After decades of internal strife over LGBTQ issues, delaying their General Conference, and giving local churches an escape route to disaffiliate, the Methodist conference voted pro-LGBTQ earlier this month.
“After years of discernment and struggle, the United Methodist Church’s highest legislative body, the General Conference, chose grace and hospitality to govern their welcome of all people including LGBTQ persons and to allow LGBTQ persons to marry in our churches and serve as clergy,” Bishop John Schol of the United Methodists of Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey wrote in an email to The Jersey Journal while still at the conference in North Carolina with more work to do.
The denomination also redefined marriage at the conference to be “between two people of faith,” as opposed to between a man and a woman. And it rewrote its principles, jettisoning that the “practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching,” which had blocked all previous attempts to welcome gay clergy and allow same-sex marriage.
While the conference vote supporting the change was a lopsided 691 to 52, accompanied by much euphoria among the delegates, there seem to be pockets of resistance, including in Hudson County as some churches that did not disaffiliate continue to not be supportive of gay rights in the Methodist church, the third-largest Christian denomination in the U.S.
That stance was anticipated by the conference, which voted that no pastor can be disciplined for performing or refusing to perform gay marriages.
The Rev. Mark Schol — the bishop’s son — has been the pastor of United Methodist Church in Madison for the last two years.
“For me, it is good for old friends and colleagues to (now) be able to serve as out and not remain in the closet,” he said of the conference’s outcomes.
He acknowledged that these pro-LGBTQ changes occurred because a quarter of the Methodist churches in the U.S. — mostly conservative — left between 2019 and 2023, the deadline. Their overall numbers will now plummet. Only about a dozen churches in New Jersey left the denomination, so there is little change here.
But there are pockets of uncertainty about the changes. I called six Methodist pastors in Hudson, and they either initially agreed to speak with me about the changes and then changed their minds about talking or did not return my calls. I also called five lay leaders and only one would speak with me.
Bishop Schol is aware that there is still resistance in New Jersey and said, “I will work with all of our clergy to support them in their discernment and carrying out the ministry to which they have been called.”
I think a lot has to be done for the changes to filter down.
And that’s fine with Ron Boyle, 74, the lay leader and treasurer of Grace Church in Kearny who switched from the Baptist church in which he was raised and joined the Methodists 63 years ago.
“I don’t object to (the changes) as long as they preach the Bible and not a political message,” he said.
As lay leader, he can lead the service when the pastor is away. He was happy that the choice to disaffiliate was not brought up in his church, which he said is mostly older, because “it would be difficult to proceed.” Fifty years ago, 100 people came on Sunday and now there are 20.
He said new people have joined but that Kearny is changing and attracting more immigrants who tend to be Catholic.
The younger Rev. Schol, 43, who used to pastor United Methodist in Jersey City and Community Church in Hoboken, said international groups can decide for themselves to adopt these changes or not. Africa has a large Methodist population, which is ultra-conservative and anti-LGBTQ. Many of their countries have draconian laws against them.
The younger Schol also pointed out that the conference decided to add a special space in the church archives held at Drew University, sponsored by the Methodists, for LGBTQ struggles in the church for the last 50 years. His wife, Meredith, is a professor of Christian education at Drew, and they live right next to the campus in Madison.
For now, many of the remaining Methodists are taking a victory lap.
“This is a historic moment! It’s a new day! The removal of previously restrictive and harmful language and makes the United Methodist Church a more inclusive and welcoming denomination like other mainline Protestant denominations including the Episcopalian, Lutheran, and Presbyterian churches,” said the Meadowlands District Superintendent, the Rev. William M. Williams III, who oversees churches in Hudson and southern Bergen counties.
He knows they have work to do and ended, “Our prophetic witness and essential mission remains as stronger as ever.”
The Rev. Alexander Santora is the pastor of Our Lady of Grace and St. Joseph, 400 Willow Ave., Hoboken, NJ 07030. Email: padrealex@yahoo.com; X: @padrehoboken.
