Methodist General Conference Decision. The Lutherans Reply

I am simply posting the Lutheran reply here. With my favorite paragraph highlighted.

https://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/7960?fbclid=IwAR12XLLixkx3fGG3h5IqncsSVFPj0DpOzaNpFR414dl0b5XK39dSga4Y478

I ask this church, then, to continue by the side of the UMC, exchanging gifts and sharing burdens. In particular, we pray for them in their continued efforts faithfully to be church in the contexts we share. As we pray for them, we pray also for this church: may we be faithful to the calling to which we have been called, willing to confess our shortcomings and to trust in the healing, challenge and surprise of the Spirit of God, who calls us always forward.

To me the beauty in this quote is the part in bold. I have seen how our church can wrong people, and do the wrong thing, yet apologies or even recognition of wrongdoing is not forthcoming. If there is an admission that decisions could have been better, it’s buried somewhere on LDS.org. At some point, “preserving the faith of members” is tantamount to lack of truth.

DJ – that was part of what I found interesting and hopeful. As more and more religions are having clear divisions, will the churches be able to express their opinion as was done here.

SD – I like your bold point. I guess I read it a bit differently, I read it as a call to the Lutherans themselves to be honest.

I don’t know if anyone has followed the story much. My best Mormon comparison would be the Priesthood Ban. Imagine if SWK reversed the ban, as he did. But then ETB, reversed the reverse.

That is essentially what happened in the Methodist faith. They had made room for gay people. Even gay marriage. I personally know a fantastic youth pastor who was gay, married her partner, served in a major leadership role in our community. Now she has no place. She can no longer be a youth pastor, or she can no longer be married. Ummm.

Interesting.

I wonder if the church ends up splitting and a new denomination or two end up being created.

It’s very possible. It wasn’t all that long ago that the Episcopal/Anglican church had a schism for very similar reasons. With the Episcopalians, the split was mostly (but not totally) between North America and the rest of the world (especially more conservative Africa). From news accounts I have seen with the Methodist voting, the split seems to be very much along the same lines. Apparently we’re not the only church doing well in Africa, the Methodists are also and there was a significant African presence at the conference.