Open Hands Vol 11 No. 3 - Valuing Difference, Part 2: Weaving Community from Diversity

Open Hands Vol 11 No. 3 - Valuing Difference, Part 2: Weaving Community from Diversity

11

3

1996

Winter

Valuing Differences
Part 2
Weaving Community
from Diversity
Vol. 11 No. 3
Winter 1996
2 Open Hands
Open Hands is a resource for congregations
and individuals seeking to be in
ministry with lesbian, bisexual, and gay
persons. Each issue focuses on a specific
area of concern within the church.
Open Hands is published quarterly by
the Reconciling Congregation Program,
Inc. (United Methodist) in cooperation
with the Association of Welcoming &
Affirming Baptists (American) the More
Light Churches Network (Presbyterian),
the Open and Affirming (United Church
of Christ), and the Reconciled in Christ
(Lutheran) programs. Each of these programs
is a national network of local
churches that publicly affirm their ministry
with the whole family of God and
welcome lesbian and gay persons and
their families into their community of
faith. These five programs— along with
Open and Affirming (Disciples of
Christ), Supportive Congregations
(Brethren/Mennonite), and Welcoming
(Unitarian Universalist)— offer hope
that the church can be a reconciled community.
Open Hands is published quarterly.
Subscription is $20 for four issues ($25
outside the U.S.). Single copies and back
issues are $6. Quantities of 10 or more,
$4 each.
Subscriptions, letters to the editor,
manuscripts, requests for advertising
rates, and other correspondence should
be sent to:
Open Hands
3801 N. Keeler Avenue
Chicago, IL 60641
Phone: 312 / 736-5526
Fax: 312 / 736-5475
Member, The Associated Church Press
© 1996
Reconciling Congregation Program, Inc.
Open Hands is a registered trademark.
ISSN 0888-8833
w Printed on recycled paper.
Vol. 11 No. 3 Winter 1996
Resources for Ministries Affirming
the Diversity of Human Sexuality
SETTING OUR LOOMS FOR DIFFERENCE
Focus on Diversity 4
Dealing with Diversity 5
TOINETTE M. EUGENE
Creating community from diversity begins with each of
us as we offer our confessions, our convictions, and our
commitments.
Bigot-Trees or Nature’s Way? A Poem 9
GAYE JAYNESDAUGHTER
Difference—negative or positive—lies in the eye of the
beholder.
Crumbs from the Master’s Table 10
PAUL W. EGERTSON
Inclusion seems good to the Holy Spirit! Does it seem
good to us?
The Caring Shepherd: A Parable for Children 13
MARGARET LIRONES
Focusing on the shepherd’s actions rather than on the
lost sheep highlights Jesus’ real message.
DIVINE WEAVING IN PROGRESS
Homosexuality in the Evangelical Experience 14
HOWARD H. BESS
When dramatic conversion doesn’t work, then what?
Valuing Differences, Part 2
Weaving Community from Diversity
Winter 1996 3
ONE MORE SELECTED MOVEMENT WELCOMING
WORD RESOURCES NEWS CHURCHES LIST
24 25 26 29
Next issue:
Living with/Learning from Conflict
All Things to all People 16
CORNELIUS KANHAI
Becoming a welcoming congregation must not lead us
into arrogance.
Valuing Dif ferences: A Process of Experience 18
DEEANNA P. MERZ WITH AL DUVALL
Learnings gained from local congregation lead to further
steps in nurturing community.
Transformation in Front of our Own Eyes! 20
DODY S. MATTHIAS
Conference staff and cabinet members explore privilege
and engage in steps of accountability.
Valuing Dif ferences: Study Ideas 21
MARY JO OSTERMAN WITH DODY S. MATTHIAS
Want to study this two-part series on Valuing
Differences? Here are three activities.
SUSTAINING THE SPIRIT
Weaving Diversity and Unity: A Liturgy 22
CATHY ANN BEATY
Celebrate unity in diversity through a liturgy.
Weave: A Song 23
ROSEMARY CROW
Sing your commitment to weaving Christian community.
PICTORIAL: ONA Exultation p. 28
Publisher
Mark Bowman
Editor
Mary Jo Osterman
Illustrations
Chris Wild
Layout / Graphics / Typesetting
In Print – Jan Graves
Program Coordinators
Mark Bowman
Reconciling Congregation
Program, Inc. (UMC)
3801 N. Keeler Avenue
Chicago, IL 60641
312/736-5526
Ann B. Day
Open and Affirming
Program (UCC)
P.O. Box 403
Holden, MA 01520
508/856-9316
Judy Bond
Reconciled in Christ
Program (ELCA)
1722 Hollinwood Drive
Alexandria, VA 22307
703/768-4915
William Capel
More Light Churches
Network (PCUSA)
123R West Church Street
Champaign, IL 61820-3510
217/355-9825
Brenda J. Moulton
Welcoming & Affirming
Baptists (ABC/USA))
P.O. Box 2596
Attleboro Falls, MA 02763
508/226-1945
Editorial Advisory Committee
Howard Bess, W&A
Ann Marie Coleman, ONA
Dan Hooper, RIC
Derrick Kikuchi, MLCN
Tammy Lindahl, MLCN
Samuel E. Loliger, ONA
Tim Phillips, W&A
Dick Poole, RIC
Caroline Presnell, RCP
Irma C. Romero, ONA
Paul Santillán, RCP
Martha Scott, RCP
Joanne Sizoo, MLCN
Stuart Wright, RIC
4 Open Hands
Our lives are enhanced and enlivened by the
diversity of creation (not human creation
alone). Let’s explore and celebrate the
rainbow of colors and plethora of
shapes that make it all interesting!
Let’s seek to open up
the ways in which we delude
ourselves for
the sake of
“safety” and
bland -
ness.
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Welcoming congregations weave a
multiplicity of colors, textures,
shapes, cultural identities, ages, genders,
and orientations into a human
tapestry full of difference. With our
looms set for diversity rather than for
sameness, we are creating Christian
community. As we gather up diverse
fibers of humanity and weave them
into a whole, we weave the body of
Christ— the holy people of God.
—Editor
Diversity is something that is
seen, touched, heard. When we meet
it, we can turn and run in fear or we can
greet it and embrace it. Our welcoming congregations
embody diversity; yet to be whole
and alive, we still need to celebrate this diversity
actively and intentionally.
—Thoughts of the Open Hands Advisory
Committee as they helped
shape this theme for the magazine.
FOCUS ON DIVERSITY
SETTING
OUR
LOOMS
FOR
DIFFERENCE
Winter 1996 5
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To deal with diversity is to accept
an open invitation to be as inclusive
as possible in developing
welcoming and reconciling communities
of faith. To deal with diversity is to
enter into covenantal choices that can
bind us together as congregations whose
confessions, convictions, and commitments
honor the differences which enhance
us as uniquely Christian human
beings. “Dealing with diversity” is a
lifestyle that renews us in ways that lift
us out of the status quo and into the
sacred spaces where we know ourselves
to be transformed and transforming in
an era which desperately needs conversion
and change.
Confessions
True confessions are good for the
soul. They are vitally important for
the religious community as we reclaim
identity and integrity in an era when
complicity and conspiracy are symbolic
of the sickness and sinfulness of our
American society. What we seem to have
lost is something as simple as respect—
for each other, for the earth, and for the
kind of values that could hold us together.
