About Our Upcoming Congregational Meetings in Fall of 2024
Dear Church Family,
I am aware that a number of you have questions about what’s going on at the upcoming Congregational Meetings around issues of human sexuality. Let me begin by inviting you to pick up and carefully read my previous letter on Our Church’s Response to the United Methodist Church’s General Conference 2024. This letter is available on the tables near the sanctuary entrance, and online on our web page. I believe you will find the answers to most of your questions there, but let me try to clarify a few things.
General Conference 2024 voted to remove current language from The Discipline of the United Methodist Church which prohibits United Methodist pastors from performing marriages between people of the same sex, and prohibits United Methodist Church buildings from being used for such services. Additionally, the language prohibiting the ordination of self-avowed practicing homosexual clergy will be removed.
Removing this language from the Discipline does not REQUIRE any church or pastor to change anything about their current practices. It simply makes it POSSIBLE for them to do so. This means each church will need to establish its own polices. Specifically, we will need to decide if we will allow our building to be used for same-sex marriage ceremonies, and we will need to inform our District Superintendent and Bishop whether or not we would be comfortable receiving LGBTQ+ clergy.
Let me be clear that I am doing my best not to personally influence the church’s decisions around these issues. This is NOT my decision. It belongs to the congregation.
Until our congregation’s elected leadership has taken official action on these matters, my plan is to continue with the current policies we have in place, reflecting the existing Discipline.
We have postponed these conversations as long as we have for a several of reasons;
1. Some parts of the General Conference action do not take effect until January 1, 2025.
2. Some rulings and interpretations of the General Conference actions are still being processed by our Annual Conference and the Judicial Council.
3. We want our conversations to be as inclusive as possible. June and July are busy travel times for many of our families.
The upcoming meetings are intended to help church leadership understand our church’s heart on this matter. We will have open, honest conversation around these issues in the meetings, and seek input from the congregation through at least one congregational survey.
We will NOT VOTE on anything at either of the two planned Congregational Meetings.
Our hope is to craft fair and compassionate policies which reflect the heart of our congregation and have those policies in place by early October.
Your in Christ
Rev. Bruce Nettleton
Save the Date for the Fall Meetings