Methodists Ban Same-Sex Marriages

The United Methodist Church on Tuesday elevated a guideline against same-sex marriages into church law and said ministers who perform the ceremonies could be defrocked.

The Judicial Council of the church--the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination with 9.5 million members--ruled that ministers who violate the ban on homosexual unions are “liable to be” brought to church trial.

The decision could have a major impact in Northern California, where several Methodist ministers have pledged support for same-sex unions.

In May, Northern California’s Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert said he would not discipline any minister who performed gay rites “until instructed otherwise by our Judicial Council.” Talbert, who was vacationing in Arizona, was unavailable for comment.

Until now, the church’s guideline against same-sex marriages was part of the denomination’s Social Principles, but not canon law. The guideline states: “Ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches.”

The issue arose with the case of the Rev. Jimmy Creech, former pastor of the 1,900-member First United Methodist Church of Omaha, Neb. He was accused of disobedience after performing a lesbian wedding ceremony last September in defiance of his bishop. Part of Creech’s defense was that the Social Principles were not binding law for the church.

Creech was acquitted by a church jury. From his home on Ocracoke Island, N.C., where he now makes his living cleaning cottages, he bitterly criticized the Judicial Council ruling.

“I am grieving for the United Methodist Church,” he said. “I am encouraging pastors to go ahead and celebrate a covenant ceremony in defiance to this ruling.”