UMC’s first lesbian bishop set to retire
The United Methodist Church’s first bishop to be in a same-sex marriage will be retiring in September, eight years after being elected in defiance of the denomination’s rules at the time.
Bishop Karen Oliveto of the Mountain Sky Conference, who was elected to her position in 2016 by the UMC Western Jurisdiction, will officially retire on Sept. 1.
The Western Jurisdiction reported Oliveto's retirement last week. Bishop Minerva Carcaño, head of the California-Nevada Conference and outspoken progressive activist, will also be retiring in the fall.
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The two bishops were honored at the Western Jurisdiction’s official meeting last week, which was held in Spokane, Washington, and centered on the theme of “Love Without Limits.”
“Every pore, every cell in my body has loved, loved, loved my ministry and the places it took me,” Oliveto told those gathered, as quoted in the report.
“So may you continue to follow God’s leading, to take risks, to open doors that no one else is going to open, to stand with people that no one else stands for, to make space for voices that have to be heard, so that beloved community can truly emerge.”
Oliveto was elected bishop by the jurisdiction in 2016, at a time when the UMC Book of Discipline officially prohibited the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals.
The United Methodist Judicial Council, the denomination’s highest court, ruled 6-3 in 2017 that Oliveto’s election was invalid and called for a process to begin to remove her from office.
"It is not lawful for the college of bishops of any jurisdictional or central conference to consecrate a self-avowed practicing homosexual bishop," the Judicial Council stated at the time.
"Under the long-standing principle of legality, no individual member or entity may violate, ignore or negate church law."
Nevertheless, Oliveto remained in office, with reports surfacing that claimed many members of her regional body were leaving in protest or, at the least, dropping their financial support because she was a bishop.
In September 2018, a complaint was filed against Oliveto over a 2017 sermon in which she claimed Jesus Christ had bigotries and spoke with concern about turning Jesus into “an idol.”
“If Jesus can change, if He can give up His bigotries and prejudices, if He can realize that He had made His life too small, and if, in this realization, He grew closer to others and closer to God, then so can we,” Oliveto stated in 2017.
The complaint was reportedly later resolved behind closed doors by church officials, with the specific details of the resolution being kept confidential by the UMC.
Since her election, the Western Jurisdiction voted to make two other individuals in same-sex marriages bishops, with the regional electing Cedric Bridgeforth in 2022 and then electing Kristin Stoneking last week.
Stoneking marks the first time that the regional body has elected a noncelibate homosexual to the position of bishop since the UMC amended their Book of Discipline to allow for such.
“Western Jurisdiction, you love. You love big,” Stoneking told the jurisdiction last week. “We know that there are saints who continue to walk among us and I’m only here because of the saints who have poured love into me. The love that flows through each of you, the love that has been offered.”
