Letter & Video Message from Bishop Graves to South Georgia United Methodists
A Letter from Bishop Graves Regarding the Removal of Restrictive Language
To the South Georgia Conference,
This week has proved to be historic in the life of the United Methodist Church. The delegates of General Conference voted on many items; one being the removal of LGBTQ restrictive language. The vote on the consent calendar was 692-51, with approval at 93%.
While it might seem unusual for such a significant topic to be voted through on a consent calendar, it represents a spirit of love and unity. This General Conference has placed a considerable amount of trust in the legislative committees, which met last week. There has been very little debate about most petitions because the committees were thorough with their work.
Let me offer some insight I hope will be helpful to you. With the removal of restrictive language, several areas of the Book of Discipline will be revised.
The removal of the harmful language places the Book of Discipline back to “neutral.” This means we now revert to a pre-1972 version of the discipline with the words “incompatible with Christian teaching” being removed. Let me emphasize that most mainline denominations do not have this incompatibility stance in their disciplines.
While clergy and churches are now permitted to perform and host same-sex weddings, this legislation explicitly protects the right of clergy and churches. Clergy do not have to officiate at same-sex weddings and local churches do not have to host them on their property. The autonomy on this issue remains in the local churches. Local church trustees may create wedding and building-use policies around this topic to reflect their theological interpretation.
Clergy ordination will strictly be based on the qualifications of becoming a pastor such as faith, spiritual disciplines and commitment to leading the church; to name a few. Human sexuality will no longer be a barrier in becoming an ordained pastor in The United Methodist Church. The Conference Board of Ordained Ministries and District Committees on Ministry will continue to have the authority to recruit, examine, confirm the calling of, and discern the qualifications of those considered for credentialing into licensed and ordained ministry.
Let me clarify that a church is not required to receive a gay pastor. Like any clergy appointment, an extensive consultation process will happen between the local church, district superintendent, cabinet, bishop and SPR committee to ensure the church and incoming pastor are honored. We wish to honor John Wesley’s instructions to “do no harm.”
This allows the long-standing debate over human sexuality to be resolved within The United Methodist Church so that local churches, conferences, pastors, bishops and members may focus on the Great Commission. This does not mean that we all suddenly agree on this topic. Instead, it means that differing opinions have space in The United Methodist Church. We will continue to listen to one another, pray with one another and respect one another in Christian love.
I am aware that a monumental decision will bring much discussion. We have informational meetings scheduled where we will share more. Here is a timeline of these meetings.
The South Georgia delegation and I are so grateful for your prayers. We have sincerely felt them. I am thankful for your leadership and look forward to meeting with you in the weeks ahead.
In Christ,
Bishop David Graves
A Video Message from Bishop Graves
Two additional items that may be helpful to you:
- In this video, Bishop David Graves, episcopal leader of the South Georgia Conference, shares a message to South Georgia United Methodists about decisions made during the postponed 2020 General Conference taking place now in Charlotte, NC. Watch Video
- This article that also includes thoughts from Bishop Graves and Dr. Ben Martin