Most of the social, economic, and
political issues we now face have a spiritual
core. Rapidly changing demographics
and our ingrained habits of racism,
sexism, homophobia, and classism will
create increasing cultural polarization
unless we begin to confess our common
humanity and equality as children of
God. The insatiable momentum of our
consumerism will ultimately poison
both our environment and our hearts
unless we learn to confess and to reclaim
our right relationship to the earth, its
diverse cultures and peoples, and its
abundance.
Because I deal and struggle with diversity
in painful and poignant ways
every day of my life—not because I want
to but because I have to— I need to begin
by confessing who I am as well as
who I want to be. I confess that my significant
academic degrees were received,
and my dissertation was written, in the
School of Hard Knocks. As Zora Neale
Hurston (premier African American anthropologist
and “rumored to be lesbian”
author in the literary era of the
Harlem Renaissance) would say, “Ah
done been in sorrow’s kitchen and ah
licked de pots clean.”1
How many of us can confess to this?
Can we say with conviction that we
know the taste of disappointment, despair,
deprivation delivered only and
intentionally because of religious denomination,
race, class, gender, or sexual
orientation? Can we taste it? Can we
smell it? Can we feel it? Can we choose
to be in solidarity with it? That means
taking it up— the way one reverently
picks up a fallen flag...or takes up an
old rugged cross.
I confess that even saying this makes
me feel a little uncomfortable. I feel
more than a little bit like one of the old
ladies of my home church, a black Roman
Catholic Church in Oakland, California.
Whenever I go home to preach,
I greet the Mothers of the Church, those
wizened and wise old women who have
grown down and smaller with the passing
of the years because they have borne
the heat and the burden of the day. I
look forward to an exchange with
Mother Camille who always says to me,
“Why, Chil’, Girl, how you all doin’?”
and I say, “Well—just fine, Mother
Camille. And how ‘bout you?” And she
looks me in the eye, and she says with a
straight face, “Why, Baby, I’m somewhere
between ‘Lord, Have Mercy!’ and
‘Thank You, Jesus!’”
As I seek to say something about
“Dealing with Diversity,” the oppressions
and ideologies of dominance, the
abuse of power, privilege, and the abuse
of persons which universally occurs
within the interstices of sexism and
heterosexism, of racism and classism, of
rampant consumerism and capitalism,
I confess that I am somewhere closer to
“Lord, Have Mercy” than I am to “Thank
You, Jesus.”
I need to confess that I am black and
that I am also by birth and academic
training and denominational tradition,
a western Christian. Because of that, I
have inherited—and sometimes even
handed on like bread gone stale—the
pernicious dualism that western Christianity
has held sacred between sex and
God, between sexuality and spirituality,
body and spirit, pleasure and goodness.
By literally splitting us in two, the
dominant ideology of western Christian
culture has rendered us flattened facsimiles
of fully human beings. We have
been stripped— spiritually, physically,
emotionally, and intellectually— of our
capacities to delight in ourselves, one
another, the creation, and its holy wellsprings.
Lord, have mercy!
I confess that I am a self-avowed
Catholic Christian, a black, lesbian
woman, made in the image and likeness
of a mighty good God. I confess that
because of who I am and whose I am,
like Zora, I am no longer concerned
about whether some folk count me
“out” or “in” the official ranks of the
church or the academy, or of polite or
politically correct seminary faculty, or
within the fold of respected civic society.
My primary interest, spiritually and
intellectually, is in empowering people—
beginning with myself— to live a life that
is characterized by justice/love, in mutuality,
in right relationship.2 Thank
you, Jesus!
In dealing with diversity, in reaching
for the reconciliation of God’s
people, I confess that I must be accountable
with and to those others who are
also committed to justice/love for all. I
may not always live out this value evenly
or very well. Most of us do not. But the
commitment is honest and strong. The
promise that draws me to people who
seek justice/love is that they will remind
me that, even when I believe I am being
more ➟
DEALING WITH DIVERSITY:
Confessions, Convictions, and Commitments
By Toinette M. Eugene
6 Open Hands
so inclusive in my work, inadvertently
someone is usually being left out because
of my limitations. To that extent,
I am helping hold unjust power in place
even in my honest outpourings for justice/
love. I confess that I need to be
more inclusive still. Lord, have mercy!
Finally, I confess that I am able to
stand more closely in solidarity with
those whose radical politics and spirituality
I have come to trust: those who
know that we meet the Sacred in relation
to one another and who understand
that any power that we or others use in
ways that are not mutually empowering
is abusive. I look to such radical
women and men, of whatever color, religion,
class, sexual preference or orientation,
to confirm in me a joyful commitment
to live responsibly in this
world. Thank you, Jesus!
Dealing with diversity means more
than just welcoming or recruiting
people of color. It means dealing with
and honoring human differences, confronting
the racism, classism, elitism,
and liturgical literalism that limits our
pro-action and reaction. It means dealing
with whatever limits our ability to
listen longer than we claim our right to
speak. It requires the confession that
“It’s me, it’s me, it’s me, Oh Lord, standing
in the need of prayer!” Lord, have
mercy!
Community Query
1. What do we need to confess?
Convictions
Because of my confessions, I stand
convicted, not as a criminal, but by
the love of God for me and for all who
struggle to deal with diversity, to honor
diversity, to utilize diversity as a way to
enter joyfully and completely into the
kindom of God. To be convicted is to
be convinced, to be sure, to know that
the truth (though it may make us weary)
can also set us free (Jn 8:32)! I have three
convictions about the ways members of
different races, ages, classes—people who
are also gay, lesbian, and bisexual— can
lead us in our struggles to deal with diversity
as we seek mutuality, long for
equality, and work for justice/love.
Conviction 1: Sexuality is relative. It is
more than coincidence that the gay, lesbian,
and bisexual liberation movement
is occurring in a time and culture which
is passing from a scientific myth of
Newtonian absoluteness to that of
Einsteinian relativity. There is a relativity
about sexuality that is not well served
by those who, like Newton, feel they can
confidently know the unbending “laws”
of nature. Plato (working out of a
Newtonian world view) said that homosexuality
was unnatural because animals
“didn’t do it.” However, Plato did not
know what animals naturally do and not
do sexually. Two prophetic gifts from
the gay, lesbian, and bisexual community
will be to teach humility to those
who presume to know exactly what is
and is not “natural” and to teach that
what is natural varies with different
groups, cultures, racial/ethnic values,
and traditions. Sameness does not necessarily
bring about solidarity or satisfactory
solutions.
Members of different
races, ages, classes—
people who are also gay,
lesbian, and bisexual—
can lead us in
our struggles to deal
with diversity
As Alfred North Whitehead (working
out of an Einsteinian world view) put
it, “the laws of nature develop together
with societies which constitute an epoch.”
3 Part of the Einsteinian epoch we
are moving into will be an acceptance
of the relativity of sexual lifestyles. With
this acceptance, a new awareness will
occur: The essence of human sexuality
is in establishing faithful relationships
and in the quality of right relationships,
not in absolutist laws and principles a
la Newton. Meister Eckhart (the medieval
mystic) taught that “relation is the
essence of a thing.”4 This relational spirituality
corresponds beautifully with
Einstein’s teaching on the scientific
theory of relativity.
Conviction 2: Faith is built on right
relationships, not self-righteous institutions.
