As the NYT report reads:
The United Methodist Church, at its convention in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday, voted not to change long-contested wording in its book of laws and doctrines that calls homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching.Read the rest here ... and do keep in your prayers all those who once again find themselves strangers at the gate when they should be seated at the banquet table.
The vote was 61 percent to 39 percent against the change to the church’s "Book of Discipline," indicating little change to the deadlock on an issue the church has been debating for the last four decades. The delegates also defeated a compromise amendment proposed by the advocates of equality for gay members, which said that Methodists can agree to disagree on homosexuality and still live together as a church.
And ... for all you Episcopal General Convention wonk types ... remember also that reports like this make the work we are preparing to do at our own General Convention all the more urgent ... that we not get so distracted by our own structural, budgetary and polity challenges that we forget to be a light to the world in desperate need of the Good News of God's love, justice and compassion available to all!
LG ... Not going to bite tonight. But if you want to read a good sermon about Phillip and the Ethiopian eunuch check this one out:
ReplyDeletehttp://lowellsblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/eunuchs-baptism.html?m=1
Susan, my heart broke when I read the report from their General Conference. Somehow, that they can't agree to even disagree seems even that much more hurtful than the refusal to be fully inclusive. It would have at least been a starting point. Seems they need to change their slogan. Their doors are NOT open.
ReplyDeleteACM