The Climate Change in Connecticut Churches

By Randy B. Young

Sometimes it seems like change moves at a glacial pace, unwavering in its direction but frustratingly slow in its pace, and given to fits, starts…or even fractures. Some glaciers move as fast as a half mile a month; some move a few inches a day. But even a slow change can reshape a landscape. 

It’s easy to be pleased with the steady progress of Christian churches toward inclusion; it’s just as easy to be frustrated with churches’ reluctance to minister to LGBTQ+ communities—a reluctance that has caused an ideological rift in one of the more prominent churches in Connecticut and in the U.S.: the United Methodist Church (UMC).

Until recently, the Methodists were still led by the same restrictions codified into its Social Principles in 1972. Even after much debate, Methodists doubled down in 2019 on a plan to strengthen those same restrictions, led by the European and African bloc. In May 2024, however, Methodists voted to abandon those Social Principles emblematic of a guarded approach to homosexuality, prompting a split in the Church. 

As a result, a full quarter of U.S. United Methodist churches left the denomination for new theologically conservative “Global Methodist Church” which upheld the bans, Heather Hahn wrote in USA Today for the United Methodist News Agency. In the wake of disaffiliations, the remaining United Methodist Churches have adopted new progressive stances on “Social Community.” 

“The United Methodist Church’s condemnation of homosexuality—which sparked a half-century of conflict—is now no more,” Hahn proclaimed.

While this all reflects an inexorable procession toward decency for LGBTQ+ parishioners in Connecticut, it’s still hard to pinpoint the Church’s position at any given time or in any given chapel.

A Method(ist) to the Madness

The Nashville, Tennessee-based UMC is currently the largest Mainline Protestant denomination in the United States with 9 million members in nearly 30,000 U.S. churches, divided into 53 regions, or “Conferences.” 70 percent of the Connecticut population identifies as Christian, with Catholics representing 33 percent and Mainline Protestant (Methodists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists, etc.) totaling nearly 20 percent. Yet only 35 percent in Connecticut attend church regularly, according to Pew Research.

Reverand Martha Vink, an LGBTQ+ community member and Pastor of Yalesville UMC, noted that Connecticut’s Methodist churches are in either the New York Conference or the New England Conference. 

“We’re in the New York conference, like the western half of Connecticut,” she said, explaining that the eastern and northern Connecticut UMC churches belong to the New England Conference.

“More than any other denomination, the Methodist Church has historically been the core of Mainline Protestantism in the U.S.,” Southern Methodist University associate professor Matthew Wilson told USA Today, “so what happens in Methodism is significant for American Protestantism.” 

Whatever Floats your Vote

At the Methodist General Conference in May 2024, delegates voted for policy changes that do away with longtime restrictions against LGBTQ+ people, Hahn wrote, including the abolition of penalties for clergy officiating at same-sex unions, the encouragement of inclusion of LGBTQ+ people on denominational boards, and normalization of gay clergy in good standing. But for conservative Methodists, gay marriage was an obstacle. As a result, Hahn wrote that 25 percent of the 30,000 Methodist congregations in the U.S. left the UMC.

“A lot of the ones leaving are in Africa,” said Gene Ott, Pastor at Simsbury United Methodist Church, “and we see it again in here in more culturally conservative places, like Texas.”

The rate of disaffiliation has varied regionally, per the Lewis Center for Church Leadership. For example, UMC Conferences in Texas saw more than 42 percent of UMC churches disaffiliate; Georgia saw 45 percent leave. In Connecticut and in California, only around one percent of Methodist churches have disaffiliated.

“On a local or regional level—in the New York Annual Conference including Long Island, New York and Connecticut west of the Connecticut River—we’ve only had five that chose to leave,” Ott added. “That’s hardly a ripple.”

“I’ve been part of the movement to change the Book of Discipline for a long, long time, said Vink. “2019 was just so terrible. But in 2024, most conservatives had left, and we passed everything…when it came to floor. It was surreal, and for a lot of LGBTQ people and allies there, and at the break, we were all crying.”

