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In a statement posted on the front page of their website, officials at the Green Street United Methodist Church said that they ask other churches to join in the movement to “refuse to sign any State marriage licenses until this right is granted to same- sex couples.” In the full version of their statement - publicly posted on their website – the church asks that services such as premarital counseling be offered to couples of all orientations, in addition to other couple-specific services.

Actual title edited for space issues: United Methodist Seminary Ponders Removing Cross from Chapel To make the space more appropriate for Jain, Buddhist, and Islamic religious services After recently facing some financial challenges, the seminary decided to more or less literally sell itself for $50 million to a large donor who helped transform it from a Christian seminary into Claremont Lincoln University, devoted to jointly training Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Jain clergy. In celebrating the move, Claremont President Jerry Campbell bizarrely declared that Christians who seek to obey Christ’s command to evangelize non-Christians have “an incorrect perception of what...

Southern Baptists have changed their mind about Roe. When will United Methodists join them? Last week about 100,000 or more marched in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. This year they commemorated 40 years since the 1973 Supreme Court decision constitutionalizing abortion on demand. Supporting the march and the pro-life cause were leaders of AmericaÂ’s two largest religious communions, the 68 million-member Roman Catholic Church and the 16 million-member Southern Baptist Convention. Meanwhile, agencies for the third largest, the United Methodist Church, crafted a news release virtually celebrating Roe v. Wade. But 40 years ago, both Southern Baptists...

Jewish groups pulled out of an upcoming meeting with Protestant colleagues over a letter from Christian leaders to congressmen calling for a possible suspension of U.S. aid to Israel. “While we remain committed to continuing our dialogue and our collaboration on the many issues of common concern, the letter represents an escalation in activity that the Jewish participants feel precludes a business-as-usual approach,” stated a letter sent by seven Jewish groups to their Christian counterparts in canceling their participation in the Oct. 22 -23 meeting in New York. The event, an annual gathering, is known as the Christian-Jewish Roundtable and...

United Methodist Rev. Wess Magruder has not only decided to observe the Ramadan fast this year with his Muslim friends, blog about his experience, but break his fast with Muslims as well. Last night, Magruder accepted the invitation of a local Muslim to eat “iftar,” the fast-breaking meal at the McKinney Islamic Association. Having succeeded in fasting from sunrise till sunset for eight consecutive days, the pastor appreciated God's grace in this communal meal. Most importantly, this celebration reminded him of the main reason why he had decided to fast: neighborly love. Magruder writes on his blog how he has...

AMPA, FLORIDA, May 7, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Members of the nation’s largest mainline Protestant church voted to maintain the doctrine that homosexual actions were “incompatible with Christian teaching” on Thursday. The United Methodist Church voted down two proposals to water down its stance on homosexuality on Thursday. One proposal called homosexuals “people of sacred worth” and acknowledged differing viewpoints on the issue, while another said humans did not know enough about human sexuality to prefer one lifestyle over another.

Pain and Protest For ten previous General Conferences (1972-2008), the issue of homosexuality has absorbed increased time and energy and caused deep division in the church. This General Conference was the tenth such time. Veterans of previous General Conferences come prepared for the drumbeats of protest, the rainbow stoles designating us vs. them, and the tears that accompany the vote of the General Conference. Although we do not agree with those who would change United Methodism's stance on homosexuality, we do not take their tears lightly. It is grevious that General Conference has become a place of such pain and...

A pastor charged with killing his second wife is now also being investigated for murdering his first wife, authorities have revealed. Arthur Schirmer, 63, former pastor of Reeders United Methodist Church in Jackson Township, Pennsylvania, is awaiting trial over the death of his second wife Betty Jean in July 2008. His first wife, Jewel Schirmer, died in Hershey Medical Center in April 1999 after apparently falling down the stairs and hitting her head ..In the death of his second wife, he said he was driving Betty to Pocono Medical Center on July 15, 2008, when she awoke complaining of jaw...

The United Methodist Church's Council of Bishops said in a Nov. 10 letter they would continue to uphold the denomination's ban on blessing same-sex unions. "As the Council of Bishops we will uphold the Book of Discipline as established by General Conference," the denominational assembly that meets every four years and is the church's highest policymaking body, said the letter, which was addressed to all Methodists. Paragraph 341.6 of the Book of Discipline says, "Ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches." The book also calls homosexuality "incompatible...

Hundreds of United Methodist clergy are expressing deep concerns over a pledge made by a large group of fellow ministers to marry same-sex couples. They argue that if the pledge is carried through, the future of the denomination is in jeopardy. "We do not know how many, if any, marriages or 'holy unions' of same-sex couples will be performed by UM clergy in the near future," reads a letter, currently signed by more than 400 pastors, to the Council of Bishops. "But we do know the destructive effects that will result in our local churches and throughout the denomination if...