Because lesbians, gay men, and
bisexual persons have not been widely
welcomed into ecclesiastical institutions,
those who have remained have
had to look beyond institutions for answers
to our questions of faith: What
matters? Does anything matter? A well
of creativity can be tapped from persons
who have learned to live marginally
in institutions. They could be a
powerful force in revitalizing very stolid
institutions.
Conviction 3: Difference is a basis for
creativity. Lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons
stand as witnesses to how people
can indeed be creatively different and
equal. As minority people, (the “Poor
of Yahweh,” known in the Old Testament
as “anawim”5), they have the potential
to be more creative because they
have touched nothingness in their being
emptied and because they have been
made painfully aware of their being different.
The recovery of the body as spirit
and the reclaiming of a more sensual
spirituality and a less product-oriented
love are particular gifts of the gay, lesbian,
and bisexual community to the
DIVERSITY FORUM: Toinette Eugene
raises questions about confessions,
convictions, and commitment at RCP
Convocation, July 1995.
Photo: Nancy Carter
Winter 1996 7
church at large. By not splitting body
and soul and by not equating sexuality
exclusively with procreation (as Augustine
did), they allow for the energies of
the Spirit to flow once again. They overcome
dualisms that neither Jesus nor the
prophets ever imagined, allowing passion
in its proper place so that compassion
might be born. By removing sexual
expression from the dominant culture’s
productive motif, as if sexual love needs
to be justified by having babies, they—
like the author of the Song of Songs—
can teach our society and churches to
pause long enough to savor life and its
divine delights.
If it is true, as Gutierrez writes, that
“the spirituality of liberation will have
as its basis the spirituality of the
anawim,”6 then the issue of First and
Third World liberation, of feminist,
womanist, mujerista, and male liberation,
of North American as well as Latin
American liberation, of white as well as
black, brown, red liberation cannot be
joined without the sexual anawim being
listened to. When a society can allow
for differences, it will— as historian
John Boswell demonstrates the medieval
church did—celebrate creative rejuvenation
because of the presence of the
anawim people in its midst. Perhaps it
is not too late to begin to listen to those
who represent the anawim in our midst.
Community Query
2. Of what do we stand convicted?
Commitments
Having made my confessions and
named my convictions, I next
must offer my commitments. Commitments,
promises, covenants, and communities
develop best in the context of
gratitude and thanksgiving for all that
is and for all that might be in a future
full of hope (Jer 29:11). In a spirit of
gratitude to the members of the lesbian,
gay, and bisexual community, I offer five
commitments as we seek to deal with
diversity as welcoming congregations.7
Commitment 1: To be in solidarity with
the homosexual and bisexual
members of welcoming
congregations because
you have been
teaching us in the church
“a hermeneutic of suspicion.”
For far too long
the church and its academy
has been uncritical
of its own assumptions
in doing theology. However,
anawim people, the
faithful diverse and different
ones so loved by
God, have been teaching
us a more healthfully
suspicious theology.
Those of us who are “different”
in race, in sexual
orientation, and in
downwardly mobile
class diversity, have
taught us, for example,
to distrust sincerity as a
validating criterion for
theology. Some of us
used to think that when
some Christians found
homosexuality contrary
to God’s will on biblical
grounds, their sincere use of the scriptures
should be respected, even if we
disagreed with their conclusions. Some
of us have come to believe that this is
like saying that when white folk sincerely
ground in the Bible their convictions
that persons of color are inferior,
we ought to respect that sincerity. Even
the Southern Baptist Convention is getting
over that old colorphobic chestnut!
8 Sincerity and elaborate uses of
scripture are no guarantee of freedom
from homophobia or of racism. We are,
all of us, afflicted with those diseases.
Anawim folk have taught us to be more
creatively suspicious as well as subversive
in doing theology.
Commitment 2: To be in solidarity with
gay, lesbian, and bisexual brothers and sisters
because you have made the church
more aware of its Christian tradition. For
example, in pressing the question of
blessing unions, you have made some
of us more aware of our frequent errors
in understanding the Christian tradition
of marriage. So many have thought that
clergy actually perform marriages and
that churches have a special power to
create a valid marriage. This is not so.
Some of you have reminded the church
that only the covenant of two persons
with each other and with God creates a
union. The church has the opportunity
to bless, celebrate, and support a union.
However, it is the covenanting process
that creates a marriage, not the church
or the clergy or a wedding service or a
license. That applies to gay and lesbian
unions as much as it does to those of
heterosexual people.
Commitment 3: To be in solidarity with
the folk who emanate out of the homosexual
and bisexual margins of our almost
monocultural western Christianity because
you have shown us a bigger church than
the one we once knew. In quantitative
size, this anawim group is a statistical
minority. However, in qualitative size,
we are no minority because we are large
and making the church larger. We have
had many reasons and many occasions
to vote with our feet and leave the
church. Yet we have stayed because we
believe that the gospel is for everyone.
We have stayed because we still bear the
hope that the church might be yet larger
Photo: Dale Fast Description: p. 17
Artists: Oscar Martinez and John Pitman Weber ©1973
more ➟
8 Open Hands
in stature, larger in the size of its soul,
bigger in its integrity, greater in its ability
to entertain a rich variety of persons,
fuller in its strength of spirit to enable
all people to realize their destiny to freedom,
uniqueness, and worth. I thank
God for this revelation and vision of a
bigger church.
Sacred clowns—
God’s anawim people—
do things backwards!
Commitment 4: To commit to, and
thank God for, members of the homosexual
and bisexual communities who have chosen
to become sacred clowns. There is an
ancient tradition of the sacred clown—
indeed, of Christ as a clown.9 And in the
Native American tradition, the
heyoehkah (sometimes negatively described
as the berdache) were sacred
clowns, honored in the tribe for their
important and special functions of healing,
and for their work as shamans.10
They were those in the tribe who did
things differently, who challenged
people’s thinking and shook them up,
who kept them from becoming rigid.
They were called “contraries” because
they did some things backward, did
things contrary to what others considered
normal. I thank God that we have
been shown by anawim people, in their
contrariness, a heyoehkah response to
AIDS. When the so-called normal response
was fear and panic, sacred clowns
danced backward and responded with
love and compassion. When the world
was talking about dying with AlDS, you
were helping people to live with AIDS.
When the “normal” response was to isolate,
you drew people into community.
When most people said that AlDS is not
about us, but about “them,” you said,
“This is about us all; our whole planet
is sick and has acquired an immune
dysfunction.” I thank you for dancing
the dance of the sacred clowns.
Commitment 5: To lift up the power
and potential of liberating love to heal us
all of our limitations, to forgive us of our
sins, to reconcile us to ourselves, to God,
and to the “other,” whoever and however
different from us they may be. H.L.
Mencken once described the Puritan as
the one who deep down had a nagging
sense that some people, somewhere,
might be enjoying themselves. Well, I
have a nagging sense that all of us are
sinners. All of us are broken and need
healing. Our sin, however, does not lie
in living out our sexuality or in our particular
sexual orientations, whatever
they may be, but in our estrangement
from love. My final commitment in
dealing with diversity is to reiterate and
to reinforce the need for all of us to find
prophetic, radical, subversive ways to
live and love in right relationships, with
justice/love, wherever we are.
Community Queries
3. What are our commitments?
4. How shall we respond?
Liberating justice/love can teach us
and comfort us in our efforts to deal
with diversity, with confessions, with
convictions, and with commitment.
