Council of Bishops' Letter to the Global LGBTQ Community

January 2, 2019

2:08 PM

Billings Grace

Community responses affirmed Grace UMC in Billings, Mont., after the church was defaced by anti-LGBTQ graffiti and vandalism.

To the People of the United Methodist Church:

Grace and Peace to you in these days of Christmas, and at the conclusion of a calendar year.

Bishops' Logo

At the fall meeting of the Council of Bishops at St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, bishops approved a motion to send a pastoral letter to the Global LGBTQ community. A writing team, composed of a bishop from each central conference and jurisdiction, completed this task, on behalf of the Council. The letter follows.

We share this letter with you as an expression of our desire to strengthen the body of Christ. We confess our participation in the harm we have done to one another and to the LGBTQ community. In offering this letter we bear witness to the light of Jesus Christ, which enlightens everyone and is coming into the world (John 1: 9). And we pray that in the days ahead we will, with him, grow and become strong, that we will be filled with wisdom, and that the favor of God will rest upon us (Luke 2: 40).

The peace of the Lord,

+Ken Carter

Resident Bishop, Florida Conference

President, Council of BishopsThe United Methodist Church

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Friday, December 28, 2018

To our Global LGBTQ Kin in Christ,

The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church recognizes the ways in which the convening of the Special Session of General Conference creates a time and space of harm for you and members of your family. To be the focus of attention, discussion and debate is hurtful.

Demeaning and dehumanizing comments and attacks on LGBTQ persons in conversations related to the upcoming February Conference are a great tragedy and do violence to hearts, minds, and spirits. When you suffer, the whole body of Christ suffers. Together, we need to work to resist hate, violence, and oppression of persons. In these attitudes and actions, great harm is done throughout the community, to the offended and the offender.

As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12: We cannot say to a part of the body, “I have no need of you.” We belong to each other. In our Baptism, we are incorporated into the Church, the body of Christ, and made one in Christ. The Church pledges to every baptized member: ‘“Your joy, your pain, your gain, your loss, are ours, for you are one of us.”’ (The UMC Book of Worship, pg. 83). Our Book of Discipline clearly states that all people are of sacred worth.

As leaders of the church, we are brokenhearted by conversations that dishonor, objectify and dehumanize. We confess, as Bishops of The United Methodist Church and as we attempt to honor our convictions, that our actions and words have not always been life-giving or honoring of the LGBTQ community. Amid our sorrow, we seek to learn and grow in grace. To that end, we commit ourselves to helping people who disagree with each other to have conversations that include, honor, and respect people with different convictions. We are a diverse group of leaders—conservative, centrist, progressive—however, we are unified in our commitment to work together in ways that will give you and all God’s children strength, comfort and hope for better and more merciful tomorrows.

As the Special Session of General Conference approaches, we pray that the Holy Spirit will draw us together. May we see the image of God in one another, treat one another with tenderness, and love one another fiercely. Bearing Christ’s love in these ways, we pray to be God’s faithful witnesses.

The Council of Bishops

The United Methodist Church

Comments (3)

Comment Feed

pandering

The above statement is a lilly-livered, pathetic retreat from the moral values of the Bible. What does the hierarchy of the Church not understand about the fact that we are at WAR with Satan? Militant homosexuals will never be satisfied until we give them whole-hearted endorsement as 100% "OK" at every level. I welcome ALL to attend church and learn and worship; I do NOT welcome having church leaders rewrite the Bible and its basic tenets. Grow a Christian spine!!!!

Pat Evans more than 5 years ago

And where is the apology

For the harm done to traditionals during this process? Oh, right, we do not count. Our beliefs are unimportant. We are simply something to be tolerated, because, as Adam Hamilton clearly stated, we are "regressive". Reality is no other American Mainline Protestant denomination has succeeded in silencing traditionals; neither will The United Methodist Church. This is America, we have as much right to believe and live as we see fit as progressives do. Problem is, progressives do not know the difference between traditional fundamentalists who are the result of classical Christianity gone wrong, and traditionals who are rooted in classical Christianity who respect everybody's right to believe as they see fit and would not force anything on anybody.

betsy more than 5 years ago

Excuse me. Will there also be a mea culpa letter to Methodist traditionalists?

We who do not hate, nor speak of hate, nor seek to discriminate against others, but are guided by moral values dating thousands of years? We who have welcomed all who come in peace to our church? We who give generously to charities in the name of Jesus? We who, like our parents and their parents, have interwoven social morality and dignity with Bible teachings of life lived in accordance?
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We who have supported all the outreach programs and dug a little deeper for “building funds” over the years to expand the capacity and services of our United Methodist Church? We who have sung in the choir, taught Sunday school, helped clean up, set up, raise up our Faith in our communities?
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We who are now maligned constantly for our moral code, our adherence to standards of behavior, will we get an apology and a promise to consider our feelings? We who have lowered or simply stopped attending because sex is not what we go to church to talk about? Does anyone in the sanctimonious Council of Bishops have a “dissenting opinion” about the way traditional Methodists are being treated?
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There is a very large, new non-denominational church in the town next to mine. It did not exist ten years ago, but just moved into their new sanctuary last month. Christmas service was 540. Local population growth is single digit, but the abdication of traditional values by the Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Methodists left a bunch of protestants searching for a new home. I attend services there, but I have not joined. I guess I’m just waiting and hoping my old traditional Methodist Church will give me a call and say, “We are no longer affiliated with liberalism. They went their way, we have returned to ours. Come on home!”

Reese more than 5 years ago