Page 81 - United Methodists News Today

It was the Facebook pictures that got her in trouble. As Amanda Garber stood at the front of the hall, preparing to marry two of her best friends, she knew she’d face discipline. And when she saw the pictures pop up on Facebook on her drive home, she knew she might lose her job.  Garber is an ordained United Methodist Church (UMC) reverend, and she was marrying two women.  It was freezing cold for November at the Frontier Culture Museum, yet Garber was struck by the beauty of the sur...

Isaac Simmons, an openly gay clergy candidate in the United Methodist Church, doing a video in April 2021 as his drag queen alter ego Ms. Penny Cost. | YouTube/Woke Preacher Clips Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler has denounced an Illinois church’s consideration of having a drag queen as their pastor, calling it “doctrinal annihilation.” Hope United Methodist Church in Bloomington garnered headlines for having an openly gay man who is also a drag queen serve as a leader at t...

Historic Houston church leaves United Methodist Church over LGBTQ stance Jan Lawrence, executive director of Reconciling Ministries, said she believes that the longer the denomination’s General Conference is delayed, the more churches will leave. Bering Church in Houston. Image courtesy of Google Maps April 29, 2021 (RNS) — The Rev. Diane McGehee described Bering Church as “deeply Methodist.” Even so, the Houston church voted earlier this month to disaffiliate from the United Methodist ...

A gay Asian American United Methodist pastor — whose Minneapolis church is just blocks away from where George Floyd was murdered last year by a former police officer — has come out with a new book about how queer people can live the Christian faith. "Staying Awake" by the Reverend Tyler Ho-Yin Sit was published April 6. Sit, a pastor at New City Church, recalled the tense days in the aftermath of Floyds death. Derek Chauvin, then a Minneapolis police officer, was convicted in Floyds May 202...

United Methodist Church Faces Split Over LGBT Debate Another protestant church splits between progressive and conservative factions Image Credit: Email The United Methodist Church is about to split after conservative-leaning members unveiled their plan to form a new denomination. The UMC, which itself split from the Episcopal Church, has been under turmoil for decades as progressives keep pushing to remove the church’s prohibition on the ordination on non-celibate homosexuals and the blessing...

(RNS) — The largest United Methodist church in the Atlanta metropolitan region announced it is leaving the denomination over the reassignment of its lead pastor. Earlier this month, Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson reassigned the Rev. Jody Ray, pastor of Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church in Marietta, Georgia, to a newly created position related to racial reconciliation in the the North Georgia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Rather than leave the church, where he has served since...

Delegates pray before a plenary session at the United Methodist Churchs 2016 General Conference in Portland, Oregon. | Facebook/United Methodist General Conference The United Methodist Church, the third-largest Christian sect in the United States, took another step toward schism over their longstanding debate on LGBT issues when theological conservatives recently unveiled their plan for a new denomination. Known as the Global Methodist Church, it was the product of the 17-member Transitional L...

(RNS) — At 161 smallish pages, “Joe Biden and Catholicism in the United States” has the brevity, bravado and binary thinking of a good political tract. Which, in fact, is what it is. The handsome cover photo of Biden is campaign quality, and the opening declaration is boldly over the top. The election of Biden as the second Catholic president of the United States, writes Massimo Faggioli, “alone made the 2020 U.S. election historically notable, distinctive in both the political and reli...

Betty McCollum speaks at a rally, May 19, 2018. J Street and Americans for Peace Now on Wednesday added their names to a list of some 20 vehemently anti-Israel groups, including mainstays in the Palestinian rights movement like the Adalah Justice Project, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, and Justice Democrats who endorsed a bill introduced by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn) titled “Defending the Human Rights of Palestinian Children and Families Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act.” Acco...

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) during hearing on the Department of Agriculture Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2020 at the Rayburn House Office Building, in Washington, D.C., April 9, 2019. (USDA photo by Preston Keres) “U.S. assistance intended for Israel’s security must never be used to violate the human rights of Palestinian children, demolish the homes of Palestinian families, or to permanently annex Palestinian lands,” McCollum said. “Peace can only be achieved by respecting human r...