United Methodists Embrace a Big Tent After Historic LGBTQ Inclusion Vote

In early May the 2024 General Conference of the United Methodist Church closed with a joyful scene: lines of people laughing, dancing, and singing “What the world needs now, is love sweet love,” as they embraced a new era of inclusion.

It marked a watershed moment for the denomination after delegates voted to remove language condemning LGBTQ people.

There could be no more perfect time to be a member of such a church, and certainly to be the newly elected president of the Council of Bishops.

“I couldn’t have chosen a better moment,” says the Right Rev. Tracy S. Malone, the first Black woman to be president of the Council of Bishops.

“For the first time, we were the people we’ve proclaimed ourselves to be, and through our liturgy and our polity, no one person, no group of people, was excluded from our body,” she says.

The move enables fuller LGBTQ participation in the UMC, eliminating policies that previously barred LGBTQ people from marriage and ordination.

“We’re for everybody. And as beloved children of God, we’re not going to say that you’re not fully welcome to have access to the full life of the church,” she says.

Greater Northwest Area Bishop Cedric D. Bridgeforth told UMC News that removing condemning language on homosexuality opens the church to a worldwide conversation. He added that he hopes that local churches “will not grow weary in well-doing” because these decisions made at General Conference will call for a cultural shift and hard conversations.

For Malone, this change continues a long journey toward inclusion in Methodism’s history.

“Even before the United Methodist Church was formed, you had the break off of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. I mean, all that was over the exclusion of Black folks. And then you have the period of time in the church where women were excluded. The first woman was ordained in 1956,” Malone says.

And in response to a question about the suggested mass exodus as a result of these recent changes, Malone said reports may have been exaggerated. She projected that maybe one-third of their membership left, but declared the remaining church to be a big table.

Of course, you’re going to have folk who say, I can no longer walk. And what we say is we need to bless and send.”

“The blessing is that at this general conference, nothing we have is excluding anybody,” Malone says. “We’re a fully inclusive church where everybody is fully welcome. It removed anything that would exclude anybody. And that’s who God is calling us to be.”

Malone says the changes also don’t mean everybody is for same-gender marriage, or they’re perfect.

“It doesn’t mean that everybody is happy with the decision that was made, but I can say that this is truly, truly, I believe, a new day for the United Methodist Church. And I do believe that fresh winds of God’s spirit are truly blowing through this church. And the next expression of what United Methodism is looking like and will look like, we’re only on the verge of that.”

When elected in November 2023, Malone said, “God always, always has a plan and a purpose, and God is always doing something new. And I firmly believe that God has a plan and a dream of the future of this Council of Bishops, and God has a plan and a dream for our beloved United Methodist Church.”

And now she’s witnessed a step in God’s plan.

“God had been preparing me,” Malone says. But I also say this to all my colleagues, because you had to get elected. This isn’t an appointed position.”

“It’s a sacred trust that I don’t take lightly and I’m not even trying to get the glory for it, even though I’m honored that I’m the one that’s embodying it. God’s wisdom in raising me up, and the church raising me up, and all the life experiences that I’ve had, with all my world travel and leadership — all that was for this pivotal moment.”

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