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Posted on 04/19/2015 5:51:16 PM PDT by massmike
DURHAM The conference at Epworth United Methodist Church on Saturday was one participants said they couldn’t have even imagined happening not so long ago.
In speeches, panels and small groups, 80 people gathered to discuss how to fully welcome the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community into the United Methodist Church.
“It’s a conversation that we couldn’t have had,” said Jimmy Creech, a former Methodist pastor who lost his position at Fairmont United Methodist Church in Raleigh in the wake of his outspoken support for gays and lesbians in the late 1980s.
Years later, as a pastor in Nebraska, he was defrocked by the church after he performed a same-sex wedding.
At an annual meeting of the North Carolina Conference in June, church leaders from Epworth will present a resolution calling for all discriminatory language to be removed from church teachings, with a focus on language against homosexuality. The conference covers 56 counties in the eastern half of the state.
The actions at the June meeting are a lead-up to an international church meeting in 2016, where those in favor of amending the church’s policies hope to gain ground.
The Rev. Frank Schaefer, a Methodist minister who was defrocked and then reinstated into the church after performing a same-sex wedding for his son, urged participants at Saturday’s conference to be vocal supporters of those changes, with resolutions, letters to their church representatives and posts on social media.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
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It’s weird how many “bible thumpers” have taken a serious interest in homosexuality and other perverted forms of sexual deviancy.
When/If this happens, I leave the Methodist Church.
I really don’t have a problem with homosexuality per se, but I refuse to have my children be taught in church that it is “normal” rather than a perversion.
membership drop in 3... 2...
Methodist have not been Bible thumpers for decades.
He volunteer with Operation Christmas Child. They’ve been losing support from churches lately because of OCC’s stand on marriage.
Methodists probably don’t even have Bibles any more
Every major American church that has taken steps towards liberalization on sexual issues has seen a steep decline in membership.
>>When/If this happens, I leave the Methodist Church.
I came home from Florida Annual Conference last June and resigned from the UMC the next week. Even if the gays don’t win at GC 2016, the damage they will do will just continue until the UMC goes the way of the TEC, ELCA, and PCUSA.
To be honest, the weakness of a non-confessional church will not survive the siege that is being conducted by the Progressive/homosexual/communist agenda in this country. The evil I saw at last year’s AC convinced me that Reformed theology is correct and some people are just too depraved to be saved, but they sure can pretend to be Christians—and many of them faked it all the way through seminary and ordination and became UMC Elders.
>>Methodists probably don’t even have Bibles any more
Sadly, they do. They got together with the Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian Church U.S.A., Episcopal Church, and United Church of Christ to write the Common English Bible a few years ago.
That list is the Mos Eisley spaceport of Protestantism!
He volunteer with Operation Christmas Child. They’ve been losing support from churches lately because of OCC’s stand on marriage.
.................
OCC supports marriage the way God intended, right?
Nothing new: Paul warned the elders from Ephesus (Acts 20:28-30) that from their own numbers (the elders) would false teachers arise to “devour the flock.”
Maybe a keen pair of scissors will work to remove the offending passages...why not?
I’ve never heard of the ‘common English bible’ Was this an attempt that failed or is still being worked on? Just curious. I’m sticking with the RSV and New Jerusalem translations.
>>I’ve never heard of the ‘common English bible’ Was this an attempt that failed or is still being worked on? Just curious. I’m sticking with the RSV and New Jerusalem translations.
They published it at least 5 years ago and the liberal churches are pushing it hard. The less liberal clergy and congregations are sticking to the NRSV or NIV that the UMC has used for years.
(Meant to say “I volunteer “
Yes. OCC is Franklin Graham. Very strong traditional Christian values.
This article deserves a thread of its own.
ABSOLUTELY!!!!!
The Methodist church has jumped the shark and become of the world.
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