United Methodists to Debate Transgender Clergy

Church court in October backed pastor who underwent sex change.
Religion News Service
4/22/2008

The decades-old discussion of sexuality in the United Methodist Church will include a new wrinkle — transgender laypeople and clergy — when the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination meets next week in Texas.

Methodists will meet for their quadrennial General Conference from April 23-May 2 in Fort Worth, Texas. Beyond sexuality, they are expected to discuss possible divestment from companies operating in Israel, questions related to their increasingly international membership, and possible statements on the Iraq war.

Resolutions related to sexuality and gender number in the hundreds, but an increasing number deal with transgender people after the church's highest court permitted Baltimore pastor Drew Phoenix to remain in his pulpit. Gender change had not been addressed in the church's constitution, the Judicial Council ruled last October. the rest