Retired Bishop Melvin G. Talbert, addressing the Love Your Neighbor Tabernacle outside General Conference on May 4, urged United Methodists to “join in an act of biblical obedience.” Photo by Patrick Scriven.
By April Hall Cutting*
CORVALLIS, OR – Churches throughout the Western Jurisdiction are scheduling prayer vigils during the fall meeting of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, November 4-9. The gatherings will pray that the bishops will embrace the vision of “Biblical Obedience” offered by the Western Jurisdiction as a way forward for the denomination.
The Church in Ocean Park UMC, Santa Monica, CA, will hold a vigil on Sunday, Nov. 4 at 12 noon. Churches in the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference are asked to include a specific time of prayer during worship on Nov. 4. Other events are being announced daily.
“We will be praying that the bishops will join the Western Jurisdiction in our commitment to biblical obedience,” states the Rev. Jeanne Knepper of Portland, Oregon. “We pray that our spiritual leaders will understand why this is important.”
The United Methodist Church has been divided for 40 years about homosexuality. At the 2012 General Conference, Bishop Rosemary Wenner, president of the Council, acknowledged that delegates who are “gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people have been hurt by the actions of the General Conference and the polity of the UMC.” She called for the Church to “find ways to move forward … as a worldwide church in our diversity.”
That same week, Retired Bishop Melvin G. Talbert urged clergy and congregations who support same-sex marriage and full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (GLBTQ) persons to live out their convictions. “The time has come for us to act in defiance of unjust and immoral and derogatory words of discrimination and laws that are doing harm to our GLBTQ sisters and brothers,” Talbert declared. In July, the Western Jurisdiction College of Bishops assigned him to give supervisory oversight to this grass-roots movement of Biblical Obedience in the Jurisdiction.
The Council of Bishops may be discussing responses to the movement during their meeting. The prayer vigils provide a way for those seeking change to join in solidarity calling on God’s Spirit to help bring change.
Individuals and churches that participate in the prayer vigil are invited to share their experience at www.facebook.com/IStandWithBishopTalbert or via email to Janet Gollery McKeithen JanetMcKeithen@yahoo.com.
* April Hall Cutting was a delegate to the 2012 Western Jurisdictional Conference and attended General Conference as a reserve delegate and observer. She is the Pastor at Sweet Home, Halsey, and Harrisburg United Methodist Churches in the central Willamette Valley of Oregon.
Learn more at: www.biblicalobedience.org
