Read more below about how St. Paul's and the United Methodist Church have responded to issues regarding human sexuality and governing church rules.
FINDING A WAY FORWARD
Welcoming Statement
As part of our Reconciling journey, lay leaders from across our congregation, with community input and Church Council oversight, collaborated to create a "Welcoming Statement," which was adopted through a Special Church Conference vote in 2020. This statement is meant to be reflective of our community values. While the wording is entirely our own, a welcoming statement for churches who are members of the Reconciling Ministries Network must also demonstrate an explicit and intentional welcome to members of the LGBTQIA+ community and other historically marginalized groups. This statement does not replace any other mission statement, but serves as a new way to express long-standing values of welcoming all who seek God's grace.
Welcoming Statement
“We, the community of St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Kensington, welcome you in love. Jesus Christ accepts all, excluding none.
So we welcome and affirm you who are gay, straight, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer. We welcome you without regard to your sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, culture, race, ethnicity, ability, education, or age. We welcome you no matter your immigration, marital, or economic status.
Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, we welcome and affirm you as one of God’s children into our community of God’s unbounded love. All are celebrated here and all are safe."
More about...
the Reconciling Ministries Network
Members of St. Paul's voted to become a Reconciling Congregation and part of the Reconciling Ministries Network. The following information is also covered in the handout from 2019 "Reconciling Process FAQ's"
What is Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN)?
The Reconciling Ministries Network is a network of over 40,000 United Methodists and over 1,000 churches and communities seeking the inclusion of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities in both the policy and practices of The United Methodist Church.
Who can join the RMN?
Any individual, small group, or whole congregation can join RMN. A number of individuals and small groups from our congregation, including St. Paul's Youth, joined before the entire church voted to do so.
Can we be part of the RMN and still be part of The United Methodist Church?
Yes! Joining the Reconciling Ministries Network does NOT affect our status as part of The United Methodist Church. Congregations of The United Methodist Church that are also members of RMN must still abide by the UMC's Book of Discipline, but are committed to "change from the inside."
Will the RMN dictate the type of worship or other programming we can offer?
No. As a member of RMN, St. Paul’s UMC would retain complete authority over our worship, programming, logos, and all other aspects of our shared life and community.
What is the process for joining RMN?
Churches undergo a discernment process prior to a vote that includes Bible study, sermon series, small group discussion, and prayer. Churches must craft a welcoming statement that intentionally welcomes those of the LGBTQ+ community and other historically marginalized groups. To join, RMN congregations must then hold a church vote resulting in at least 75 percent casting their vote in favor of membership.
Do we pay a fee to be part of the RMN?
No fees or dues are required. Congregations are encouraged to make an annual contribution to support the work of the RMN.
St. Paul's journey
Summary & FAQs
What happened at the General Conference of The United Methodist Church?
The global General Conference of The United Methodist Church is the governing body which makes rules and official positions for the church. At their meeting which ended May 3, 2024 in Charlotte, NC, the governing body made of delegates from around the world approved four changes to church law intended to remove the last remnants of restrictions aimed specifically at LGBTQ people.
As the UM News Service reported:
"United Methodist pastors no longer face potential penalties for officiating at same-sex weddings or being in a same-sex relationship themselves. During the afternoon session of General Conference’s final day, delegates approved four changes to church law that together end remaining bans related to homosexuality and protect the rights of pastors to choose which weddings to perform or not to perform. With the day’s actions, the delegates removed decades of additions to the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book, creating restrictions aimed specifically at LGBTQ people.
Previously, General Conference removed a longtime ban on “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy, eliminated a half-century-old statement against homosexuality and opened the door to accepting marriage between two consenting adults as well as a man and a woman.
By a vote of 447 to 233, delegates struck down a ban, added by the 1996 General Conference, that prohibited clergy from officiating and churches from hosting “homosexual unions.” In other actions, by a vote of 544 to 121, delegates approved a change to the requirements that clergy practice “celibacy” in singleness — an addition made in 1984.
https://www.umnews.org/en/news/united-methodists-remove-same-sex-wedding-ban
This is a turn-around from the UMC's highly contentious conference in the spring of 2019, where delegates voted 438 to 384 to adopt a "Traditional" plan regarding church policies on homosexuality. Since 1972, the Book of Discipline had stated "self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve" in the church (¶304.3) and clergy are prohibited from conducting same gender weddings (¶2702.b). As of 2019, new legislation added mandatory automatic penalties for UM clergy who would defy the Book of Discipline and created a process (now contested) for congregations wishing to leave The United Methodist Church, or to disaffiliate. In its review, the global church's Judicial Council ruled in April 2019 that the new rules may stand, and those had gone into effect January 2020.
What Did St. Paul's UMC Do?
Following the 2019 conference, St. Paul's lay leaders and clergy formed leadership teams to help St. Paul's navigate a time of transition and determine St. Paul's positions on issues of social justice and LGBTQ+ rights. They explored the process and laid out the steps for becoming part of the Reconciling Ministries Network of UM churches that affirm LGBTQ+ persons, communicated with other local UM churches to see how they are addressing the issues posed by the Traditional Plan, and monitored regional and national developments as other possible organizational frameworks, legal challenges, and alternative plans arise.
