‘The Storm is Passing Over’
07.05.2024 - 16:27
/ thegavoice.com
When I was in seminary, I worked at my home church, the same church where I grew up. One spring Sunday, our young, dynamic, community-focused pastor shared that she would be departing from our church – and entering the business world as an entrepreneur. It was a shock, but we are United Methodist, and from time to time, pastors move. But this pastor was particularly beloved, incredibly gifted, talented, and creative. So our hearts were heavy that day as we pondered life without her in our church. The choir sang a gospel standard as she finished her message: “The Storm is Passing Over.” For me, there was a squall of grief, tears, and then, following some deep breaths, a sense of acceptance.
I learned later that our pastor was leaving our congregation but not entirely leaving the ministry. She was leaving The United Methodist Church to start a coffee shop and also to plant a new church in that coffee shop that would be connected to another denomination where she could be more open about her sexuality. It was a sort of open secret in the early 2000s that our pastor was a lesbian, and our church was full of LGBTQ people who recognized her as a part of the family. Only The United Methodist denomination did not recognize who and how she loved as being holy or see herself as worthy of ordained leadership. So she made the choice many have made over the past 52 years – to pursue their calling, vocation, and joy in other spaces.
For more than 50 years, The United Methodist Church, as a global body, chose language that limited love – it declared “the practice of homosexuality to be incompatible with Christian teaching.” It refused to move towards broader understandings of marriage, even after same gender weddings became legal in
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