Disaffiliations also caused a 43 percent reduction in the UMC’s overall budget as of 2023, and the funding of both seminaries and Methodist-affiliated universities like Southern Methodist and Emory is up in the air. 

The More Things Change…

In short, the 2024 Conference in Charlotte, NC took action to remove from their Book of Discipline all language that restricts or singles out non-heterosexual people for disparate treatment, said Reverand Taylor W. Burton Edwards of the United Methodist Press Center.

Further, clergy who were once required to surrender credentials because they were a self-avowed practicing homosexual or because they presided at a same-sex union can now apply for readmission,” Edwards added.

Just because the United Methodist Church has now officially banned homophobic language in its Social Principles, new language set forth in guidelines is less specific on overarching standards.

“UMC clergy are now free to preside at same-sex unions, but they are equally free not to do so,” Edwards said. 

So while many prohibitions are no more, “discretion remains,” Edwards added. “UMC doesn’t actively approve homosexual relations, nor does it require pastors to preside at same-sex weddings or unions (or) to create new resources that support homosexuality.”

“Methodist churches who have stayed are able to include queer clergy and tolerate gay marriage,” said Vicki Flippin, Associate Dean of Student Affairs for Yale Divinity School, “but it still doesn’t mean they’re affirming—that doesn’t necessarily change with some proclamation ‘from on high.’”

Late to the Party

While the United Methodist Church was still guided by the 1972 restrictions until recently, other progressive denominations like Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Episcopalians have weathered their respective rifts and progressed.

“Methodists have been behind,” said Vink. “Of course, the United Church of Christ is always ahead. Unitarians…are way ahead. Even the Presbyterians and Episcopalians: they’ve all already done this work years ago. Methodists are probably the last major church [to change].” 

“With Catholicism, [decisions] come from the top down,” Ott pointed out. If Methodists are going to be proud of anything, it’s that the opinion of clergy and laity are of equal value.”

Still, Ott felt the delay was a “black eye” for the UMC. “You can say we’ve been really deliberative, but I think we’ve been really delayed.”

“It’s bittersweet,” Vink said, “because we’ve lost a lot of people along the way…because they’ve left the United Methodist Church, or they just couldn’t take it anymore. There are people who will never, ever darken the door of a United Methodist Church, no matter how many rainbow flags we display.”

Gone Fish-ing?

During the period of Roman persecution of Christians over the first centuries C.E., a fish symbol (ichthys) was used to denote meeting places for safe worship. Two-thousand years later, many in Connecticut’s LGBTQ+ community are seeking the same reassurances. But with churches espousing different views all under the banner of inclusion, it’s hard to know where to turn for acceptance, unless it’s under a banner that’s rainbow colored.

“Even before any of this, there have been places that are safe for LGBTQIA worship and places that are not,” Ott said, “but that’s just as true for people of color. So, I think that needs to be a level of due diligence. 

“The official position of the Methodist Church that, as a person of color, as a woman, as an LGBTQIA person, we’ve assumed an official position of non-discrimination at UMC…but the clergy also has a responsibility to communicate that.”

Vink noted that her church is beginning the process to become a Reconciling Ministry, which, over and above UMC Social Principles, celebrates that LGBTQ+ persons “are a good expression of God’s diverse creation…” according to its Reconciling Ministries Network website (“rmnetwork.org”).

“Most United Methodist churches in western Connecticut would welcome LGBTQ people,” Vink said, “but look for Reconciling congregations if you want to be sure.”

“On our best days, a faith community should be a place where you can be safe and begin to explore your spirituality…and friendships,” Ott stressed, “but you can’t do that if you don’t feel safe.”

Climate Change

While it’s undeniable that there is a move toward the inclusivity, both in society and its microcosm the church, there are those who will never feel comfortable with any organized religion. For those who are searching for a supportive community of faith without sacrificing LGBTQ+ community principles however, changes within the Methodist Church and other churches seem to signify that the jagged ice of religious judgment and distrust in maybe be melting away. 

Cracks may form and deepen, but the landscape is still moving in the right direction.