PORTLAND, Ore.—More than 4,000 United Methodists meeting here in mid-May for their quadrennial general conference failed to settle issues concerning homosexuality that have divided denomination leaders for 44 years.

Delegates voted 428-405 to delay further decisions on gay clergy and same-sex marriage. Instead, Methodist bishops will appoint a commission to re-evaluate church policies, a kicking-the-can-down-the-road move. Many complained they traveled long distances and made a strong effort to vote on petitions that now will be postponed until the next general conference in 2020, one or two years after the commission meets and makes its recommendations.

Methodists waded through hundreds of petitions, voting on matters such as the environment, healthcare, and “names demeaning to Native Americans.” Two victories for nonleftist Methodists stand out. The denomination by a vote of 425-268 withdrew support from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, an organization that advocates abortion on demand (see below). Delegates also voted 478-319 to end denominational affiliation with an anti-Israel group, the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

Many delegates on the floor of the assembly and through social media said United Methodists had strayed from the Bible by not enforcing the denomination’s Book of Discipline, which says homosexual practice is incompatible with Christian teaching and stipulates that self-avowed, practicing homosexuals should not be certified as clergy candidates or ordained as ministers. The Book of Discipline also says marriage is between a man and a woman and the officiating of same-sex unions is a chargeable offense under church law.

More than 100 clergy and clergy candidates declared themselves to be homosexual the day before the conference began. It’s unclear whether a moratorium exists on complaints against them for violating denominational rules. During the meetings pro-homosexuality demonstrators clad in colorful scarves paraded through the enormous ballroom, chanting slogans and singing. During one demonstration, several protesters lay on the floor with their hands and feet bound behind their backs to express disapproval of The Book of Discipline.

Jerry Kulah, a delegate from Africa, said many U.S. congregants subscribe to practices that are disdained by African Christians and have no place in the church. But he said he will return to Liberia with a hopeful message: “The voice of Africa is rising higher and higher in global United Methodism.” Between 2009 and 2014 U.S. membership declined from 7.7 million to 7.2 million, while membership in Africa, Europe, and Asia grew from 4.4 million to 5.1 million.

Bishop Bruce Ough, president of the denomination’s Council of Bishops, noted “the pain, distrust, anger, anxiety and disunity we observe and experience in our beloved United Methodist Church.” Despite technical snafus—delegates used temperamental, handheld pads to vote—bickering over parliamentary procedure, political posturing, a hacked Twitter feed, and serious differences in biblical interpretation, conference participants sang together and shared an occasional spoof of themselves on a church news website. They consumed 1,000 gallons of coffee and donned infrared headsets to hear translations in eight different languages.

Family-friendly breakup

Delegates struck a bright note in an otherwise dissonant conference by ending the United Methodist Church’s decadeslong affiliation with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC), a Washington, D.C., lobby opposed to any restriction on abortion. The denomination in 1973 was instrumental in creating RCRC, originally called the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights.

In arguing for withdrawal from RCRC, delegates in Portland questioned how the church could justify affiliation with an organization that condones partial-birth abortion and doesn’t even oppose abortion as a form of birth control. Some who opposed withdrawal said the denomination should be a positive influence on RCRC, but Darcy Rubenking, a delegate from Iowa, disagreed: “Abortion is murder. I don’t want the name of my church or finances associated with RCRC.” —M.T.