Methodists protest rejection of same-sex unions

On Wednesday delegates at the United Methodist Church’s General Conference voted that marriage should not include same-sex unions and that homosexual acts are not compatible with Christian teaching.

Not a surprise, the votes:

Approved, 517-416, keeping the statement that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.

Rejected, 574-298, a measure that would have changed the church’s definition of marriage to include same-sex unions.

Approved, 544-365, a resolution opposing homophobia and discrimination against lesbians or gays.

Today there was a protest of sorts:

More than 200 Methodists attended a lesbian couple’s commitment ceremony Friday in defiance of a vote to uphold a church law that says gay relationships are “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

The ceremony was at a park across from the Fort Worth Convention Center, where some 3,000 people are meeting for the United Methodist Church’s general conference. It is held every four years to set church policy. [...]

No clergy member presided over the commitment ceremony of Julie Bruno and Sue Laurie of Chicago, a couple for 25 years, although about three dozen ministers attended.

Officiating at a same-sex union ceremony violates church rules for clergy and would leave them vulnerable to being charged in Methodist church courts. In 1999, a senior pastor in Omaha, Neb., was defrocked after a church trial for performing a same-sex union.

Participants explain that “the message was less about upsetting people and more about being role models and for people to know that these ceremonies are going on.”