The United Methodist General Conference on Wednesday morning repealed its longstanding ban on ordaining openly gay and lesbian clergy.

The change happened quietly and without controversy through a procedural move.

The conference approved a consent calendar, a group of petitions approved without floor discussion because they had no more than 10 votes against them in committee.

That included removed of Paragraph 304.3 from The Book of Discipline, the denomination’s rule book.

That paragraph included the prohibition on LGBTQ clergy:

While persons set apart by the Church for ordained ministry are subject to all the frailties of the human condition and the pressures of society, they are required to maintain the highest standards of holy living in the world. The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Therefore self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.

The move also paves the way for clergy to officiate wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples.

See also:

Through the approval of that same consent calendar, General Conference added two new subparagraphs to section 419 of the Book of Discipline which say: 13. The superintendent shall not penalize any clergy for performing, or refraining from performing, a same-sex marriage service. 14. The superintendent shall neither require any local church to hold or prohibit a local church from holding a same-sex marriage service on property owned by a local church. The vote to approve this consent calendar was 692 to 51.

Conservatives who left the denomination over the past two years – about a fourth of all United Methodist churches – had cited this anticipated change as reason for their departure.

In previous General Conferences since 1972, African United Methodist churches had repeatedly joined U.S. conservatives in the past to keep the bans on same-sex marriage and gay clergy ordinations, but liberal U.S. conferences have largely ignored those rules since the 2016 election of Bishop Karen Oliveto as the first openly lesbian bishop in the denomination.