At its quadrennial conference on Wednesday, the United Methodist Church's delegates voted, 428 to 405, to have the church's Council of Bishops appoint a commission to study allowing gay, lesbian, and transgender clergy, and the consecration of same-sex marriage. With about seven million members in the U.S., the Methodist Church is America's third-largest congregation — after Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists — and unlike other mainline Protestant denominations, such as Presbyterians and Evangelical Lutherans, it does not permit openly gay ministers or same-sex marriage.
More than 100 measures dealing with the Book of Discipline's rules on sexuality were sent to the meeting in Portland for consideration, but the bishops urged the delegates to hold off on voting on any of the proposals. The body appointed by the bishops will conduct a "complete examination and possible revision of every paragraph in our Book of Discipline regarding human sexuality," and the Methodists can address the recommendations at the next conference. The compromise measure was broadly seen as an attempt to avoid a schism over LGBT issues, especially with the church's growing ranks in Africa and Asia, which are generally more conservative than in the U.S.
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