Monrovia, Liberia – Following the recently concluded conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States of America, Bishop Samuel Jerome Quire, the resident bishop of the United Methodist Church (UMC) in Liberia, has corrected the record about same-sex marriage and human sexuality, uniting the Methodist church in Liberia.
At a press conference on June 7, 2024, in Monrovia, Bishop Quire noted that a lot of messages regarding human sexuality and the United Methodist Church have been posted on social and secular media. He described some of those comments as extremely disparaging and deceptive.
The United Methodist Church, according to the Bishop, is a powerful church of God that provides for sinners in need of God’s atoning knowledge and grace but not a “gay” church.
In addition, Bishop Quire said that the United Methodist Church is a global church that has a big influence on society.
”Indeed, there are differences in beliefs and points of view within our denomination. But because “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life,” the mission is still the same.”
The United Methodist Bishop of the Liberia Annual Conference, however, has issued a warning to all clergy members not to compromise the church’s vocation. He revealed that undermining the ministry of
the Church or the ministry of other clergy is a chargeable offense that will be enforced for the sake of maintaining the order of the church.
Three choices were debated in the recently concluded General Conference, which took place from April 23 to May 31, according to Bishop Quire: naming homosexuality, disaffiliation, and regionalization.
The United Methodist Church’s resident bishop announced that, as of May 3, 2024, the General Conference had also decided to strike a clause from the United Methodist Book of Discipline that forbade the marriage and ordination of self-avowed, practicing homosexuals inside the denomination.
“The conference approved a plan of regionalization for the church which will take effect upon ratification by the annual conferences of the Methodist Church. The conference voted to remove paragraph 2553, which has to do with disaffiliation (a paragraph created in 2019, after the Special General Conference, to allow churches in the United States to leave the United Methodist Church.”
The Bishop said that those conference members who desire to marry and/or ordain self-avowed, practicing homosexuals can do so now that the prohibitions on marriage and ordination for such individuals have been lifted.
But he said that it also means that people in Africa, particularly in Liberia, are allowed to forbid such unions and/or ordinations for self-avowed practicing homosexuals.
“Regardless of the ratification of regionalization, UMC will not perform any marriages or ordinations of openly gay individuals.”
Bishop Quire explained that the church will keep up its evangelistic mission to everyone who lives in darkness and is unaware of Jesus’ redeeming grace. The church follows a traditional reading of Holy Scripture.
The Bishop responds was in connection to members of the United Methodist Church Liberia, who early Friday morning, June 7, 2024, staged a protest against same sex marriage in the Methodist Churh in Liberia.
