The Rev. David Simmons discusses the proposed full communion agreement between the Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church with that well known cradle Episcopalian, Willy Wonka.
The Rev. Stephanie York Arnold, associate pastor of First United Methodist Church in Birmingham, led a project to create a video documenting the harassment and inequality women clergy face.
This past weekend the Western Jurisdiction of the UMC, after a total of 17 ballots, has elected the Revd Dr. Karen P. Oliveto as a new bishop. The Western Jurisdiction has always strived for full inclusion in the life of the UMC and has been known for electing a number of firsts in the past. This time it has elected the first openly LGBT person as a bishop.
“The body had difficult and challenging work before it as we acknowledged our differences over human sexuality.”
For as long as TEC has been struggling with LGBT equality of all the baptized, so has the UMC. And like TEC’s overseas units, the UMC overseas units are more conservative than their US counterparts. Unlike TEC, the UMC overseas units are large enough that their representatives at the UMC quadrennial General Conference have so far been successful in preventing the UMC from embracing the full equality of its LGBT baptized. And the overseas units, unlike their US counterparts, are growing larger.