Ecumenical News International
By Chris Herlinger
New York, 26 January (ENI)--In what participants called a deliberate
act of conscience,
more than 90 clergy from one of the biggest US churches - the United
Methodist Church - have blessed the "holy union" of a lesbian couple at a
religious service on 16 January. A formal complaint has already been
filed against one of the ministers and more complaints are expected.
Many clergy from other denominations also took part in the ceremony,
which blessed the relationship of Ellie Charlton, aged 63, and Jeanne
Barnett, aged 68. The two women have been together for 15 years and
declared that their relationship was a life-long partnership.
The event, which attracted 1200 invited guests to the Sacramento
Convention Center in California, was the biggest and most visible
defiance of a church law forbidding United Methodist clergy from
celebrating the unions of gay and lesbian couples.
Due to the ceremony's size and public visibility, the service may prove to
be a milestone in a controversy within the United Methodist Church,
which has about 8 million members, and in US Protestantism as a whole
over whether churches and clergy should acknowledge homosexual
relationships.
Never before have so many Methodist clergy publicly affirmed a lesbian
union and defied church law - although most of the participating clergy
belong to a liberal regional conference headed by a bishop who has
been an advocate of gay and lesbian rights.
"It's a crisis for the church, but the crisis was not caused by this event,"
the couple's pastor, Don Fado, told ENI. "There is a crisis within all of
the churches as to how to deal with this issue.
"I think history is going a certain direction, and that we're on the right
side."
For the moment, however, Fado, aged 65, and other participating clergy
face possible disciplinary action for violating the United Methodist Book of
Discipline. Penalties range from a reprimand to a trial that could strip
them
of their religious orders.
A formal complaint has been filed in the Iowa Annual (or regional)
Conference against David Holmes of Council Bluffs, Iowa, one of the
participating clergy. Complaints are also likely to be filed within the
California-Nevada Annual Conference, to which Fado and almost 80 of
the 92 Methodist clergy who participated in the ceremony belong.
Clergy from other Protestant denominations, including a retired bishop
from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, also took part in the 16
January ceremony. A total of about 150 clergy - Methodists and others -
blessed the union, though some did so in absentia.Holmes told ENI he
was not worried about a trial. He said the ceremony was one of the
great worship experiences of his life - an "affirmation of joy and
solidarity" marked by the hymn-singing for which Methodists are famous.
Bishop Melvin Talbert, who heads the California-Nevada Annual
Conference, has publicly said he disagrees with the church law
forbidding same-sex unions. But Bishop Talbert told the Sacramento Bee
newspaper that he and his cabinet had no choice but to investigate the
matter. Earlier, he told the United Methodist News Service that Fado had
"been above board all along" and had kept him informed about the plans
for the service.
Neither Bishop Talbert nor the conference's seven superintendents have
yet made complaints against the clergy who participated.
The United Methodist Judicial Council ruled last August that a section in
the Book of Discipline forbidding homosexual unions was enforceable,
meaning clergy could be disciplined if they performed such ceremonies.
The decision followed an earlier acquittal of a United Methodist pastor in
Nebraska who had performed a blessing and who had argued that the
passage forbidding clergy to perform such unions was not enforceable
under church law. (Such blessings are not legally binding, as
"marriages" between people of the same sex are not recognised in any
of the 50 US states.)
Fado, who has blessed about eight same-sex unions during the past 25
years, was angered by the August decision. He told his congregation in
October that if a "couple came forward" he would publicly perform a
ceremony and would do so with other Methodist clergy who disagreed
with the church's policy.
Charlton and Barnett, members of Fado's congregation and lay leaders in
the California-Nevada Annual Conference, then told him: "We're your
couple."
Fado told ENI he had initially thought that perhaps 50 Methodist clergy
would agree to attend or support the ceremony. He said he was heartened
that nearly double that number lent their support to the service. "Granted,
this is not your
usual Annual Conference," he said of the local church structure, noting
that it included high numbers of clergy from San Francisco, generally
regarded as one of the most liberal cities in the US.
"The thrust of this is that we are being obedient to our vows and to our
calling of Jesus as we hear it," Fado said, adding that he and the other
clergy expected some kind of discipline. But, he said, "we don't feel it's
sufficient enough to warrant our leaving the church".
The service has however prompted some strong criticism within the
United Methodist Church. James Heidinger II, who heads the denomination's
conservative Good News evangelical movement, told the United Methodist News
Service that his group was "profoundly distressed" by the service.
"Sadly, it is already bringing further division and polarisation to our
church," he said, adding that members of the California-Nevada Annual
Conference "are in rebellion against the clear standards of Scripture and
the Book of
Discipline".
Integrity, the US organisation of lesbian and gay Episcopalians
(Anglicans), has criticised a decision by the prosecution in the legal case
against two men accused of murdering a homosexual Episcopalian
student to seek the death penalty, if the pair are convicted. In the US
state of Wyoming last year, Matthew Shepard, aged 21, was beaten, tied
to a fence in near-freezing temperatures and left to die. The national and
foreign media gave widespread coverage to the death, which drew
messages of sympathy and concern from President Bill Clinton and some
church leaders followed his brutal murder death. "Matthew Shepard's
murder in October 1998 was a tragedy that deeply affected millions of
people all over the world," Integrity said in a statement yesterday 25
January. "In particular it resonated with gay and lesbian people because
many, if not most, of us, have lived in fear of violent acts against us and
repeatedly been the victims of prejudicial speech containing suggestions
of violence.
"Now, with sadness, we understand that the prosecutors of Matthew
Shepard's [alleged] killers seek the death penalty against them. We
oppose this further act of violence and ask them to reconsider their
decision, and not apply the capital punishment statute in this case. We do
so informed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the long-held belief of our
Episcopal Church that the death penalty is simply and completely wrong.
Violence only begets violence. Lesbian and gay people have known
violence in all its insidious forms. It is not the death of his killers
that will
bring about justice for Matthew Shepard. It is the conversion of all our
hearts from the ways of violence and hate." [1206 words]
All articles (c) Ecumenical News International
Ecumenical News International
ENI News Service
26 January 1999
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