Declaration of Open Membership
UMC Santa Cruz

During our weekly worship service at the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz on November 6, 2005, Pastor Michael Love read a letter by Beverly J. Shamana, our Presiding Bishop of the Northern California-Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church. The letter addressed the recent UMC Judicial Council Decision #1032 that affirmed a United Methodist minister’s authority to ban a homosexual from membership in the United Methodist Church.

Members of the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz hold a variety of views about people’s sexual orientation in light of Holy Scripture, Church law, and cultural practices. Despite this diversity of individual perspectives, however, we were as a church body shocked and embarrassed by the ruling of the Judicial Council.

At worship each week, visitors to and members of our church are reminded that, “We are a welcoming community, practicing full acceptance that you may come to know this as a place of open hearts, open minds, and open doors.” Our worship strengthens deeply held convictions about the inclusivity of God’s love as known through Jesus Christ. In welcoming new members to our congregation, our “Litany for Reception of New Members” "pledge[s] to surround these persons with a community of love, forgiveness, and acceptance, that they may grow in their relationship to God and in service to others.”

As a result, gay and lesbian Christians are welcomed, faithful, and loved members of our congregation. They are active in leadership in our church and make a vital contribution to our ministries.

Given our practices, experience, and commitments, we are increasingly concerned about the growing strength of ever more narrow and exclusivist theologies such as Decision #1032. For us, such rulings appear to be based on ignorance, fear and hatred rather than Christ’s teachings. For a pastor to exclude a child of God from membership in the United Methodist Church due to their sexual orientation is an affront to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the primacy of love in Christ’s message.

Therefore, as a matter of faith and practice, the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz joins other Methodists in calling for the following actions:

Together, the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz calls upon the Judicial Council to reverse its Decision #1032.

Together, the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz calls upon call on the United Methodist Bishops to clearly create the laws and climate that help promote and sustain a “fully inclusive church.”

Together, the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz calls upon the 2008 General Conference to remove all language that discriminates against persons from the Book of Discipline.

In light of what we are asking of others, we, the Church Council of the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz, will bring to our own membership our recommendation that we as a congregation formally and publicly declare the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz a “Reconciling Congregation,” fully inclusive and welcoming of all who seek membership regardless of their sexual orientation.

We, the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz, will continue to welcome into membership any and all persons who are called through the Holy Spirit to become professing members through a public service using the vows of the Baptismal Covenant, if and when such persons decide that they are prepared to make their faith visible to the congregation through their public affirmation of the requisite vows.

We, the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz, will review our avenues for welcoming people into membership. Because some people seeking fellowship in the church have been abused or mislead by a prior church connection, they find a public declaration of membership simply too traumatic. We will explore ways to affirm the right of people to choose to affiliate in any manner which is appropriate and comfortable to them.

We, the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz, also proclaim our openness to people of all persuasions, sexual orientations and backgrounds, but seek to serve also as a place of “sanctuary” for people who are still experiencing pain or anger from a prior religious connection.

We, the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz also recommit ourselves and our congregation to the traditional United Methodist values of fully inclusive membership, connectional polity and accountable ministry.

The United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz joins other Methodists in calling for the above actions. We do this, not only for the sake of those who may feel excluded from our fellowship by the recent Judicial Council action #1032, but for the sake of the integrity of the Church and the credibility of our witness in the world.

Most importantly, we call for these actions because they are the very manifestation of what the Church of Jesus Christ is or strives to be -- a faithful expression of who we are.


Adopted unanimously by the Church Council of the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz on Monday December 19, 2005, by a vote of 7 to 0.

C.M. ‘Stoney” Brook
Chair, Church Council
United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz

Rev. Michael Love
Pastor, United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz

Karen Darling, Co-Chair
Church & Society Committee
United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz

Scott Kennedy, Co-Chair
Church & Society Committee
United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz