The retired Bishop of the United Methodist Church (UMC), F. Arthur Kulah, has unpretentiously stated that the UMC of Liberia will not allow same-sex marriage practice.
He made the unyielding remarks when he spoke at the recent National Fast and Prayer for Peace & Sustainable of Biblical Christianity at the United Methodist Church in Liberia Annual Conference held under the theme; “Let the Church be the Church” bringing together Christian ministers and members of the church across the country.
Bishop Kulah expressed, “We are paradisiacal Christians; we are very democratic and we are in Liberia will not accept same-sex marriage and if anyone ask you about same-sex marriage in the United Methodist Church, tell them that we will never bring such practice in our church.”
According to him, the United Methodist Church is a church of hope pointing out, “This is God’s Church and it is not for anyone so He will surely answer us. We are in the United Methodist Church and we can disagree on different things but we are still the same; nothing will stop us from doing the right thing.”
He emphasized that United Methodists are peaceful and gracious people who do not believe in violence, adding that they are democratic more than any churches around.
He extended apologies to the Bishop who was treated badly in Ganta emphasizing, “When we talked about well-educated people, come to our church because we are over 200,000 around the world and wherever we go, we are call on to lead and give hope for our people.”
He also thanked the Liberian Council of Churches, friends in the ministry who have been in prayer with the church.
It can be recalled, that the United Methodist Church in Liberia is said to be in crisis over the failure of the Liberia Annual Conference to make a definite position following the latest decision of the global annual conference of the United Methodist Church legalizing same-sex marriage across its denomination.
Recently, the global United Methodist Church repealed its 50-year ban on LGBTQ clergy and approved new language opening doors for same-sex marriages.
At a news conference in Monrovia on Wednesday, the Chairperson of the Board of Ordained Ministry, Dr. George Wilson accused the Bishop of the United Methodist Church in Liberia, Samuel Quire, of misinforming United Methodists on the decision of the general conference.
Dr. Wilson added that the global denomination wholeheartedly endorsed the practice of same–sex marriage and homosexuality across all of its churches worldwide and the need to provide a definite position as with the Liberia Annual Conference cannot be overly stated.
According to him, Bishop Quire is not listening to the elders of the church who have vehemently opposed sex-sex activities across the Methodist denomination; a situation he stated has plunged the United Methodist Church into crisis.
Report also revealed that Bishop Quire has taken several administrative actions including suspensions of perceived critical voices who are opposed to the global conference decision; among those are Dr. George Wilson, Chairman of the Board of Ordained Ministry and Dr. James Labala, Conference Secretary of the Liberia Annul Conference of the United Methodist Church.