After same-sex marriage becomes legal here on July 24, gay priests with partners in the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island will head to the altar. They have to. Their bishop set a nine-month deadline for them to marry or stop living together. Next door, meanwhile, the Episcopal bishop of New York says he also expects gay clergy in committed relationships to wed "in due course." Still, this longtime supporter of gay rights says churches in his diocese are off limits for gay weddings until he receives clearer liturgical guidance from the national denomination. As more states legalize same-sex marriage, religious...

The Rev. Amy DeLong, a Methodist pastor from Osceola, Wisconsin, decided to come clean. She brought to the attention of her local bishop that she had officiated over the same-sex union of a lesbian couple... She also told the bishop that she might as well be prosecuted for something else: she is in a lesbian partnership. And so, last week, DeLong, 44, faced a jury of church elders in Kaukauna, Wisconsin. At issue was whether she violated the Book of Discipline, which guides the church's teachings, by blessing the same sex union and for being a "self avowed, practicing...

More than 200 United Methodist clergy in Illinois have pledged to flout church policy and bless unions for same-sex couples, putting their jobs, homes and callings in jeopardy if couples take advantage of their offer.Methodists in the Northern Illinois Conference also called on the global church to impose no more than a 24-hour suspension for clergy who defy the policy.Elders, deacons and pastors took their stand after civil unions in Illinois became legal this month. But they said their determination to support same-sex unions has been fueled further by a church trial last week in which a jury found a...

Jimmy Creech spent his career as an ordained United Methodist pastor until the church took his credentials away as punishment for conducting same sex commitment ceremonies in Omaha and Chapel Hill. He was not convicted at a trial in Nebraska in 1998, but he lost his church assignment and the stage was set for a second trial in 1999 after he officiated a ceremony at United Church of Chapel Hill. Since then he has been a leader of LGBT justice issues, retired to Raleigh and travels the country speaking. He also has written an account of the upheaval, "Adam's Gift:...

A Wisconsin minister who has openly defied her church's ban on practicing gay and lesbian clergy will face a jury of her peers beginning Tuesday in a first-of-its-kind trial by the United Methodist Church's Wisconsin Conference. The trial of the Rev. Amy DeLong of Osceola, at Peace United Methodist Church in Kaukauna, is expected to draw international attention and observers on both sides of the issue from around the country, a supporter said Monday. DeLong's defense is expected to argue that the church's ban violates the Christian tenet of inclusion. "One of the things we're trying to say is …...

Being gay is a gift from God, asserts one church in Ohio. That’s the message that Central United Methodist Church is spreading throughout their community via a digital billboard, launched on Monday. This “simple statement,” the church announced, is “intended to be a gift to those who have experienced hurt and discrimination because of their real or perceived sexual orientation.” “The Church seeks nothing less than the healing of the world, and Central UMC wants to offer words and acts of healing to those hurt and marginalized,” the website states. Jeff Buchanan, the director of Exodus Church Equipping & Student...

The founder of a leading tea party group is showing himself to be quite the bizarre extremist, shocking I know. Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips became worked up after seeing a banner supporting the DREAM Act on a Washington area Methodist Church. He promptly posted an anti-immigration screed on his website, wherein he said “My dream is the Methodist church goes out of business.” He then proceeded to paint the church as a breeding ground for “Karl Marx” Communists and socialists. If this makes no sense to you, join the club. “I have a DREAM. That is, no more...

I am a Methodist, my parents were Methodist, my grandparents were Methodist. When I heard Glenn Beck say that some churches have a radical left-wing progessive agendas that matched our current administration's views, that they are working with the left, I thought, no, not the Methodist Church. But then I looked up the website of the NAACP and union fronted One Nation Working Together.org. Going down the list of partners I saw unions, the NAACP, black, muslim and socialist organizations and The United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society (I can't find it there now). I looked up...

Built by freed slaves and now renovated generations later, a downtown Dallas church has re-opened. St. Paul United Methodist Church held its first service in 16 months. It was a celebration of 137 years of history renewed. "Joy, joy, joy," Charmayne Rolla said of the tears in her eyes. "When my mother died, this church family was right there with me." She is the second generation to attend the church and she has been going for more than 50 years. This Sunday she was singing in the choir while admiring the remodeled surroundings. "It's a historical facility, but it's been...

The following commentary is by Riley B. Case, associate executive director of the Confessing Movement Within the United Methodist Church.Dr. Riley B. Case Dr. Case served many years as a pastor and district superintendent in the UMC’s North Indiana Conference (now the Indiana Conference). He has been a delegate to five UM General Conferences. (Links below have been added by MethodistThinker.com.) — Ed.– I was speaking with a fellow pastor several years ago and inquired whether he and his church might be interested in Good News magazine. He replied “no” because people in his congregation were upset enough with...