Carter Heyward insists that
• To say “I love you” is to say that you
are not mine, but rather your own.
• To love you is to advocate your rights,
your space, your self, and to struggle
with you, rather than against you, in
our learning to claim our power in
the world....
• To love you is to be pushed by a
power/God both terrifying and comforting,
to touch and be touched by
you. To love you is to sing with you,
cry with you, pray with you, and act
with you to re-create the world.
• To say “I love you” means—let the
revolution begin!...11 ▼
Source
This article is adapted from a longer speech
given at the Fourth National Convocation
of Reconciling Congregations, July 13-16,
1995, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Copyright
1995 by Open Hands. Original speech is available
on videotape from RCP. 312/736-5526.
Notes
1For rumor, see Alice Walker, In Search of Our
Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose (San Diego:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983), p. 88.
For quote, see Mary Helen Washington,
“Zora Neale Hurston: A Woman Half in
Shadow,” I Love Myself When I am Laughing
…And Then Again When I am Looking Mean
and Impressive: A Zora Neale Hurston Reader,
A1ice Walker, ed., (New York: Feminist,
1979), p. 19.
2The terms justice/love, mutuality, and right
relationship are richly expanded upon by
Carter Heyward in Touching Our Strength: The
Erotic as Power and the Love of God (San Francisco:
Harper & Row, 1989).
3Cited in Donald W. Sherburne, A Key to
Whitehead’s Process and Reality (New York:
Macmillan, 1966), p. 93.
4See Matthew Fox, Breakthrough: Meister
Eckhart Creation Spirituality in New Translation
(Garden City: Doubleday, Image, 1980);
and Fox, Meditations with Meister Eckhart
(Santa Fe: Bear, 1982).
5See A. Gelin, The Poor of Yahweh
(Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1953). Also Ps
9:18; 82:3-4; and Zeph 3:12.
6Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation:
History, Politics, and Salvation, trans. Sr.
Caridad Inda and John Eagleston (Maryknoll:
Orbis, 1973), p. 207f.
7This list is derived and adapted from James
B. Nelson, “I Thank God for You: A Sermon
for Lesbian and Gay Awareness Week at
United Theological Seminary,” in James B.
Nelson, Body Theology (Louisville:
Westminster/John Knox, 1992), pp. 183-189.
8See “The Era of Collective Repentance,” U.
S. News and World Report, July 3, 1995, pp.
10-11, and “SBC renounces racist past,” Christian
Century, July 5-12, 1995, pp. 671-672, for
reports on apology offered by the largest
Protestant body for “condoning individual
and systematic racism in our lifetime,” a
scene strikingly reminiscent of the apology
four years ago by the Dutch Reformed
Church to black South Africans for having
provided religious justification for apartheid.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu accepted that
apology.
9Henri J. M. Nouwen, Clowning in Rome: Reflections
on Solitude, Celibacy, Prayer, and
Contemplation (Garden City: Image, 1979).
10Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering
the Feminine in American Indian Traditions
(Boston: Beacon, 1992), pp. 197-200.
11Carter Heyward, Our Passion for Justice (New
York: Pilgrim, 1984), p. 93.
Toinette M. Eugene, Ph.D., is an associate
professor of Christian social ethics at
Garrett-Evangelical
Theological Seminary
and a member of the
graduate faculty of
Northwestern University
in Evanston, Illinois.
Winter 1996 9
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Gaye Janesdaughter is a pseudonym used by a
woman in deference to her partner’s need for
complete anonymity professionally. The greatgranddaughter
of a Presbyterian minister, she
married an Episcopal priest, divorced, raised her
two sons as a single parent for eighteen years,
and claimed a lesbian identity in 1987. After a
particularly painful discussion with a minister who
said he didn’t think homosexuality was “natural,”
Gaye went for a walk and saw the beautiful copper
beech with brown leaves standing among
green-leafed trees.
Hail to you, O Copper Beech,
Hail to you, O Copper Beech,
flourishing in the wood.
What tales of prejudice would you tell,
if only now you could?
Do all the other green-leafed trees
speak to you of “norm”
and turn their branches up at you
with deep contemptuous scorn?
Would they deny you a chance to live
in their exclusive town,
saying: “It’s not Nature’s way
to make spring leaves red-brown.”
And do you ever try to say:
“I just came this way, you see.
I never asked to be a Beech,
just a happy, living tree.”
But, perhaps, your neighbors see in you
the contrast you present
and view your dark leaves happily,
unthreatened and content.
Perhaps, they see your reddish brown
highlighting their own green hue
and rejoice in the fact that this wide globe
can accommodate both them and you.
Oh, would that the woods could teach us
how to live like them in grace
and show us how to enjoy the “others”
of different styles and race.
If we could see the differences as
variations on a theme,
then we could love, as God must love,
Her little earthling dream.
June 1990
Bigot-Trees or Nature’s Way?
See 1 Corinthians 12:4-13
By Gaye Janesdaughter
10 Open Hands
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Who Should Be Made
Disciples?
The first churchwide assembly was held
in the first century, less than twentyyears
after Pentecost. The minutes of
that meeting are recorded in chapter 15
of Acts. The issue the Spirit put before
the church then focused on which
people were, and which were not, acceptable
in the Christian fellowship.
Jesus had sent his apostles to make disciples
of all nations. But the first Christians
were all Jews and apparently
thought Jesus meant to make disciples
of the Jews in all the nations. He certainly
couldn’t have meant to include
Samaritans, for the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans. And he certainly
didn’t mean to include the Gentiles,
for Jews do not enter the houses of
Gentiles or ever eat with them.
So what was the problem? Well, the
problem was that the Spirit of God, without
permission from the duly recognized
apostolic leaders in Jerusalem,
inspired a layman to preach the gospel
and baptize some of the dreaded Samaritans.
Only after the fact were the apostolic
leaders brought in to evaluate those
irregular baptisms. Worse yet, Peter, who
was one of the apostolic leaders, and
therefore should have known better, got
into the spirit of things himself. Along
with a couple of friends, he preached
the gospel and baptized a Gentile. Only
after the fact did he explain his unauthorized
sacramental practice to the
church. Amazingly, he did not justify
his actions on either the grounds of
scripture or tradition, but on a personal
and subjective experience of insight
from the Spirit of God. Finally, an outside
upstart, ordained by God but not
by the apostles, began making a habit
of preaching to and baptizing Gentiles.
The growth of Paul’s congregations was
so rapid the church could no longer
endure these happenings without coming
to some consensus on their meaning
for its life and ministry. So the first
churchwide assembly was called together
in Jerusalem.
The question under discussion was
essentially this: “Are Gentiles saved by
the grace of God alone or do they also
have to observe the laws of Moses?” Can
you imagine the discussion which followed
when the question before the
house asked if it was necessary for Christians
to obey everything written in their
Bible: the Law and the Prophets? They
had no New Testament. All they had was
the gospel being orally preached and
believed. The minutes tell us they settled
the issue by a four-fold appeal: to the
prophets of Israel; to the gospel; to reasoning
from their own experience of the
gospel; and to their own sense of being
led by the Spirit of God. In the process,
they used one part of the Bible to support
their freedom from any obligation
to obey other parts of the Bible.
The result was a decision that has
been honored in the church ever since;
Gentile Christians are not to be bound
by every command in the Law of Moses.
