United Methodist bishops encourage local option for same-sex marriage
The bishops recommended removing prohibitions on same-sex marriage and LGBT clergy in the global denomination's Book of Discipline—while allowing new regional rules.
The bishops of the United Methodist Church have endorsed a plan that would allow individual pastors and regional bodies to make their own decisions on whether to perform same-sex weddings and ordain LGBT people as clergy.
The Council of Bishops recommended the One Church Plan on May 4 after nearly a week of meetings in Chicago, according to a council press release.
“The Council’s prayerful deliberation reflected the diversity of the global denomination on the matter of homosexuality and many other matters,” Kenneth Carter, president of the Council of Bishops, said in the release. “With convicted humility, bishops want to be pastors and shepherds of the whole church in order to maximize the presence of a United Methodist witness in as many places in the world as possible and with as much contextual differentiation as possible.”
