The Tribune

TAMPA, Florida Associated Press DELEGATES to the General Conference of the United Methodist Church that started yesterday, will consider again whether to change the denomination's position on homosexuality. The church's public policy arm will ask the nearly 1,000 delegates to remove two statements from the denomination's social principles that declare sex should only be between a husband and wife and that homosexual acts are "incompatible with church teaching." The General Conference, which meets every four years, also may consider lifting bans on gay clergy and on performing same-sex weddings or civil unions in United Methodist churches. Mark Tooley, who heads the Methodist group UMAction, says those changes may be rejected -- as they have at previous conferences -- because the church includes a growing number of Africans who support traditional doctrines on marriage and sexuality.