Reverend Dean Snyder, a senior pastor of Foundry United Methodist
Church — a Washington D.C. church commonly visited by sitting presidents
— has told USA Today
that Methodist Bishops should call a special General Conference to
address the church's policies regarding same-sex weddings instead of
waiting until the church's 2016 General Conference.
Snyder said, "Some of us believe this issue is critical enough to do
that. There's more and more pressure from one side to enforce the rules
and more and more pressure from the other side that thinks the rules are
unjust and unloving..."
Snyder's comments came in regards to Frank Schaefer (pictured above), a former pastor who was recently defrocked
for officiating his son's same-sex wedding in 2007. Currently, four
other Presbyterian pastors are facing church trials for officiating
same-sex weddings as well.
"...these trials are about enforcing
obedience to just some of the rules of the church," [Snyder] said. "That
draconian effort to force obedience to selected rules leaves a bad
taste in people's mouths. Trials are counterproductive and we have to
find other ways to negotiate our differences."
The denomination, the nation's
second-largest Protestant group, accepts gay and lesbian members, but
its Book of Discipline calls the practice of homosexuality "incompatible
with Christian teaching" and bars clergy from performing same-sex
unions.
Concurrently, Southern Californian Bishop Minerva Carcano invited
Schaefer to join the church's California-Pacific Conference where he
could continue serving the church, although not in a pastorial capacity.
Also late last week, New Jersey area Bishop John Schol released a video asking
the church to stop using trials to settle questions of faith and
telling gays and lesbians that many Methodists support same-sex
marriage. These trends could portend an approaching schism between pro
and anti-gay Methodist church leaders.
Earlier this year, the US Presbyterian church experienced a schism over its decision not to ordain gay and lesbian ministers. Similarly in 2010, the Episcopalian and Anglican churches narrowly avoided a schism over the Episcopal church's ordination of gay clergy.
Snyder himself has officiated at least a dozen same-sex weddings and
yet the Methodist church hasn't prosecuted him yet. One wonders why.
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