Mitchell Dzoro
The United Methodist Church of Zimbabwe held a peaceful demonstration at the church’s headquarters today to protest against the church’s decision to allow homosexual practices.
The church was given the go-ahead by the Zimbabwe Republic Police.
This development comes after the recent international conference of the church, held in the United States. At the conference, 692 national denominations voted in favor of permitting homosexuality within the church, while 51 denominations voted against this policy change.
The Zimbabwean delegation was part of the 51 denominations that opposed the policy change. They voiced concerns that adopting this policy would erode traditional church values and pose a risk to younger congregants, citing the influence of Western culture.
On May 28th, the United Methodist Church in the Ivory Coast voted to disaffiliate the broader United Methodist denomination. The Ivorian Methodists delegation stated that United Methodism has strayed from the teachings of the holy scriptures, and they expressed a preference to uphold the church’s honor and integrity over accommodating the LGBTQ community.
The United Methodist church has since approved a new structural framework that grants increased self-rule to each regional division of the international United Methodist Church,, which will enable different parts of the denominations to adopt more or less conservative policies and practices.