Homosexuality raises controversies in popular Zimbabwe church
Controversies have emerged within the Zimbabwe United Methodist Church (UMC) following a decision by its mother body to recognise homosexuality.
Delegates of the UMC voted massively in favour of homosexual practices in the church during a General conference in the United States.
After about an hour and a half of debate, delegates voted 692 to 51 to eliminate the 52-year-old assertion in the church that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching,” The Herald reports.
Delegates also declared “marriage as a sacred, lifelong covenant that brings two people of faith (adult and woman or two adult persons of consenting age) into a union of one another and deeper relationship with God and the religious community.
Chair of the Social Principles Task Force that led the development of the revisions, Randal Miller described the move as historic and a step in the right direction.
“It’s been 40 years of work for me and others to remove the incompatibility clause from our Social Principles and really live in through our belief that all people are sacred. Just deeply grateful and it's wonderful to have come to this moment,” he was quoted by The Herald as saying.
Members of the Zimbabwean delegation whose votes were in the minority opposed the move, describing it as Western culture that is influencing traditional church values.
Reverend Forbes Matonga who is a member in the minority said,
“Indeed, the Church has decided to change the historic teaching of the Church of over 2,000 years that homosexuality is a sin and the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman to between two consenting adults. This is for us a betrayal of The Gospel of Jesus Christ in favour of Western secular culture”.
Zimbabwe Council of Churches president Bishop Ignatius Makumbe who is from the Anglican Church said the church needs to align with the country’s statutes that frown on homosexuality. He also suggested that UMC needs to learn from other orthodox churches including the Anglican that have spoken openly against homosexuality.
“UMC in Zimbabwe and in Africa at large needs to draw lessons from what the Anglican and the Roman Catholic Churches did, by refusing to go against the idea of God to allow homosexuality in their churches and defend their dignities as Africans,” he was quoted as saying.
The United Methodist Church is a Connectional Church, meaning one Church found on four continents.
Meanwhile, the subject has raised conversation on social media platforms with many describing it as “unholy” and “sin”.
