FORT DAVIS — Concerns over official church policies on LGBTQ issues have spurred First United Methodist Church of Fort Davis members to vote on whether to separate from the United Methodist Church (UMC).
The church council for the congregation decided to put the question on a ballot and announced in a newspaper ad that a vote would take place on August 11. However, the council backtracked and agreed to have a superintendent for the UMC El Paso district help conduct the election, and a date has not been decided yet. The congregation — which numbers about 50 people — worships in a historic church in Downtown Fort Davis.
“Anybody is welcome at our church,” said Betty Nunnelee, the laity leader who has been conducting worship services for the congregation each week. “And we love them like any other person that walks through the door. Everybody that walks through the door is potentially a sinner that asks for forgiveness, so it’s not up to me to judge who walks through that door.” But Nunnelee added that this doesn’t mean the congregation needs to accept having a gay pastor in their pulpit or same-sex couples getting married in their church — two things that recently changed and are now allowed in UMC rules. The Fort Davis church currently does not have a defined pastor.
At issue is a long-standing debate — going on for at least 50 years — about the roles people with sexual orientations other than heterosexual should play in the church. UMC in general has promoted a stance that all are welcome to their ministries, but not all are welcome in leadership roles. The defining document of UMC policies, the Book of Discipline, formerly called homosexual life immoral and “incompatible with Christian teachings,” gay and lesbian pastors were not allowed, and the churches were forbidden from holding same-sex marriages. Through the years disagreements resulted in a hodgepodge of attitudes toward the rules and enforcement of them, with some congregations openly flaunting them and other pastors facing pay sanctions or even removal from the church for not adhering to them. This spring the UMC General Conference removed the ban on ordination of homosexual clergy, got rid of any penalties for clergy officiating same-sex marriages, and struck language calling homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teachings.”
Nunnelee said the changes and several others undermined principles from John Wesley — who developed and endorsed the original Book of Discipline based on “biblical principles.” She said many congregation members felt they could not continue to worship at an institution that ignored those principles.
Several other congregation members were interviewed by The Big Bend Sentinel, but none wished to be named or directly quoted, except Church Council President Robert Gray, who only would confirm the status that eventually there would be a vote. However, all outlined how a vote to separate could create a painful divide in the church and could force some members — whose families had worshiped there for generations — to find another church home.
Stephen White, pastor for the Alpine and Marfa UMC churches, said he watched this separation process play out when he was stationed in the Panhandle, and that congregation members who were on the losing side of a vote were “heartbroken” and that most ended up leaving their church.
White said there have been no significant conversations about holding a similar vote in Alpine and Marfa, which have about 12 and 50 members respectively. “Here in Alpine, we’re in the center, and we’re going to continue to move forward, focusing on our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ and try to improve the world, and that’s what we’re doing,” he said.
In 2019, the UMC national conference adopted a process for “disaffiliation,” with a two-thirds vote allowing a congregation to exit the church for congregations not in agreement with new LGBTQ policies (although there was a long list of financial and logistical requirements associated with the process). The window to disaffiliate eventually was to close in December of 2023, and by that time some 7,000 churches had left the UMC, including hundreds in Texas.
The UMC conference this spring made it clear that disaffiliation would no longer be allowed. However, some conferences have negotiated a process for congregations that essentially is the same. The superintendent for the El Paso UMC district, Pam Rowley, did not return calls for comment on how the Fort Davis election will work. If the vote — which likely will need two-thirds of the members approving separation — succeeds, ownership of the church building and financial assets would need to be worked out between the congregation and the UMC.