Reverend Rick Rabe of West Springfield United Methodist Church told MassLive he finds the denomination’s proposed historic split over LGBT marriage and ordination an “equitable solution.”
The split, announced yesterday, “would divide the third-largest religious denomination in the United States,” according to the Boston Globe. The denomination’s leaders “agreed to spin off a ‘traditionalist Methodist’ denomination, which would continue to oppose gay marriage and to refuse ordination to LGBT clergy, while allowing the remaining portion of the United Methodist Church to permit same-sex marriage and LGBT clergy for the first time in its history.”
Reported the Globe:
Friday’s announcement came as new sanctions were set to go into effect in the church, which would have made punishments for United Methodist Church pastors who perform same-sex weddings much more severe: one year’s suspension without pay for the first wedding and removal from the clergy for any wedding after that.
Instead, leaders from both liberal and conservative wings of the church signed an agreement saying they will postpone those sanctions, and instead, vote to split at the worldwide church’s May 2020 general conference.
As for Rev. Rabe, “For us here in Western Massachusetts it will probably bring some closure and resolve some uncertainty. Speaking for myself, I am happy to see resolution on this issue. It is an equitable resolution where we could move forward doing the work we should be doing,” he told MassLive, which we on to report:
[Rabe] called the protocol “complex” and said hurdles are ahead, but that it will “probably be the pathway that will happen and there will be a split.”
“When the 2019 conference happened [where a contentious vote upheld the denomination’s opposition to marriage equality and ordination of LGBT ministry] there were a lot of negative and hostile things floating around,” said Rabe of the February General Conference at which members voted to uphold the ban on LBGT marriage, an action that helped accelerate the move toward separation.
“This is a good resolution,” Rabe said.
The splits still awaits approval at the Church’s international conference in May.
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