Ecclesiological Investigations Unit and Wesleyan and Methodist Studies Unit

LGBTQ+ Experience as an Ecclesial Issue (Co-Sponsored Session with the Ecclesiological Investigations Unit, the Queer Studies Unit, and Wesleyan and Methodist Studies Unit)
The reality of LGBTQ+ experience is a complex phenomenon among churches on local, regional, national, and global levels, within Methodist and Wesleyan communities as well as other denominations and church families. That complexity has impacted the pastoral reality of churches and their self-understanding on all these levels. We invite papers that consider how LGBTQ+ people and their experiences impact churches' experiences and ecclesiologies, particularly in Wesleyan and holiness traditions but also in other churches and traditions. How are LGBTQ+ Christians changing the way we think about the church? How are LGBTQ+ experiences challenging local churches, denominational bodies, and ecumenical relationships? When it comes to tensions and even schisms, what are the competing rationales and forms of ethical discernment underlying opposing visions? What are the differing hermeneutical, historical, narrative, scriptural, traditional, social, and cultural dimensions at work? Are divisions inevitable or are new forms of understanding yet possible? In what ways have LGBTQ+ Christians functioned as a gift, an opportunity, or a challenge to envision or understand the church? What resources in Methodist and Wesleyan theology and ecclesiology, and those of other communities, might assist churches in their responses to LGBTQ+ experiences?