U.S. Methodists are hoping that a radical realignment of the worldwide church would give different regions of the church greater equity to tailor church life to their own customs and traditions, including on issues related to sexuality. That so-called “regionalization” plan passed the General Conference but must still be ratified by individual conferences over the course of the next year.
Bishop Ken Carter of the Western North Carolina Conference said he wanted to acknowledge the historic step the church took toward inclusion.
“We’ve singled out one group for discrimination for 52 years,” Carter said. “And we’ve done that on an understanding of homosexuality whose origins came when it was understood to be a disease and a disorder.”
That, he said, has now changed.
“Increasingly,” he said, “people see that God’s spirit is in gay and lesbian people.”
This article originally appeared here.
