Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,
This blog entry is a commentary on a public letter released by the pastor of a congregation in the United Methodist Protestant denomination. The subject of the letter is apparently the faux consecration of a lesbian as a bishop. First, as Pope St. John Paul II explains in his apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis no woman can be ordained or consecrated into Holy Orders. Second, as St. Paul explains in Romans 1:18-32, sodomy and lesbianism are explicitly forbidden in the same manner that adultery and fornication are forbidden. Nevertheless, without further delay, here is the letter and my commentary in red font:
A Message from Rev. Dr. Terry Moore
Dear Congregation,
Many of you have been reading the reports of the ongoing issue in the United Methodist Church regarding Human Sexuality. [What Jesus said in Matthew 19:4-6 still holds true - that is the definitive teaching on human sexuality given to us by our Blessed Lord.] Several of us have had conversation.
In April 2016, the General Conference agreed to continue prayerful discernment on the issue by creating a Commission on the Way Forward. [What prayerful discernment? Scripture and 2000 years of Sacred Tradition have spoken - sodomy and lesbianism are sin just as adultery and fornication are sin.] In February, we were asked to be in prayer for the larger United Methodist Church. One week that month our conference was specifically asked to pray for the Commission. Each week a different conference across the world is specifically in prayer for this Commission and the church. The Commission will report back at a called General Conference in February 2019. [This sounds like bureaucracy worthy of the Vatican! Or maybe one of Patriarch Bartholomew's Pan Orthodox Synods. Is this what John Wesley intended? Truth to be determined popular vote in a commission?]
The General Conference is a global group of delegates equally represented by clergy and laity. This Conference meets every four years unless a General Conference is called. The General Conference is the legislative branch of the church and is the only group who can speak for The United Methodist Church and establish church polity. [So truth is subject to popular vote by clergy and laity? Christ has spoken - 'the Creator made them male and female' - and there is no vote.] Our Bishops apply the polity of the church in ordering the life and practice of the church. [Christ orders the life and practice of the Church which is His Body, His Bride. The Bishops are required to teach that as part of the sacred office into which they were consecrated as the successors of the Apostles. What they are required to teach is given in Sacred Scripture and the writings of the early Church Fathers. It's that simple.]
The 2016 General Conference action was to leave the current stance of the United Methodist Church as is and give the Commission on the Way Forward time to prayerfully discern recommendations. However, some churches, conferences, and jurisdictions chose to step outside the Discipline of the church. [These people stepped outside the requirements of Sacred Scripture and 2000 years of Sacred Tradition on their own human recognizance.]
The issue at hand is that a self-avowed practicing homosexual was elected Bishop in California. [First, this person is a lesbian and hence a woman, and no woman can be consecrated to the Episcopate or ordained to the Presbytery. Second, the person (being unrepentant in her lesbianism) is defiantly and publicly living in sin, and thus can never be held as an example of Christian virtue to which the Episcopate is called. Third, throughout 2000 years of Church history Bishops are called to their Sacred Office and consecrated by the laying on of hands of two to three other Bishops, and through the Holy Spirit they inherit the mantle of the Apostles in teaching and preaching and leading.] Numerous official complaints from across the denomination were then filed. [Really! About time!] Our Judicial Council functions like the Supreme Court. When a person, church, conference, etc. feels that the polity of the church has been broken, they can take the matter to the Judicial Council for ruling. [This is not a feeling. It is a fact. A sexual pervert ignores to her spiritual detriment what St. Paul writes in Romans 1:26-27 - "God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another."] The case of this election has been referred to the Judicial Council and a ruling is expected from them in the next few days. [The ruling had better be simple: repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.]
The current stance of the United Methodist Church in the Book of Discipline is that all people are children of God and are of sacred worth. [And that is why Jesus Christ died on the Cross - to save us from our sins, including the sin of lesbianism.] Therefore we will be in ministry to, for, and with all people. [The ministry is simple: repent! All of us: lesbians, sodomites, adulterers, fornicators, thieves, murderers, rapists, etc. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.] The Discipline also states that the practice of homosexuality is not in keeping with Christian teaching [Really? It violates Sacred Scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit! What would John Wesley say?], so we will not ordain self-avowed practicing homosexuals [nor should you - remember in 1st Corinthians 5:1-5 how St. Paul turned that sex pervert living with his father's wife over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh? Do the same to this lesbian! There is Biblical precedence! It is for her own spiritual good. In that way, maybe she will repent as that incestuous man did in 2nd Corinthians 2:5-11.]. Nor will United Methodist clergy preside at any same sex union or marriage ceremony. This will remain the position of the church unless it is changed by the General Conference. [The General Conference cannot change the authority of what the Holy Spirit has inspired - Sacred Writ. If it tries, then it has apostatized itself, greasing the skids to hell for innumerable people.]
Click here to read a letter from our Bishop, Paul Leeland. In essence, he points out that no matter how the Judicial Council rules, the polity of the church remains the same until and unless the global General Conference changes it. [No conference can revoke the requirements of Sacred Scripture and 2000 years of Sacred Tradition. You cannot undo what our Blessed Lord Himself declared.]
As we await all these decisions, we cannot sit back. We are still the church and God has called us to be in ministry and mission on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ. [Then teach the sheep whom Christ entrusted to your care that sodomy and lesbianism will damn them to hell just as adultery, fornication, murder, theft, and rape would.] I invite you to keep the larger church in your prayers, as well as our congregation, as we seek to be faithful disciples of Jesus Christ and by God's grace, be the Body of Christ. [Then let us be faithful to what Sacred Scripture and 2000 years of Sacred Tradition state.]
Rev. Dr. Terry Moore
Senior Pastor
Weddington United Methodist Church
