The Rev. Rachel Baughman, Oak Lawn United Methodist Church


Two local Methodist churches have voted to allow same-sex weddings in their sanctuaries, and another has become a reconciling congregation.
St. Stephen United Methodist Church and Oak Lawn United Methodist Church were already reconciling congregations, meaning they welcomed LGBT people as equal members of their churches. And both churches held meetings on Sunday, March 25, to address same-sex weddings, which are still prohibited by the denomination.
St. Stephen’s congregation voted to approve a proposal to, “support and honor marriages of couples without regard to their sexual orientation. We will offer the use of our church, including our sanctuary, for ceremonies of marriage to all couples, including same-sex couples. We pledge our full support to any of our clergy who choose to perform marriages without regard to sexual orientation.”
Oak Lawn United Methodist Church approved a consensus statement stating that the church, “should open our doors to support and honor marriages of all couples licensed to be married. We also agree that our church property, including our sanctuary, should be available for all ceremonies of legal marriage.”
The Rev. Rachel Baughman of Oak Lawn UMC said this was about the work of welcoming everyone and being true to the constitution of the church.
“Members of our church put hard work and intellect into this in a compassionate way we can all be proud of,” she said. “We’ve all grown through the process.”
Baughman said this fall the church had a wedding on the steps of the church with the doors wide open. After the wedding ceremony, everyone attending went into the church for a ceremony of thanksgiving.
While she has no weddings are scheduled yet, Baughman said, “I’ll always celebrate love,” and she is making plans to celebrate her church’s change of policy.
Northaven UMC voted last year to perform weddings in their church.
In addition to the two churches that will now perform weddings, Union elected to become a Reconciling Community, which will be the eighth reconciling congregation in the North Texas Conference Reconciling Ministry Council. Union was founded with the assistance of University Park United Methodist Church more than a year ago with the mission of caring for the neighborhood. It is in the process of moving to a building on the Oak Lawn UMC campus.

— David Taffet