Delegates to the Methodist General Conference refused to remove from the denomination's law book language that states the church "does not condone the practice of homosexuality" and considers it "incompatible with Christian teaching."
But a progressive coalition of pro-LGBT advocates and allies is pushing for church reform and renewal.
"We are holding onto hope through resistance," said the Reverend Lois McCullen Parr, pastor of Chicago's Broadway United Methodist Church.
She was referring to several examples of pushback during the recent conference.
First, on Thursday, May 3, Methodist pro-LGBT activists brought conference proceedings to a stop by staging an Occupy-style demonstration.
The protest came after several votes taken that morning to soften church doctrine on homosexuality failed.
Additionally, through the protest and subsequent negotiations with conference leaders to end the demonstration, pro-LGBT advocates succeeded in ensuring no further measures on human sexuality would come up for consideration.
Consequently, petitions concerning bans on non-celibate clergy and same-sex marriage never came up for discussion by the nearly 1,000 delegates.
In other action, on the conference's closing day, Friday May 4, a group of active and retired bishops called on Methodist clergy to marry same-sex couples "in the normal course of their pastoral duties."
In an affirmation of marriage equality, retired Bishop Melvin G. Talbert said the call to action was "biblical obedience."
"I stand before you here this afternoon, and I declare that God has already settled the matter: All human beings are created in his image. There are no exceptions and no exclusions. We all belong to the family of God," he said.
Talbert also discussed the Book of Discipline, which is the United Methodist Church's law book.
"At the same time, I declare to you that the derogatory language and restrictive laws in the Book of Discipline are immoral and unjust and no longer deserve our loyalty and obedience," said Talbert, according to a news report published in Neighbor News, the official publication of the Love Your Neighbor Common Witness Coalition, a coalition of seven caucuses that support full inclusion of LGBT United Methodists.
Talbert has local ties. In 1998, he was assigned to the San Francisco Bay Area and served until retirement in August 2000.
It was a feeling of being dismissed that prompted the Occupy conference demonstration.
"We disrupted the proceedings of the General Conference and shut it down because the perception is that we were not heard," said Parr.
"Our pain could be ignored no longer," she added, speaking by cell phone from the conference.
Parr was referring to a hurtful comment from an African delegate who compared God's creation of a homosexual person to "God creat[ing] [him] to live with animals," according to a live stream from the United Methodist Church website.
Made during a conference plenary session, the bestiality comparison, said Parr, was not the only hurt.
As another Methodist pastor explained, during small group conversations earlier in the week, one LGBT delegate was told by a fellow delegate that he "really deserved to be stoned," said the Reverend Dr. Karen Oliveto, pastor of San Francisco's Glide Memorial United Methodist Church.
Worse yet, the delegate who called for stoning, she said, "got so animated that the gay delegate got hit a couple of times."
"People came out of those holy conferences weeping and wailing," said Oliveto, also speaking from conference by cell phone.
Parr was not a delegate but assisted the media team of the Common Witness Coalition, which included at least half a dozen United Methodist advocacy groups that work toward a more LGBT-inclusive church within a broad justice context on issues of race, gender, global partnerships, peace, stewardship of creation, and economic justice.
Oliveto was reserve delegate.
Proposals defeated
Every four years United Methodists gather for a meeting of the church's governing body, called General Conference, where the denomination �" mainline Protestantism's largest �" sets church policy.
Held from April 23 through May 4 in Tampa, Florida, General Conference delegates defeated several petitions attempting to soften church doctrine through "agree-to-disagree" petitions (or proposals). One petition, for example, called for a change in the church's law book that if passed, would have said gays and lesbians are "people of sacred worth" and the faithful differ on "whether homosexual practices [are] contrary to the will of God."
The measure failed by vote of 507-441, or a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent.
In another vote, delegates defeated a compromise petition acknowledging a "limited understanding" of human sexuality at the same time calling on the church to "refrain from judgment regarding homosexual persons and practices until the spirit leads us to new insight."
That measure also failed by a vote of 572-368, an even wider margin of 61 percent to 39 percent.
All General Conference plenary sessions were live streamed from the Tampa location, along with Facebook and Twitter feeds and other social networking media.
The debate over homosexuality lasted about an hour.
Although denominations like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ and the Episcopal Church have lifted bans on out clergy, the United Methodist Church has not.
Over the last four decades, moreover, United Methodists' General Conference gatherings have become increasingly conservative, primarily because of its growth overseas in Africa.
One estimate puts United Methodist Church membership in the United States at short of 8 million members, with membership in Africa, Europe, and Asia at 4.4 million.
In fact, 40 percent of delegates to 2012 General Conference were from outside the U.S.
The push for LGBT inclusion, said Oliveto, resulted in "fascinating" conversations with African delegates.
"One thing we learned is that the United Methodist Church, in evangelizing Africa, told whole groups of people their culture was wrong," she said, referring to the practice of polygamy.
"The imposing western culture said polygamy was wrong," explained Oliveto. "So now the Africans say you came and taught us it was sinful but here it is in the Bible."
The Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, refers to the common practice of polygamy among patriarchs.
"But now you are telling us homosexuality is okay, but here the Bible says it's sinful," Oliveto said. "That was a really helpful conversation, but what is lacking is an honest discussion of sexuality."
Meanwhile, in previous United Methodist general conferences, "whole coalitions would sit there as vote after vote was taken on homosexuality," she said.
"This time we shut it down," she said, referring to the protest.
"It was very empowering," she explained. "That's how we are framing it. We will no longer allow any more harm to be done."
Back home, Oliveto said, Glide Memorial is all about "unconditional love and acceptance," including "those on the margins."
"Glide is a very queer church" she added, explaining her congregation's most likely reaction to General Conference's continuing anti-LGBT policy will be to "shake heads and think this is crazy."