The church’s Book of Discipline states that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching” and that “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” are not permitted to be ordained. The Baltimore-Washington Area Reconciling United Methodists said the move to not approve a candidate who was recommended by the ministry board was a rare one.
A married lesbian who had hoped to become a deacon in the United Methodist Church was voted down by clergy of the church’s Baltimore-Washington Conference.
Tara “T.C.” Morrow did not receive the two-thirds vote needed for approval, reported the UMConnection, the conference’s newspaper. The conference’s Board of Ordained Ministry had recommended that Morrow be commissioned as a provisional deacon. Deacons in the United Methodist Church are ordained clergy.
The Wednesday (June 1) decision about Morrow, a staffer of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, came within weeks of the denomination’s quadrennial General Conference. At that meeting in Portland, Ore., delegates decided to postpone debate about changing stances on human sexuality until a commission can discuss them.
The church’s Book of Discipline states that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching” and that “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” are not permitted to be ordained.
The Baltimore-Washington Area Reconciling United Methodists said the move to not approve a candidate who was recommended by the ministry board was a rare one.
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