Methodists vote to remain unified

PITTSBURGH — One day after United Methodist conservatives stunned many church members at the denomination's convention here by proposing a split because of disagreements over homosexuality, delegates voted overwhelmingly Friday to remain unified.

The vote, on the closing day of the church's quadrennial General Conference, was primarily a symbolic measure meant to signal anguish at the conservatives' initiative. Delegates, many teary-eyed, linked hands in long chains across the convention center's bleachers and sang a hymn just before the vote on unity passed, 869-41.

But the tally does not preclude the conservatives' carrying their proposal to members and congregations around the country, a step that some of their leaders said they intended to take. They say the church is so deeply divided over homosexuality that the "covenant" that holds it together has already been broken.

"Our statement is galloping across the earth and percolating in the hearts of our people," said the Rev. Dr. William Hinson, president of the Confessing Movement, an alliance of church conservatives.

Hinson, who had issued the call for an "amicable separation," received a standing ovation at a jubilant breakfast meeting for several hundred conservatives. Scott Field, legislative coordinator for a coalition of conservative Methodists, said the proposal had generated scores of congratulatory e-mail messages and phone calls from around the world.

Then nine conservative leaders who have agreed to spend the next few years meeting with disaffected Methodist congregations and pastors were called to the podium and given a blessing with a traditional laying on of hands.

Many delegates and some bishops said they had been completely blindsided by the proposal to dissolve the church and then reorganize into separate churches, with each side retaining its own properties and clergy pensions.

From the convention floor, delegates who spoke in favor of unity said the majority who make up the "Methodist middle," who teach Sunday school and serve in food pantries, would never favor division.

Church doctrine, affirmed during the 11-day meeting here, condemns homosexuality and prohibits the ordination of openly gay people.

On Tuesday, delegates defeated a modest proposal from liberals that would have amended church teaching to acknowledge that there is disagreement in the church on the issue of homosexuality.