Methodists elect first openly LGBT bishop
For years, Karen Oliveto refused to allow her name to be cast for the role of bishop in the United Methodist Church because she “didn’t want to harm the church,” she said.
Oliveto, the senior pastor of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, is a married lesbian woman, and her denomination bans the ordination of “self-avowed practicing” gay and lesbian people.
But that changed this May when the global denomination’s quadrennial meeting voted to delay its planned discussion of its LGBT members’ inclusion and instead opted to create a commission on the topic of sexuality.