We launched year-long time of discernment, including a panel, a 6-unit study session, a retreat, and Small Processing Groups for Discernment. On October 18, 2019, at the special church conference, members of St. Paul's voted to adopt a Welcoming Statement (98% in favor) and to join the Reconciling Ministries Network (94% in favor).
As of 2024, we remain proud supporters of equality and the work of the Reconciling Ministries Network, charting a new way forward for a more just and equal church.
Reconciling Congregation Vote
In 2019, we launched a journey of exploring whether to be identified and live into the understanding of a reconciling congregation. We reached the decision-making moment after an 11-month-long discernment process and the preparation of a congregational Welcoming Statement.
The Special Church Conference was held Sunday, Oct. 18 at 3:00 p.m. There were two votes on two questions:
1. Whether to adopt the Welcoming Statement for use by St. Paul's.
2. Whether to join the Reconciling Ministries Network.
More information about these two topics can be found in the sections immediately above.
Our District Superintendent Rev. Green deputized Rev. Dr. Pat Allen to oversee the proceedings. Rev. Kate Mackereth Fulton managed the Zoom seminar, with Bill Butz and Travis Stalcup giving a brief presentation and answering questions. The voting was carried out by secure online form or by phoning the church office. As Membership Secretary & Administrator, Erin Steele tabulated the responses and confirmed voters' church membership status. Both votes showed a decisive percentage voting in favor. The detailed breakdown is:
Adopting the Welcoming Statement
Yes: 94
No: 2
Total: 96
(98% voting in favor)
Becoming part of the Reconciling Ministries Network
Yes: 88
No: 6
Total: 94
(94% voting in favor)
If you have questions, the FAQs in the section below may be helpful. For more information, you can contact Rev. Kate Mackereth Fulton (kfulton@stpaulsk.org, 301-933-7933 ext. 103).
REport on DIsaffiliating Churches
The Lewis Center for Church Leadership has issued a new report on UMC congregations that chose to leave the United Methodist Church through disaffiliation through the end of 2022. Click the link below to access the full article:
Excerpts from the Report:
Approximately 2,000 churches disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church through the end of 2022 following the passage of special disaffiliation legislation in 2019.... The 2019 legislation made it possible for a church to disaffiliate and keep its property after fulfilling certain financial obligations. This report seeks to examine in what ways the departing churches are similar to or different from the profile of United Methodist churches as a whole.
There are more similarities than differences in comparing the cohort of disaffiliating churches with the total pool of all United Methodist churches. However, there are differences as well. The areas in which disaffiliating churches appear to vary most prominently from United Methodist churches as a whole include:
- Disaffiliating churches are less likely to have an active elder as pastor.
- Disaffiliating churches are more likely to have a male pastor.
- Disaffiliating churches overwhelmingly have a majority white membership.
- Disaffiliating churches are overwhelmingly in the South.
- Disaffiliating churches are in less heavily populated counties.
The Lewis Center for Church Leadership was formed within Wesley Theological Seminary in 2003 to promote the effective and faithful practice of Christian leadership in the church and the world. Over the past 17 years, the Center has become a trusted resource for church leadership ideas, research, resources, and training so that congregations and denominations thrive, serve, and grow. Read more at www.churchleadership.com/
From the Archive:
A Way Forward At St. Paul's
On Saturday, May 19, 2018, St. Paul's held the Way Forward at St. Paul's Workshop. The free workshop included 75 people, from youth age eleven to adults in their nineties.
Through breakout groups, activities, and discussions, this group attempted to ask and answer questions about essential beliefs and values of the people of St. Paul's. Our objective: To explore how our St. Paul’s congregation might respond to and address the United Methodist Church’s eventual decisions, not then known, regarding policies addressing sexual orientation and homosexuality.
Our gathering was guided by three main questions:
- As Christians and United Methodists, what do different people at St. Paul's believe? Among these varying beliefs, which ones would all of us at St. Paul's agree on? In other words, what makes up the shared bedrock of our faith? This question was further divided into sections focused on what people believe about God's relationship to us, the Bible, worship, how people relate to each other, and how we address differences.
- What, concerning human sexuality and our church, might members of St. Paul's disagree on?
- Of the different ways decisions are made at St. Paul's, what might be a good way to proceed when choices related to human sexuality arise?
The goal was not to focus on debating individuals' personal opinions, but rather to fathom and report on the diversity of beliefs and thoughts that might be found across the congregation.
A longer summary of the workshop and details about our discussions are available as *pdf files for download here:
"A Way Forward: The Collective Wisdom of 75"
Attachment 1: Questions and Exercises
Attachment 3: Workshop Evaluation & Feedback
The Way Forward Workshop was organized for the St. Paul's UMC community by Bill Butz and Emily Sama-Miller. We give special thanks for these Breakout Group facilitators: Meg Baker, Alison Clark, Jay Codner, Rich Higgins, Steve Lillie, Martha Lipscomb, Phil Rush, Ray Ruskin, Susan Schwarz, Micah Smartt, and Travis Stalcup.