Posted on 04/30/2014 7:11:57 PM PDT by wonkowasright
The Connectional Table, one of The United Methodist Church’s governing bodies, has decided to draft legislation that could change church law “to fully include LGBTQ persons in the life and ministry of the church.”
The draft would be brought back to the Connectional Table at a future meeting for consideration. The April 29 decision to draft the legislation came the same day the Connectional Table began a series of three public discussions on human sexuality.
The dialogue “is an exercise of our responsibility to be a common table for the church and to confer with one another as representatives of the church,” said Dakotas-Minnesota Area Bishop Bruce R. Ough, Connectional Table chair, the day before the event.
“The Connectional Table believes that we need some specific language to inform the discussion before we can seek effective feedback from the Connection and fully discern what our next steps will be," Ough said after the event, in a press release. “This decision has empowered the Table to begin developing such language, which would be open to debate, amendment, and improvement before any final decision is made on adoption.”
The 59-member Connectional Table is a United Methodist governing body of clergy and lay people that coordinates the denomination’s mission, ministry and resources. Any legislation adopted by the body would go to the denomination's top lawmaking assembly, General Conference, for action in 2016.
(Excerpt) Read more at umc.org ...
> What’s a “sexuality stance” in the real world?
Code words for acceptance of depravity for profit
Too many ministries have been destroyed by homosexuals in positions of authority in the UMC. I do not see any movement away from this intensely destructive influence.
Seems misplaced.
Good to hear. I was raised Methodist and know there are many good people particularly in the smaller churches.
The neutered will to discipline as displayed in the recent debacle with the minister “marrying” his son to another man is proof enough of the UMC’s total depravity. It may not be this year, but I predict that within five years, this former church will go the same way of apostasy as the ECA.
Luther’s fault
Sins are no big deal to God, forget about it ~
United Methodist Church
The goal of these churches is not to offend anyone. The result is a Sunday Morning Coffee Shop with watered down, self-help messages
...socializing under the vapid rubric of God...this is not limited to any one contemporary denomination, it affects all of them...including the Roman Catholic Church...
...I don’t disagree that church is a place to socialize, but all that should be done outside the sanctuary, or whatever one chooses to call the ‘worship space’, so as to maintain the concept of ‘divinity’as opposed to ‘secularity’...ditto with the language used in the worship itself, it should reflect an linguistic element not seen in common parlance...but of course, try selling all this to the current crop of congregants at any suburban church of any denomination, where the unstated creed is...’isn’t God lucky to have such people as ourselves for worship...’
Can I marry my sister yet? Why not?
>> "Q"? Oh, hell. The sodomites' stupid acronym just grew another letter.
"Q" = "Queer radical sexual anarchist activist" or "Questioning" depending on which homosexual lobbyist you talk to.
Funny how heterosexuals people are encouraged to "question" if they are really straight but it is a crime against human rights to help someone who may be questioning if (s)he is really homosexual.
Methodists apparently are questioning their sexuality.
Won’t happen. General Conference is increasingly conservative with the explosive growth of the UMC in Africa and Asia, and it’s the only body that can change our Discipline, which declares homosexual practice incompatible with Christian teaching and makes it chargeable to “marry” samesex couples or to ordain self avowed practicing gays.
The challenge will be enforcing it in liberalized regions like the West and Northeast.
Again, your prayers for us are always appreciated.
I pray you’re right, but fear that this group is lost. It will take a schism, not a body-wide healing, to reconcile any affiliated party to biblical Christianity.
Though with a scornful wonderAnd I am also reminded of the great evangelical leader John Stott, who pointed out that that faithful remnant in the Bible is always within the church, not outside of it.
we see her sore oppressed,
by schisms rent asunder,
by heresies distressed,
yet saints their watch are keeping;
their cry goes up, "How long?"
And soon the night of weeping
shall be the morn of song.
I wonder why alcoholics could not take over the equivalent of mosques to change Islam’s teachings about alcohol.
“oops there goes... another apo-state church”
What is it with liberals/progressives? They don’t leave an organization whose beliefs they don’t agree with. They break it.
Are you also following what happened to the Episcopal/Anglican churches? What’s next—the big fight over Methodist real estate (church buildings)?
I follow it somewhat, and I really hope that doesn’t happen with the UMC. The current dialogue I’m seeing is toward a so-called ‘amicable separation,’ but I think if that happens it’ll be a flat-out miracle.
I hope what you posted is true.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.