Izzy Alvaran provides this translation: "This is the rough English translation (using google translate web tool):"
Danish report after the General Conference 2019
The Danish delegates for the Special Session of the General Conference in St. Louis has now completed their report with recommendations for the Danish annual conference. Susanne Thaarup, lay delegate, and Jørgen Thaarup, priestly priest, come in their report with a number of recommendations to the church in Denmark.
The report is public and will also be presented in connection with the Methodist Church's National Meeting for May.
General Conference 2019
General Conference 2019 in St. Louis in the United States was not an additional General Conference, but an additional session of the General Conference, which began in 2016 in Portland. Therefore, the conference could skip large parts of the initial constitutions and decisions and go directly to the agenda point that was referred to the extra session.
The bishopric had set up a preparatory working group which, under the name of a Way Forward, presented various solutions to the issue to be dealt with, namely how the United Methodist Church in the future will deal with the conflict of various understandings and attitudes towards human sexuality that has been in the church. several years. The problem does not seem to be great, but as the treatment has evolved for a long time, it is clear that the church is in a schism because different groups attach importance to the question of proper learning and practice of human sexual orientation. cannot and will not be in the same church as people who have a different attitude and practice in this area.
A Way Forward had presented a proposal in which the church's structure and work could be arranged with room for different attitudes to human sexuality. Conservative, traditional Christian and progressive, liberal Christians could remain in one and the same methodist church and respect their diversity and practice. This proposal had received many recommendations and was obviously supported by many, also among the bishops of the church.
However, it soon turned out that it was another proposal supported by the majority of the conference. A very small majority. But a majority. The suggestion implies that the church must assert the historically traditional view of marriage, the understanding of sex and the sexual orientation. That view could also be included in the first proposal, the so-called One Church Plan. But in addition to asserting the historically traditional views, the adopted proposal implies that other views and other practices should not be found in the church, and if a person with divergent views seeks marriage or priesthood in the church, then it must be stopped. If a priest or ward practices the marriage of same-sex, sanctions must be imposed on priest and ward, the utmost exclusion of the church. If a bishop prescribes a priest or is involved in the marriage of a bishop, then such a bishop must be dismissed. If an annual conference allows for weddings or the blessing of cohabiting or prescribing homosexuals, then the annual conference must be excluded by the church.
This adopted decision, which includes changes to a number of paragraphs in the Church Order, comes into force in the United States by January 1, 2020, but in Central Conferences, the decisions will only come into force on May 15, 2021.
What does this General Conference's decisions mean for the Methodist Church in Denmark? This means that we are required to change the church to become excluded from people with a sexual orientation different from the majority. The exclusion also consists in introducing control over priests, wards, and bishops to ensure that in their work they follow the Church's provisions not to allow the blessings and marriages of same-sex and the ordination of homosexuals. The main reason for these provisions is, of course, to force one and only an accepted view of human sexuality.
As Danish delegates to the General Conference 2021, it is clear that the resolution adopted in St. Louis is no longer the limited question of our understanding of homosexuality and other sexualities, which we can have more understanding of. Now the focus has been shifted to the question of whether our church should be inclusive or exclusive, whether our church signals openness to all people and undoubtedly sticks to ordinary human rights, or whether the church should be excluded and refuse certain people for reasons such as our members and population Moreover, not being able to understand should be a rejection based on the Christian gospel, but will see discrimination against a particular population group. With the adopted decision, the issue of human sexuality has been subject to the requirement to become an exclusive and discriminatory church.
As Danish delegates who experienced and participated in the negotiations in St. Louis, it is completely clear and without discussion that the resolutions at the General Conference 2019, neither can we and will not live with in the Methodist Church in Denmark. It so clearly contradicts our understanding of the Christian gospel and our Wesleyan understanding of the nature and function of the Church. Although all of the country's methodist churches have people with nuanced understandings in this field, the discussions and especially the polls in St. Louis also notes that there are significant cultural and political differences, which mean that virtually all representatives from Eastern and African countries and from the Philippines think and vote the same in this area, while Western Europe and the majority of the United States think and vote the same. The schism in which the church is located is based on gospel understanding and doctrine of faith, but this understanding is highly cultural and political. For Europe, we must say that the Methodist Church from North to South has erected a new Iron Curtain the same place where the old and political disappeared with the collapse of the Communist Alliance.
As Danish delegates, we must recommend the Methodist Church in Denmark:
- waiting until May 15, 2021 to follow any new rule,
- to use the General Conference 2020 to try to change as much as possible of the exclusionary elements and reintroduce inclusive attitude and practice;
- to use the Central Conference in 2021 to decide such changes and adjustments to the Church Order, so that our Methodist Church in Denmark can act as an inclusive and open church for people of any sexual orientation,
- exploring the possibilities for the Methodist Church in Denmark, together with other annual conferences in Western Europe and other Wesleyan churches, to enter into a self-determining and autonomous church, affiliated with United Methodist Church in a possible relationship,
- to impose, as a condition for direct and indirect financial support and subsidies for other parts of the Church, that the beneficiaries endeavor to assert the human rights of homosexuals in church and society.
We should do all things to prevent any of the decisions taken at the General Conference in 2019 from having effect in Denmark on 15 May 2021.
Danish delegates to the General Conference 2016 with extra session 2019
Susanne Thaarup and Jørgen Thaarup