After UMC approves same-sex marriage, unrest breaks out in Liberian church

After UMC approves same-sex marriage, unrest breaks out in Liberian church

Protests broke out on Sunday (Oct.13) at the New Georgia United Methodist Church in Monrovia over the suspension of the Rev. Leo Mason, the church’s senior pastor and an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage. The protests spread to other churches in the capital, prompting riot police to intervene.

The tensions escalated Sunday, when protests broke out at the New Georgia United Methodist Church in Monrovia over the suspension of the Rev. Leo Mason, the church’s senior pastor and an outspoken critic of same-sex marriages. The protests spread to other churches in the capital, prompting riot police to intervene.

At a news conference on Monday, the Bishop Samuel Quire said that the United Methodist Church in Liberia firmly upheld the definition of marriage as a sacred union between one man and one woman. “This belief is deeply rooted in the interpretation of biblical teachings, our cultural values and our shared commitment in upholding marriage as a union between man and a woman,” he said, urging the church members to stay out of the streets.

He tried to reassure opponents of marriage for LGBTQ couples, saying, “I want to say here … that our church … is not a gay church nor will it ever adopt such an identity.”

The Bishop Quire said the issue of same-sex marriage has been lingering since the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, April 23-May 3, removed language banning LGBTQ clergy and restrictions on same-sex marriage from the church’s Book of Discipline.

The General Conference also passed measures to restructure the denomination, giving each region greater equity in tailoring church life to its own customs and traditions, including an amendment that awards equal standing to its worldwide regions, including Africa, Europe, the Philippines and the United States. 

The conference’s measures followed years of dissent and debate on LGBTQ issues that have resulted in a painful schism that has split some 7,600 U.S.-based churches from the denomination — about 25% of all U.S. congregations.

According to a senior leader in the Monrovia District Conference of the Liberia Annual Conference who did not want to be named, church members are opposed to regionalization that would pave the way for acceptance of homosexuality.

“We do not accept regionalization. The new policy comes with a package that includes LGBTQ issues and same-sex marriages,” a leader of the Elias D. McGill United Methodist Church in Monrovia told RNS in a telephone interview. “How can he say the United Methodist Church in Liberia is not a gay church, while it maintains a relationship with a church that accepts this policy?

“We want him to call for the special session so we can decide for ourselves,” he added.

Quire has suspended Elias D. McGill’s pastor, the Rev. Elijah Dajue, for joining the calls for the session, but on Oct.7, the church wrote the presiding bishop, rejecting the suspension and the new pastor Quire sent to the church.

Dajue “has done nothing wrong except his persistent teaching and preaching of the true message of salvation to us which exposes the contradiction and deceptive nature of regionalization policy against biblical teaching, belief and practice,” said the leaders in the letter.

The bishop has not called a special session, he said, because it may lead to the dissolution of his conference, pointing to a special session held by the United Methodist Church in Ivory Coast in May, where the body voted to leave the United Methodist Church. Similar votes have occurred in Zambia and Nigeria, where the resident bishop resigned after calling the special session.

https://religionnews.com/2024/10/16/after-umc-approves-same-sex-marriage-unrest-breaks-out-in-liberian-church/?utm_source=RNS+Updates&utm_campaign=d8c6634371-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_10_18_01_19&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c5356cb657-d8c6634371-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

[TBC: Bishop Quire also said “…Regarding churches that have threatened in writing to break away from the Liberian church…“They have forgotten their identity.…No local church has the right to remove itself from the United Methodist Church. They have no authority.” In truth, Bishop Quire has become a leader like those the early church confronted in Acts:5:29Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
See All...: “Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.”]