Delegates with the United Methodist Church have voted to lift a ban that prevented LGBTQ+ people from serving as members of the clergy.

After decades of grappling with LGBTQ+ issues, the vote marks a significant shift in policy for one of the nation’s largest churches.

Elizabeth Church, a longtime member of Asbury First United Methodist Church in Rochester, said she is happy to hear about the UMC General Conference vote.

“We have really grown in welcoming all, being very inclusive, reconciling ministires which the United Methodist Church is moving towards,” Church said.

Church said it will reverse an old policy within the church.

“It’s way past time. You know, this was never a problem within the United Methodist Church until the’ ’60s and ’70s when certain individuals in the conference put that language into our book of discipline and got voted in,” Church said.

Voting 692 to 51, United Methodist Church delegates voted to lift a ban that has kept gay people from being ordained or appointed as ministers.

Rev. Ted Anderson of Asbury First United Methodist Church said his church has been embracing LGBTQ people, despite the conflict.

“We have a, I’d call it a vibrant, community of LGBTQ people,” Anderson said.

Since the last conference vote in 2019, more than 7,000 congregations across the U.S. have disaffiliated with the United Methodist Church, along with the more conservative delegates.

Still, Anderson said the new policy is a move in the right direction.

“The church is not going to advertise, ‘Hey, everybody who is gay, come to the United Methodist Church!’ but we are also not going to say ‘Don’t come,’” Anderson said.

Picking up her daughter at a daycare attached to Asbury First UMC, Roycelyn Tisdale said that while she doesn’t have an opinion about the policy change, she is okay with the church being more accepting of everyone.

“In the eyes of the Lord, for those who consider homosexuality to be a sin, no sin is greater than any other sin. There are straight pastors that are practicing. Do you commit adultery? Do you lie? That’s a sin as well,” Tisdale said.

Reverend Anderson said that he is expecting the delegates to vote on whether the church is able to officiate gay weddings before the General Conference is expected to wrap up on Friday.