We Don’t Support Homosexuality, Says Methodist Church

The United Methodist Church in Nigeria (UMCN) has cleared the air on the dispute that halted the activities of the church in the last 10 years, saying the church is against all acts of homosexuality.

According to the UMCN, the main issue behind the controversy that claimed many lives, others injured, which led to the shutting down of the church for a decade, is not about homosexuality, but leadership tussle.

The resident bishop, Nigeria Episcopal Area and Mission District of Cameroon and Senegal, His Lordship, Emmanuel Ande, made the disclosure at the UMCN thanksgiving service of unity, peace and reconciliation in Jalingo, the Taraba State capital.

The thanksgiving service, which held at Jatutu Memorial Cathedral in Magami, that was closed for 10 years, witnessed unprecedented turn out of worshippers for the service.

The UMC Bishop, regretted the crisis that erupted between members of UMCN and the Global Methodist Church in Nigeria (GMCN).

“Your Excellency Sir, we want to to be very clear on this, there has been a lot of misinformation and disinformation regarding the UMC in the last two years and this misinformation emanated in the fact that, somebody who completed his tenure as a Bishop needs a tenure elongation and the church said no to that

“He decided to bring a new denomination. Instead for them to bring it under a free and fair process, your Excellency, they hide under the guise of same sex marriage that is not in Nigeria.

“Your Excellency, we want to be clear that the UMC does not support same sex marriage. We want to say this everyone who cares to know that we are Christians and we believe in Biblical principles that says marriage is a union between one man and one woman.”

Bishop Ande, who used himself as an example said, as a Bishop, he is married to a woman with three kids and wouldn’t support such disgusting act.

“I do not support homosexuality. UMC do not support homosexuality and we will never support homosexuality. The guise under homosexuality is to give a dog a bad name in order to lynch it,” he said.

The UMCN Bishop believed that, UMCN and GMCN can still coexist in peace independently, saying that the vineyard is wide enough to accommodate them.

“What is at stake is that our brethren want to delete 103 years history that our founding fathers have fought for.”

Bishop Ande, then thanked God for using his servant, Taraba State Governor Dr. Agbu Kefas for the reopening of the church and restoring peace and unity among members of the UMCN and GMCN.