{"id":12893,"date":"2016-05-17T09:46:16","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T16:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=12893"},"modified":"2016-05-17T12:29:54","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T19:29:54","slug":"bishops-head-to-address-rumors-of-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/bishops-head-to-address-rumors-of-split\/","title":{"rendered":"Bishop Ough says Council of Bishops does not support split"},"content":{"rendered":"

Updates with Ough’s statement<\/em>
\nBy Kathy L. Gilbert and Sam Hodges<\/strong>
\nMay 17, 2016 | PORTLAND, Ore. (UMNS)<\/h4>\n

Bishop Bruce R. Ough, president of the Council of Bishops, said the bishops are not supporting any plan\u00a0for a split of The United Methodist Church, but admitted they are not fully united on\u00a0how the church should go forward in the face of differences over full inclusion of LGBTQ people.<\/p>\n

He also indicated the door was still open to “new and innovative ideas,” perhaps even new structures. “We have risked exploring what many would consider radical new ideas,” Ough said in confirming that the bishops\u00a0had been meeting with both conservative and progressive groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain in dialogue, so much of who we are is working, yet\u00a0so much needs to adapt to new realities,\u201d he said. \u201cCome Holy Spirit and break through and set us free,\u201d he prayed. \u201cWe belong to God and one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ough addessed the\u00a02016 General Conference after social media posts claiming The United Methodist Church will hold a meeting in 2018 to discuss a possible split.<\/p>\n

The social media posts from Love Your Neighbor and other groups that advocate for full inclusion said a major part of the proposal was to immediately halt the processing of complaints against LGBTQ pastors or clergy who perform same-sex marriages.<\/p>\n

Doug Damron, a West Ohio delegate, wrote on his Facebook page that West Ohio Bishop Gregory Palmer and the Rev. Mike Slaughter, pastor of Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church in Tipp City, Ohio, told the delegation that the bishops have been gathering privately with leading pastors and caucus leaders around how the church can move forward in regard to gay and lesbian inclusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been a very emotional evening, an evening of tears, laughter, and hope,\u201d Damon posted.<\/p>\n

Bishop Marcus Matthews, leader of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, \u00a0sent a statement denying the rumoured plans for a split.<\/p>\n

“Many of you have been hearing rumors that the bishops of our church are discussing a split in our denomination.\u00a0 That is not true.\u00a0 We, the Council of Bishops, are committed to unity in the church,” Matthews said.<\/p>\n

Bishop Grant Hagiya confirmed to \u00a0Western Jurisdiction delegates that\u00a0the bishops had been meeting.<\/p>\n

But Hagiya, leader of the Greater Northwest Episcopal Area, said there was ”\u00a0no movement to separate from our standpoint … Our conclusion was we have to stay the course and seek the unity of the whole church.”<\/p>\n

Leaders of the Love Your Neighbor Coalition UMC tweeted to their team that the Council of Bishops are working on a presentation to the delegates later this morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are proposing a 2018 special session to discuss a means of separation and no processing of LGBTQ-related complaints or punishments between now and then,\u201d said Steve Clunn, Love Your Neighbor director.<\/p>\n

A statement from Good News confirmed the bishops have been holding conversations with several coalitions on the seemingly \u201cirreconcilable differences\u201d over the inclusion of LGBTQ people in the church. The initials stand for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conversations reached the point that the Council of Bishops was considering their role in moving the process forward,\u201d said the statement from the leading evangelical group in the church.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we were waiting for the response of the council, some in the progressive movement last night broke the agreement of confidentiality by publicizing something that had not been formally proposed,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still waiting for the response of the Council of Bishops. We will attend another meeting today to see if the bishops are willing to propose anything,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

A split has been discussed around the edges of General Conference before.<\/p>\n

At the 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh, representatives of groups on opposing sides held private discussions about a possible amicable split in the church. When word broke, the main body of General Conference responded by adopting a resolution expressing commitment to unity in the church.<\/p>\n

Gilbert is a multimedia reporters for United Methodist News Service in Nashville, Tennessee. Sam Hodges contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Contact them at newsdesk@umcom.org<\/a> or 615-742-5470.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Updates with Ough’s statement By Kathy L. Gilbert and Sam Hodges May 17, 2016 | PORTLAND, Ore. (UMNS) Bishop Bruce R. Ough, president of the Council of Bishops, said the bishops are not supporting any plan\u00a0for a split of The United Methodist Church, but admitted they are not fully united on\u00a0how the church should go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":12903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[449,32,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-conference","8":"category-news","9":"category-umns"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Bishop-Bruce-R.-Ough.jpg?fit=1000%2C704&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-3lX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12893"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12907,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12893\/revisions\/12907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}