BIRMINGHAM — On the heels of several former and current United Methodist clergy members opposing the church’s doctrine on gays, The United Methodist Judicial Council held its semiannual meeting in Baltimore, Md., Oct. 23–26.
The denomination’s Book of Discipline bans clergy from officiating at same-sex “marriages” or holding those ceremonies in its churches, according to Religion News Service (RNS).
While church law cannot change until the next quadrennial conference in 2016, the council was slated to consider related resolutions, including one asking the council to support a Western Jurisdiction 2012 resolution that says the church is in error on homosexuality and should ignore the Book of Discipline’s laws on it, according to RNS.
Among those going against church doctrine is retired United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert, who at press time planned to officiate a same-sex wedding in Birmingham on Oct. 26.
The executive committee of the United Methodist Council of Bishops released a statement Oct. 23 urging Talbert to refrain from conducting that service. “The bishops of the church are bound together in a covenant and all ordained elders are committed to uphold the Book of Discipline,” they wrote. “‘Conducting ceremonies which celebrate homosexual unions; or performing same-sex wedding ceremonies’ are chargeable offenses in the United Methodist Church.”
The committee noted they “have taken this action with deep respect for Bishop Talbert’s intention to serve as a pastor for United Methodists who experience themselves as excluded because of decisions of the General Conference,” adding that North Alabama Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett, who requested that Talbert not conduct the Birmingham service, “is the caring shepherd of all people in the congregations in the North Alabama Conference.”
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