1,000 Methodist clergy members have signed a petition in favor of offering "the grace of the church's blessing to any prepared couple desiring Christian marriage."

"Even though the institutional church may be stuck in the negative language, there are over 1,000 clergy across the country who are leaning forward into that hope, who are saying that even if the church isn't going to change in 2012, and even though they didn't change in 2008, we are there," the Reverend Gregory Gross, a Methodist minister who works at an HIV testing clinic in Chicago, told The Blade. "We are celebrating the love of two individuals who have been prepared, who have come before us, who are in our congregations, who want a public witness, and to have their relationship blessed."