Leaders of the international United Methodist Church are pondering a split over LGBTQ issues, as some congregations are open to same-sex marriage and hiring clergy who identify as LGBTQ, while others are not.

No matter what the international body decides, leaders of the two local United Methodist congregations, in Bend and Madras, said they will continue to perform same-sex marriages and be open to hiring clergy who identify as LGBTQ.

“For those that feel it’s the sticking point for their faith that they must be anti-LGBT, there are places for that. But it’s not going to be here,” said Jen Stuart, lead pastor at Bend Church United Methodist.

Sixteen international leaders of the United Methodist Church announced Friday that the church might split into two denominations: one that would allow same-sex marriages and LGBTQ clergy, and another that would not, according to National Public Radio.

As recently as 2014, the United Methodist Church was the United States’ second-largest Protestant denomination, with 8% of all American Protestants belonging to it, according to the Pew Research Center.

The United Methodist Church’s book of discipline states that although people who identify as LGBTQ are allowed to become members, they cannot be ordained as ministers. Churches are also not allowed to host same-sex marriages. At the denomination’s 2019 General Conference meeting in St. Louis, church leaders reaffirmed these rules in a53% to 47% vote, according to The New York Times.

But some United Methodist congregations have bristled at the rules. Rev. Nancy Slabaugh Hart, pastor at Madras United Methodist Church, said United Methodist communities have debated LGBTQ issues among themselves for decades.

“It’s been a very difficult time for a long time,” Hart, 65, said.

Stuart, 49, said she asked to move from her United Methodist church in Austin, Texas, in 2014 to join a church in the denomination’s Western jurisdiction — “a denomination that was part of an open rebellion,” as she put it. After preaching in Ellensburg, Washington, for five years, the church moved her to Bend Church six months ago.

“There are people all over the United States, and the world, who are refusing to comply with what happened last year at the General Conference,” Stuart said. “In terms of a schism, that’s already happened, because we’re not turning our back on our congregation.”

In May, the international United Methodist Church will hold its next General Conference in Minneapolis, where church representatives from around the world will discuss and potentially vote on the proposed denomination split, according to Hart.

Cait Boyce, president of the Central Oregon branch of LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG, said she was happy that both Madras and Bend’s United Methodist congregations were fully in support of same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy. The Terrebonne resident said PFLAG has even held occasional meetings at the Madras United Methodist Church.

“We don’t want the Methodist congregation nationwide to say, ‘We passed rules … and you can’t have gay marriage and you can’t have gay clergy,’” Boyce, 65, said. “None of it’s healthy, to exclude any living human being from acceptance in a church.”

Boyce, who is Jewish, said she’s proud to live in a region with churches of multiple faiths and denominations that are LGBTQ-affirming.

“I get calls from people that are new to the Central Oregon area, they’re religious, and they ask, ‘Where we can we go?’” she said. “It’s nice to have a list of welcoming congregations.”

Bishop Elaine J. W. Stanovsky, who leads the Greater Northwest region of the United Methodist Church, said Western congregations have been “generally progressive” in regard to LGBTQ issues, but there are still some conservative United Methodist congregations in the region.

“Out here in the West, we are trying to be a church that is a home for LGBTQ people and families,” Stanovsky said.

She added that a split of the denomination may be needed to allow for full LGBTQ inclusion into the United Methodist Church, although she hoped that all members could reconcile in the future.

“I deeply believe that God wants us to figure out how to live together in peace,” Stanovsky said. “But I’m pragmatic enough … to recognize that this may be a time that we need to walk different paths because we haven’t learned how to live together and not tear each other up.”

Hart, who’s led the Madras United Methodist Church for three years, said she hopes the church’s international representatives can come to an agreement that will allow LGBTQ-affirming congregations to remain so.

“Ideally, we would’ve preferred to stay at the same table and be able to accept one another’s differences, and come to an understanding,” she said. “It certainly looks as though (a split) is the direction our denomination might take.”

Stuart said Christian denominations split frequently, and that a change was needed.

“Whatever happens in May, and there’s a lot of time between now and May … we at Bend Church will be a part of the Western jurisdiction that affirms all people,” she said.