Two Women Celebrate Wedding Anniversary Despite Methodist Split

Dumbarton United Methodist Church responded to its national denomination's tougher rules on Sunday by celebrating the 32nd year of supporting gay, lesbian and other people and welcoming two women members to repeat their wedding vows.

The Georgetown church’s Reconciling Sunday event came just five days after the General Conference of the United Methodist Church reinforced its ban on same-gender weddings and its refusal to ordain LGBTQIA+ people as clergy.

With their two small children by their side, Amy Stapleton and Jennifer Stapleton restated wedding vows on the 15th anniversary of their wedding in San Francisco and the 20th year of being together. Under rainbow-colored decorations, a large Mardi Gras style party was held afterward.

The service was led by the Rev. Mary Kay Totty, who had just returned from the General Conference in St. Louis. “”For many of us, the United Methodist Church died this week,” she said. “We repudiate the actions of the General Conference and claim God’s love for all people. We are not about to stop now.”

Dumbarton, at 3133 Dumbarton St. NW, became one of the first Washington Methodist churches to become a “reconciling” congregation in 1987 and was the first to conduct same-gender weddings despite Methodism’s ban on such ceremonies.

At the General Conference, the denomination tightened its ban on such weddings and the ordination of LGBTQIA+ people, by adding new penalties to churches and clergy in violation. It defeated efforts by progressives who were seeking to remove the language from the book’s Church of Discipline or to allow individual churches and regions to make their own decisions.

Dumbarton has yet to decide its next steps, awaiting a judicial ruling from the church on the constitutionality of the “Traditional Plan” in late April. But it was clear that the church was not about to change its practices. “We refuse to comply with unjust rules,” declared Totty.