By Heather Hahn
Sept. 9, 2019 | UM News (UMNews.org)
A United Methodist church in Kenya unanimously voted to identify as reconciling — making it the first African congregation to do so.
With the Sept. 1 vote, First United Methodist Church Moheto has chosen to associate with Reconciling Ministries Network — an unofficial United Methodist advocacy group that seeks full equality of LGBTQ individuals in the life of the church. The congregation’s vote was 180-0, with two members absent because of illness.
"First United Methodist Church Moheto has taken the step to formalize what we have been doing in the society as a visible voice for the voiceless for over 12 years,” said the Rev. Kennedy Mwita, the congregation’s senior pastor and a former district superintendent in the Kenya-Ethiopia Conference.
“We have been advocates for human rights and equality.”
The congregation in southwestern Kenya adopted a statement that, among other things, supports “the full participation of all persons in every phase of church life.” ...
Mwita said African United Methodists feel “profound hurt and disappointment” at being blamed wholesale for the Traditional Plan vote.
“FUMC Moheto stands as a prophetic voice that NOT ALL Africans support the Traditional Plan,” Mwita said by email. “The worldview of the few and loud African leaders should not be taken as the wholesale world view for ALL Africans and ALL African United Methodists.”
The pastor, who has served the congregation since 1998, told Reconciling Ministries Network that a turning point in the church’s journey came when the mother of an intersex child sought refuge at the church after being cast out by her husband. Intersex is a general term for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with anatomy that doesn’t clearly fit the categories of male and female.
The church welcomed the mother with open arms and began a study of human sexuality.
“We have walked this path of justice with intersex children and their parents, and saved some from cruel exclusion and death in a patriarchal cultural and helped them have a home and education,” Mwita told UM News.
“We have welcomed and included in our church transgender persons, gay and lesbians, commercial sex workers as well as divorced women, orphans, widows and others who are marginalized in the society.” [read more, including reaction from their bishop]