A Publication of the Reconciling Congregation Program at Trinity United Methodist Church
Volume 1, Number 3 - November 1999
A Publication of the Reconciling Congregation Program at Trinity United Methodist Church
Volume 1, Number 3 - November 1999
Two weeks have past since the trial in Grand Island, Nebraska. While I still need more time to assess the significance and consequences of the guilty verdict and the penalty, both for me personally and for the movement toward justice and community of which all of us are a part, there are a few things I am clear about and want to share with you now.
First, I am immensely grateful for the support you gave to me, and for the witness that you made in various ways around the country on behalf of justice and to affirm the dignity of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons. I wish I had some adequate and personal way to say to each of you, "Thank you!" Your support strengthened and empowered me. I never felt alone. I was always clear that I was only one small part of a larger faithful community journeying together in this movement of God in history. You are for me the sign of our Easter faith, confirming our hope that justice; compassion and truth will prevail over bigotry, injustice and death.
The trial brought to an end a twenty-nine year relationship that I have had with The United Methodist Church as an ordained minister. The ordination that was taken from me by the jury was given to me by The United Methodist Church. It belongs to the Church and the Church had a right to take it back. It was not mine to claim; it is not entitlement. That is the basic meaning of ordained ministry.
However, the ordination that preceded it and cannot be reclaimed by The United Methodist Church is the one that came with my baptism, and the one confirmed by my call to ministry. These belong to me still, and no institution, jury or person has the authority or power to take them away. I will continue to honor and live out this ordination in all that I do.
This is not to say that what the Church revoked was unimportant to me. There is nothing I love more than being a pastor of a congregation. I know that I cannot be a United Methodist pastor now. I will not dwell on it, but be assured that I grieve what has been taken from me.
But, I grieve more for those who are being rejected, oppressed and persecuted by The United Methodist Church because of who they are and because of who they love. The ordination that has been taken from me is one that The United Methodist Church has routinely denied and withdrawn from Gay people long before it was officially required to do so in 1984. Many gifted persons called by God have been denied ordination because of their sexual orientation. Others have been denied fellowship, if not membership in the UMC. Many have been spiritually and psychologically abused by vicious judgment and condemnation. I am only a casualty of the Church's bigotry against bisexual, lesbian, gay and transgender persons. They are the true victims and martyrs. I have been punished only for what I've done. They are punished for who they are and who they love. The difference is profound. My loss and pain trifles in comparison.
I also grieve for The United Methodist Church. It has wounded and crippled itself with bigotry, legalism and fear. Until these impediments are purged from its soul, The United Methodist Church cannot speak authentically of God's love in Jesus Christ. Every act and testimony toward that end will be smudged with the evil of its prejudice and persecution of Gay people. We may be witnessing its death, at least the death of the Church we have loved and served. We can mourn the Church that dies; but we cannot hold on to it and keep it alive if its soul is dead. Instead, we must look for the new reality of God's presence in the world, the new expression and experience of Christ's body.
I believe it is important to understand my trial, along with Greg's trial and the judicial process against the Sacramento 68 in the California-Nevada Annual Conference, as resistance within the Church to the movement of God toward Jesus' vision of an inclusive and just community. The trial resisted but did not end the movement. Rather, it helped to bring clarity and definition to it. It was not axial, but only another movement in the redemptive process of God. It could be seen as a defeat, The UMC's further fall from grace, or it can be seen as a painful event that opens up new possibilities for change toward the new thing God is doing. I believe it is the latter. I believe there is no way that God's movement toward justice, freedom, dignity and community can be successfully resisted and denied.
I don't feel defeated. I am now among the laity of The United Methodist Church, called to the same ministry I've always been called to honor, called to "resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves." Called "[ac] cording to the grace given to [me, to] remain [a] faithful member of Christ's holy church and serve as Christ's representative in the world." It makes no sense to me to leave one habitation of the Christian Church for another, just so I can have the institutional favor and privilege of ordination. When I was ordained, it was my privilege to serve the laity. It is now my honor to serve with the laity.
