Stop the trials..........(UMC)..........

[dimbear]

http://unitedmethodistreporter.com/2013/11/13/um-polity-expert-asks-council-bishops-stop-trials/

— In an “Open Letter to the Council of Bishops (COB)” released today, Wake Forest University professor and United Methodist polity expert the Rev. Dr. Thomas E. Frank asked the council “…for the sake of the unity of the church, to stop the trials.” “We need to engage our differences through “Christian conversation” within our conferences and particularly within our orders of elders. Church trials are “an expedient of last resort” and are not the way forward,” Frank wrote.

"Your servant leadership of the church does not and cannot mean that you are simply servile to the actions of General Conference. The 2012 session in Tampa failed to acknowledge our lack of consensus and refused a legislative path forward. The Council of Bishops now must act, and can do so under its constitutional powers. The episcopacy is established in our constitution as a constitutive body alongside the General Conference and the Judicial Council. When you as a Council see the unity of the church at risk, you have a constitutional duty to act."
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dimbear: hopefully the Methodist Bishops listen to this voice of reason.

[trotsky]

1. Voice of reason?

Chill, dude, reason is just your personal way of looking at the world. It's no more valid than anyone else's, including the religious folks whose faith tells them to judge and ostracize homosexuals.

[cbayer]

2. What trials is he talking about?

I know I could research it, but I'm not sure I'm that interested.

Would be grateful if you gave a short synopsis on what this is about.

[rug]

3. This one is forthcoming.

http://unitedmethodistreporter.com/2013/10/26/bishop_follows_through/

There have been a series of church trials against ministers who have conducted same sex weddings on the ground that they violated Methodist doctrine.

[cbayer]

4. Thanks. If I read about that earlier, I forgot.

I'm doing Lumiosity daily, but the sad deterioration of my memory seems to be progressing.

[dimbear]

5. In the latest twist to this sad foolish story, the council decides to charge one of their own:

http://www.religionnews.com/2013/11/15/methodist-bishops-asked-charge-one-performing-gay-wedding/
dimbear:
Really? The former Bishop of San Francisco? Guys--get real.
*****************
The United Methodist Church’s division over homosexuality grew heated Friday (Nov. 15), as the denomination’s Council of Bishops called for charging retired Bishop Melvin Talbert with presiding at the Oct. 26 wedding of two men, which the church forbids.
Bishop Melvin Talbert joined 13 other United Methodist bishops at a gathering on May 4 outside the 2012 United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Florida, where they showed their support for clergy in the denomination who choose to officiate at religious weddings of same-sex couples. Doing so is a violation of church rules, but Talbert said he preferred Biblical obedience even if it meant ecclesiasical disobedience. Photo by Paul Jeffrey/courteys UMNS

Bishop Melvin Talbert joined 13 other United Methodist bishops at a gathering on May 4 outside the 2012 United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Florida, where they showed their support for clergy in the denomination who choose to officiate at religious weddings of same-sex couples. Doing so is a violation of church rules, but Talbert said he preferred Biblical obedience even if it meant ecclesiasical disobedience. Photo by Paul Jeffrey/courteys UMNS
...
The council asked its president, Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, and Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett of the North Alabama Conference, to file a complaint accusing Talbert of undermining the ministry of a colleague and conducting a ceremony to celebrate the wedding of a same-gender couple at Covenant Community United Church of Christ in Center Point, Ala.

Talbert, who served as bishop of the San Francisco area, ignored a request not to perform the ceremony.
**********
dimbear: It's the 21st century.

[cbayer]

6. I saw another story today that said they were charging a minister who

officiated over the marriage of his own son to another man.

[dimbear]

7. That's the chap in the OP.

He has 3 gay sons.
What a mess, Methodists. Smell the coffee. It's 2013.

[cbayer]

8. Ah, did not make the connection.

Will be interesting to see the outcome of this.