FORT WORTH—The United Methodist Church, meeting for its quadrennial policy gathering last week in Texas, rejected a proposal to change its official condemnation of gays and lesbians.

Delegates defeated a resolution April 30 that would have changed the denomination’s stance that homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

“It was a terrible day,” the Rev. Eric Folkerth, of Dallas, told the Dallas Morning News.

Some 300 delegates protested the vote the next morning, taking over the floor and singing. Church leaders allowed the demonstration.

Most UMC churches in the United States do not adhere closely to the official policy on gays, either quietly or openly welcoming gay members. But delegates said UMC members in other countries, particularly in Africa, were steadfastly opposed to changing the church’s official policy.

The UMC is the second largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., trailing the Southern Baptist Convention, with eight million members in this country and another four million members abroad.