GCAH ANNOUNCES NEW CENTER FOR LGBTQ+ UNITED METHODIST HERITAGE
Agency set to begin preserving Queer Methodist history
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 2, 2024
Charlotte, N.C. – Queer Methodist history will be actively collected and preserved with the formation of the Center for LGBTQ+ United Methodist Heritage, Dr. Ashley Boggan D., general secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History, announced today.
The announcement was made during a press conference held at the Postponed 2020 General Conference in which Boggan discussed the historic nature of General Conference’s May 1 vote to overturn the ban on "self-avowed and practicing homosexual" clergypersons. A panel of Queer United Methodists joined Boggan at the press conference to share their stories and the significance of the vote.
“We celebrate that we are finally living into our true identify as people called United Methodists,” Boggan said. “The voices, ministries and witness of my Queer siblings in Christ—who for far too long have been silenced and cast aside—are examples of the stories we will intentionally collect, preserve and tell through the Center for LGBTQ+ United Methodist Heritage.”
“LGBTQ people have always been a part of the community and history of The United Methodist Church,” reminds the Rev. Hannah Adair Bonner, a clergy delegate to General Conference and member of the United Methodist Queer Clergy Caucus. “We have never passively accepted discrimination, instead we have always found joyful and creative ways to proclaim our confidence that God loves us with an everlasting love. Today, The United Methodist Church faces a more hopeful future, one in which our LGBTQ community steps forward unapologetically to be seen and celebrated and put to service in all the wholeness of who we are as beloved children of God.”
Bonner spoke at the press conference along with the Rev. Effie McAvoy, pastor at Shepherd of the Valley in Hope, R.I., clergy delegate and member of the United Methodist Queer Clergy Caucus; the Rev. Austin Adkinson, pastor at Light of the Hill UMC in Puyallup, Wash., and member of the United Methodist Queer Delegate Caucus; and Jan Lawrence, executive director of Reconciling Ministries Network.
The center’s creation is made possible due to the Postponed 2020 General Conference lifting the funding ban that previously prevented general agencies of The UMC from being financial invested in LGBTQ+ ministries.
View the full press conference here.
To learn more about GCAH, visit ResourceUMC.org/ArchivesandHistory.
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Media contact:
Crystal Caviness
615-306-3401
ccaviness@umcom.org