Two United Methodist clergywomen face expulsion from ordained ministry for officating the wedding of a nonbinary couple.
Elder Paige Swaim-Pressley and deacon Elizabeth Davidson performed the legal ceremony for Matty and Myles Cafiero because they ministered with them while chaplains at United Methodist-related Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss.
United Methodist Bishop Sharma Lewis of Mississippi denied the request of the two clergywomen for further talks to reach a complaint resolution, as recommended by the United Methodist Book of Discipline, the collection of church laws. Instead, the bishop is requesting immediate unpaid involuntary leave and a public church trial, which could end with the clergy stripped of their ministerial orders.
A news release from the clergywomen’s supporters quoted an email to the clergy from Bishop Lewis: “I do believe that you intentionally violated your ministerial vows and that this act of knowing disobedience cannot be resolved outside of termination of your clergy relationship. … I do not feel that there is any resolution for your ministerial disobedience short of removal of your clergy status, (so) I did not choose to engage (the mediated Just Resolution) process during the Supervisory Response.”
The release included a link to a statement from the married couple regarding the harm they felt by Bishop Lewis’s action.
Matty Cafiero explains in that statement meeting the two clergywomen at Millsaps and how they drew Matty back to a Christian faith.
“In the span of one semester I went from someone who thought I would never step foot in a church again due to the harmful messages I had been given about God’s disdain of my personal identity, to someone who was active in my local Methodist church, was reading every book I could find on faith and Wesleyan theology, and who was determined to continue to build this community of believers who not only claimed to love the Lord, but who showed that love time and time again through the ways in which we cared for each other and our neighbors,” Matty wrote.
“I understand what some within our church believe in regard to a marriage like ours, but I also think I understand what God says about a love like ours.”
Their wedding “was not political, was not an attack on the rules of the church, but was rather a celebration of our love and a celebration of what we know the church can be,” Matty continued. “I understand what some within our church believe in regard to a marriage like ours, but I also think I understand what God says about a love like ours, and in a world where those don’t always align, I am so grateful to have pastors like Elizabeth and Paige, who stand on the side of love, and on the side of God.”
Although hundreds of congregations are leaving the United Methodist Church over its perceived openness to same-sex marriage, the official rules of the denomination still prohibit UMC clergy from officiating at same-sex weddings. That rule currently is unequally enforced, depending on the attitudes of local leadership.
A movement to revisit that rule has been delayed three years because of the pandemic. The UMC General Conference is now slated for spring 2024 in Charlotte, N.C.
The news release includes links to two letters of support for the couple and the wedding officiants from dozens of students and alumni of Duke Divinity School and Candler School of Theology, two UMC-related seminaries.
According to current United Methodist procedure, the bishop’s request to place the clergywomen on involuntary leave must be affirmed by the Mississippi Annual Conference’s board of ordained ministry. A subsequent church trial at a date to be set will decide whether the two clergywomen will be stripped of their ministerial orders.
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