The African Methodist Episcopal Church, gathered in Columbus, Ohio, for its quadrennial meeting, consecrated six new bishops on Wednesday (Aug. 28) and voted to continue its ban on same-sex marriage while a committee considers ways to guide the denomination concerning sexual ethics.
The decisions were among the major actions of the weeklong meeting of thousands of delegates, which also included a closely watched and much-debated discussion of missing retirement money that has troubled the denomination for the past few years.
The delegates voted 896-722 to delete a bill that would have removed a ban on same-sex marriage from the historically Black denomination’s rule book, according to The Christian Recorder, the AME’s official periodical. “The Doctrine and Discipline” of the denomination says “the AME Church believes that unions of any kind between persons of the same sex or gender are contrary to the will of God.”
The AME bishops, in their written address to the General Conference, seemed to question whether a committee could settle on acceptable changes to church doctrine on LGBTQ matters, saying, in part: “Rational arguments on the matter of sexuality, sexual orientation, same sex marriage, the structure of the family, and the meaning of male and female will not resolve the controversy because the issues have deep theological and psychological roots.”
But the delegates voted that the Sexual Ethics Discernment Committee could continue its work for the next four years. This week the committee presented a 24-page report that includes biblical texts about gender identity and sexual orientation, resources about sexuality and Black theology and a listing of terms used to discuss LGBTQ issues.
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