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United Methodist delegates repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy with no debate on Wednesday, removing a rule forbidding “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as ministers. Delegates voted 692-51 at their General Conference — the first such legislative gathering in five years. That overwhelming margin contrasts sharply with the decades of controversy around the issue. Past General Conferences of the United Methodist Church had steadily reinforced the ban and related penalties amid debate and protests, but many of the conservatives who had previously upheld the ban have left the denomination in recent years, and this General...

A Cobb County judge recently ruled in favor of 186 Georgia churches suing to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church. In a crowded courtroom filled with more than 200 people, Superior Court Judge Steven Schuster ruled Tuesday that 186 United Methodist churches should be able to vote to disaffiliate from the UMC, according to a news release from the Wesleyan Covenant Association, an organization helping north Georgia churches disaffiliate. The Georgia churches listed in the lawsuit, filed on March 30, requested the North Georgia Annual Conference restore the processes that were already in place allowing churches to disaffiliate.

The United Methodist Church (UMC) is accelerating its moves to become more accepting of LGBTQ people, leading to more divisions within the denomination and more departures from the group. Each of the church's five U.S. jurisdictions met separately this month to approve measures where "LGBTQIA+ people will be protected, affirmed, and empowered." Also, the church's second openly gay bishop was elected. Conservatives say the developments will only accelerate their exit from one of the nation's largest Protestant denominations. At least 300 U.S. congregations have already left the UMC this year, according to United Methodist News Service. Hundreds more are in...

A staggering 107 United Methodist congregations based in Florida plan to leave the mainline denomination for the newly launched conservative Global Methodist Church. The Florida chapter of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a theologically conservative Methodist group, announced Tuesday that 107 churches in the state had “chosen to initiate the process to depart the Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church.” The number of congregations planning to leave represents nearly 20% of the total number of churches belonging to the UMC Florida Conference. "This broad group of churches include both large and small congregations along with Anglo, African American, Latino, Korean,...

The United Methodist Church, a denomination that sponsors thousands of Boy Scout troops, recently told congregations to consider ending or altering their current agreements with the Boy Scouts of America as the embattled scouting organization settles a major sex abuse lawsuit.The UMC’s Office of Public Information released a statement last week explaining that the mainline Protestant denomination had a long history with the BSA, dating back for more than a century.Church leadership cited the recent BSA lawsuit filed by thousands of victims of sexual abuse. Earlier this year, BSA reached a settlement with a proposed payout of over $850 million...

There’s at least one area of agreement among conservative, centrist and liberal leaders in the United Methodist Church: America’s largest mainline Protestant denomination is on a path toward likely breakup over differences on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT pastors. The differences have simmered for years, and came to a head in February at a conference in St. Louis where delegates voted 438-384 for a proposal called the Traditional Plan, which strengthens bans on LGBT-inclusive practices. A majority of U.S.-based delegates opposed that plan and favored LGBT-friendly options, but they were outvoted by U.S. conservatives teamed with most of the...

The Minnesota Conference of the United Methodist Church has removed the term, ‘Father,’ from the Apostle’s Creed in an attempt to be more gender inclusive to God. The ancient creed of the Christian Church reads: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. However, United Methodists in the Minnesota Conference decided that referring to God as “Father” wasn’t inclusive...

On March 23, 2016, the Methodist Federation For Social Action posted an anonymous blog that made even the most jaded among us blush.Titled “#HandsOffMyBC” and authored by a United Methodist clergyperson, the blog made an emphatic case for universal access to birth control while also including these admissions: I chose to go on birth control because I didn’t want to get pregnant and I wanted to have sex. Because I am a clergy woman in The United Methodist Church, and I’m single, that information could get me brought up on charges, and I could lose my ordination.Luckily, I can access birth control...

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - Black Lives Matter Nashville will no longer host meetings at the north branch of the Nashville Public Library, and members said white supremacy is to blame. Nashville Library spokeswoman Andrea Fanta said after a patron complained that the Black Lives Matter Nashville meeting planned for Saturday might be exclusionary, the library spoke with the group. Library officials told the group that if it holds a meeting at a public space such as the library, it has to be open to everyone. "It really goes back to our values as a part of Metro government and our...

