NASHVILLE — United Methodists have defeated amendments that would have made church membership open to all Christians regardless of sexual orientation and furthered the creation of a new U.S.-only governing body, according to the denomination’s news service.
Delegates at the United Methodist Church’s (UMC) General Conference last year approved the sexual orientation amendment, as well as several others that would have changed how the international church is governed. But the amendments failed to gain support from two-thirds of the denomination’s annual conferences, as required by church law. The conferences voted in May and June.
Twenty-seven of the 44 regional conferences that reported voting results rejected the amendment that would have made membership in local churches open to “all persons, upon taking vows declaring the Christian faith, and relationship in Jesus Christ,” according to United Methodist News Service.
The amendment followed a controversial case in 2005 in which a Virginia clergyman denied membership to a gay man who would not agree to change his sexuality. The UMC’s high court later backed the pastor’s decision. (TAB)
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