But, because that Law was being read
every week in the synagogues, most Jewish
Christians continued to attend; and
because many of them had a lifetime of
religious education and conditioning
that would not quickly be overcome by
the startling new standards set by the
gospel and the Spirit, the Gentile Christians
were asked to avoid a few practices
which, however erroneously, were still
widely believed to be against the will of
God.
This momentous decision made by
that first churchwide assembly required
the reeducation of people away from
some things their Bible and religious
tradition had always taught them. Why?
Because in Christ a new time had
dawned and what was once not acceptable
was now acceptable. How do we
know? We know from our experience
of the gospel and the leading of the Spirit
of God among us as we dialogue openly
with each other. What do we do? We
change our policies from those of past
times to those for the present time, asking
people to be patient and sensitive
to each other’s feelings during the transition.
Can we be 100 percent sure we
Crumbs from the Master’s Table
Matthew 15:21-29
By Paul W. Egertson
I feel strangely at home here at Wesley United Methodist Church (see
Source, p. 12). Thirty-eight years ago, while I was a student at Luther Seminary
in St. Paul, my wife was pregnant with our first child. Our doctor’s
office was in the Wesley office building which used to stand next door to this
church and we came here regularly for pre-natal care. Our baby boy was duly
born at Fairview Hospital, not far from here. Twenty-one years later, he told
us he is gay. I also feel right at home here in a Eucharist sponsored by the
Twin Cities chapter of Lutherans Concerned and presided over by the irregularly
ordained pastors of St. Francis Lutheran Church in San Francisco where
my son is a member and has served as president. Yes, I really feel at home
here.
I hope you feel at home here, too. Many of us are in Minneapolis attending
the Fourth Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America. These assemblies are times when Lutherans meet to deliberate on
issues the Spirit of God places before the church. In every period of the church’s
life, new issues arise and old issues are viewed with new eyes. Each time that
happens, God’s people have gone back to square one and listened again to
hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
Winter 1996 11
have it right? No. The best we can hope
for is the level of certainty that first
churchwide assembly reported: It seemed
good to the Holy Spirit and to us.
Who Receives the
Blessings?
I’ve reviewed this ancient lesson because
the issue it raises is not ancient
at all. It comes up in the life of the
church repeatedly. Every generation has
to learn it anew, often in relation to issues
that were not faced before. The
story from Matthew 15:21-29 is a case
in point. The date of that first assembly
in Jerusalem we believe to have been 48-
50 CE, well within the lifetime of the
first generation of Christians. The Gospel
of Matthew is one of the latest gospels
written, probably some thirty-five
years after the assembly at Jerusalem.
Matthew’s readers then, are second generation
Christians who need to deal
again with the question of the acceptability
of Gentiles into the church.
The point of the story is that a Gentile
woman asks Jesus to heal her demon
possessed daughter. The disciples want
Jesus to send her away. Jesus tells her
what many of the Jewish Christians who
are Matthew’s readers personally believed:
I am sent only to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel, not to the Gentiles.
It isn’t fair to give the blessings
belonging to the children of the house
(read, Israelites) to the house dogs (read,
Gentiles).
The use of the word dogs here reminds
us of how hostile the feelings
between Jews and Gentiles were
then. Each referred to the
other as dogs. The Jews
were dogs to the Gentiles
because they
denied the polytheism of the Greek and
Roman religions. The Gentiles were dogs
to the Jews because they did not believe
in the monotheism of the one true faith.
In other words, their mutual rejection
was grounded in their religious convictions.
What does this woman say to Jesus?
“Even the dogs get to eat the crumbs that
fall from their master’s table.” What
does Jesus say to her? “Great is your
faith. Your wish is granted. Your daughter
is healed.” And what did those early
Christians learn from this story? The
healing grace of God comes to people
through faith, not through their racial
or religious genealogy! It comes to
women as well as to men. (This is not a
story about a man and his son.) It comes
to Gentiles as well as Jews. In other
words, the gospel breaks through all the
boundaries human culture and religion
have created. Christians are no longer
confined to live within borders Christ
himself has crossed. It seemed good to
the Holy Spirit and to them.
Who Does ALL Include
Today?
Just as first and second generation
Christians had to learn this lesson in
their times, so every generation of Christians
down through the centuries has
had to relearn it in their time. Our grandparents
had to learn it in relation to the
race issue in America. Are black people
fully human? Does the Spirit intend for
us to admit them into our congregations?
My generation had to learn it in
relation to the gender issue in America.
This year we celebrate twenty-five years
of ordaining women in our Lutheran
church. But I was ordained thirty-five
years ago and voted at least three times
against seating women as delegates to
our district conventions. Yet, the Spirit
drove us during the 1960s to a new understanding
of the Word that led to ordaining
women in the 1970s.
When this text in Matthew last came
up for reading in Sunday worship, the
message on the back of our denomination’s
Sunday bulletin folders tried
to connect the story with our time and
church. It applied the lesson about Jews
and Gentiles in the first century to our
contemporary expressions of human
division by a reference to women and
then added:
In our churches, the presence of
children in worship, the needs of
the disabled, the elderly, the voices
of minorities may challenge us to
reevaluate our mission. The Holy
Spirit continues to call those we
often discount.
Note who are listed here as
people we often discount:
women, children, disabled,
elderly, minorities.
more ➟
12 Open Hands
Are there any people the church often
discounts missing from that list of
discounted people? Are there some
people so discounted they don’t even
make our list of the discounted? Only 5
to 10 percent of the world’s population!
The people being placed by the Spirit
before the church for full acceptance in
our time are the gay, lesbian, and bisexual
persons whom we are not yet
comfortable even naming. If the Spirit
is not facing us with this class of humanity
for reconsideration, why has
every major mainline denomination
been re-examining its policies in relationship
to them? And why has there
risen up outside the official structures
but within the fellowship of every major
denomination a cadre of persons to
bear witness to the need for change? And
why has there developed in every church
body a growing list of congregations
willing to break the old traditions in the
light of new leading from the Spirit by
giving a public affirmation of welcome
to gay and lesbian people? Each denomination
has its own name for them. In
Lutheran circles they are called Reconciled
in Christ congregations, while
United Methodists know them as Reconciling
Congregations and Presbyterians
call them More Light Churches....
So long as all is an
exclusive word
in our time meaning
heterosexuals only,
we will have to follow
the New Testament’s
example, saying:
and also for
homosexuals.
If Christians in our time are to fulfill
the Spirit’s call to become a fully inclusive
church...then we can no longer omit
these people from the list of those to be
specifically identified for inclusion. In
the early church it was not enough to
say the gospel was for all, because all
meant all Jews, but not Gentiles. So
when the Word of the Spirit in that time
was heard, those Christians made sure
to specify that the gospel was not only
for Jews but also for the Greeks. Paul’s
letters are full of those specific designations.
So long as all is an exclusive
word in our time meaning heterosexuals
only, we will have to follow the New
Testament’s example, saying: and also
for the homosexuals.
If the church wants
to keep gay and lesbian
people from
sitting or serving at the
Lord’s table,
it should not drop them
any crumbs...
or allow them to
overhear the gospel.
In the meantime, my son and you
other gay and lesbian people may have
to be content with the crumbs that fall
from the Master’s table. But before you
feel too depressed about that, let me tell
you something about those crumbs.
