100 ATTEND BISHOP’S LIFESTREAM Gay Wedding, Pastor Ban Divides Local Methodists By LIBBY CUDMORE • HOMETOWN ONEONTA & The Freeman’s Journal In 1996, when Rev. Marti Swords-Horrell threw a 10th anniversary party for husband Dana, a guest said something that changed her life forever. “Kirk was our funeral director, a good Christian and gay, but it wasn’t safe for him to be out,” she recounted. “He came up to me and said congratulations, but he also said that he and…
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Marti Swords-Horrell
NEW ‘TRADITIONAL PLAN’ DISCUSSED TODAY AMONG OTSEGO METHODISTS Oneonta Pastor Vowing To Continue Gay Nuptials The Rev. Marti Swords-Horrell, pastor Oneonta’s First United Methodist Church, this morning told her congregation she will continue to perform gay marriages, despite a church conference’s decision in February adopting a “Traditional Plan” that affirmed a ban against gay marriage and the ordination of gay clergy. Pastors, locally and throughout the Syracuse-based Upper New York Conference, were asked to brief their congregations this morning on…