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And Denny Coon of Iowa said that it's possible to oppose homosexuality while supporting the anti-homophobia resolution. "This petition helps open up the church and let folks know they have nothing to fear," he said.

Frederick Brewington, chair of the convention's "church and society" committee, which studied and amended the sexuality resolutions before they were debated by the full assembly, said, "We are not at a place where we agree."

"We are at a time in history where we understand we are in many places," he said. Later he called the decades-long debate "festering sores on the body of the church."

Methodists' disagreements over homosexuality mirror regional and generational divisions in the U.S. Slightly more than half of Methodist clergy and laity "agree somewhat" with their church's refusal to condone homosexual acts, according to a "state of the church" report issued last year. But a significant minority — 30 percent of clergy, and 28 percent of laity — "disagree strongly" with the church's position on homosexuality.

Sexual ethics is one of the key areas at the center of an intense debate about exactly the United Methodist Church can reflect its increasingly international family.

While Methodist congregations shrink in the U.S., they're booming in Africa and Asia — 30 percent of the 11.5 million-member church now lives outside the U.S. Liberia has 168,000 Methodists; including its president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (who spoke Tuesday night at the convention). Earlier this week delegates formally received Liberia's West African neighbor, Cote d'Ivoire, into the church. With 700,000 members, it's now the church's largest regional conference.

More than 275 of the nearly 1,000 delegates gathered here to draw up church policy are from Africa, an increase of 100 from the last General Conference in 2004.

Still, Methodists have yet to decide how to fully reflect their diversity in church governance. On Monday, delegates considered a plan that might have given more influence to churches in Africa, Asia and Europe. They voted to study the matter further and report back in 2012.

The meeting here also reflects a wider struggle for the soul of America's mainline churches, as conservatives and liberals increasingly cross national and hemispheric lines in search of allies.

Liberal Methodists here say a conservative coalition also crossed ethical lines last week when they handed out more than 200 free cell phones to delegates from Africa and the Philippines. The giveaway sparked charges of racism, neo-colonialism, and old-fashioned graft. Supporters of the giveaway said it was a form of hospitality, since most overseas delegates' phones would not work in the U.S.

Conservative activist Mark Tooley of UMAction, a member of the coalition, called the cell phone brouhaha "very silly" and said that other church groups traditionally hand out items at the General Conference.

"I think a number of liberals are uncomfortable with the African church because they realize the African church is in a very different place from them and it's the only significantly growing part of the church," he said.

But the Rev. Troy Plummer of the gay-friendly Reconciling Ministries Network says there's more to the cell phone giveaway. He noted that the fliers advertising the giveaway called on delegates to elect a slate of conservative candidates to the Methodist Judicial Council — the church's supreme court.

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May (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52