A historic vote last Wednesday in the United Methodist Church will allow people who identify as LGBTQ+ to become members of the clergy.
Many churches, including some in northern Michigan, are celebrating the decision, which comes after decades of disagreement within the UMC’s General Conference.
The United Methodist Church is one of the largest protestant organizations in the United States.
The General Conference meets about every four years. This year’s gathering in Charlotte, North Carolina, saw the measure approved in a 692-51 vote.
Linda Stephan, a pastor at Central United Methodist Church in Traverse City, said she was shocked by how easy the ruling passed despite years of uncertainty.
Plus, because the measures appeared on a consent calendar, there wasn’t any debate.
“I was a real skeptic about whether this could happen at all,” Stephan said. “It was just five years ago when the General Conference met last. They not only gave the opposite decision, but they put even more strict measures in place. We were absolutely heartbroken.”
Central United Methodist Church had been LGBTQ-friendly for years prior to the decision.
Associate Pastor Joan VanDessel was the first openly gay pastor ordained in the Michigan Conference, which allowed it in 2022.
She said her church is now fully aligned with her denomination.
“It feels like a sort of backpack of rocks has been removed, as this sort of a weight has been lifted off,” she said.
The ruling also includes new protections for same-sex marriages. Clergy can no longer be penalized for holding weddings.
For Central United Methodist Church, the ruling means much of the congregation’s worship will remain the same. Stephan and Vandessel said they’re excited to “be part of the healing.”
“We will continue to affirm all people and to worship God in spirit and in truth and to be the United Methodist Church, open hearts, open minds, open doors,” Stephan said.
Internal disagreement over the church’s stance on LGBTQ+ rights has been happening for decades. Roughly a quarter of UMC’s total membership churches have disaffiliated in recent years, including more than 120 in Michigan.
The historic schism prompted some churches to practice independently while others joined the newly formed Global Methodist Church, which embraces more conservative views on LGBTQ+ rights.
A Methodist congregation in Pickford, located in the eastern Upper Peninsula, left the UMC for the GMC last year.
While LGBTQ+ inclusion was a “main issue,” Pastor Tim Bashore said the decision to break away from UMC was difficult to make.
“We decided at that time that we could no longer support that denomination,” Bashore said. “And we left. And, praise God, there was another denomination there to catch us.”
The GMC maintains a doctrine that marriage is between one man and one woman. Others in Michigan, including Korean UMC in Troy and the Gaylord Methodist Church, have joined the GMC in recent years.
Bashore said he believes the decision by the UMC stems from declining membership.
According to a study from the Pew Research Center, the number of those identifying as Christian has fallen from 90 percent in the early ‘90s, to 66.6 percent in 2022. The study pinned the change to adults becoming religiously unaffiliated instead of identifying with the religion in which they were raised.
The UMC claimed 5,424,175 members and 29,746 churches in the United States in 2022.
Both congregations — the United Methodist in Traverse City and the Global Methodist in Pickford — said they will continue to engage with people of faith with opposing viewpoints.
