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COLLEYVILLE, Texas On a Tuesday in January, pastor Katie Lewis was surprised to have even 26 members of the United Methodist Church of Colleyville attend her study group on human sexuality and same-sex marriage. In a group of mostly middle-aged white congregants, opinions ranged widely. One man said he felt pressure to accept LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage from "more liberal" members from the East and West coasts. Others quickly disputed that idea, saying the issue is a concern in Colleyville as well. "Whether you know it or not, someone in your life is struggling to be accepted for who...

A Mexican father who hid out in a North Carolina church for close to a year to avoid deportation was detained when he attended an appointment with immigration officials. Samuel Oliver-Bruno, 47, had a scheduled meeting Friday at a Raleigh-area immigration office to provide fingerprints and discuss a petition to delay his deportation, so that he could stay in the country with his wife and son, who is a US citizen, local outlets reported. About 20 minutes after he walked into the office, plainclothes US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested him. The CityWell United Methodist Church’s pastor, Cleve May,...

SAN ANTONIO - To better understand why the migrant caravan wants to reach the United States, the Rev. Gavin Rogers, associate pastor of Travis Park United Methodist Church, traveled to Mexico City last Friday as they were preparing to continue their journey. “Everybody around me, they don’t call it a caravan. They call it an exodus, which is kind of a Biblical term if you think about it,” Rogers said. Rogers said he wanted to hear their stories of rampant violence, corruption and poverty “that are often untold and misunderstood.” He asked, “What would you do?” Wanting a better life...

he United Methodist Church's African bishops have recently reaffirmed their support for the traditional definition of marriage, as well as opposition over possible schism within the denomination. The UMC Africa College of Bishops released a statement Monday stemming from their official meeting held Sept. 3-7 in Freetown, Sierra Leone. According to their statement, the bishops held extensive discussions regarding the denomination's debate over homosexuality, which many believe may lead to the UMC splitting. "... we reaffirm our position as traditionalists and view marriage as union between Man and Woman as clearly defined in scripture and affirmed in our COB 2016...

An Indiana minister who claims to be a pro-life Christian testified against a religious freedom ruling Friday during U.S. Senate hearings on Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Alicia Baker, a community development organizer and ordained Free Methodist Church minister from Indianapolis, urged the Senate to oppose Kavanaugh’s confirmation because of his decision to grant religious exemptions to the Obamacare HHS mandate. “If Judge Kavanaugh is confirmed, access to affordable birth control will be in jeopardy,” Baker said. “This committee and the Senate must weigh the harmful impact Judge Kavanaugh would have on the health and well being of so many...

Due to action of The United Methodist Church’s 2012 General Conference and to negotiation of church leaders, the General Board of Church and Society held listening sessions on the Social Principles throughout the church. From them, Church and Society learned that the Social Principles need to become “more theologically grounded, more globally relevant, and more succinct” (according to a 04/12/18 press release). Then the 2016 General Conference voted to continue Church and Society’s work in revising the Social Principles. On April 11, 2018, “The United Methodist Social Principles”/“Working Draft 1” was released. Church and Society aims to propose a complete...

Glide United Methodist Church in San Francisco, California, may be on the brink of breaking away from the UMC. The church, as a whole, has systematically distanced itself from the governance and theological beliefs long held by the UMC, and yet has still clung to the title of being a United Methodist congregation, according to Bishop Minerva Carcaño. Bishop Carcaño addressed an open letter to the California-Nevada Conference, outlining issues within Glide that she found to be troubling. She described Glide’s “Sunday Celebrations” as “uplifting concerts,” which “lack the fundamentals of Christian worship.” She went on to write that the congregants don’t want...

Barclay, a transgender person who identifies as neither male nor female and thus uses the pronoun “they,” was commissioned on Sunday as the first non-binary member of the clergy in the United Methodist Church. The United Methodist Church is one of the largest denominations in America, falling behind only the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention. The mainline Protestant denomination has been bitterly divided over sexuality and gender identity: Its official rules say clergy must either be celibate or in heterosexual marriages, and can perform only such marriages, but American bishops have ordained gay and transgender clergy before, and...

LONDON -- The oldest Methodist chapel in the world is about to be the site of an LGBT “celebration,” in direct contradiction of Scripture and the chapel’s own founder. On Saturday, the pro-homosexual group Christians At Bristol Pride will hold a “Service of Celebration” at The New Room in John Wesley’s chapel in London, Christian Concern reports. The chapel was built in 1778 under the direction of English theologian John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. The pro-gay group says the event will be “an affirming service with songs, prayers and symbolic actions,” after which attendees will be invited to attend...

A Mississippi United Methodist Church recently voted to leave its denomination, in part, because of the denomination’s position on abortion. In the past, the United Methodist Church has been affiliated with the pro-abortion group Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and some of its pastors continue to support pro-abortion causes. The denomination does not describe abortion as a sin, either. Its position statement describes abortion as a “complex” issue. It says: “Our belief in the sanctity of unborn human life makes us reluctant to approve abortion. But we are equally bound to respect the sacredness of the life and well-being of...

