(RNS) — When Matty and Myles Cafiero were married in January in Tupelo, Mississippi, the celebration of Communion was especially important to Matty. The United Methodist Church practices an open table, inviting everyone to receive the bread and wine.
To Matty, 23, it’s a connection with both God and the people around them. It’s one of the things that drew them to Methodism.
The wedding “was everything that we wanted,” said Myles, 24.
Then came the complaint.
The two United Methodist ministers who co-officiated the Cafieros’ wedding, the Rev. Paige Swaim-Presley and the Rev. Elizabeth Davidson, say they were informed in late February a formal complaint has been filed against them, allegedly for officiating a same-sex wedding. They told Religion News Service they have been asked to surrender their clergy credentials or face a church trial in the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church.
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The threat of a church trial comes as the United Methodist Church is splintering over disagreement about the ordination and marriage of its LGBTQ members.
The United States’ second largest Protestant denomination has lost more than 2,000 churches since moving in 2019 to strengthen penalties for clergy performing same-sex weddings, among other things. The departing churches tend to be theologically conservative, concerned the church is moving toward affirming LGBTQ clergy and same-sex weddings, regardless.
But Matty and Myles Cafiero identify as nonbinary.
And Swaim-Presley and Davidson say the Book of Discipline is silent on the topic of weddings between two nonbinary people, while, on other matters, it directs deacons and elders to act according to their consciences.
In a paragraph about civil disobedience, the Book of Discipline recognizes “the right of individuals to dissent when acting under the constraint of conscience.”
Jasmine Haynes, communications specialist for the Mississippi Conference, confirmed that a complaint had been brought against Mississippi United Methodist clergypersons and said the parties involved were “properly informed of the complaint and their rights to respond under church law.”
“This has been a difficult situation for all involved persons. It is out of concern for the well-being of the complainant, the due process rights of respondents and the confidentiality of all persons involved that we are unable to discuss the nature and details of the complaint at this time,” Haynes said in an email to Religion News Service.
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She did not name Swaim-Presley and Davidson or specify the subject of the complaint, which is not available publicly.
Swaim-Presley, now 40, said she was an associate chaplain in 2018 at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, when she met Matty Cafiero on the student’s first day on campus.
Matty Cafiero had left evangelical Christianity when they came out as nonbinary, they said. They had chosen Millsaps, which is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, because it was close to family, they said, not expecting Methodism to become a part of their life and studies. When theological texts came up in class readings that first semester, they realized they needed to talk through them with somebody.
The Rev. Elizabeth Davidson, arms raised, and the Rev. Paige Swaim-Presley hold Communion elements during the wedding of Matty Cafiero and their partner, Myles Cafiero, in Tupelo, Mississippi, in January 2023. Photo courtesy of the Cafieros
They quickly became a regular — and, later, an intern — in Swaim-Presley’s office and at the Wesley Connexion, the Methodist student ministry she directed.
