Louisiana Report
Jessica Trahan gives the report of Louisiana Annual Conference's committee on LGBTQ ministry. (Louisiana Conference Photo)
There is a difference between not being incompatible and being accepted, the leader of the Louisiana Conference’s LGBTQIA+ Ministry Team said Thursday to delegates at the 2024 Annual Conference.
The General Conference of the United Methodist Church last month voted to remove the harmful language in the Book of Discipline that targeted LGBTQIA+ individuals, specifically the passage that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.”
The long-anticipated change capped years of division that spurred some churches to leave The United Methodist Church.
But the change does not mean the struggle for LGBTQIA+ acceptance is over, said Jessica Trahan, who also leads the Wesley United Campus Ministry at First United Methodist Church in Lafayette.
“Changing policies doesn’t change hearts. History shows us that,” Trahan said. “Ask women who have been called into ministry. Ask people of color.”
The ministry team’s goal, for now, is to help LGBTQTIA+ individuals in their congregational lives, to share resources with local churches to help them better meet the needs of LGBTQTIA+ people and to collaborate with other ministry areas in The Louisiana Conference.
“We are in the infant stages of working on the healing that is needed in our conference…we have a long history of hurting people,” Trahan said, adding that the committee is “building a resource list that anyone in the conference can access.”
The ministry team is less than one year old.
At the 2023 Annual Conference, Caleb Porter, director of music at First Hammond United Methodist Church, challenged delegates to approve his petition to create the ministry team, telling delegates that he could not serve in several capacities in the church because he is gay.
Because of the General Conference’s actions, the United Methodist Church is no longer a place of discrimination against LGBQTIA+ people, at least on paper, Trahan said.
“In my father’s house, there’s a place for me. I’m a child of God,” Trahan said. “We have a choice to make. We either do God’s work or we don’t.”
Below is a video shared during the report. The video tells the story of Pat Wiersma, a member of the team, whose son is gay.