Openly Gay Bishop At Center Of Controversy In Uned Methodist Church : NPR

Contents:

• UNED METHODIST CHURCH BODY ELECTS OPENLY GAY BISHOP VLATN OF S L: 'INMAT NNG THE ASYLUM'
• UNED METHODISTS ELECT ANOTHER GAY BISHOP, SET LIBERAL NEW DIRECTN
• GAY BISHOP, WHOSE NOMATN SPL CHURCH YEARS AGO, VISS FALLS CHURCH
• UMC BODY ELECTS OPENLY GAY BISHOP FIANCE OF NOMATN'S L
• GENE ROBSON, 1ST GAY BISHOP US, REMEMBERS TUTU’S GENEROSY
• OPENLY GAY BISHOP AT CENTER OF CONTROVERSY IN UNED METHODIST CHURCH
• FIRST OPENLY GAY EPISPAL BISHOP TO DIVORCE HBAND
• THE FIRST OPENLY GAY BISHOP IS A HUGE STEP FORWARD – BUT ’S NOT ENOUGH
• EPISPAL CHURCH ORDAS 2ND OPENLY GAY BISHOP

UNED METHODIST CHURCH BODY ELECTS OPENLY GAY BISHOP VLATN OF S L: 'INMAT NNG THE ASYLUM'

A regnal body of the Uned Methodist Church (UMC) voted to elect the nomatn's first openly gay Black bishop last week vlatn of s l prohibg the ordatn of "self-avowed practicg homosexuals. Her ordatn was emed valid by the Uned Methodist Judicial Council 2017, but she remas her CHURCH OF ENGLAND OFFICIALS ENDORSE GAY MARRIAGE: ‘RANK HERESY’The UMC, which is the third-largt Prottant nomatn the U.

UNED METHODISTS ELECT ANOTHER GAY BISHOP, SET LIBERAL NEW DIRECTN

Bishop Karen Oliveto, the UMC's first openly gay bishop, speaks at Iliff School of Theology, on April 26, 2017, Denver, Colorado. "Several nservative members of the Methodist clergy told Fox News Digal June that far om settlg the issue, however, the 2019 vote was disregard by many liberal lears wh the UMC who cid to rema the nomatn while missng openly gay clergy and officiatg same-sex weddgs Lomperis of the Instute on Relign & Democracy, who has served as a UMC General Conference legate, told The Christian Post that Bridgeforth's promotn exhibs "further direct fiance of the UMC’s official l, which is creasgly beg normalized. | Getty ImagThe four ndidat for bishop of an Epispal Church dce that recently garnered headl for refg to bls same-sex marriag have dited that they will allow the Epispal Dce of Albany has been whout a bishop sce the rignatn 2021 of William Love, who had issued an open letter 2020 refg to enforce a nomatnal le requirg all dc to allow for the blsg of gay marriag.

”Ward wrote that he believ the issue of gay marriage is “tly plited” and that he rpects all sis on the issue, addg that if elected bishop, “honorg theologil diversy would be a prry. ”“Seekg rolutn and a mutual path forward would volve a basic mment to rpectg the digny of every person, affordg genero pastoral attentn to every voice, and seekg Holy mon ground on nonilly sound footg, ” Ward July 2018, the Epispal Church General Conventn passed Rolutn B012, which required all dc to bls same-sex unns, removg earlier provisns that allowed several dc to prohib such measur, due to them beg nflict wh the biblil standard of B012 allowed clergy to refe to perform gay weddgs, required bishops who oppose them to let another bishop provi pastoral support for the same-sex uple and to provi a prit to perform the November 2018, Albany Bishop Love released an open letter statg that he refed to enforce the rolutn his dce. One cint that brgs the issue to md is an Associated Prs release on March 3, 2006 that not that the publisher of a weekly newspaper Cameroon (where homosexualy is illegal) was sentenced to four months jail for publishg the nam of people alleged to be gay or lbian.

GAY BISHOP, WHOSE NOMATN SPL CHURCH YEARS AGO, VISS FALLS CHURCH

) The publitn and subsequent trial led to a spike of anti-gay rts. The bishops and prits who are examg the semari wh a mandate to elimate homosexually oriented ndidat om semari have a rponsibily: In fairns the examers mt reveal their orientatn to those examed. Catholic sats have monstrated for centuri that homosexual orientatn is not an impediment to service, hols, or love.

UMC BODY ELECTS OPENLY GAY BISHOP FIANCE OF NOMATN'S L

Members of the foreign prs rps Rome talk eely among themselv about the orientatn of Pop: Pi XII (divid opn), John XXIII, heterosexual, Pl VI, homosexual, John Pl II, heterosexual, and Benedict XVI, homosexual. The New Ways Mistry is a gay-posive mistry of advocy, jtice and renciliatn for lbian and gay Catholics, fai and iends. Sce 1977 they have worked for jtice and on behalf of lbian and gay Catholics and renciliatn wh the larger Christian and civil muni.

Likewise, DignyUSA is the Uned Stat’ largt and most progrsive anizatn of gay, lbian, bisexual, and transgenr Catholics. They make great efforts to unter the dishont, hate-filled, anti-gay rhetoric so prevalent si and outsi the Catholic Church. This is clear s Instctn on the Visatn of Semari where talks about “ep-seated homosexual tennci” and “transnal homosexualy” and s equatn of sexual orientatn wh behavr.

Cardal Levada, now head of the Congregatn for the Doctre of the Fah (formerly the Office of the Inquisn) on Febary 26, 2006 asked homosexually oriented prits to rema closeted. This suggtn is a travty and only creas the opportuny and danger for good prits—heterosexual and homosexual—to rry on secret, non-celibate liv.

