A decision this week by the United Methodist Church’s top court hints at what the denomination’s planned special session on sexuality will look like.
And it has some worried that the special session of its General Conference, called for February 2019 in St. Louis to settle questions of ordination and marriage of LGBT members, could become mired in the same opposing petitions and points of order that led the 2016 conference to defer all discussion of sexuality to a commission.
One delegate proclaimed at the time, “I believe we are confusing God at this point.”
“That is certainly a major concern — that the body gets so bogged down with rules and procedure and questions and points of order that the body doesn’t make any kind of determination,” said Stephanie Henry, rules committee chair for Commission on General Conference.
The Judicial Council decided Friday (May 25) to allow any organization, clergy member or lay member of the United Methodist Church to submit petitions for consideration by delegates at the special session.
Those petitions must be “in harmony with the purpose” of the session, according to the decision.
That purpose is “limited to receiving and acting upon a report from the Council of Bishops based on the recommendations of the Commission on a Way Forward,” according to the bishops’ call for a special session. That…
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