North Alabama Annual Conference Way Forward Commission Book of Discipline UMC

Another Lesbian Activist Methodist Clergywoman Defrocked (Eventually)

on March 2, 2018

While it took a while, another lesbian activist clergywoman has been essentially defrocked from United Methodist ministry!

It is especially noteworthy to see this effective accountability come in one of our denomination’s more liberal annual conferences. The Great Plains (i.e., Kansas-Nebraska) Conference is probably the most liberal in the South Central Jurisdiction. Its 2015 conference session voted, with some resistance, to call for removing the UMC’s standards against homosexual practice.

In January 2016, the Rev. Cynthia Meyer, who had previously served as the longtime Assistant Dean of Students at the UMC’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, used her Sunday sermon to “come out” as a partnered lesbian. She promptly wrote a blog for the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN), an unofficial caucus demanding UMC support for homosexual relationships as well as other forms of extramarital sex, in which she described some of her previous time of ministry as being “in hiding.”

This was a calculated publicity stunt. The United Methodist News Service (UMNS) described Meyer’s announcement as a “public action aimed at influencing the 2016 General Conference” performed “in partnership with the Reconciling Ministries Network’s ‘It’s Time’ campaign.” Recently Meyer herself shared that her “bold action was deeply intentional” and that she had coordinated with RMN “to present my reality as a challenge to discriminatory denominational policies as the 2016 UM General Conference loomed.”

At the time, Meyer had only been pastor of Edgerton UMC for about six months. That was hardly sufficient time to develop deep trust and “relational legitimacy” before dropping such a bombshell on her new flock. Edgerton UMC is not among those congregations that have declared themselves supportive of RMN, so it likely had members who do not. And such a small congregation lacked many margins for enduring major upheavals.

Jesus said that the Good Shepherd self-sacrificially lays down His life for His sheep. In contrast, Meyer seems to have selfishly used this small gathering of sheep as a mere platform for her activism related to her own refusal to practice biblical standards of self-control.

The record shows Edgerton UMC losing over a third of its people in the pews during Meyer one-year tenure (2015-2016), despite inflation of the membership rolls.

Eventually, in August 2016, Meyer and Bishop Scott Jones agreed to a “just resolution.” The basic terms were that Meyer was paid $37,000 and suspended from ministry until the aftermath of the next General Conference, after which:

  • If General Conference liberalized our standards, she would go back to appointive ministry; or
  • If a new structure was created for homosexually active clergy, she could transfer there; or
  • If our ban on “self-avowed, practicing homosexual” clergy remained, she would face a church trial.

Interestingly, Meyer rejected an earlier “just resolution” offer from Bishop Jones in which he would have allowed Edgerton UMC to leave the denomination and keep Meyer as its pastor, if it wanted. Perhaps she said “no” to such an extraordinarily generous offer because she did not find the congregation to be all that supportive of her or her cause.

Then earlier this year, the Great Plains Conference announced that Meyer had transferred to the United Church of Christ (UCC).

Several media reports have claimed that Meyer now has some sort of “dual status” in both denominations.

But that’s just plain wrong. Our church law forbids United Methodists from simultaneously holding “dual membership” in another denomination. The aforementioned Great Plains report makes clear that Meyer surrendered her UMC ordination credentials on January 30 of this year, shares that she now has “full ministerial status with the United Church of Christ,” and quotes her as saying, “I no longer have any formal relationship to the United Methodist Church.”

In response to some inquiries from me, the new Great Plains Bishop, Reuben Saenz, confirmed that Meyer withdrew her clergy membership from the annual conference per Paragraph 360.3 of the Book of Discipline (the procedure for surrendering one’s UMC clergy status upon facing disciplinary charges) and that this completed the complaint process. Thus, for all practical purposes, Meyer was effectively defrocked from the UMC without a church trial, like Phil Thomason before her.

I emailed Meyer to offer her a chance to share her side on some questions, including why she chose now to leave the UMC, after choosing not to at so many earlier points. But over two weeks later, I have not heard back.

You may be interested in measures of Meyer’s UMC pastoral career other than her disastrous one-year tenure at Edgerton. Before that, she was from 2014-2015 pastor of Bonner Springs UMC, which declined slightly in membership and attendance. Before that, she was pastor from 2009-2013 of Atchison UMC, which held even in reported attendance while having very inflated membership rolls.

