Upon This Rock

Affirming religions are affirming to different degrees and one is on the verge of being torn apart over the issue of LGBTQ+ acceptance.

United Methodist Church on edge of breakup over LGBT stand
AP
By David Crary and Jim Salter
February 25, 2019

ST. LOUIS (AP) — The United Methodist Church teetered on the brink of breakup Monday after more than half the delegates at an international conference voted to maintain bans on same-sex weddings and ordination of gay clergy.

Their favored plan, if formally approved, could drive supporters of LGBT inclusion to leave America’s second-largest Protestant denomination.

A final vote on rival plans for the church’s future won’t come until Tuesday’s closing session, and the outcome remains uncertain. But the preliminary vote Monday showed that the Traditional Plan, which calls for keeping the LGBT bans and enforcing them more strictly, had the support of 56 percent of the more than 800 delegates attending the three-day conference in St. Louis.
[…]
As evidence of the deep divisions within the faith, delegates Monday approved plans that would allow disaffected churches to leave the denomination while keeping their property.

In a Religious News Service article they write,

ST. LOUIS (RNS) — In a surprise, the plan recommended by the United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops was rejected Monday (Feb. 25) by the denomination’s decision-making body.

The so-called One Church Plan did not pass out of General Conference’s Legislative Committee to be considered by delegates Tuesday during the plenary session.

But that doesn’t mean the proposal is dead, according to supporters.

Reconciling Ministries Network, a movement advocating for the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in the church, tweeted after the vote that the rejected plan will “almost certainly still come up” as a minority report on Tuesday.

I am honored that they are willing to tear their church in half over our rights.

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Update 2:15 PM 
They rejected recognizing marriage equality and LGBT priests

United Methodist delegates reject plan allowing same-sex marriage, LGBT clergy
The Tennessean
By Holly Meyer,
February 26, 2019

ST. LOUIS — United Methodists on Tuesday rejected an effort by more progressive members of the global church to lift the denomination's ban on same-sex marriage and LGBT clergy.

During the special session of the church's General Conference here in St. Louis, delegates voted not to substitute the more inclusive One Church Plan for the conservative Traditional Plan, which reinforces the denomination's current prohibitions.

The swap failed by 75 votes, 374 to 449. But the delegates still need to take a final vote Tuesday on the Traditional Plan.

The Rev. Tom Berlin, a delegate from the Virginia Conference, spoke from the General Conference stage in support of the One Church Plan, which would have allowed same-sex marriage and LGBT clergy while adding protections for churches and pastors who do not support the marriages.