School of Theology Dean Mary Elizabeth Moore urged the United Methodist Church to “make space” within its community for those who identify as LGBTQ Friday. Moore published the message ahead of the church’s 2019 General Conference.
A special session of the General Conference is voting on competing plans to either remove or strengthen the church’s current ban on same-sex weddings and the ordination of gay clergy. The conference is located in St. Louis, Missouri, and began Friday and will finish Tuesday.
The final vote will take place Tuesday. A preliminary vote on Monday showed that the plan to maintain the existing LGBTQ policy received nearly 56 percent support.
Moore said that the church’s current language condemns homosexuality and the ordination of open members of the LGBTQ community. This language, she said, has been a part of the church for more than four decades.
“The restrictive language first entered into the Book of Discipline in 1972, and efforts to remove it have been unsuccessful every four years when we’ve had a general conference since then,” Moore said. “In fact, some of the language has become stricter.”
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