BOISE, Idaho — Pastor Duane Anders has been a minister in the United Methodist Church for most of his adult life.
For the last eight years, he has been the senior pastor at the largest Methodist church in the Northwest - Boise's Cathedral of the Rockies.
Over the decades, Anders has seen church leaders dig in on LGBTQ issues - banning homosexuals from clergy or leadership roles, and clearly defining marriage as between a man and woman.
Penalties for pastors who perform same-sex ceremonies range from suspension to expulsion from the church.
Twenty years ago, he was denied a request to perform a same-sex marriage, something that has stayed with him for years.
"I sat there wondering who else in my congregation am I prohibited from serving as their pastor," Anders said. "If your child is in prison, I can still be their pastor. If your child commits a horrible crime, I can be their pastor. There’s no one else for whom I'm not allowed to be their pastor, except for someone who is LBGT.”
Karen Oliveto is the bishop of the church's Mountain Sky Conference, which covers Colorado, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, and a portion of eastern Idaho.
In 2016, she became the church's first openly gay bishop to be elected, making her a lightning rod for conservative church leaders who sharply criticized the election.
"People ask me what it’s like to be the first gay bishop," Oliveto said. "I'm not the first gay bishop. I'm the first openly gay bishop."
The fundamental differences of views on sexual orientation, between progressive and traditional United Methodists, came to a head at a general conference gathering of the denomination last spring.
A vote to allow LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage was defeated, and shortly thereafter, a plan was launched to split up the third-largest religious denomination in the U.S. That plan, to be voted on this May at the general conference in Minneapolis, is widely expected to be approved, in some form, by both sides.
The result could be a new Methodist denomination in the United States, with the conservative churches splitting away from the progressives.
The Wesleyan Covenant Association, considered to be the voice of the orthodox members of the church, released a stance statement saying:
"The 2019 special General Conference reaffirmed our church's sexual ethics, teachings on marriage and ordination standards, and added enhanced accountability measures. Some of our bishops and clergy have responded with defiance and anger. We are convinced that after the 2020 General Conference a new Methodism will come to the fore."
A small portion of Bishop Oliveto's jurisdiction extends into Idaho. She says the feedback she is getting from clergy has been positive.
"The majority of [clergy and congregants] will want to be in a church that welcomes all people, even if they don’t know how to do that, they don’t want to be part of a church that says 'I can’t be in a church with someone like you,'" Oliveto said.
We contacted local conservative United Methodist pastors who made it clear they were in favor of splitting from the progressives due to their beliefs of the bible's teachings on the topic. They did not want to participate in this story before a potential vote of their church members.
One of the pastors said he knows his stance is in the minority in the denomination in the United States and has taken some "flack" because of it.
Church leaders estimate that between 15 and 30% of the United Methodist churches in the U.S. would leave to form a new denomination that will remain steadfast in its belief that same-sex marriage is wrong in God's eyes.
Audrey and Jessica Cordova have been partners for 25 years and, upon moving to Boise in 2001, they bounced around to various churches in the valley looking for a place to worship that accepted them as a gay couple.
They say they found it at Boise's Cathedral of the Rockies.
Five years ago, Pastor Duane Anders performed his first same-sex marriage when he married them at Barber Park. Since then, they, along with their two daughters, have rarely missed a Sunday service at a church governed by a world doctrine which doesn't recognize their union.
"It was hard for me to get past it, but the way [the local church] made us feel was not that way at all," Jessica Cordova said.
When it comes to the probability that the church they chose could be on the verge of changing to accept them and their lifestyle, the feeling isn’t one of complete happiness.
"Even though I might disagree with the other side of this debate, I wish it didn’t have to go this way," Audrey Cordova said. "Even being a person who may be being discriminated against.
"I want to continue drawing closer to God with whatever church is going to allow that," she added.
Though a split appears imminent, Reverend Anders is holding out hope that it will not be permanent.
"Maybe this split is temporary for us to live into the gospel the way we need to and maybe with God's wisdom down the road we'll find a way back together," he said. "I hope people see us as a church saying we are struggling to figure out how to include as many people as possible. All means all. No asterisk!"