A convention goer wears a button supporting LGBTQ clergy at the United Methodist Church General Conference Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. United Methodist delegates repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy with no debate on Wednesday, removing a rule forbidding “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as ministers.
The change doesn’t mandate or even explicitly affirm LGBTQ clergy, but it means the church no longer forbids them. That measure further removes scaffolding around the various LGBTQ bans that have been embedded various parts of official church law and policy. On Tuesday, delegates had begun taking steps to dismantle such policies.
Bishop Karen Oliveto, the first openly lesbian bishop in the United Methodist Church, was among those celebrating. The vote, he said, enables the church to become “the denomination that many of us had envisioned for years.”
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