Rio Texas Methodist Federation for Social Action

Response to retired bishop conducting same-gender ceremony

November 19, 2013

http://umc-gbcs.org/faith-in-action/council-of-bishops-requests-charges-be-filed

LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. — The United Methodist Council of Bishops during its annual meeting here have taken actions to address a retired bishop’s conducting a same-gender ceremony in violation of denomination law.

The bishops requested that Council President Rosemarie Wenner and Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett of the North Alabama Conference, where the ceremony occurred, file a complaint. It would target Bishop Melvin Talbert’s action for “undermining the ministry of a colleague and conducting a ceremony to celebrate the marriage of a same-gender couple.”

“When there are violations of the Book of Discipline, [the denomination’s book of laws], a response is required,” the bishops said in a statement.

Initiate a task force

The Council also voted to initiate a task force to lead conversations about human sexuality, race and gender in a global perspective. The goal of this effort is to come to a shared theological understanding amid diverse opinions in the denomination about these issues.

These actions followed days of prayerful discernment and conversation about the action it would take after Talbert, a retired bishop, conducted the Oct. 26 ceremony celebrating the marriage of a same-gender couple in Center Point, Ala. This is a chargeable offense for United Methodist clergy.

Denomination law states, “Ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches.”