[workerbee]

I went to a wedding last year at a UM church. The minister was a young woman. She gave a beautiful sermon on marriage, how it reflects Christ's love of His church, and seemed to stress that it is a union of one man and one woman. In fact, I remember how surprised I was at how "conservative" she sounded.

I met the minister and her husband at the reception that followed, but didn't feel it was the right time to get into the specifics of doctrine.

[Sioux-san]

my experience is the local churches are conservative, but the hierarchy in the regional and national churches are the ones going down the rabbit hole - this is also true for the Episcopalians, some of the Lutheran denominations, the Presbyterians (PCUSA). When I attended a Methodist church out in the country a few years ago, I asked that all my donation money be kept in the local church - most churches will let you do this. If they won’t, then that’s the church to leave.