Showdown in the Methodist Church
The Presbyterian Layman, December 3, 1998
Pastor Donald Fado of St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Sacramento, CA is preparing to openly defy the UMC’s Book of Discipline by performing a “holy union” service for two lesbians at the 930-member church on Jan. 16. Approximately 80 UMC ministers will join Fado to co-officiate the union.
The Book of Discipline states that homosexual practice is incompatible with Christian teaching.
If the ceremony occurs, there may be church trials and penalties ranging from censure and suspension to defrocking. The Judicial Council, the UMC’s supreme court, twice in the past four months upheld the constitutionality of the church’s ban against its clergy’s performing same-sex unions.