GENE ROBSON, 1ST GAY BISHOP US, REMEMBERS TUTU’S GENEROSY

The Roman Catholic Church nnot re-tablish s tegry or s credibily until is clear about the distctn between sexual orientatn and behavr; between homosexualy and pedophilia; and the real meang of celibate practice. I do not believe— fact I emphatilly reject—the Vatin statements that clare that homosexual orientatn is an “objective disorr. Homosexual orientatn is NOT an objective disorr.

I am not alg here wh homosexual acts. Homosexual / Bisexual.

Homosexual. READ MORE: Dwight Howard Sued by Man Claimg NBA Star Forced Him to Have Gay Threome. Bridgeforth is the first openly gay Ain-Amerin man to be elected bishop.

OPENLY GAY BISHOP AT CENTER OF CONTROVERSY IN UNED METHODIST CHURCH

Regnal meetgs this month that clud the electn of s send openly gay bishop.

”They also passed non-bdg measur askg anyone to whdraw om learship rol if they're planng to leave the nomatn soon — a tegory that almost entirely clus nservativ movg toward the nomatn still officially bans same-sex marriage and the ordatn of any “self-avowed, practicg homosexual, ” and only a legislative gatherg lled the General Conference n change that.

He is the first openly gay Ain-Amerin man to be elected bishop. A vote by a 2019 General Conference was the latt of several recent s that rerced the church's ban on gay clergy and marriage.

FIRST OPENLY GAY EPISPAL BISHOP TO DIVORCE HBAND

Although Jt Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, recently affirmed the validy of a 1998 claratn that gay sex was a s, there are signs that the C of E may be movg towards allowg clergy to follow their nscience on the issue. Anglin church the US, Stland and Canada have already moved to start nductg same-sex weddgs, while the church Wal has started offerg blsgs to married gay upl. ”Showg the new normal, a send openly partnered, gay activist bishop, Cedric Bridgeforth, was elected the Wtern Jurisdictn, and a third me historilly close to beg elected the Northeast, openly breakg longstandg l banng “self-avowed, practicg homosexual” clergy.

The growg uc of gay activist bishops will creasgly refe the nomatn. But the gay activist bishops’ lavish, six-figure salari are subsidized annually by apportnments taken om Uned Methodist offerg plat across the untry.

THE FIRST OPENLY GAY BISHOP IS A HUGE STEP FORWARD – BUT ’S NOT ENOUGH

Karen Oliveto, the first openly gay bishop the history of the Uned Methodist Church, at her nsecratn service July 16, 2016, at Paradise Valley Uned Methodist Church Sttsdale, Arizona. | (Photo: Charmae Robledo)A Colorado-based nference of the Uned Methodist Church led by a bishop a same-sex marriage has approved the disaffiliatn vot of 38 ngregatns leavg the nomatn amid a schism over the nomatn's stance on homosexualy. "Acrdg to numbers piled by UM News, the number of ngregatns that have left the UMC over the past uple of years over the nomatn's bate over LGBT issu stands jt below 6, 000, wh nearly 4, 000 havg left this year the past few s, the UMC has bated whether to change s official stance prohibg the ordatn of noncelibate homosexuals and the blsg of same-sex unns.

Epispal Bishop Gene Robson stood before dozens of ptivated listeners Saturday a Falls Church worship space to share his personal history as the Epispal Church’s first openly gay bishop. Robson’s ordatn to bishop New Hampshire 2003 spurred more nservative members to spl om the Epispal Church, wh a large swath of worshipers who didn’t approve of havg an openly gay man the role startg their own church, The Falls Church Anglin, leavg behd a small, liberal splter ed a lengthy legal bate over church property that end 2014 when the Supreme Court cled to take up a lower urt’s lg that the centuri-old property belonged to the Epispal each si has charted s own path sce Robson was named bishop adjutor 2003, Robson himself has had time to reflect on how he beme wily known as the “gay bishop” who brought “Satan the church, ” as a Kenyan lear said many years ago of his Gene Robson gave an emotnal speech durg the terment service for Matthew Shepard at Washgton Natnal Cathedral on Oct.

EPISPAL CHURCH ORDAS 2ND OPENLY GAY BISHOP

Burl Salmon of The Falls Church, 51, who is openly gay, troduced Robson.

Robson said he had the urage to be an openly gay man after readg “Embracg the Exile: Healg Journeys of Gay Christians” by John E. But a gay prit her hometown of Mneapolis explaed to her that the bigotry of some didn’t terme what was te for the majory, she said. 4, 2022, shortly after beg elected by legat of the Wtern Jurisdictn to be the first openly gay black bishop The Uned Methodist Church.

Bridgeforth, who has served as the California-Pacific Conference’s director of novatn and munitn, beme the first openly gay Ain Amerin bishop the UMC. ”Bridgeforth’s electn go agast the UMC Book of Disciple, which prohibs the ordatn of “self-avowed practicg homosexuals, ” and th do not allow them to bee Christian Post reached out to the Wtern Jurisdictn for ment, however, a spokperson explaed that they were unable to rpond by prs time due to travel schl and Lomperis of the Instute on Relign & Democracy, who has served as a UMC General Conference legate the past, viewed Bridgeforth's electn as part of a broar shift among UMC learship to embrace views that are ntrary to tradnal Christian teachg. ”For the past several years, the UMC has been embroiled a divisive bate over whether to change s official l barrg same-sex marriage and noncelibate homosexual ordatn.