W.Pa. Methodists elect conservative delegation to serve at next conference

Toward the end of landmark special assembly of the United Methodist Church in February — when the global denomination reinforced its bans on ordination and marriage rites for LGBT persons — one Kansas pastor asked delegates to stand if they had voted for alternative policies.

Those standing included at least five delegates from the Western Pennsylvania Conference.

And when they stood, they were also counted.

None of them were elected to serve again as delegates when the Western Pennsylvania Conference of United Methodists held its annual meeting June 6-8.

At that gathering in Grove City, church representatives elected their most conservative slate in recent memory to represent them at the next General Conference of the international denomination in 2020.

The votes at the Western Pennsylvania annual conference closely matched the recommended selections of the local chapter of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, an influential conservative caucus in the United Methodist Church.

The association said that front-burner issues of gay ordination and gay marriage are expected to surface again at that conference, and that delegates should be elected who support the church’s stance.

The United Methodists represent one of the largest Protestant bodies in both the nation and the region.

All 12 clergy and lay delegates elected at the annual meeting to go to General Conference were endorsed by the WCA, as were many but not all of the alternate delegates selected. The association said some candidates didn’t ask for an endorsement, “but we nevertheless prayerfully offer it.”

“I think the people of our conference spoke pretty clearly as to how they felt about ordination and marriage,” said the Rev. Keith McIlwain, chairman of the conference chapter of the Wesley Covenant Association and one of the newly elected delegates.

“Our delegation to General Conference will take that very seriously,” said Rev. McIlwain, pastor of Slippery Rock United Methodist Church.

But advocates for allowing same-sex marriages and the ordination of gay clergy lamented the vote.

“I’m disappointed, very disappointed,” said the Rev. Jeffrey Sterling, of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Hampton. He spoke of the “concerted effort” by the WCA to promote its slate of candidates, which he said ranged from “right-of-center to far-right-of-center.”

If a proposal comes up in 2020 to relax the denomination’s bans on gay clergy and marriage, “I’d be surprised if more than one of them” supports it, if that, he said.

The United Methodist Church typically holds gatherings every four years, and for the past generation such gatherings have been showdowns over rites for LGBT persons. The church has continued to uphold its bans on the ordination of any “self-avowed practicing homosexual” and on same-sex marriages.

Those votes are particularly reflective of the rapid growth of conservative parts of the church in Africa, giving such churches increased representation at general conferences.

The special February 2019 conference was set aside to deal exclusively with issues. That conference, held in St. Louis, rejected two proposals to repeal the bans.

One would have applied broadly to churches. The other, known as the One Church Plan, would have essentially allowed a local option on the practice. Despite the One Church Plan’s endorsement by most bishops, the delegates upheld the bans and added mandatory penalties for violations.

The 2020 convention is the next time the denomination as a whole could take up the issues.

A Western Pennsylvania caucus called the Broader Table Coalition proposed a slate that was diverse theologically, ethnically and in other ways. Only those who were also endorsed by the WCA were elected as delegates, although some of the others on the Broader Table’s slate were selected as alternates.

Some at the conference challenged the results, citing the election of a mostly white, conservative delegation in light of rules that care be given to provide a diverse slate of candidates.

Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi concluded that technically “we have followed our rules” in considering the candidates but added, “I believe God is calling us to something deeper.”