Another measure is how much her congregations paid of their assigned share of denominational apportionments. Atchison UMC’s apportionment payments plummeted from 100 percent to 50 percent over Meyer’s four years there, Bonner Springs UMC’s apportionment payments dropped from a low 27 percent to a lower 22 percent, while Edgerton UMC increased its apportionment payments over the course of Meyer’s one-year pastorate, but only from a negligible two percent to a paltry 11 percent. I won’t hold my breath waiting for liberal criticism of Meyer’s failure to lead her congregations in fully paying to support our connectional system.

It’s not clear how promising Meyer’s career in her new denomination will be. Her latest gig is at Central Congregational United Church of Christ, a congregation founded in the 1890s by the Rev. Charles Sheldon, author of that classic, enjoyable Social Gospel novel, “In His Steps.”  However, Meyer is only interim pastor there, and the congregation has already dwindled to the point of having to sell the building they could no longer afford to maintain. Its website reports, “We average 45 on a Sunday morning.”

Yet it seems like a better fit for Meyer. The very first sentence of the “About Us” page on its website declares, “We teach the scriptures seriously but not literally,” before going on to further outline its liberal commitments.

Interestingly, the purchaser and new occupier of the historic church building is a Hispanic Pentecostal congregation called “El Shaddai Templo de Alabanza.” In contrast to its UCC predecessors, this congregation’s online self-description stresses (in Spanish) its commitment to evangelism, its belief that the Bible is “the holy word of God” and a “perfect revelation” of God’s will, its understanding of Christian discipleship as a total life commitment, and its insistence that “the Word of God does not change” to accommodate itself to any culture or time.

Cynthia Meyer is far from being the first unfaithful clergy expelled from United Methodist ministry for betraying our biblical sexuality standards. She will not be the last.

In the meantime, may God continue to bless and bear great fruit through the ministry of the El Shaddai Templo. And may God use Meyer’s new time apart from her now-former denomination to soften her heart, and draw her to a true repentance and eventual restoration.

  1. Comment by Kevin on March 2, 2018 at 10:47 am

    This looks like a mutually agreed upon decision. I am unimpressed.
    Defrock the lesbian bishop. Now that would be upholding the discipline. Until then… meh.

  2. Comment by John Lomperis on March 2, 2018 at 2:17 pm

    Not quite. It is technically true that she made a choice in surrendering her credentials. But it seems that she would not have chosen to do so otherwise, were it not for the duress created by the complaint.

  3. Comment by Sue Neff on March 2, 2018 at 6:10 pm

    I agree.

  4. Comment by jerry reingardt on March 5, 2018 at 3:42 pm

    Our UMC made the mistake years ago not to condemn Adultery and now we appear hypocritical and we are. However, The Bible says sexual sin is never right. what did Jesus mean when He said His coming again will be in a time like the days of Noah. The days of Noah not only saw adultery homo sexuality by both sexes but also sex with animals as can be seen on cave drawing of that time. Our times can be seen on computer and TV screens and growing more vial daily. My conclusion is the Umc has the best written discipline and we ought to stick to it and honor it by obeying it, for it obeys the Holy Scripture. What seems good is not always good. Just as in Noah days we too are calling evil good and good evil.

  5. Comment by Sd Aycock on March 15, 2018 at 9:43 am

    I agree. All sexual sin is sin.

  6. Comment by CJ on March 8, 2018 at 2:34 pm

    Well said, Kevin.

  7. Comment by William on March 2, 2018 at 11:25 am

    Just another example of the chaos that has become the Untied Methodist Church. In one part of the church, there’s an attempt to uphold the discipline. In another part of the church, the Western Jurisdiction as the most glaring example, there’s an attempt to mock the discipline and forcefully overthrow the church. And, in the latest report from the bishops, they’re moving to propose two diabolically opposite churches under one tent in the name of “contextualization”. It should be noted and aggressively challenged that the bishops are discarding Option #1 of the Commission on a Way Forward and pushing this contextualization (fancy talk for the local option) approach. Outrageous!!!!

  8. Comment by William on March 2, 2018 at 11:31 am

    http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/bishops-see-progress-in-unity-effort-but-offer-few-details

    John,

    This is the latest report from the bishops. I am beside myself. How do you see this?

    Thank you,
    William

  9. Comment by Angie on March 6, 2018 at 10:08 am

    Yes, I would be interested to know how you see that development as well.

