ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — United Methodist Church delegates have voted to repeal several decades-old anti-LGBTQ policies.
Delegates voted 523 to 161 at their General Conference Thursday to eliminate the 52-year-old assertion in the denomination’s Social Principles that “the practice of homosexuality … is incompatible with Christian teaching.” It was after about an hour and a half of debate. In the same vote, delegates affirmed “marriage as a sacred, lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith (adult man and adult woman of consenting age or two adult persons of consenting age) into a union of one another and into deeper relationship with God and the religious community,” according to UM News.
Thursday's vote followed a session Wednesday in which delegates voted 692-51 with no debate to repeal a ban on LGBTQ clergy. That ban was originally enacted in 1984. Delegates also removed penalties for clergy who choose to perform a same sex wedding.
The change doesn’t mandate or even explicitly affirm LGBTQ clergy, but it means the church no longer forbids them. The measures take effected Friday upon the conclusion of General Conference.
"It's been debated and it's been a struggle," said Robb McCoy, pastor at Two Rivers United Methodist Church in Rock Island. "2019 was a big movement of when the church did a shift toward a more conservative, more punitive language. And pretty much since then moderates and progressives and a lot of people that just want to love everyone realized we need to be more assertive in this understanding of God and the Bible."
Between 2019 and 2023, a quarter of UMC congregations in the U.S. chose to disaffiliate.
In the past five years leading up to this decision, about a quarter of the UMC congregations in the U.S. who were against the changes disaffiliated from the church. About nine percent of Illinois' churches disaffiliated. In Iowa it was about 20%.
Two Rivers is welcoming the change. McCoy believes it's been a long time coming.
"This isn't some sort of liberal agenda or some niche thing, there are a lot of churches in the Quad Cities that feel this way," he said. "This is just the most honest expression of Christ's love. And it's not something to win or debate. It's just who we are."
Last year, Two Rivers became a "Reconciling Ministry,” meaning they welcome all people of any sexual orientation or gender identity. Congregation member Viminda Shafer helped the church work through that process.
"It was important for me to share my struggle, my confusion with the folks in the congregation so that they could better understand what it's like to be a queer, Christian and layer that with some of the other things," Shafer said. "My heart was happy that day for this congregation. I was still hearing from the national and global congregation how Christianity is incompatible with homosexuality and so I couldn't quite buy into the church 100% because I still wasn't accepted as a queer person ... and no matter what good work this church was doing, I couldn't bring myself to come into this place because it was still hard. It was still traumatic. And it represented a lifetime of trauma that I hadn't worked through yet."
Shafer described feeling shocked when McCoy texted her about the General Conference's vote.
"The stress that I didn't know I was carrying is gone," she said. "And so now I can come into a church. And even this one, even though they've affirmed me from the beginning, but now I have the global denomination behind that decision to say you are affirmed in this place and we will respect and we will keep you safe. That's much bigger than just a single church. It is the entire community saying yes, you are enough and you are worth it."
Watch more news, weather and sports on News 8's YouTube channel