Reconciling Congregation

A Reconciling Congregation openly welcomes persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities to fully participate in all aspects of its congregational life. It also supports like-minded people who are making a difference in The United Methodist Church and in the world.

To formally identify itself as a Reconciling Congregation, Community expanded its welcoming statement to include people of all gender identities. We make an annual donation to join the Reconciling Ministries Network, a movement of tens of thousands of United Methodists committed to making the entire denomination more welcoming of LGBTQ people.

RMN lists CUMC on its website, and we use a rainbow logo on our church signs, publications and website, identifying ourselves in a way recognizable to the community at large.

More specifics on RMN’s mission and goals can be found on this page of its website.

The United Methodist Church holds official policies that explicitly and categorically exclude one group of people Gays and Lesbians — from full participation in congregational life. Because of that, United Methodist congregations in the Reconciling Ministries Network specifically include LGBTQ people in their welcoming statements. RMN provides a support and communications network to congregations wanting to be in ministry with LGBTQ persons.LGBTQ persons face discrimination because their sexuality is viewed as different, but this issue is about more than sexuality, it’s about whether we are truly open to all people who want to follow Christ.

LGBT is the acronym for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer. Those with these diverse identities are joined together because of their shared oppression under heterosexism, homophobia, sexism and genderism. LGBTQ people are from every socioeconomic class, education level, political affiliation, age group, religion, race and ethnicity.

Sexual orientation is the overall term that is used to describe people’s physical and/or romantic attractions to other people. The most common labels:

• Heterosexual (or straight) refers to a person who is attracted to and falls in love with someone of another gender.
• Homosexual (or gay man or lesbian woman) refers to a person who is attracted to and falls in love with someone of the same gender.

• Bisexual people are attracted to both men and women, and may not be equally attracted to both sexes.
• Asexual people lack sexual attraction to anyone, or have low to no interest in sexual activity. The term refers to a person’s sexual orientation, not to a person who willfully abstains from sexual activity.

Gender identity refers to the internal sense people have that they are female, male, or some variation. For many people, biological sex (which is based on chromosomes and sexual anatomy) and gender identity are the same; the term for such a person is cisgender. For others, however, gender identity and biological sex may be different.The term transgender describes a range of people who experience or express their gender differently from what most people expect. Transgender is an overarching term including anyone expressing gender characteristics that do not correspond with those traditionally ascribed to the person’s presumed sex. It is NOT a sexual orientation. Some transgender people identify themselves as female-to-male or male-to-female transsexual. They may take hormones prescribed by a doctor and undergo medical procedures, possibly — but not necessarily — including sex reassignment surgery. Others don’t change their bodies at all but identify as other than their birth gender.Some people identify as transgender because they don’t feel comfortable with either the male or female gender exclusively. They might fluctuate between gender identities, or between having a gender and not having one, and might describe themselves as gender fluid. Many gender fluid persons prefer the pronoun they rather than he or she (or prefer to be addressed by their name exclusively rather than a pronoun). Another type of gender identity is intersex, a term used for a variety of conditions in which someone is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit the typical definitions of female or male. Some intersex people have anatomy or genitalia of two genders; others have anatomy or genitalia that fall somewhere else on the female-male spectrum.Some people enjoy wearing clothing commonly associated with the other gender for comfort, disguise, entertainment or other motives. Cross-dressing behavior does not automatically imply transgender identity.

Queer is increasingly used as an umbrella term for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender and gender fluid persons or for anyone who feels somehow outside the societal norms regarding gender or sexuality. It is a political statement that advocates for breaking stereotypes and binary thinking as well as a term for sexual orientation. It is also a simple label to explain a complex set of sexual behaviors and desires. The term is fluid and allows the person who uses it to identify as different without specifying how or in what context.

Originally the word queer meant different or unconventional, but at some point it began to be used in a negative way to refer to people who were seen outside of the heterosexual or gender “norms. Many people who grew up in the 1960’s and 1970’s remember the term being used negatively and, therefore, don’t feel comfortable using it. Some LGBTQ people do not like identifying with the term, but in recent years, it has been reclaimed by some members of the LGBTQ community. Many young people actually prefer to identify themselves as queer because they find it less limiting than identifying themselves with one category that defines their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. For them, queer is a broader, more inclusive category.