They are made up of the same bread
being eaten by those who have a seat at
the table. The same nutrients they receive,
you receive. The grace given and
received is the same grace whether from
loaves off the table or crumbs off the
floor. That grace accepts, reconciles, redeems,
and saves all in like manner. You
may have to wait for seating at the
church’s table, but you are already eating
at the Lord’s table.
Finally, Only Two Options
If the church is hesitant to take a stand
regarding gay and lesbian people, it
might be helpful to recognize that only
two options are finally available. On the
one hand, we can do what the first Christians
did. We can continue to discuss
this matter in Christian love with one
another and if it seems good to the Holy
Spirit and to us, we can remove both our
rejecting attitudes and policies and announce
to the world that for us all
means homosexual people, too. Since
there are many who have been taught
from the Bible by the church that such
acceptance is unthinkable, we will all
need to be sensitive to those whose religious
conditioning will not allow them
to embrace the change.
On the other hand, if the church cannot
believe the Spirit is saying this for
our time, then it should quit being so
sloppy in its table manners and stop allowing
crumbs to fall where those not
qualified to receive God’s meal might
happen upon it. If white Christians really
wanted to keep black people enslaved,
they should never have allowed
them to sit in the balcony of their
churches and hear the gospel. If Christian
men want to keep women subordinate,
they should not only insist women
keep silent in church, as the Bible clearly
commands, but also insist they not go
to church at all, lest they hear the gospel
and be set free. And if the church
wants to keep gay and lesbian people
from sitting or serving at the Lord’s
table, it should not drop them any
crumbs from the table or otherwise allow
them to overhear the gospel.
Why? Because the gospel is the power
of God for the salvation of all who believe,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Any
underclass persons who eat its crumbs,
even from the floor, will be transformed
and empowered in such a way that they
will finally find their place at the table
of God. It is to that table that Christ now
invites us all, regardless of sexual orientation.
Amen. ▼
Source
This article is adapted with permission from
a sermon preached at Wesley United Methodist
Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota, on
August 19, 1995, in a Eucharist sponsored
by Lutherans Concerned/Twin Cities. Copyright
1995 by Via Media, 385 Los Arboles,
#222, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360. Permission
to quote or copy must be secured in writing.
Paul W. Egertson, Ph.D., a long-time pastor
and educator, assumed office in February
1995 as bishop of the Southern California
West Synod of
the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America.
He and his wife
Shirley Mae have raised
six sons and now have
two grandsons.
Winter 1996 13
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One, two, three...fifty-five, fiftysix...
ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninetynine.
(Sit back and let the children absorb
this. They have been counting for a
long time and expecting to reach
100.)
Oh, dear, one is missing! Now this
shepherd (touch the figure of the shepherd)
could say, “ Oh, well, I have ninetynine
sheep. That’s still a lot of sheep.”
But this shepherd does not do that. This
shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep
where they are in the wilderness and
goes searching (move the figure of the
shepherd) over the hills...and in the
caves...and behind the rocks...and in the
bushes...and just everywhere until this
shepherd finds the one that is lost. (Place
the one remaining sheep with the shepherd.)
And when this shepherd finds the
lost one, he carries it on his shoulders
and calls all of his friends and neighbors
to celebrate with him!
God is like this shepherd. If even one
person is missing from God’s whole
people, God searches and searches and
finds that person and calls all of us to
celebrate. In our church, we are happy
whenever anyone knows God’s love. We
celebrate, just like the shepherd’s neighbors.
That’s what God calls us to do.
(Slowly and silently put your
storytelling materials away as the
children watch. Then continue the
discussion or dismiss them to their
next activity.) ▼
Note
1This way of sharing stories with children is
derived from the work of Jerome Berryman.
See his book Godly Play: A Way of Religious
Education (Harper: San Francisco, 1991).
Margaret Lirones, director of Christian education
at Centennial United Methodist Church
in Sacramento, is a member of Davis United
Methodist Church and lives in Davis, California
with her partner and their two children.
Her son Eric (below) was four when she first
told this story in Vacation Bible School.
Today we are going to hear a story
that Jesus told. When Jesus was
traveling around his country, he
spent time with all kinds of people: rich
people and poor people, healthy people
and ill people, religious people and
people who had never heard about God.
Jesus talked to people in the fields, and
by the sea, and in the city. He visited all
kinds of people in their homes and he
often ate meals with them.
Now, some people thought they knew
who was good to know. They didn’t like
to see Jesus spending so much time with
people they did not like. They grumbled
and complained because they thought
Jesus should be with them instead. Jesus
spent just too much time with those
other people! They complained so much
that finally Jesus told them a story. It
went like this:
Jesus said, “Pretend that you have one
hundred sheep. You take good care of
your sheep. You find the best grass for
them and water for them to drink. Sometimes
you count the sheep to be sure
that they are all there.” Let’s count the
sheep!
(Bring out the ninety-nine pieces
representing sheep. Invite the children
to count with you. Count
slowly while you lay the items down
in rows of ten so there can be no
mistake. Remind the children once
or twice that you are getting close to
100.)
Misinterpretations of the Parable
Children’s versions of this parable often describe the dangers a lost lamb might face
and the relief it might feel when the kind shepherd rescues it. Sometimes the story
emphasis is on a wandering sheep being welcomed back to the fold by ninety-nine who
had better sense than to stray. The descriptions of sheeps’ feelings are not part of the
biblical text. The unspoken message, “don’t stray,” becomes a warning against being
“different,” wandering, getting lost, or deviating from the norm. This was not Jesus’
intent!
This parable was originally addressed to the majority religious establishment, not to
individual “sinners.” Jesus calls the church to be the neighbors who celebrate with the
shepherd. The story describes a flock that is incomplete if even one is missing. It
illustrates God’s unfailing care for each of us—and for all of us. That is a powerful
message. —Margaret Lirones
THE CARING SHEPHERD: A Parable for Children
Based on Luke 15:1-7
By Margaret Lirones
(Before telling this story, find 100 small, identical items. Pennies would work; ends
of cotton swabs are better; bits of wool are ideal. Hide one in your pocket. Sit on the
floor with the children in a semicircle in front of you. Silently spread a large piece of
green felt on the floor and add felt cutouts of hills, a small piece of black for a cave,
twigs for bushes, and a cutout figure of a shepherd.1 Start by showing pictures of
sheep and shepherds in the dry, hilly countryside where Jesus lived. If possible, bring
in a fleece from a sheep or samples of real wool for children to see and touch. Discuss
the importance of sheep to the people and the ways that a shepherd cares for the
sheep, taking them far over the hills to find grass and water.)
14 Open Hands
I am an evangelical Christian. I use
that word, not in the context of
present national political divisions,
but in the context of a particular movement
in the Protestant Reformation. We
evangelicals believe our tradition is
firmly rooted in the Bible.
My grandfather is a good example of
the evangelical tradition and experience.
John Henry Bess was a young hillbilly
living in the rural environs of Bollinger
County in southeastern Missouri. He
drank too much. In today’s world he
would be identified as an alcoholic. According
to my grandmother, grandpa
was drunk the day they were married.
Her friends asked her why she was marrying
that “no good John Bess.” Nevertheless,
she did, and life was not pleasant.
