Methodist Church abandons biblical teaching on marriage

The governing body of the Methodist Church in exquisite Britain has voted to redefine marriage, conduct identical-intercourse weddings and confirm cohabitation.

yesterday, at the church's annual conference, representatives consented "in precept to the marriage of same-intercourse couples" by using 254 votes to 46. The conference additionally recommended "informal cohabitation", equating it to marriage.

The Methodist Church is Britain's fourth greatest denomination, with about 165,000 active participants.

'Line in the sand'

speaking in opposition t the decision on gay marriage, lay representative Sandra Hayward observed convention choices have been main the church "far from Scripture" and were contrary to "Scriptural holiness".

Carolyn Lawrence, a former vice-president of the Methodist conference, spoke of these final devoted to the Bible have been "planning on leaving or resigning their membership" over the vote.

She brought: "today is a line within the sand for many individuals and viewed as a major departure from our doctrine."

One minister talked about: "There's a real feel that the Church has become an increasingly alien region to be a conservative evangelical, and there's a sense that the Church is on a path of travel which many over the direction of this subsequent 12 months or two will probably consider unable to maintain."

'towards God's word'

each resolutions – on same-intercourse marriage and cohabitation – have been based mostly upon thoughts made in the controversial file 'God In Love Unites Us', which changed into introduced to the Methodist conference in 2019.

in response to the record, chair of Methodist Evangelicals together Revd Dr David Hull issued an pressing call to the denomination to "continue to be devoted" to the "typical teaching of the Christian Church" on marriage.

forward of the day prior to this's vote, he pointed out his belief that it would be the "remaining probability to bring the Methodist Church's runaway instruct beneath manage earlier than it ultimately derails".

He concluded: "For myself, I trust that this sort of vote would go against God's word, God's ways and God's will and for this reason, I should do what i can to sound a warning".

'tremendously saddened'

chatting with the Institute's Ciarán Kelly previous today, he stated that he become "significantly saddened" by the choice to "abandon the teaching of the Christian Church held all over history and still held through the majority of Christians around the world today".