United Methodist Church Reverses Ban on Gay Clergy

The United Methodist Church removed a longstanding ban on the ordination of practicing gay clergy on Wednesday morning, making official a shift from a policy that had already begun to fray in practice, prompting the departure of a quarter of its congregations in the United States in recent years.

Methodist leaders are meeting for the first time since 2019, after several delays because of the pandemic. The overturning of the 40-year-old ban on “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” passed overwhelmingly and without debate in a package of measures that had already received strong support in committee.

Wednesday’s vote follows years of turmoil in the denomination over sexuality, an issue that has prompted tumultuous debates and schisms in other Christian traditions and institutions. At their most recent meeting in 2019, Methodists voted to tighten an existing ban on same-sex marriages and gay and lesbian clergy.

Since that vote, however, the denomination’s makeup has changed, in large part because of conservative congregations departing in anticipation of the loosening of strictures around homosexuality that are becoming official this week.

After the vote on Wednesday morning, jubilant delegates gathered on the floor of the meeting to sing a Methodist song that has become a refrain for many L.G.T.B.Q. Christians. “Draw the circle wide, draw it wider still,” they sang. “Let this be our song: No one stands alone.”