Then, in about 1885, a traveling evangelist
came to Marble Hill, the county
seat of Bollinger County. As was the custom,
he brought a tent and sawdust for
the aisles. My grandfather went to the
revival meeting. He was convicted of sin,
walked the sawdust trail, took Christ as
his Savior, and was saved. Grandpa never
took another drink. He joined the Baptist
church, and he and Grandma raised
their five children in the church. Their
middle child was my father, who with
my mother, raised their seven children
in the church. The impact of Grandpa’s
conversion has now reached into the
fifth generation. John Bess’s great, great
grandchildren are accepting Christ and
finding salvation in the evangelical tradition.
Understanding the Plan
At the heart of the evangelical experience
is the conviction that “If any
person is in Christ, that person is a new
creation; old things pass away, and behold,
all things become new.” This experience
of being born again has little
or nothing to do with baptism, receiving
of communion, or church membership.
It is all about meeting Jesus and
receiving him as Savior and Lord. The
preacher who is true to this tradition
ends every sermon with an invitation
to receive Christ and experience transformation.
We evangelicals have seen enough
transformed lives that our confidence is
unshakable. It is this mindset that is
brought to the homosexual phenomenon.
Without question the dominant
evangelical Christian opinion of homosexuality
is that it is a perversion of the
intent of the Creator. The homosexual
is a sinner by definition and any same
sex action is sin. It is entirely understandable
to this evangelical person why
a transforming experience with Jesus
Christ ought to be considered the solution
to such a perversion of creation as
homosexual attractions and expressions.
It is a shock to such an evangelical
Christian when dramatic conversion
does not work with a homosexual person.
When the Plan Fails
In a certain sense, a young homosexual
person is the perfect target for such
an approach to Christian experience.
Young gay and lesbian persons are looking
for a way out of their dilemma. They
learn quickly in their junior high and
senior high school years that their sexual
orientation brings a huge negative response
from friends, family, church, and
community. They are driven, out of fear,
into silence, inner psychological manipulations,
and passionate pleas to
God. But these approaches prove ineffective.
Desperation sets in.
The homosexual person who is familiar
with evangelical Christian faith decides
it is time to get right with God and
receive Jesus Christ as Savior. He or she
walks the aisle. A pastor, a deacon, or a
trained counselor reviews the plan of
salvation. The young homosexual person
repeats the sinner’s prayer of confession
and verbalizes a commitment to
DIVINE
WEAVING
IN
PROGRESS
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Homosexuality in the
Evangelical Experience
By Howard H. Bess
Winter 1996 15
of the college administration has been
a very clear “thanks, but no thanks.”1
If Only...
American evangelicals are not bigots,
as some of my gay and lesbian
friends perceive. Gay and lesbian persons
are not evil people, as most
evangelicals perceive. Each group needs
desperately to be talking with the other.
I believe that tens of thousands of gay
and lesbian couples are living in virtuous,
healthy partnerships that can be
honestly affirmed by evangelical, Biblebelieving
Christians. Further, the evangelical
tradition is a rich expression of
vital Christianity. It is my tradition. The
possibilities are marvelous, if only communication
can be established. ▼
Note
1The college’s “no thanks” is reflected in
correspondence between president Dr.
Duane Litfin and Wheaton College GALA. I,
as a heterosexual alum, wrote to the president
encouraging dialogue and received a
letter from him reasserting the “no talk” administration
policy.
Howard H. Bess, pastor of a Welcoming
and Affirming American Baptist church
in Palmer, Alaska, is
the author of a recently
published book, Pastor,
I Am Gay. He is also a
new member of the
Advisory Committee
for Open Hands.
Christ. Many times the new convert is
encouraged to “pray through.” Honest,
heartfelt pleas and commitments are
made to God. Often a flood of tears accompany
the experience and confirms
the reality of the conversion.
Many times the same sex yearnings
actually fade. In reality, the yearnings
have not left, but rather have been repressed.
After a while the yearnings reappear.
Guilt and rejection of self intensify.
The promise of deliverance has
become a horror of enormous proportions.
As a pastor who decided long ago that
I could not refuse pastoral care to anyone,
I have heard this story dozens of
times. Many of my gay and lesbian
friends have gone through this process
not once, but twice, three times, four
times...
Establishing
Communication
To further understand the tensions
between evangelicals and the homosexual
population, a person must grasp
the importance of the Bible to an evangelical.
The typical evangelical has rejected
most if not all forms of hierarchical
church authority. Authority rests
in the local congregation—and the Bible
is the tangible source of that authority.
Evangelicals pride themselves in being
people of the Bible. They are not easily
influenced by psychological, sociological,
or biological discussions or studies.
If evangelicals in any significant
numbers are to rethink their determination
to address homosexual orientation
by dramatic conversion, two things
must happen. First, we each must engage
in honest discussion of all pertinent
Bible material. Christians who do
not hold a high view of scriptural inspiration
and authority will never be an
active part of the discussions. If there is
an appearance that the authority of the
Bible is being undermined, evangelicals
will leave the discussion table. However,
within evangelicalism there has always
been healthy debate about the interpretation
of the Scriptures. Evangelicals
are not theologically monolithic. I believe
many evangelicals are ready to talk
about the Bible, theology, and sexuality.
Now we need people who are kind
in nature, gentle in spirit, and gracious
in discussion to provide leadership so
that the conversations can begin.
Second, honest discussion must begin
to happen about a very sensitive
area: homosexual lifestyles. Is there such
a thing as a healthy Christian same-sex
lifestyle? No progress will be made until
communication is established between
evangelicals and gay and lesbian
Christian couples who are living in long
term, committed, healthy relationships.
Such couples are tightly closeted. They
leave their closets of safety at great peril.
Who will create the opportunities for
sharing that will not hurt such couples
and at the same time respect the concerns
of evangelicals?
I offer two examples of approaches
that are not working. Recently, a weeklong
conversation about homosexuality
was sponsored by an American Baptist
agency. Four regional discussions are
scheduled for the next year by another
agency of the same denomination. In
none of the gatherings, past or planned,
have gay or lesbian individuals or
couples been invited to share their perspectives
and understandings. How
tragic. The people being discussed are
not even being invited.
Second, the Wheaton College Gay
and Lesbian Alumni Association, a sizable
organization and growing, has
asked to have conversations with a
newly formed Wheaton College task
force on homosexuality. The response
16 Open Hands
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A pastor shares his thoughts about
inclusivity and arrogance in a sermon
to his Reconciling Congregation.
Perhaps your welcoming
church is struggling with the same
issue.—Editor
Most of us live with a continuing
contradiction in our lives.
On the one hand, we need
people to share our lives, to enter into
close personal relationships, to share
insights and information, and to interact
in ways that shape our lives and
theirs. We are, indeed, social animals,
gregarious by nature. On the other
hand, we have no desire to be with some
other people. We avoid even minimal
contacts, much less extended interactions
or continuing relationships, with
them. We sometimes exclude them from
our circle without knowing anything
about them, and without the slightest
curiosity or interest to get to know them
before excluding them.
Sometimes, the distinctions we make
are personal. We just don’t like, or just
don’t want, to have anything to do with
some people. Sometimes, the distinctions
we make are social. We are born
into an affinity group that excludes
people in another affinity group. Jews
had no dealings with Gentiles. Greeks
considered themselves superior to barbarians.
Serbians and Croats hate and
kill each other. Palestinians and Jews live
in the same land but in a relationship
marked with fierce violence. African
Americans live in the same society with
European Americans but experience a
completely different reality than European
Americans.
