Hope United Methodist Church (in Bloomington, Illinois) celebrated Drag Sunday on April 11 with a message from Ms. Penny Cost, Religion News Service reported.
The Illinois Great Rivers Conference's Vermillion River District Committee on Ordained Ministry recently unanimously certified Hope Church's project and remote learning coordinator, 23-year-old Isaac Simmons, aka Cost, as a candidate for ministry in the United Methodist Church (UMC).
Simmons is the first openly gay man to be certified within the conference and is reportedly the first drag queen certified in the United Methodist Church.
He is only a year into what is about a five-year process to be ordained in the United Methodist Church, he said. His candidacy comes at a time when the UMC is deeply divided over issues related to the inclusion of its LGBTQ members.
The denomination is expected to consider a proposal to split when its global decision-making body, the General Conference, meets over nine days in August and September 2022 in Minneapolis.
See the full article at religionnews.com/2021/04/15/first-drag-queen-certified-as-a-candidate-for-united-methodist-ministry-speaking-in-a-new-way-to-new-people/.
