UMC top court says church trustees can't stop pastors from officiating same-sex weddings

Michie · Thursday at 9:47 AM

The United Methodist Church's highest court has ruled that pastors, not trustees, have the final say on whether clergy can officiate a same-sex wedding on church property.

The United Methodist Judicial Council issued Decision Number 1516 last Friday, centering on whether trustees could stop a pastor from officiating a same-sex wedding on their church property.

The ruling, which came in response to a request for a declaratory decision from the Arkansas Annual Conference, noted that while UMC law "gives authority to a local church board of trustees for the supervision, oversight, and care of all real property owned by the local church," the "authority over the use of the building has limits."

Continued below.

UMC top court says church trustees can't stop pastors from officiating same-sex weddings

The United Methodist Church s highest court has ruled that pastors, not trustees, have the final say on whether clergy can officiate a same-sex wedding on church property

www.christianpost.com

seeking.IAM · Thursday at 10:49 AM

No surprise there. The UMC does not have congregational polity. One might expect trustees could prevail in a church with congregational polity like the UCC, but not in the UMC.

Wouldn't the same principle apply in the Catholic Church that the actions of a Priest as overseen by his Bishop would take precedence over the will of a congregation? I am talking about the principle of decision making in a parish, not same-sex weddings obviously. I think that is the difference between episcopal polity and congregational polity, no?

JEBofChristTheLord · Thursday at 10:52 AM

seeking.IAM said:
No surprise there. The UMC does not have congregational polity. One might expect trustees could prevail in a church with congregational polity like the UCC, but not in the UMC.

Wouldn't the same principle apply in the Catholic Church that the actions of a Priest as overseen by his Bishop would take precedence over the will of a congregation? I am talking about the principle of decision making in a parish, not same-sex weddings obviously. I think that is the difference between episcopal polity and congregational polity, no?

Trustees can resign. Trustees can stand up and defend that which God has caused to be written. They choose to be complicit.

Tuur · Thursday at 11:32 AM

JEBofChristTheLord said:
Trustees can resign. Trustees can stand up and defend that which God has caused to be written. They choose to be complicit.

While true, in the UMC, the trustees don't have final say. Long before any of this, saw a group try to bring a UMC congregation into the charismatic movement, and someone from the UMC had to explain things to them.

Something the trustees can do, besides resigning, is to recommend doing what a number of UMC churches have done: break away from the UMC.

JEBofChristTheLord · Thursday at 11:33 AM

Tuur said:
While true, in the UMC, the trustees don't have final say. Long before any of this, saw a group try to bring a UMC congregation into the charismatic movement, and someone from the UMC had to explain things to them.

Something the trustees can do, besides resigning, is to recommend doing what a number of UMC churches have done: break away from the UMC.

Exactly.

jas3 · Thursday at 1:39 PM

Tuur said:
Something the trustees can do, besides resigning, is to recommend doing what a number of UMC churches have done: break away from the UMC.

Unfortunately, the UMC as a denomination owns all church property. In more sane times, this arrangement made sense, but now it means that if a congregation wants to leave over the larger denomination compromising its sexual ethics, the congregation has to give up its church and land and go find a new location or work out a way to purchase their property from the denomination.

JEBofChristTheLord · Thursday at 2:45 PM

jas3 said:
Unfortunately, the UMC as a denomination owns all church property. In more sane times, this arrangement made sense, but now it means that if a congregation wants to leave over the larger denomination compromising its sexual ethics, the congregation has to give up its church and land and go find a new location or work out a way to purchase their property from the denomination.

Yup. Definitely tends to expose the real priorities of a church's people!

jas3 · Thursday at 3:02 PM

The interesting thing about this to me is that it pulls the rug out from under the "that won't happen here" crowd. I personally know people who have stayed in the UMC hoping the status quo at their particular church won't change. But given enough time, eventually a congregation will be assigned a liberal pastor who wouldn't think twice about desecrating a sanctuary.

The only long-term solution is to leave the house built on sand.

Tuur · Thursday at 7:20 PM

jas3 said:
Unfortunately, the UMC as a denomination owns all church property. In more sane times, this arrangement made sense, but now it means that if a congregation wants to leave over the larger denomination compromising its sexual ethics, the congregation has to give up its church and land and go find a new location or work out a way to purchase their property from the denomination.

This is true. Having seen small, local, UMC churches do exactly this, it's still an option.

FireDragon76 · 2025-05-02T00:11:32-0500

seeking.IAM said:
No surprise there. The UMC does not have congregational polity. One might expect trustees could prevail in a church with congregational polity like the UCC, but not in the UMC.

In a congregationalist polity, normally a church is usually open about its stance on same-sex marriage as part of its policy, and there wouldn't be a conflict over it, as the church itself has called the pastor.

Methodism's connexional system is actually closer to Roman Catholicism in how it works, even more than Episcopalianism. It's very common to get pastors that don't align with the congregation.

seeking.IAM · 2025-05-02T08:27:58-0500

FireDragon76 said:
Methodism's connexional system is actually closer to Roman Catholicism in how it works, even more than Episcopalianism. It's very common to get pastors that don't align with the congregation.

Amen to that! My dad, may he rest in peace, was a UMC pastor back in the day, and a rather strong-willed one at that. He sometimes didn't align with the power brokers in some congregations. I think of him every now and then and wonder how he would react to the current controversies and state of things. And, I hope spinning in one's grave is not really a thing.

FireDragon76 · 2025-05-02T08:30:45-0500

seeking.IAM said:
Amen to that! My dad, may he rest in peace, was a UMC pastor back in the day, and a rather strong-willed one at that. He sometimes didn't align with the power brokers in some congregations. I think of him every now and then and wonder how he would react to the current controversies and state of things. And, I hope spinning in one's grave is not really a thing.

I grew up Methodist also. The Methodist system reflects the kind of old Anglicanism that the Puritans rejected, where they had no say-so on what kinds of pastors they got for their congregations. I much prefer having a pastor that actually reflects the congregation.

UMC top court says church trustees can't stop pastors from officiating same-sex weddings

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