METHODISTS Conservatives want church to split over gay issue

A split would involve complex negotiations.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- United Methodist evangelicals said Thursday that their church should split after three decades of discord over homosexuality, signaling a deep rift in the nation's third-largest denomination.
Their proposal, at the Methodist national policy meeting, reflected widespread frustration that years of debate over gay-related issues have diverted the 8.3 million-member church from its broader mission.
"We can't bridge the gap separating us," said the Rev. William Hinson, former pastor of First United Methodist Church of Houston and president of the Confessing Movement for conservative Methodists. "Our people, who have been faithful and patient, should not have to endure our endless conflict."
Breakup not imminent
No schism is imminent. A breakup would involve complex negotiations over billions of dollars in assets and the 36,000 congregations in the United States alone. Church law prevents any congregation from walking away with Methodist property.
The move also would likely be opposed by the many Methodists for whom homosexuality is not a central concern, church observers say. And the Rev. Mr. Hinson said that some evangelicals do not yet support the plan.
However, he and other conservatives said that they would continue to pursue the idea even if delegates to this week's General Conference reject a proposal to form a task force to study it. The meeting ends Friday.
"Both sides are so terribly divided in our denomination," said the Rev. James Heidinger, leader of the Methodist evangelical group Good News.
"We might find a way to be in ministry according to our own convictions and consciences without the continued internecine battling that goes on."
Conservatives prevailed
The announcement came after conservatives prevailed at the meeting in maintaining the church's firm stand against homosexuality.
Delegates affirmed that gay sex was "incompatible with Christian teaching" and made it a chargeable offense under church law for clergy to conduct same-sex marriages and for unmarried ministers to have sex.
However, evangelicals expect that those who want a broader role for gays and lesbians in the church will continue to defy church law and appoint sexually active homosexual clergy.
More than 200 people protested the denomination's prohibition against gay sex by disrupting the Thursday morning session. Demonstrators walked onto the floor and the stage where church officials were directing the debate, singing hymns and waiving rainbow streamers and posters for about 20 minutes. Some wept.
Dozens of delegates and bishops stood up in a sign of solidarity with the protesters before business resumed.
Conservatives pitched the idea of a split as beneficial for gay advocates. They said it would "set people free in their convictions to pursue the ministry to which they have been called."
But liberals called it destructive. They have previously proposed allowing regional Methodist districts to set their own rules on ordaining gays, but insisted they wanted to keep the denomination unified.
"We can still be a family together," said the Rev. Troy Plummer, executive director of the Reconciling Ministries Network, which advocates for gay and lesbian Methodists.
Several bishops said the proposal was contrary to the spirit of the denomination, which they said had stayed together despite equally painful disagreements on race and other issues. They were skeptical that Hinson would win support for his plan.
"It's a statement that has not been affirmed by any group or caucus in the church," said Bishop William Oden of Dallas. "He's speaking only for himself. And there are generalities that I don't think any of us would feel comfortable supporting."
Methodist conservatives have been mulling a split for years.
The March church trial of the Rev. Karen Dammann, an openly lesbian pastor, likely compelled them to act now, said the Rev. James Wood, a sociologist who studies General Conferences.
A church jury of 13 pastors in Bothell, Wash., acquitted the Rev. Ms. Dammann of violating Methodist law even though she acknowledged she had a female partner.
The Rev. Mr. Wood compared the verdict with last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Texas' sodomy laws. He said both galvanized conservatives.
The top church court last week rejected a request from conservatives to intervene in Ms. Dammann's case, but it left her future in doubt by emphasizing that bishops cannot appoint sexually active gay clergy.
Mr. Hinson said Methodist evangelicals were inspired partly by conservatives in the Episcopal Church, who formed a breakaway network of congregations after that denomination consecrated its first openly gay bishop last year.
The leader of the Episcopal network, Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, spoke about his movement in a meeting with Methodist evangelicals last week.