Healing In His Wings was a gathering held by First United Methodist Church in Richmond on March 30, 2019 to gauge and address issues and concerns raised by the actions of the General Conference of the United Methodist Church in May of 2019. These actions included the affirmation of traditional language in the United Methodist Discipline regarding homosexuality. In particular, the United Methodist Discipline forbids the ordination of “self avowed practicing” homosexuals, and forbids United Methodist clergy from performing same-sex unions.
The meeting was open to the entire congregation, and was attended by between 30 and 40 members of our church family. The meeting was organized around the following documents:
Healing In His Wings Power Point Presentations
Healing In His Wings Fact Sheet
Healing In His Wings Graphic Organizer
Data collected from our discussion times was tabulated and is recorded here:
Healing In His Wings Menti Responses (Mentimeter is a real time program that collects anonymous responses from attendees and displays them on screen) Click on the image to see it more clearly:
The group agreed together on the following action steps:
- Provide a Bible study for the congregation focused on the passages which specifically address homosexuality.
- Develop a public statement of our church’s stand on the issues surrounding homosexuality
- Develop a policy to address issues surrounding membership, participation, service, and leadership opportunities available to persons whose lives are not in alignment with the United Methodist Discipline.