The current Resident Bishop of the Liberia Annual Conference, United Methodist Church, Samuel Quire Jr., has vowed not to ever license same-sex marriage in any of his church branches in Liberia.
Currently, the issue of gay marriage in the Methodist Church around the world has become a major point of discussion, with some of its bishops already taking sides about whether or not the church should endorse the homosexual act.
According to information, one of the Methodist Church’s Western leaders is a lesbian, and heads one of the biggest branches in the United States of America.
Granting the Hot Pepper an interview regarding the position of the church on the controversial same-sex marriage, already taking place in some of the Western Methodist churches, the Liberia Annual Conference Resident Bishop, Bishop Samuel Quire Jr., noted that in no way under his stewardship as Bishop of the Liberia Annual Conference will the church support what he calls “licensing people to hell”, indicating that it contravenes the church’s book of discipline.
According to him, paragraph 161-F of the church’s book of discipline affirms that sexuality is God’s good gift to all persons. In continuation, he said, it says that although persons are sexual beings whether or not they are married, sexual relations are affirmed only with the covenant of monogamous, heterosexual marriage.
In his explanation, he said monogamous and heterosexual means one man to one woman in marriage, not same-sex.
Bishop Quire Jr. noted that the records are there in the church’s book of discipline of the United Methodist Church, and that absolutely nothing in it talks about allowing same-sex marriage.
He said since the formation of the United Methodist Church in 1968, same-sex marriage has been a controversial issue.
Bishop Quire explained that there have been lots of international conferences held in the United States of America regarding the status of same-sex marriage in the United Methodist Church branches around the world. He said it was always rejected by the African Bishops, especially in West Africa.
He disclosed that 2022 is another international conference year, again set to finalize the discussion on same-sex marriage in the United Methodist Church, which he said, by the grace of God, he will be going with the mindset of rejecting the idea of same-sex marriage in the Liberia Methodist Church.
When asked what if same-sex marriage is agreed upon by his colleague Bishops around the world, he responded as saying that the Liberia Annual Conference will distant itself from the UMC.
A follow-up question was asked about what would be the new name for the Liberia Annual Conference; he said when that time comes they will cross that bridge.