The church’s official Human Sexuality statement in its 2012 Social Principles says, The United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality and considers this practice incompatible with Christian teaching. The Book of Discipline bans self-avowed practicing homosexuals from ordination and forbids the performance of same-gender unions in the denomination’s sanctuaries and by its clergy in any setting.However, the denomination’s Human Sexuality statement also says, We affirm that God’s grace is available to all. We will seek to live together in Christian community, welcoming, forgiving and loving one another, as Christ has loved and accepted us. We implore families and churches not to reject or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends. We commit ourselves to be in ministry for and with all persons.According to The United Methodist Church’s official website, umc.org, Conversation continues among United Methodists regarding the church’s official position on human sexuality. The church’s legislative assembly has shaped this position over a period of four decades, and the issue continues to be debated. Survey data from United Methodist Communications found that about 46 percent of U.S. members agree with the church’s ban on same-sex marriage, while 38 percent disagree with it. The global denomination has about 7.3 million members in the United States.You can read in more detail about this topic on this page of The United Methodist Church’s official website, which also contains links to the UMC’s official stand on homosexuality, official statements from the Book of Discipline and Social Principles, news coverage and members’ opinions of the church’s position.

Yes, we can.

As previously mentioned, Community UMC decided against officially joining the network 10 years ago because of a 1998 UMC Judicial Council Ruling that said, in part:

A local church . . . may not identify or label itself as an unofficial body or movement. Such identification or labeling is divisive and makes the local church subject to the possibility of being in conflict with the Discipline and doctrines of The United Methodist Church.

However, the ruling clarifies that an annual conference has the right to correct actions by local churches that violate the decision. Our annual conference, the Northern Illinois Conference, has never asked a congregation to remove itself from affiliation with the Reconciling Ministries Network, and, in fact, it appears no annual conference ever has.

RMN lists more than 700 reconciling congregations or other worship communities on its website. Our neighbor at Center Street and Franklin Avenue, Wesley UMC, is one of them, as are four other churches within 10 miles of us: Bethany of Fox Valley UMC (Aurora); First UMC (Downers Grove); Winfield UMC; and Wesley UMC in Aurora.

The issue of homosexuality was first openly debated in the UMC at the 1972 General Conference, four years after the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches joined to form the denomination. Issues related to sexuality have continued to be debated at General Conference gatherings since then.

After the 2012 General Conference, many church members and leaders adopted practices of ecclesial disobedience to church laws they consider discriminatory and unjust. Retired Bishop Melvin Talbert named this movement Biblical Obedience. As a result, we have seen a dramatic increase in church members and pastors openly defying the church’s official stand on homosexuality.

On October 25, 2013, Talbert officiated at the union of two United Methodist gay men near Birmingham, Ala., even though the North Alabama presiding bishop had asked him not to do it. Charges were brought against Talbert for officiating at the ceremony and for undermining the ministry of a colleague. In January 2015, the issue was settled in a just resolution that allowed Talbert to retain his credentials and not face a church trial.

The resolution expressed regret over harm to gay and lesbian sisters and brothers, and all those involved, through the complaint process and urged the Council of Bishops to do more study on the issue and how the church can be in ministry to all. Northern Illinois Bishop Sally Dyck has written about discussions with Northern Illinois clergy and also about the bishops’ subsequent statement on human sexuality.

The 2016 General Conference in Portland, Ore., will consider petitions on the topic, including one from the NIC asking it to delete Book of Discipline language saying homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching and to remove restrictive language on marriage.

For many years, some Bible verses have been interpreted to say that same-gender sexual behavior is sinful. For the past 30 or 40 years, though, biblical scholars have been challenging those interpretations. Many point out that Jesus never spoke about homosexuality at all, instead calling on us to love one another.

The Rev. Edwin Womack of Cottonwood, Ariz., a Methodist pastor for 60 years, gives his thoughts on the biblical interpretations here.

We have assembled other resources that address this issue (under the resources question below), and members of the Core Committee are willing to lead a book study on any of the books we have gathered if anyone is interested (write us at LGBTQ@onecumc.net).

Not automatically, although this is one question we’ll need to consider as we determine how to live out our commitment to welcoming all of God’s beloved children.

Even though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled gay marriages are legal in every state, the UMC Book of Discipline still prohibits them from being held in United Methodist Church facilities. Many of the congregations who have affiliated with RMN still abide by that prohibition. Other congregations have come to different conclusions on how to carry out their ministry. For example, here are the Marriage Equality policy from First United Methodist Church, Chicago, and a pastoral letter on marriage equality from Foundry UMC in Washington, D.C.

One factor in determining how we carry out our commitment could be if the General Conference changes the Book of Discipline language. The General Conference has been petitioned to consider removing the prohibition on gay marriages in church facilities. The next General Conference is May 10-20, 2016.