“This is really painful,” remarked United Theological Seminary Dean David Watson, an attendee of the conference. “Our disagreement has pitted friend against friend, which no one wanted.”
The denomination boasts nearly 7 million members in the United States and 12 million worldwide. The majority backing for the Traditional Plan is due largely to its global participation, evidenced by the fact that 43 [percent] of attending delegates are from abroad, primarily Africa.
“We Africans are not children in need of Western enlightenment when it comes to the church’s sexual ethics,” said Reverend Jerry Kulah of Liberia’s Methodist Theology School. “We stand with the global church, not a culturally liberal church elite in the U.S.”
In spite of the official ban, several members of the clergy have still officiated homosexual marriages and come out as gay without penalty. If the Traditional Plan comes to pass, the church will call for much stricter and more regulated enforcement.
For Methodists identifying as homosexual, Tuesday’s vote marks a particularly pivotal moment.
“For me, it’s about who’s in God’s love, and nobody’s left out of that,” said Lois McCullen Parr, a church elder who identifies as bisexual. “The Gospel I understand said Jesus is always widening the circle, expanding the circle, so that everyone’s included.”