Virginia celebrates Pride Month throughout June, honoring the LGBTQ+ community for bringing people from all walks of life together in the name of love. Whatever your romantic passion, Pride welcomes you to be your true self. Pride is a joyous event that celebrates belonging, both in spirit and in practice.
The concept of belonging has been on my mind a lot lately, and on the minds of many others in The United Methodist Church, because for more than 50 years, LGBTQ+ people and their allies have not been sure if The United Methodist Church was a place for them. But last month, after years of COVID-related postponements, The United Methodist General Conference issued its final position on the matter, and it is words with which I wholeheartedly agree.
yes.
“This landmark decision underscores The United Methodist Church’s bold commitment to serving the spiritual needs of the many, rather than benefiting only a select few. It also welcomes the many people who have felt disenfranchised from the churches they love to rejoin without fear. Of particular note, this decision will allow gay clergy who were previously excommunicated to return to their churches and once again serve their congregations where they feel they truly belong.”
I look forward to welcoming even more clergy and parishioners into the new United Methodist Church in the coming years. I am so grateful to belong to a spiritual community that embraces diversity, and I am thrilled that Rev. Thomas Bickerton, Chaplain Emeritus Jane Ellen Nickel of Allegheny College, and I (all former classmates at a small rural college in West Virginia) have been able to be vocal leaders in this critical moment of inclusion. I am especially proud of Bickerton, who led the final process of crossing the finish line in his final year as president of the World Conference of Bishops.
Similarly, I am extremely proud of the Virginia Wesleyan University community, which has come together through hardship. Our leadership has helped unite the United Methodist higher education community and strongly counter outside forces that seek to create rifts between us. The VWU community remains unwavering in its commitment to support inclusivity in both the church and the university. While we continually expand our programs to better support learners of different backgrounds, ages, and income levels, and invest more resources in supporting student mental health, we are equally committed to ensuring that all VWU students and staff feel supported in their personal spiritual journeys, regardless of which faith or gender they embrace.
To be clear, a decision of this magnitude will have many ripple effects for the church. While the vote for diversity was largely welcomed, many practicing United Methodists disagree with the outcome, as evidenced by the fact that a quarter of U.S. United Methodists have left since 2019 due to divisions over the church’s support of LGBTQ+ inclusion. We will miss these members, but we will miss our inability to embrace others despite our differences even more. The “new” United Methodist Church will be smaller and leaner financially, but the new UMC will also be a much stronger spiritual institution thanks to our overt commitment to serving and celebrating our diverse communities.
At the end of the day, words, and how we use them, really do matter. At the Virginia Wesleyan campus, we take great pride in saying, “It’s a great day to be part of Merlin!” After recent activities at UMC General Conferences around the world engaging diverse congregations, we can also say, “It’s a great day to be part of United Methodism (again).”
Dr. Scott D. Miller is president of Virginia Wesleyan University in Virginia Beach. He is a lifelong Methodist and past president of the Association of Methodist Schools and Colleges of North America.
