which has been preparing in recent months to consider disaffiliation with the United Methodist Church denomination over issues of same-sex marriage and ordination of gay clergy.
The church has scheduled a disaffiliation vote for Tuesday, Sept. 27, in the church sanctuary at 5:30 p.m. The meeting is open to the public; however, voting is open only to professing members of Spur FUMC, of any age. The doors will open at 5 p.m. for registration and ballot distribution closes at 5:30, according to information from church leaders. Churches throughout the Northwest Texas Conference of the UMC have been taking part in information sessions and have begun to hold votes on disaffiliation, and also considering future actions to affiliate elsewhere, or not at all. UMC Insight, a denominational publication, provided an update on the issue this week in its story “Churches Discern Whether to Stay or Go.” “After decades of debate about the status of LGBTQ people in the church, General Conference was set to vote on a denominational separation plan in May 2020. After being rescheduled three times due to COVID-19, the denomination’s top lawmaking body now is scheduled to meet in 2024,” the article explains. “The delay led to the early launch of the Global Methodist Church, a new traditionalist denomination that has been encouraging United Methodist churches to disaffiliate.”
The matter of staying or going is a separate one from any next steps, for each congregation.
Other media have covered the question and sought to provide insights, including the Northwest Texas Conference of the UMC with its “Transition Pathways” website, www.nwtxconf.org/transition.
According to the website of the Human Rights Campaign, “The United Methodist Church, with an estimated 10.4 million members, has current policies that are strongly against the LGBTQ community.” The church’s 2016 Book of Discipline, it states, “recognizes the ‘sacred worth’ of all persons but also states that ‘the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching’ and bans financial support of LGBTQ-based groups.”
“However,” the website states, “many church leaders, including local pastors, welcome gays and lesbians as church members and support their basic human rights.”
At Spur FUMC, the matter has been a focus of a two-week season of prayer and fasting as members seek direction.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.
