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There are several. The Episcopal Church was probably the first and has been most vocal about it. They also were one of the first to ordain women and knowingly ordained a woman priest who was in a relationship with another woman all the way back in 1977. I attended a "blessing of the union", a ceremony performed before marriage was legal, of a male couple in my parish in 1999.
There are others. A branch of the Methodist Church welcomes everyone.
Often area churches list if they are welcoming. In my county in New Jersey, the list is in the newspaper, print and online. Some churches put a little rainbow thing on their websites as an indicator. Interestingly, an active gay couple in the church I last attended said "no" when someone in the parish wanted to put it on the sign out front, because, he said, "It should just be a church, not a gay church".
But Episcopal Churches are all safe now, I believe. In fact, the wider global Anglican Communion of which they are a part has the American Episcopal Church on a "sanction" list or something because some of the conservative countries don't like it, but oh well.
Dallas has the Cathedral of Hope https://www.cathedralofhope.com/ where a couple of my relatives are members. Many Methodist churches are gay friendly, but that has caused a schism in the denomination with a number of Methodist churches forming their own denomination.
There are several in Albuquerque. The only way to know in your area is to attend some different churches and see whether they care about that or not, or whether they are welcoming to everyone. I know it is not common but it should be in a christian church to welcome everyone. It saddens me that anyone would have to ask this question.
I've seen (or know of) gays being welcomed at Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, United Methodist, and Universal Unitarian churches. Certainly not all of them, but some denominations welcome gays as members.
Some apparently don't ask. A gay guy I know is sometimes the lay reader at his Catholic church.
Some years ago, the Mount Louisa Uniting Church here in Townsville chose to welcome gay people into its community. This decision led to a division between the church members, some opting to show their disapproval by leaving and forming an offshoot church. This made the local news at the time, but I haven't heard anything more since then.
I would think that few churches would not welcome gay people into their fold, but I also would think that the church would not show 'approval' of what they would consider to be 'a gay lifestyle.' This would therefore likely result in an uncomfortable and awkward atmosphere for both the gay person/s and the other church attendees.
I've seen (or know of) gays being welcomed at Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, United Methodist, and Universal Unitarian churches. Certainly not all of them, but some denominations welcome gays as members.
Some apparently don't ask. A gay guy I know is sometimes the lay reader at his Catholic church.
That's Unitarian Universalist ;-)
In my experience, Methodist churches can vary. Urban congregations tend to be more liberal than rural ones. My prior/late wife's family belonged to a rural Methodist church and around 2005, the denomination assigned them (gasp) a female pastor. The locals were quite resistant, almost scandalized by it, but they warmed to her pretty quickly. So it's not like one would not encounter pockets of tradition here and there. As you point out, this is probably true of some of the other denominations -- there's theory and then there's practice.
The most consistent are probably Unitarian Universalist and Episcopalian.
many are started by gays and staffed by gays and have gay pastors. so no, that's not the case there.
"Founded in 1968, Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) is a Christian denomination established to provide a welcoming and affirming place of worship for LGBTQ+ and heterosexual parishioners. Now consisting of 233 churches and spiritual communities in 42 countries" it was founded by a gay man.
Last edited by Tzaphkiel; 02-18-2024 at 08:21 PM..
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