In practical terms, I intend to become a member of a local United Methodist Church. I intend to complete the book I've started. It will include the 2000 General Conference, so I have at least another year of work on it ahead of me. I will continue to accept speaking invitations. And, I intend to support the work of Soulforce, the Coalition (MFSA, RCP, IATC and Affirmation) in its effort to affect change at the General Conference, and to support the Reconciling United Methodists in North Carolina. And as time passes, I know God will call me to other ministries I've not imagined.
God bless you! The journey continues, and we continue together!
-- Jimmy Creech
At least five groups that promote gay rights within the Methodist Church are mounting an offensive to challenge the church's stance on gay unions in the wake of the conviction of the Rev. Jimmy Creech. The Omaha World-Herald reports that the groups have formed a coalition to develop a strategy to take to the church's General Conference, a meeting held every four years to determine church policies, which is scheduled to be held next May in Cleveland. The groups include Affirmation, a gay Methodist group; Reconciling Congregation Program, a coalition of individual churches with pro-gay stances; and the Methodist Federation for Social Action. Creech was convicted and defrocked on Wednesday for marrying a gay couple last April. The coalition called the verdict a "travesty of justice and a violation of the integrity of the ministry of the church."
An Editorial by Becky Helton
I am appalled and ashamed at the United Methodist Church's persecution of Reverend Jimmy Creech. We have a statement in our Social Principles that states that all persons should be treated equally:
Certain basic human rights and civil liberties are due all person. We are committed to supporting those rights and liberties for homosexual persons. We see a clear issue of simple justice in protecting their rightful claims where they have shared material resources, pensions, guardian relationships, mutual powers of attorney, and other such lawful claims typically attendant to contractual relationships that involve shared contributions, responsibilities, and liabilities, and equal protection before the law. Moreover, we support efforts to stop violence and other forms of coercion against gays and lesbians. We also commit ourselves to social witness against the coercion and marginalization of former homosexuals.
How can we possibly on the one hand make a statement like that, and on the other, say that certain person's relationships can't be church sanctioned? Which statement is the truth? Are we for basic human rights and civil liberties for all persons, or are we bigots?
What pains me most of all is not your bigotry, but that you force me to be a bigot along with you. I can no more cease to be a Methodist that I can not be green-eyed, or the product of Depression survivors from the Panhandle. I can get colored contact lenses, just as I can leave the Methodist Church in disgust; but underneath, I will still be a green-eyed Methodist. By having officially-sanctioned discrimination against our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters, you force me to join you in that discrimination.
I understand that these decisions are made in an effort to put off a split in the church, but you aren't helping matter by caving in to the forces of discrimination and bigotry - you are just forcing the people who are on the side of history to be the ones to leave. As Krishnamurti said: "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." When the United Methodist Church integrated before other churches, when an amicus brief was filed on the side of abortion rights in Roe vs. Wade, when the Church issued a scathing statement against the nuclear arms race, we were in the forefront of social change ñ we were on the side of history. Where is that courage today? No group that has ever stood up for itself and asked for equal rights has ever laid back down again ñ this is a fight we will win eventually. Shouldn't we once again be able to look back on our actions with pride? I urge you to stop this ridiculous persecution of those who perform union ceremonies recognizing the love between committed couples. Please come join the side that recognizes the full humanity of all persons, the cause that will win out in the end. And most of all, please do not make me be a bigot.
By Joretta Purdue United Methodist News Service
Local United Methodist congregations are banned from labeling themselves as parts of unofficial movements and organizations, the denomination's highest court has ruled.
In a case brought by the Northwest Texas Annual Conference, the Judicial Council extended to the local church or congregation the ban on church organizations adopting identifying labels of unofficial bodies or movements. The decision reads, in part:
A local church or any of its organizational units may not identify or label itself as an unofficial body or movement. "Such identification or labeling is divisive and makes the local church subject to the possibility of being in conflict with the (Book of) Discipline and doctrines of The United Methodist Church.
