Jack Hartwein-Sanchez

Twice I have been asked by members of my congregation if I would serve as an elder.  I told them no, for my small church does not have the funds to defend itself from the persecution that would come were they to ordain a gay man as an elder.

Jack Hartwein-Sanchez

This stole was one of the original 80 stoles that were on display on Sept. 16, 1995 when I set aside my ordination before Heartland Presbytery (see stole #1 for details).  It is, in fact, one of the very first stoles given to us.  Jack and I were in attendance as observers at the General Assembly in the summer of 1995, just weeks before I was scheduled to meet before my presbytery to relinquish my ordination.  When Jack heard this news, he went out and bought a plain white stole, hand-wrote this message on it, and gave it to me, telling me to take it with me to that meeting so I would know that I was not alone. 

If anyone would know the pain of one unable to follow their call, it would be Jack.  Jack was called upon twice to serve his church as an ordained elder, a lay leader in a Presbyterian congregation. Both times he refused to accept that call, knowing that the costly litigation and upheaval that would surely follow that act of ordination would be far too much for his small congregation to bear.  It was, therefore, an honor for me to have Jack's stole with me on that September day.  Flanked by his and dozens of other stoles from friends and colleagues, I knew that I truly was surrounded by a faithful "cloud of witnesses."

Martha Juillerat
Founder, Shower of Stoles Project
2006