Northwestern University, a school initially founded by members the United Methodist Church, will offer a Christian service in the Protestant tradition to celebrate Easter Sunday. Two days later, the university will celebrate NU Sex Week 2018, a multiday extravaganza of sexual promiscuity and educational techniques related to sex. The events kick off on Tuesday, April 3, with a “Condoms and Candy Celebration,” followed by a lively round of Sex Jeopardy. Tuesday’s events conclude with a talk by the feminist writer Roxane Gay, who once called on former President Barack Obama to direct the U.S. Treasury to replace Andrew Jackson’s likeness...

The United Methodist Church is growing globally while declining in the United States, passing the 12.5 million-member mark, according to recently released statistics. Drawing from annual conference journals sent to the UMC General Council on Finance and Administration mostly from 2016, the UMC saw its numbers grow compared to five years earlier. The statistics were used to determine the number of delegates each annual conference will send to the 2020 UMC General Conference. Delegates for the denomination's 2020 legislative gathering will represent a diverse national background, according to the United Methodist News Service. "The 2020 General Conference in Minneapolis will...

No, I did not make that quote up. It flowed from the lips of the Reverend Laura Young, explaining to thinkprogress.org why she and others from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice are blessing Preterm, a local abortion clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. And, no, I did not make up “blessing” either. Who is the Rev. Young? I did a quick check in the Columbus Dispatch. From one story I learned This year, Young, a United Methodist minister in the West Ohio Conference, was assigned by Bishop Gregory Palmer to serve as executive director of the Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive...

If you see a Methodist church get hit by lightning, this may explain why: United Methodist Church bishop Dr. Karen Oliveto is not only a lesbian, she also believes (and publicly teaches) that Jesus was a bigot filled with prejudices. She does say that Jesus grew and changed, and that’s her point. Bishop Oliveto admonishes, “If Jesus can change, if he can give up his bigotries and prejudices, if he can realize that he had made his life too small, and if, in this realization, he grew closer to others and closer to God, than so can we.” The United...

As the state’s last abortion clinic is at risk of being shut down, some religious leaders step up against Gov. Matt Bevin’s anti-abortion policies. In the spring of 2014, the Rev. Millie Horning Peters and her clergy friend were eating lunch in Louisville, Kentucky, when their discussion turned to reproductive rights. As people of faith who were also pro-abortion rights, they were concerned by the absence of a religious voice in discussions about women’s health care. Instead, they observed, anti-choice arguments of the outspoken religious right dominated the public debate on reproduction. So Peters set out to dispel the narrative...

In some people’s view everyone can be forgiven for their sins other than “racist” “misogynist” President Donald Trump Somewhat like Islamic terrorism, Hillary Clinton is declaring herself her own religion. In her case reinventing herself as an ordained Methodist minister, coming in to the pulpit with an already at the ready schism. Husband Bill and daughter Chelsea will no doubt be shouting “Amen” on Sundays when she takes to the pulpit, with Bill only nodding off occasionally when her homilies run overly long.

So what do you do if you are an abortion advocate who lost two presidential elections in a row? For Hillary Clinton it is considering becoming a Methodist pastor. The news that Clinton would consider becoming a pastor in the United Methodist Church is not surprising given that the Methodist Church supported abortion for years until recently and still has a large contingent of pastors and other church leaders who strongly support abortion. Here’s more: According to The Atlantic, Clinton told her longtime pastor Bill Shillady, at a recent photo shoot for his new book, that she wants to preach...

A United Methodist minister is publishing a book of daily Bible devotionals inspired by the verses regularly sent to Hillary Rodham Clinton when she was running for president. The Rev. Bill Shillady, executive director of the New York-based United Methodist City Society, will be releasing the book on Aug. 15. Titled Strong for a Moment Like This: The Daily Devotions of Hillary Rodham Clinton, the book will include 365 of the over 600 devotions as well as a forward by Clinton herself. "Over the course of those 20 months, Shillady — a pastoral friend of Clinton's — and a small...

Having failed to win the White House in November and with a new book on the way, Hillary Clinton is reportedly looking at turning to a more publicly religious role. Her pastor is saying she wants to get into preaching. According to The Atlantic, Clinton told her longtime pastor Bill Shillady, at a recent photo shoot for his new book, that she wants to preach — something that the outlet says has always been a dream for her. This comes on the back of a report that Clinton told an editor in 1994 that she thought “all the time” about...

A former Austinite is now The United Methodist Church's first openly non-binary trans person to be ordained as a deacon. After 12 years, M Barclay, who prefers the pronouns them/their, can call themself reverend. It's a title that took 12 years to earn-- more than twice as long as most Methodists pursuing the same ordination. "I am just filled with joy and excitement that this wall has been broken down-- at least in this moment," says Barclay.