Methodist churches numbering in the hundreds across the nation have left their United Methodist Church umbrella organization over the past several years due to disagreements over scriptural interpretation regarding the acceptance of homosexual pastors and the performance of same-sex marriages by a number of member churches. Auburn United Methodist Church became the latest spiritual battleground on April 24th of 2023 when the administrative board formally blocked any debate over leaving the UMC with a resolution adopted that discontinued all official discussion and consideration of entering into the discernment process that could possibly lead to fully disaffiliating.
AUMC Moving Forward, a grass roots organization made up of congregants who support entering into discernment, announced on their official facebook page the following day "Friends, Please do not let it be said that Auburn United Methodist Church decided anything last night. 33 members of an unelected Board, not the congregation of the church, passed this motion below and no other motions were even allowed to be considered. The Board first took a hand vote to accept the report from the Listening and Learning Task Force. This report showed results of a survey where 60.8% of members were in favor of Discernment. In addition, the Board received letters and e-mails over the last 3 weeks from members where over 57% asked the Board to allow AUMC to go into Discernment. So, the desire of the congregation for Discernment was taken away by 33 members of an unelected Administrative Board. This board that was hand chosen by a pastor sent to us by the UMC with a vested interest in remaining UMC for this very contrived outcome took your voice away and chose not to listen. How are the over 60% of the congregation that were not listened to and that had their voices taken away or disregarded by this pastor who has been working for this outcome and board be expected to heal ? This is a sad day indeed and we are broken and our own pastor along with the administrative board broke the congregation apart and our church."
At issue is the lack of enforcement by the UMC against violations of its rules that expressly prohibit homosexuals from being ordained as pastors or the performance of same sex marriages in the church. Several instances of such egregious transgressions by rogue churches within the UMC around the country have been dealt with ineffectively or ignored altogether by authorities in the church tasked with the duty of enforcing their Book of Discipline. Although homosexuals are in theory accepted as congregants into all churches within the UMC, they are officially barred from taking on the role of pastor or being married in the church to a person of the same gender.
Those in favor of accepting homosexual pastors and performing gay marriages in the Methodist church argue that it is a double standard and discriminatory to accept homosexuals into their congregation yet deny them the full rights of a church member by limiting their participation in the functions of the church. Traditionalists who oppose these progressive changes to the church see these controversies as symptoms of a larger loss of agreement on the interpretation of scripture that makes it impossible to continue as members of the UMC when the core of their beliefs are no longer shared by their fellow churches and congregants. They seek to enter into a formal process of Discernment where the decision to leave the UMC is fully discussed and a vote is taken to either remain in the organization or permanently disaffiliate. Members of AUMC have been denied the right to have their voices heard or to pursue self-determination through voting on the matter by the Administrative Board and their senior pastor Cory Smith who is insistent on banning all formal discussion of disaffiliation.
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