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Methodists Struggle To Reflect Diversity

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Several delegates warned that actions taken here directly affect Methodists in Africa and Asia, many of whom are conservative.

Delegates held to traditional Methodist rules on homosexuality, refusing to support or celebrate same-sex unions and maintaining language that calls homosexual activity "incompatible with Christian teaching."

Yet, efforts to remove a transgender pastor from ministry in Baltimore died quietly. The failure to enact a ban most likely means the Rev. Drew Phoenix, who entered the ministry as the Rev. Ann Gordon, cannot be defrocked solely because he is a transgender man before the next General Conference in 2012.

Liberal Methodists say a conservative coalition crossed ethical lines when it handed out more than 200 free cellphones to delegates from Africa and the Philippines. The giveaway sparked charges of racism, neo-colonialism and old-fashioned graft.

Conservative activist Mark Tooley of UMAction, a member of the coalition, called the cellphone brouhaha "very silly."

But the Rev. Troy Plummer of the gay-friendly Reconciling Ministries Network noted that the fliers advertising the giveaway called on delegates to elect a slate of conservative candidates to the church's supreme court.

Those candidates lost. Delegates elected church moderates and liberals instead.

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