COLUMBIA, S.C. — A Columbia church is taking a stand for LGBTQ inclusion in its denomination.
Washington Street United Methodist Church leadership said they're doing what they can to change the system from the inside.
The Council for the Washington Street Church, founded in 1803, unanimously voted to join the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN).
RMN works for inclusion of LGBTQ members in the full rights and membership of Methodist churches.
The network is loosely connected to the United Methodist Church, but not affiliated, according to Washington Street staff.
This summer, the Washington Street Church Council voted to join the Reconciling Ministries Network after becoming discouraged with the route the United Methodist Church chose earlier in the year to affirm a more traditional stance that they said goes against LGBTQ inclusion.
Associate Pastor Alston Lippert said the vote was the right move.
“I believe that joining the reconciling ministries network as a congregation, as Washington Street, gives further affirmation to our LGBTQ members, to say that we know and love you and we will fight for you and try to get you full inclusion in this denomination,” she said at the Church on Friday.
The vote was unanimous, but the current Washington Street clergy excused themselves, according to Lippert.
Lippert said due to occasional clergy turnover and the importance of membership in the Church, they wanted it to be a membership-only decision.
The Council’s unanimous vote gives a public stance that they're pushing for a change to United Methodist doctrine.
At the moment, Washington Street is not violating existing church discipline, meaning no gay marriages or clergy.
The Methodist Book of Discipline, with it’s first version written in the late 1700s, says LGBTQ individuals cannot marry within the church nor serve in clergy. At the international meeting of United Methodists earlier this year, they affirmed that language.
But, Lippert said she believes change is needed to welcome everyone.
“If you read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, the overall theme of the Bible is God's love for all,” Lippert said.
Washington Street Church and Council member Nancy Whittle continued that it was a decision for social justice.
“I was taught as a child to love one another, to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. To be tolerant, kind and respectful. And not everybody may have the same theological belief I have, but at the same time I do believe it's important for us to live out what Jesus is calling us to do, and that's to love one another and to do for the least of us,” Whittle said.
Washington Street is the only entire Methodist congregation in the state to be a part of the network, according to staff. Other churches have small groups that participate in the network. Washington Street itself has five small groups that are also partnered with the network.
United Methodists from around the world will meet again in May 2020, and Whittle said this time she wants a different result.
“I truly hope that there are enough United Methodists around the country that will stand up and be with us in trying to get those—the language and the discipline changed,” Whittle said.