The pension board of the United Methodist Church -- one of the largest Protestant denominations in the United States, with more than seven million members -- has placed five Israeli banks on a list of companies that it will not invest in for human rights reasons, the board said in a statement on Tuesday. It appeared to be the first time that a pension fund of a large American church had taken such a step regarding the Israeli banks, which help finance settlement construction in what most of the world considers illegally occupied Palestinian territories. Wine being prepared for export...

It further notes: "There are specific times, however, when we must recognize that a company is very unlikely -- or unable to -- discontinue activities in certain parts of the world that we have classified as 'high-risk.' When activities in high-risk countries and areas represent a significant part of a company's business, we will avoid investing until the company has changed its business practices. Avoiding such investments supports our commitment to sustainable investing, which we believe ultimately improves the performance of our investment funds." Israel-Palestine, North Korea and several African and Middle Eastern countries round out a list of 14...

Pastor Drops Gay Bombshell in Middle of Sunday Sermon 6:00AM EST 1/15/2016 JENNIFER LECLAIRE We're seeing 1 Timothy 4:1 playing out right before our very eyes. It's called the Great Apostasy and it's well underway. "At last I am choosing to serve in that role with full authenticity and as my genuine self—as a woman who loves and shares my life with another woman." Those were the words of Cynthia Meyer, a pastor at Edgerton United Methodist Church, who decided to make her first sermon of 2016 a coming out party. Meyer, 53, has been an ordained UM pastor for...

Bill Mefford, Director of Civil and Human Rights at the UMC’s Washington office, used the March for Life last week to mock the event with a sign, and picture he posted on Twitter, saying “I march for sandwiches.” Many are upset a church leader used a solemn event to liken an unborn baby to a sandwich. The next day, UMC Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe General Secretary General Board of Church & Society, issued a statement about Mefford’s “march”: “Affirming human dignity is central to the witness of Jesus Christ. Christians are called to watch over with care the lives of...

Will the United Methodist Church soon have to drop the “United” part of its name? A group of 80 pastors, including at least two from North Carolina, says the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination faces a split because of an inability to resolve long-standing theological disputes about homosexuality and church doctrine. But more than lamenting the divisions, the pastors indicated there is little reason to think reconciliation – or even coexistence – could be found. Like a couple heading to divorce court, the pastors cited irreconcilable differences that can’t be mended.

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - The Mainline Protestant Churches and Israel Posted By Joseph Puder On March 22, 2012 @ 12:01 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | During the upcoming General Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) scheduled for April 25-May 4, 2012 in Tampa, FL, and the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), June 30-July 7, 2012 in Pittsburgh, PA, anti-Israel actions in the form of petitions and overtures calling for some form of boycott, divestment or sanctions against the Jewish State and those who do business with the state are expected to be brought...

Will they follow the lead of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America? Are the United Methodists preparing to follow the lead of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in allowing gay ministers?The ELCA spent a decade arguing over the matter before it voted last summer to recognize gay and lesbian ministers who are involved in monogamous relationships. The United Methodists aren't anywhere close to taking a similar vote; the best description of their situation is that they are thinking about thinking about it.At its meeting next month, the Minnesota Annual Conference has agreed to accept eight petitions dealing with...

The Trinity United Methodist Church in Hackettstown, NJ is praying for 15 missing members who are in Haiti. The missionaries went to Haiti to deliver medical supplies to Grace’s Children Hospital in Port-au-Prince.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), then based in the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill, vigorously lobbied for Nicaragua's Sandinista regime, the Cuban-style Marxist regime that shot its way to power in 1979. Today, WOLA pretends it is concerned about the rule of law in Honduras after the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court supported removing the leftist president for defying its constitution. WOLA and Jim Wallis' publication Sojourners have teamed up to spin Honduras' defense of its democracy as another example of a U.S.-supported, imperialist military coup. The constitutional coup in Honduras was...

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said Iran bore no hatred towards the United States as he held talks with American Christians in a rare official contact with visitors from Tehran's arch enemy. State television showed Ahmadinejad meeting with a dozen American representatives from various Christian orders who are in Iran for a week-long visit to promote peace and dialogue between the foes. "The Iranian nation does not have any feeling of hatred and opposition towards the American people and we believe that all people are respectful and given the common grounds people have, they could achieve peace and justice," Ahmadinejad...