“What we are interested in is a discovery of what God has in mind for us on the horizon as the next expression of who we are as United Methodists.”īickerton, who heads the UMC’s New York City region, succeeded Louisiana-based Cynthia Fierro Harvey as president of the bishops’ council. “We are the United Methodist Church not interested in continuing sexism, racism, homophobia, irrelevancy and decline,” he said. He urged the UMC, even as it suffers defections, to think of May 1 as its launch day as well. He said he prays the infighting will stop and the UMC will rediscover its mission to make disciples for Christ. “The constant fighting, the vitriolic rhetoric, the punitive behaviors have no place in how we preserve and promote our witness as Christian believers.” Its leaders have been exasperated by liberal churches’ continued defiance of UMC bans on same-sex marriage and the ordination of openly gay clergy.īishop Thomas Bickerton, who became the Council of Bishops’ new president Friday, described the launch of the new movement as a “sad and sobering reality.” Bickerton said he regrets any departure from the UMC and values the denomination’s diversity of thought. The breakaway denomination, called the Global Methodist Church, will officially exist as of Sunday. We got the domestic partnership, civil union, and we got married," said Steve Powers-Hill, 55, of Asbury Park about he and his spouse Jim's climb to equality.The United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops, ending a five-day meeting Friday, acknowledged the inevitable breakup of their denomination – a schism that will widen this weekend with the launch of a global movement led by theologically conservative Methodists. Many of the several thousand people who marched or attended the parade Sunday had marriage stories to tell. Last year the two took the next step and legally married. "We had our Civil Union on the fishing pier," Bernstein said. The American Civil Liberties Union represented them in their legal fight and they prevailed. Pastor and her spouse, Harriet Bernstein, butted heads with the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association in 2007 after their request to have a Civil Union at the boardwalk pavilion was declined. "It took a lot of civil disobedience, hard work, marching and organizing to get to where we are today," Pastor said. Today, gay pride marches are a worldwide event. The first gay pride marches began the summer after Stonewall in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Watch Video: The 2014 Asbury Park Pride Festival and Parade We owe a big debt to the people who resisted police at Stonewall to really get the ball rolling," said Luisa Pastor, 66, of the Ocean Grove section of Neptune. Many consider that incident the tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month is celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the Stonewall riots that started June 28, 1969, after a police raid at a Manhattan gay bar. Jersey Pride has been the organizer of the Asbury Park pride parade for all 23 years. "I've been involved since the beginning, and you can't help but reflect back on what's happened in the past year and what's happened since the beginning, when we first started," said Jersey Pride president Laura Pople of Jackson. But what made this year's 23rd annual parade more meaningful to the gay community was the passage of same-sex marriage into law in New Jersey in 2013. There have been many gay pride parades in Asbury Park before. We'll hang out in Asbury Park and party all day," said Silvia Chinchilla, 22, of Belmar, who was taking the scene in from the Main Street sidewalk. Spectators were treated to the rhythm of marching bands, chants of "We love our LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender)," and groups decked out in Rocky Horror Picture Show garb. Forty groups marched in the parade that wrapped around Cookman, Grand and Sunset avenues on its way to the festival grounds in front of Convention Hall.
The parade started on Main Street with the Jersey Pride banner "A State of Equality" leading the way, followed by the roar of groups of motorcycle clubs. The parade is astronomical in New York City, but I think they are getting there here," said Diane Contreras, 53, of Atlantic Highlands. "It's grown immensely since I first started coming in 2005. ASBURY PARK – Paradegoers filled every spot on the ledge on the Grand Avenue Bridge over Deal Lake for the Gay Pride parade Sunday.