Methodist Maneuvers

Issues relating to sex -- and sexism -- also shook the United Methodist Church last week. In Houston 48 conservative pastors issued a protest against moves to make the church more accepting of homosexual behavior and to expunge supposedly sexist references to the Trinity in worship. Replacing the phrase "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" with such feminist formulations as "Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer," they charged, defies both Scripture and tradition. The caucus attacked a recent proposal by the national staff to drop a formal prohibition against "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" in the clergy. Both issues promise to cause a fight in St. Louis next spring, when the 9.3 million-member denomination holds its General Conference.