United Methodists remove same-sex wedding ban


Key points:

  • Delegates to The United Methodist Church approved four changes to church law intended to remove the last remnants of restrictions aimed specifically at LGBTQ people.
  • This comes after a week of slowly removing bans and enforcement measures against gay clergy and same-sex weddings.
  • The delegates also passed a measure that explicitly allows clergy to choose which weddings they perform or don’t perform.

United Methodist pastors no longer face potential penalties for officiating at same-sex weddings or being in a same-sex relationship themselves.

During the afternoon session of General Conference’s final day, delegates approved four changes to church law that together end remaining bans related to homosexuality and protect the rights of pastors to choose which weddings to perform or not to perform.

With the day’s actions, the delegates removed decades of additions to the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book, creating restrictions aimed specifically at LGBTQ people.

Previously, General Conference removed a longtime ban on “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy, eliminated a half-century-old statement against homosexuality and opened the door to accepting marriage between two consenting adults as well as a man and a woman.  

By a vote of 447 to 233, delegates struck down a ban, added by the 1996 General Conference, that prohibited clergy from officiating and churches from hosting “homosexual unions.”

In other actions:

  • By a vote of 544 to 121, delegates approved a change to the requirements that clergy practice “celibacy” in singleness — an addition made in 1984 that targeted gay candidates for ministry.

    Instead, the delegates supported adding after the requirement of integrity in all personal relationships, “social responsibility and faithful sexual intimacy expressed through fidelity, monogamy, commitment, mutual affection and respect, careful and honest communication, mutual consent, and growth in grace and in the knowledge and love of God.”

  • By a vote of 474 to 206, delegates approved striking from church law the chargeable offenses “practices declared by The United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings, including but not limited to: being a self-avowed practicing homosexual; or conducting ceremonies which celebrate homosexual unions; or performing same-sex wedding ceremonies.”

    In the same vote, the delegates maintained the chargeable offense of immorality. Delegates previously did not approve a proposal to add the definition “including, but not limited to, not being celibate in singleness, or not faithful in a marriage.”

  • By a vote of 479 to 203, delegates adopted the statement: “No clergy at any time may be required to provide for or compelled to perform, or prohibited from performing, any marriage, union, or blessing. All clergy have the right to exercise and preserve their conscience when requested to perform any marriage, union, or blessing."

The Rev. Joy Barrett, a delegate from the Michigan Conference, said passing this last petition was critical as The United Methodist Church sets a new direction.

“No one will be forced to perform a marriage,” she said. “That remains the decision of the pastor. This wording was intentionally added to support our clergy who hold traditional understandings of marriage. We are a big-tent church. You are seen and valued.”

Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free daily or weekly Digests.

United Methodist Bishops bless the elements of Holy Communion during a world-wide worship service at First United Methodist Church in Charlotte, N.C., in the lead-up to the 2024 United Methodist General Conference. From left are Bishops Israel Maestrado Painit of the Philippines, John Wesley Yohanna of Nigeria and Rodolfo A. Juan of the Philippines. The gathering was coordinated by the Love Your Neighbor Coalition and the National Association of Filipino-American United Methodists. Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News. 

General Conference photos

UM News has photographers on the plenary floor of General Conference 2024 and at special events and meetings throughout the session. View photos from each day on Flickr.
See photos

Sign up for our newsletter!

Subscribe Now
Bishops
Bishop Tracy S. Malone, who leads the Indiana Conference, delivers her first address as Council of Bishops president during the bishops’ meeting Nov. 4 at Epworth by the Sea Conference Center in St. Simons Island, Ga. She spoke of her hope for The United Methodist Church in moving toward a more inclusive future. Photo by Heather Hahn, UM News.

Bishops urged to perceive God’s ‘new thing’

Council of Bishops President Tracy S. Malone preached of God’s deliverance on the eve of the U.S. presidential election. She sees God at work as The United Methodist Church begins a new chapter.
Local Church
The banner in front of Woori Naperville United Methodist Church (formerly Naperville Korean United Methodist Church) in Naperville, Ill., reads, “Grace of God does everything.” On Oct. 4, the Northern Illinois Conference announced that it had signed a settlement with a breakaway faction of Naperville Korean United Methodist Church over the rightful ownership of the church building and other assets. Photo by the Rev. Nadan Jo, Woori Naperville United Methodist Church.

Dispute over church property resolved

United Methodists in the Northern Illinois Conference are celebrating a settlement reached between the conference and a breakaway faction of the former Naperville Korean United Methodist Church.
Human Sexuality
Jan Lawrence (left), head of Reconciling Ministries Network, and Ashley Boggan D., top executive of the United Methodist Commission on Archives and History, hold up a Reconciling Congregations quilt during the Oct. 23 inauguration of The United Methodist Church’s new LGBTQ+ United Methodist Heritage Center in Madison, N.J. Photo by Crystal Caviness, courtesy of the Commission on Archives and History Facebook page.

New LGBTQ+ Heritage Center helps church remember

The United Methodist center’s opening described as “a call to us today and in the future to build a church where all people are seen, heard and valued.”

United Methodist Communications is an agency of The United Methodist Church

©2024 United Methodist Communications. All Rights Reserved