Tag Archives: Methodism

Methodist Church begins mass consultation on gay marriage – Telegraph

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The Methodist Church in the UK is to conduct a consultation of its members on whether to respond to the introduction next year of marriage equality, with approval for same – sex weddings in its churches.

The Methodist church could become the first major Christian denomination in Britain to conduct same-sex weddings after launching a consultation of its members about changing its official teaching.

Members of more than 5,000 congregations across mainland Britain are being asked to take part in a mass listening exercise which involves questions on changing the definition of marriage.

Churchgoers have until February to air their views before the findings are put before Methodist Conference, the church’s decision making body.

Under the terms of the Same-Sex Marriage Act, which comes into force next year, religious groups can perform gay marriage ceremonies if they actively opt-in as a group.

Although a handful of small Christian groups including the Quakers and Unitarians have made clear that they will conduct the weddings the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches are opposed.

– Telegraph.

The Church of England has just published the recommendations of its investigations, which resulted in the recommendation that ministers should be permitted (but not compelled) to conduct church blessings. The Church of Ireland is currently engaged in its own investigation. The global Catholic Church is preparing to conduct an Extraordinary Syynod on Marriage and Family, preceded by its own worldwide consultation. In the US, decisions by the ECLA and PCUSA to permit ordination of openly gay and lesbian clergy came after their own processes of extensive listening, study and consultation. Whatever the ultimate recommendations of the processes by the Methodists and Church of Ireland, one positive outcome is guaranteed: a greater understanding by all, of the issues involved.

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Senior Methodist Minister Conducts Son’s Gay Wedding

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As marriage becomes increasingly accepted as routine in many countries and states, churches are left with the task of devising appropriate responses.  In New York, a senior Methodist minister faced with a very personal dimension of the issue, resolved it by personally conducting his own son’s same – sex wedding, in spite of church regulations that forbid these.

Ogletree

While he would not be the first United Methodist minister to face discipline for performing a same-sex wedding, he could well be the one with the highest profile. He is a retired dean of Yale Divinity School, a veteran of the nation’s civil rights struggles and a scholar of the very type of ethical issues he is now confronting.“Sometimes, when what is officially the law is wrong, you try to get the law changed,” Dr. Ogletree, a native of Birmingham, Ala., said in a courtly Southern drawl over a recent lunch at Yale, where he remains an emeritus professor of theological ethics. “But if you can’t, you break it.”For Dr. Ogletree, the issues are not just academic. He has fully accepted, he said, that two of his five children are gay. His daughter married her partner in Massachusetts, in a non-Methodist ceremony. So when his son asked him last year to officiate at the wedding, he said yes.

via– NYTimes.com.

The official Methodist position is similar to that of the Roman Catholic Church: “homosexual activities” are seen as sinful, but homosexual people are seen as people of worth, who should be welcomed and included in all church activities. The big difference between the two, is in the nature of church governance. Without the strictly hierarchical power structures of the Catholics, many more Methodists are willing to speak up in opposition to the rules – and a sizeable number have publicly stated their willingness, as a matter of conscience, to ignore the relevant church regulations and conduct same – sex weddings if asked. It is believed that many have done so, without attracting the public attention that Dr Ogletree did.

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