You can find the press release here. Reverend Karen Oliveto of San Francisco’s Glide Memorial United Methodist Church will be the first-ever United Methodist Bishop to be elected as an out member of the LGBTQ community. Tomorrow, she will be assigned to one of 7 conferences in the region serving Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Pacific.
I will add some more when I get additional details, but I wanted to say one thing first. The Methodist church is the largest mainline protestant denomination in the United States, and the denomination as a whole lags behind others such as the United Church of Christ, Presbyterian Church USA, The Episcopal Church (USA), the Quakers and Unitarians and others. However, the way the UMC makes decisions is purely democratic, including votes on Church discipline from large church communities in the South, Africa, and Asia that are less accepting of LGBTQ issues. However, when we are able to transform this denomination to one that wholly accepts our Gay and Queer brother’s and sisters, it will be the largest such Christian institution in the world.
I am an ordination candidate in this church, and have chosen to stay with a denomination that — as a whole, currently — is on the wrong side of history over Christianity’s woeful treatment of the LGBTQ community. Damaging language in the Methodist Book of Discipline still calls homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching” and disallows the ordination of LGBTQ clergy, and disallows clergy to preside over LGBTQ weddings. But a few of us anyway are saying "NO” to this fear-based theology that — we feel — has very little to do with the teachings of Christ. We officiate gay weddings, sustain and support gay clergy and — now — nominate gay bishops. Obedience to God on our following of Scripture is our highest calling.
However, there are some very brave and important people who have stayed in the denomination for the sole reason that we have hope the one day enough people could discern the message of love Christ taught to lead a little bit of a reformation. Churches, parts of churches, or whole conferences of churches, have become “reconciled” to this community by willingly saying we will violate the overall church doctrine and acccept, marry, and love on purely equal terms, with no moral judgement, all LGBTQ people. I can’t begin to tell you how many people have worked very, very hard to make something like this possible.
We are witnessing history. And tonight — Christ’s hope for a truly open table is a little closer to fulfillment. Tears of joy for my LGBTQ brothers, sisters, and ALL in between. I love you all so much, and celebrate with you tonight .