(AgapePress) - A conservative Methodist leader believes there will be enough votes at the next General Conference of the United Methodist Church to prevent transsexuals from serving as pastors.

Earlier this month, the Baltimore-Washington General Conference of the United Methodist Church decided to defer a decision on whether to allow a minister who had a sex-change operation to return to the pulpit. Richard Zomastny had pastored two churches in Maryland prior to taking voluntary leave in late 1999 and undergoing the operation. He had had hoped the conference would grant his request for reappointment -- but after two complaints were filed at a closed session, he was instead placed on an involuntary leave of absence.

The Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Religion and Democracy is praising the decision of the Baltimore-Washington Conference [see related story]. Jerald Walz, IRD's director of operations and development, believes conservatives will have enough votes at the 2004 General Conference to forbid transsexuals from serving as pastors.

“I cannot imagine that delegates from the southeast part of the United States or the south-central part of the United States -- and also our overseas delegates who come from places like the Philippines and Africa -- would certainly not support something like [a ban on transsexuals as pastors]," he says.

According to Walz, the international delegates will be the key. “International delegates are so much more orthodox in their outlook and traditional that ... they just cannot abide by [something like this]," he says.

Walz says there is a strong sense that if the issue goes to General Conference, it will be resolved in much the same way the question of homosexuality within the clergy was resolved.

© 2002 AgapePress all rights reserved.

E-mail this page to a friend

Printer-Friendly Version

Read all of our current headlines