Sunday service at the Bellport United Methodist Church has just ended, but none of the roughly 40 families in attendance are running to the exit, instead, they’re enjoying light refreshments and getting to know their new pastor, the Rev. Matthew Querns.

And Pastor Querns is just as eager to learn about his new congregation and greater Long Island while transforming the church into a more inclusive space.

Before starting in Bellport on July 1, Pastor Querns had only visited the island briefly for training sessions while he continued leading a parish upstate in Yorktown Heights.

“The church here is just so openly loving,” Pastor Querns said. “The people here let me be silly. They let me be serious. They let me be supportive. They let me be me.”

His appointment to Bellport’s church comes as the General Conference of the United Methodist Church begins practicing reforms that more openly include LGBTQ people within the religion like allowing openly gay clergy and performing same-sex marriages.

Pastor Querns, like the 90 percent of Methodist churches supporting the reforms, is prioritizing inclusivity of all members.

“Love is love,” Pastor Querns said. “And if there’s a church out there that doesn’t want to have a same-sex wedding, we’re not gonna force anyone to do it. But for those of us who want to, we can’t be stopped anymore.”

The pastor’s first initiative to open this inclusive environment has been individual one-on-one meetings with every family. Through these lunches and coffee meetups, Pastor Querns has gotten to know about his congregation’s needs, and has been thanked by LGBT members for his continued support.

After learning about the relative lack of resources for LGBT youth in the area, Pastor Querns was quick to raise potential solutions.

“Do we need an LGBTQ teen center?” Querns said. “We have a whole basement downstairs that the Scouts use, maybe the teens need a place where they can come talk and share. It’s a safe place no matter what your age is.”

Pastor Querns also wants to expand community service opportunities for Bellport youth looking to serve their community through music by opening up spots on the church’s chorus to residents looking for extra singing practice, regardless of religious belief.

Churchgoers have graciously warmed to Pastor Querns’s bubbly personality, can-do spirit, and ability to connect the faith with present-day culture.

Lynn Hoag has directed the church’s choir for a number of years and feels a deep spiritual connection when singing the arrangements Pastor Querns selects, which often include small musical responses to sermons.

“He chooses from the hymnal, and he also chooses from the contemporary music book that we have. So, it’s a nice combination of music,” Hoag said. “It speaks to what just happened or what’s coming. And it helps you integrate all of that, and he does that so beautifully.”

Bellport’s United Methodist Church has seen its litany of changes over the years—from its humble origins inside a residents’ home across from Bellport Dock in 1853, to later moving their tiny church to South Country Road in 1945, and later expanding the building to include a preschool and meeting areas in the nineties.

And the tight-knit community inside the congregation seems ready to tackle their latest change: a set of reforms that many members have waited decades for.

“This morning a lady saw me, and she immediately crossed the street. Every issue she’s had with institutional religion, she probably put on me at that moment,” Querns said. “And I completely understand why she would; we have a lot of sins to atone for. And I think this is a beginning to one of those sins that we’re healing from.”