United Methodist Church ends LGBTQ+ clergy ban

After a vote earlier today, LGBT Q clergy will no longer be banned within the United Methodist Church. Chad Tampa based Miranda Parnell speaks with a Saint Pete pastor who's been a long time advocate for the LGBT Q community, as well as with a pastor who's faced her own battle with the ban. This is the moment that everything changed. Sexual orientation is no longer a qualification for ministry in the United Methodist Church. And that's a good thing. Reverend Andy Oliver and Tracy Hunter say it's been a long time coming. But now LGBT Q clergy in the United Methodist Church can finally love openly while serving their faith. Hunter faced scrutiny for her sexuality. When she married her wife, I got to a place where the love was greater than the fear. Um And I was tired of having to decide between my love for the church and my love for my partner. Now, clergy in the church won't have to make that choice. Delegates from around the world are in North Carolina this weekend for the church's general conference where they voted to change long standing rules that prohibited same sex clergy since 1972 it's in our rule book that the practice of homosexuality has been incompatible with Christian teaching Oliver and Hunter say more than 93% of those voting on Wednesday supported changing the language and the rules that overwhelming majority comes after thousands of congregations in the US who were against the changes disaffiliated from the church. We can be welcomed instead of um hidden um and celebrated uh instead of um criticized or shunned. And Pastor Oliver says with the new rules, a new era is on the horizon for the United Methodist Church this way of doing church um where love is at the center is really what it's all about in Saint Pete Miranda Parnell in Tampa Bay. And Pastor Oliver says the new rule changes will also allow pastors to officiate same sex weddings. He says at Allendale United Methodist Church in Saint Petersburg, they were already doing so, but now he won't be reprimanded for reprimanded for doing that.

Channel: 10 Tampa Bay

Views: 5,545

Keywords: [ local, nation-world ], news

Id: sc-HLYB4m10

Length: 2min 13sec (133 seconds)

Published: Thu May 02 2024