Paul Abels

Paul Milford Abels (1937–1992) was an American Methodist minister who became the country's first openly gay minister with a congregation in a major Christian denomination. He served as pastor from 1973 to 1984 of the Washington Square Methodist Episcopal Church in the Greenwich Village area of New York City.

Early life and career Paul Milford Abels was born on August 4, 1937, in Yellow Springs, Ohio, to Carrie Mae (Atkins) and James Albert Abels. He attended public schools in Yellow Springs and Cedarville, Ohio. of the Methodist Church. Abels went on to attend Drew Theological School, from which he received a Master of Divinity degree in 1963. He served as music minister for churches in Towaco and Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, and as pastor in West New York, New Jersey. He compiled and edited Anthology of Religious Folk Music and New Hymns for a New Day, published by the NCC, which included some of his own hymns. One of the most progressive congregations in Manhattan, it was often called the "Peace Church" as it was well known for its anti-war activism, particularly during the Vietnam War. It has also been described as "a sanctuary for gay New Yorkers" as a result of its large gay and lesbian membership. The first openly gay minister with a congregation in a major Christian denomination in the United States, He had received approval from the church's board prior to performing the services. At the same conference, delegates voted to strengthen language in the Book of Discipline prohibiting same-sex marriage

The year following Abels' coming out, his bishop, W. Ralph Ward, with the support of his cabinet, asked Abels to take a leave of absence for a year. There was precedent within the New York Conference of the United Methodist Church for taking such an action; in 1977, Edward Egan of Metropolitan‐Duane United Methodist Church was asked to take a leave of absence for a year after coming out as gay, before ultimately retiring. (Ward had previously tried to transfer Egan to a small church in Queens but the local church would not accept him on account of his homosexuality.) Abels, however, refused to do so and the matter was brought before the conference's board of ministry. Ward brought the matter before the Judicial Council, the church's highest court, which in 1979 ruled that Abels was in "good standing" and, therefore, the church's Book of Discipline mandated that he be reappointed to his pastorate. Abels took early retirement from the pastorate in June 1984, the month following the General Conference's 568–404 decision to prohibit the ordination and appointment of "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals" to the pastorate. He moved to Rensselaerville, New York, with Thom Hunt, his partner of approximately six years, where they restored Catalpa House and opened it as a bed and breakfast. The conference "express[ed] deep remorse for the harm done and the pain experienced by Rev. Dr. Ed Egan and his companion, Russ Morin, and by Rev. Paul Abels and his companion Thomas Hunt and ask[ed] for God's forgiveness and theirs".