Dear LIFE Family,
The LIFE United Methodist Church Leadership Council crafted a statement in response to The United Methodist Special General Conference last month in St. Louis, Missouri. See the statement below:
The LIFE United Methodist Church Leadership Council met on Monday, March 18, 2019 to address the events of the 2019 Special General Conference of The United Methodist Church.
Bishop Steiner Ball addressed the Laity of the Mon Valley District at LIFE Church on Saturday, March 16, 2019. She informed what most of us have heard. The Traditional Plan passed, keeping the language “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” in The United Methodist Church Book of Discipline, and bolstering stances against the ordination and matrimony of LGBTQIA+ persons.
The plan that was approved is hurtful to LGBTQIA+ persons and their family and friends. The Conference was intended to find a way forward, but instead approved a way backwards. What happened at General Conference does not change who LIFE is as a congregation. We believe that LGBTQIA+ Rights are Human Rights. We are a church that welcomes, loves, and affirms members of the LGBTQIA+ community.
To LIFE United Methodist LGBTQIA+ members, their family and friends: We love you. We will not treat you as second-class Christians. We feel great pain for the hurt the General Conference has caused you. We will continue with many others to pursue reconciliation. We need your help, not your departure. Together we can live out what it means to say, “Come As You Are” and mean it.
Come as you are,
Leadership Council of LIFE United Methodist Church