The council made this and 18 other decisions regarding church law when it met Oct. 27-30
The council members had first looked at the issue of church bodies joining movements during their October 1998 session. At that time, the court specifically named churchwide agencies and annual conferences as two of the official groups that may not take on such labels as "Reconciling Congregation" or "Transforming Congregation."
In making this ruling, the council reversed two of its earlier decisions allowing such identification by first a general agency and later an annual conference. Several other official bodies also adopted labels before the 1998 decision.
During its session last summer, the Northwest Texas Annual Conference had passed a resolution giving its congregations 45 days to divest themselves of any such labels. However, Bishop Alfred Norris, who presided over the session, said the annual conference did not have the authority to adopt that measure under the Discipline. The council reversed his decision.
Six members of the council joined in a concurring opinion on the labeling issue. Having agreed with the decision, they went on to say: "Our decision does not mean that all bodies within the Church should not be encouraged to engage in study, educational forums, conversation and prayer around sensitive and controversial issues with the aim of finding healing and reconciliation for the sake of the gospel."
In other actions, the Judicial Council outlawed an increasingly popular decision-making practice known as "spiritual discernment" or "prayerful discernment." The process has been used among United Methodist congregations and annual conferences, including Nebraska, West Michigan and California-Pacific.
California-Pacific sought a declaratory decision on whether its use of the discernment model at its 1999 session was legal. The conference used discernment to decide petitions going to General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body.
The Judicial Council ruled that the process was in conflict with the Book of Discipline because it didn't allow a clear yes-or-no vote on legislative proposals and made no provision for minority reports. The council voided all conference legislative proposals that were decided using the discernment model, so that none of California-Pacific's legislation may be considered at General Conference.
My mother was baptized at the altar of the First Methodist Church 70 years ago. She married her husband in that sanctuary, and in that fellowship hall, she celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary.
She taught Sunday school, spent a decade as MYF sponsor, and served uncounted terms on the church board. She baked 10,000 cookies for fundraisers and rolled out miles of noodles for church dinners. First Methodist has been the spiritual center and anchor of her life and she has supported it with her prayers, her presence, her gifts, and her service.
It was there for her at difficult times: the sudden death of each of her parents, the automobile accident that took her closest friend, her husband's heart attack. That was then, but this is now. Now my mother withdraws from every conversation that becomes personal and avoids classes or discussion groups that might be probative. She no longer raises her prayer request and never answers truthfully when asked, "How are you?" She feels uncomfortable being hugged by the pastor. She needs the church now more than she ever has. Unfortunately, it is not available to her.
The church has put her between the ultimate Rock and the hard place. She is aching, incredibly sad, and wants help from her God. However, to have any help, any understanding she must start by telling the pastor her son is gay. Her sweet son who was also baptized at this same altar, who grew up at the pipe organ bench, youth leader and president of MYF, who loves and is loved by this church.
All her life, she has protected her children's emotions and lives with her own. She cannot tell her pastor. How can she open her boy up to the condemnation and judgment the pastor has preached as the church's stand for "the danger of moral decline" and "respect of family values?" What about the value of her family?
Her child is nothing like those portrayed in her pastor's sermons. He is gentle, a schoolteacher, and serving in a Methodist church. He comes home to play organ at church annually. If the truth were known, that would end.
Christ, through the ministry of the church, offers comfort and peace. However, this grace is not free. Not to my mother. The church has exacted a price for God's grace. A price she cannot pay. Now they discuss leaving their church. In many ways, they already have left. They probably will not leave. They probably should.
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This newsletter is an effort to bring to the public the stories of lesbian & gay Christians, their families & their allies. We look forward to a United Methodist Church that celebrates the full participation of all Christians in the Church.