Resident Bishop Samuel Jerome Quire says the United Methodist Church (UMC) in Liberia is not a gay church.
Speaking with reporters on Friday, June, 7 2024 in Monrovia, Bishop Quire said there have been lot of messages shared on the social and secular media about human sexuality and the United Methodist Church; describing some of those messages as misleading and derogatory.
According to the Resident Bishop, the United Methodist Church is a strong church of God administering to sinners who are in need of the saving knowledge and grace of God.
Bishop Quire also described UMC as a worldwide denomination that is making a significant impact on the world.
“Yes, there are difference of opinion and conviction across our denomination. But the mission remains the same because “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life,” he explained.
However, UMC Bishop has cautioned all clergy members of the Liberia Annual Conference, the United Methodist Church to refrain from undermining the ministry of the church.
He revealed that undermining the ministry of the Church or the ministry of other clergy is a chargeable offense that will be enforced for the sake of maintaining the order of the church.
At the just ended General conference that was held from April 23 to May 31, Bishop Quire said there were three decisions discussed which included homosexuality, disaffiliation and regionalization.
He noted that the general conference also voted to remove language in the United Methodist Book of Discipline prohibiting marriage and ordination of self-avowed, practicing homosexual in the United Methodist Church effective upon the close of the conference on May 31, 2024.
“The conference voted to removed paragraph 2553, which has to do with disaffiliation (a paragraph created in 2019, after the Special General Conference, to allow churches in the United States to leave the United Methodist), and the conference approved a plan of regionalization for the church which will take effect upon ratification by the annual conferences of the Methodist Church,” he explained.
The Bishop stated that the removal of the restrictions on marriage and ordination for self-avowed, practicing homosexual means that those conferences that wish to marry and/or ordain self-avowed, practicing homosexuals can do so.
However, he said it also means those in Africa, especially in Liberia are free not to allow such marriages and/or ordinations for self-avowed practicing homosexuals.
According to the UMC Bishop, in those approved votes, every pastor of the Methodist Church are free not to perform homosexual marriages if the pastor so chooses.
“Whether regionalization is ratified or not, UMC will not conduct any weddings or ordinations of self-avowed, practicing homosexuals,” he said.
Bishop Quire narrated that the church is traditional in its interpretation of holy scripture and will continue its evangelistic outreach to all persons who live in darkness and do not know the redemptive grace of Jesus.
