Leawood church to remain with United Methodist Church after denomination splits
A Leawood church will remain with the United Methodist Church, its leader said Friday after the denomination announced it was splitting over LGBTQ equality.
The United Methodist Church will remove language and policies “that treat LGBTQ persons as second-class Christians in the church,” Church of the Resurrection Pastor Adam Hamilton said in a statement posted on the church’s website.
New procedures “will allow pastors to determine who they will or will not marry and which will no longer tell LGBTQ families that they are incompatible with Christian teaching,” he said.
Church of the Resurrection is the largest Methodist congregation in the United States with more than 22,000 members.
A new Methodist denomination, which will maintain more restrictive policies regarding LGBTQ issues, will likely be formed in May after the plan is approved. It is supported by left, center and right segments of the church.
A statement from the United Methodist Church said the traditionalist denomination will receive $25 million to get established.
Hamilton said 10% to 25% of the Methodist churches in the U.S. may leave to join the new denomination.
Rev. Emanuel Cleaver III said members at St. James United Methodist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, will vote on the church’s direction.
Personally, he said, “I won’t be going with the traditionalists.”
Cleaver said his disagreements go beyond the LGBTQ issue and that the more conservative faction approaches scripture more literally than he does.
Gay marriage and gay clergy have been at the center of debates within the denomination for several years. The idea to break off into different groups intensified last year.
Last March in St. Louis, delegates voted to uphold the denomination’s anti-LGBTQ stance and increase penalties for clergy who perform same-sex weddings.,
In May, progressive and centrist leaders met in Leawood to discuss ways they could resist policies that weren’t welcoming to the LGBTQ community.
The New York Times reported a 16-member committee of bishops and church officials put together a plan after determining that separation was “the best means to resolve our differences, allowing each of part of the Church to remain true to its theological understanding.”
Church leaders from Africa, Europe, the Philippines and the U.S. drew up the separation plan during three two-day mediation sessions held at law offices in Washington, The Times said.
The United Methodist Church said it came to the decision to separate because it was at an impasse that was damaging its mission and hurting its members.
