United Methodist minister comes out as gay during sermon

A United Methodist Church minister from Kansas announced during her sermon last Sunday that she is gay.

Reverend Meyer, who has been with the United Methodist Church in Edgerton, Kansas for 25 years, announced during her sermon that God had led her to the revelation.

"The Lord has led me here to share my deep truth with you. It's time," she said, adding that she had been an ordained pastor for 25 years.

"At last, I am choosing to serve in that role with full authenticity, as my genuine self, as a woman who loves and shares my life with another woman."

Meyer later disclosed that she had been single for 20 years and later fell in love with a woman named Mary.

"In the midst of much prayer, at long last Mary and I decided that the Holy Spirit had whirled us around and brought us together; that our relationship is a holy part of God's calling on our lives," Rev. Meyer shared.

Under the rules of the United Methodist Church, gay people cannot be ordained or get married. Furthermore, they may be disciplined or removed from the Church leadership.

"I've been thinking, reflecting and praying about my role in the Church and what it means to be who I am and ways to resolve the conflict between parts of my identity," she said.

"A few months ago, this became clearer, and I see it as a sort of calling on my life to speak publicly about the two: about who I am as an ordained minister, and who I am as a woman in a loving, committed relationship with another woman."