  10. Comment by William on March 2, 2018 at 11:42 am

    Amen!! Perhaps the time has come for missionary work to be done in the North America United Methodist Church by our brothers and sisters in Christ from Africa.

    http://www.umc.org/news-and-media/yambasu-urges-biblical-faithfulness-in-sexuality-debate

  11. Comment by Earl Schroeder on March 2, 2018 at 1:55 pm

    Years ago I got a UM publication and there was an article about a UM group of ex gays who had been cured by the power of the Holy Spirit. They were trying to help other gays. There were also congregational ministry’s one called ‘Confessing Congregation’ others called ‘Reconciling Congregations’ I believe we’re welcomong to gays and one called ‘Transforming Congregations’ I believe we’re to help gays overcome gayness through the Holy Spirit’ . Help me out someone. Was this ever true? Or did I misread something.?

  12. Comment by Pudentiana on March 2, 2018 at 6:01 pm

    Your memory serves you correctly, but as usual once progressives get their foot in the door, they jam it against everyone else.

  13. Comment by John Lomperis on March 2, 2018 at 9:58 pm

    Transforming Congregations is still an active ministry, as is the Confessing Movement: http://transformingcongregations.org/

  14. Comment by Bob on March 16, 2018 at 6:36 pm

    There are many who have left homosexual behavior. Transforming Congregations volunteer to minister to them, no different that congregations that sponsor recovery ministry to those affected by alcohol, gambling, drugs, pornography, etc. People are out there who need our ministry. If we were discussing how to minister to people, rather than being Pharisees, this discussion would be going in a very different direction.

  15. Comment by Jamie Hamrick on March 2, 2018 at 8:18 pm

    I am blessed to be part of a church that has grown by 600% in the past 15 years. We do not talk about the issue and I’m not going to. We are in a pathetic time of our history. This feelings based theology is no better than Scientology and we are better than this.

  16. Comment by John Smith on March 5, 2018 at 6:31 am

    Its a pity more ordained elders don’t move to a more friendly denomination instead of trying to fix the UMC.

  17. Comment by Nancy Crowl on March 5, 2018 at 11:51 am

    When I was in my first appointment in 2 rural Kansas West Conference, both my churches declared themselves to be Confessing Churches and Transforming Congregations. We were very quickly notified by the conference that we were not allowed to be Transforming congregations! There were not to be any distinctions other than United Methodist churches. Since then, and very quickly also, churches in the conference began calling themselves Reconciling. There did not seem to be any caution for them to not call themselves that.

  18. Comment by Bob on March 16, 2018 at 6:38 pm

    We’ve had many Transforming Congregations ruined by the Bishop’s appointment of a pastor who could not or would not minister to ex-gays.

  19. Comment by Skipper on March 6, 2018 at 9:31 am

    The Lords people are to be a holy people. These unholy bishops lead people into evil practices (homosexual behavior) and evil relationships (same-sex). The bad advise from the bishops must be put on the trash heap like their last advise. Then they must be held accountable for their unloving ungodly spiritually destructive ways on sexuality. They have become false prophets trying to turn people away from the Lord. Have they become proud and forgotten the Lord their God?

  20. Comment by William on March 6, 2018 at 10:25 am

    Would our bishops who support same-sex marriage label these words of Jesus as hate speech?

    https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+19%3A4-6&version=NIV

  21. Comment by Jim on March 7, 2018 at 4:52 pm

    REV 2:5 Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

    Jesus’ words. He has been removing the lampstand from North American churches, congregation, by congregation.

  22. Comment by Judy Bailey on March 18, 2018 at 11:25 pm

    Amen Skipper!

  23. Comment by Bill Mixon on March 14, 2018 at 5:50 pm

    I suspect she quietly withdrew from the Conference to prevent a negative outcome in a church trial. Better to withdraw from the battle than suffer a precedent refreshing loss at trial.

    These people, while awful theologians and pathetic practitioners, of the Methodist ministry, are deeply committed strategic players. They will quietly serve a congregation, doing good things, only to expose themselves at the most opportunistic time.

    We have been so extraordinary in our passivity, in what we say and do, that when the moment comes to speak the truth we fail.

    Frightened and embarrassed by the conversation and it’s social consequences we would rather abandone our church to these sinful people than encumber ourselves with praying for and correcting the error in their life.

    Sadly, such reluctance to engage leaves the church weakened, the faithful foresaken and the sinners without the message of salvation they have never truly understood. Such a loss is unimaginable but so real today!

    Just simple mans thoughts on a cold day in March.

    God Bless

  24. Comment by frank on September 16, 2018 at 4:15 pm

    Calm down, friends! We’re dealing with people, children of God. Just an observation.

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