Think of all the people who are excluded
from our circle about whom we
have not even the slightest curiosity. We
don’t know them and we have no desire
to know them. Without knowing
anything about how they live, we assume
that they are inferior to us. We
assume their culture is inferior. We assume
their political and economic sys-
ALL THINGS TO ALL PEOPLE
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
By cornelius kanhai
tems are inferior. We assume their theologies
are inferior. What is more, we
have no interest or desire to have any
communication or commerce with
them.
In 1 Corinthians 9:16-23, Paul says:
“I have become all things to all
people...to the Jew, I became as a Jew...to
those under the law...as one under the
law...to those outside the law, I became
as one outside the law...to the weak, I
became weak...”
Reconciling Within
Many of us in welcoming churches
feel very good about where we
are. We in University Church feel very
good about where we are. We feel good
about being a part of this community.
We value the openness and inclusiveness.
We value the intellectual and spiritual
freedom. We value the relationships
and the contacts we have. We value the
emphases of our ministry. However, just
when we reach the place of loving where
we are, we begin to approach the point
of being exclusive. We value so highly
our relationship to this community that
we begin to close in on ourselves and
risk becoming exclusive.
As a Reconciling Congregation, we
here at University Church value the atmosphere
of our congregation where
there are no longer distinctions between
straight and gay. It has taken some of us
a while to get past the difficulty of identifying
persons by sexual orientation
and focusing upon that quality as if it
were paramount. “He is gay” or “she is
lesbian” is no longer the most significant
quality about any individual.
Some of us still need to explore and
unlearn our biases, including homophobia;
some of us are in process. In
former congregations I have served, just
mentioning the word “gay” in a sermon
could be the beginning of serious reaction
and fallout from the congregation.
The openness of University Church enables
us to talk about sexual identity
without scandalizing anyone. I am grateful
to University Church for helping me
to deal with the heterosexism with
which I had been imprinted prior to my
becoming a part of University Church.
Reconciling Beyond
Yet, as soon as I begin to celebrate
our inclusiveness, I begin to feel
somewhat exclusive and arrogant of
those who are not part of a Reconciling
Congregation. I betray the community
by becoming exclusive— unless I remember
that being a part of a reconciling
community means that we are all
still learning, that we are all still becoming,
and that the difference between
ourselves and another is a matter of degree
rather than of kind.
Being a part of a welcoming community
like University Church places upon
us a responsibility to share the experiences
we have come to value. Our response
to congregations and communities
who are in an earlier stage of struggle
with homophobia and heterosexism
should not be one of smugness. Rather,
it should be one of helping to bring others
to the experience we have come to
know. D.T. Niles, the Indian theologian,
says that evangelism is “one beggar telling
another beggar where to find bread.”
By the grace of God, we have found
bread here. That places upon us an obligation
to share the good news with others.
“I have become all things to all
people, that I might by all means save
some.”
The special character of our community
as an open, inclusive, and reconciling
community puts us in a crucial
place to witness to a wider community
and society that is being destroyed by
bigotry and hate. To be a welcoming,
reconciling congregation must mean for
us that we reach out beyond our walls,
reach out beyond ourselves, and reach
out beyond our self interests to effect
reconciliation and healing for all.
University Church has been discovering
the power of being a reconciling
community. In the fall of 1993, as we
Winter 1996 17
new ways in which all people who are
in spiritual pilgrimage can begin to respect
each other, learn from each other,
and find ways to work together to advance
our common goals. We need to
clarify our own theological thinking
and become open to the theologies of
other traditions. We need to begin to
move toward a post-Christian theology
which will get beyond the narrow exclusiveness
of a Euro-centric Christian
theological tradition to a conversation
in which we develop a respect and a new
openness to older theological traditions
that can inform and enrich our own
experiences.
Reconciling Racially
Finally, as a reconciling community
we need to begin to move ourselves
and others beyond racism. We need to
confess that we are racist and to find
ways in which we can deal with the
white western European traditions
which have enslaved and excluded other
traditions.
Someone pointed out to me recently
that if we wanted to be attractive to nonwhites,
we could begin by looking at the
art on the walls of our building. Would
art that celebrates other cultures and
traditions, that depicts the Native American
experience, that celebrates Hispanic
culture, that depicts African American
and African struggles, that celebrates the
great wealth of the East, that comes from
whole spectrum of the human enterprise,
not be more expressive of a reconciling
community? It would be a
good place to begin to eliminate racism
in our own experience.
Some of us long for our church community
to reflect the ethnic diversity
of the larger secular community we
serve. However, as long as we remain
essentially middle-class-white in the
character of our community, there is
little that would attract and hold people
who are of other races and cultures. We
need to find ways to be a reconciling
community which heals the brokenness
and pain that racism inflicts on us all.
All things to all people.... It is a challenge,
indeed! But, for us at University
Church, it is a wonderful opportunity.
May God strengthen and encourage us
in our ministry. ▼
Source
This article is adapted from a sermon delivered
on February 6, 1994, to University
United Methodist Church, Madison, Wisconsin.
Used with permission.
cornelius kanhai, pastor of University
United Methodist Church from 1992 to
1995, now serves Waterloo United Methodist
Church in a suburb of Madison. He
has also served as a board member of the
Reconciling Congregation Program.
FOR A NEW WORLD
This mural, on the west wall of Parish of the
Holy Covenant United Methodist Church in
Chicago, was created by John Pitman Weber,
Oscar Martinez, and other young artists from
the Chicago Mural Group (now Chicago Public
Art Group). It was dedicated on August 5,
1973. Meant to be a “window toward the
world,” the panels represent the three
elements of the church’s worship service:
Confession (symbolizing the evils of our time),
The Word (showing the promise of a new
world where there is neither oppressor nor
oppressed), and Offering (representing the
dedication of our lives to bringing the new
world of justice into our daily work. The
mural needs renovation and a fund has been
established. Thanks to current pastor, Bonnie
Beckonchrist, for details of the mural’s history.
Photo: Dale Fast
Artists: Oscar Martinez and John Pitman Weber
©1973
sought to deal with hate mail by drawing
together others in our city who
might benefit from mutual support, we
found an eagerness and excitement
about this ministry. The Coming Out/
Coming Together service we helped lead
(see Open Hands, Spring 1994, p. 21) and
the continuing work of the coalition as
they meet regularly for fellowship, support,
and for planning other ministries
have been exciting and gratifying experiences.
Yet we need to continue to
work to find other ways of exercising
our ministry as a reconciling community.
Reconciling Theologically
I believe that the ministry of a reconciling
community must go beyond
being inclusive of lesbians, gay men, and
bisexuals in our ministry. Being the
open and inclusive community we are
puts us in a special position of being
able to create the climate for dialogue
and reconciliation in an increasingly
diverse religious/theological mix in our
community. The diverse nature of our
community in Madison places on us a
responsibility to work for inclusiveness
by drawing together Jews and Muslims,
Hindus and Buddhists, Christians of
many traditions, and earth-based religions
into conversations and community.
“Becoming all things to all people”
might mean for us beginning to find
18 Open Hands
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In the spring of 1994, my husband
Tom and I decided to become therapeutic
foster care providers. We had
just finished graduate school in rehabilitation
counseling. One Sunday, skimming
the paper for employment opportunities,
I saw an ad that read something
like this:
Foster parents needed to provide
in-home care to a young man with
multiple disabilities. This person
will be facing a series of surgeries
and will need assistance with independent
living skills...
Tom and I replied with a resume to
the listed social service agency, thinking
that this agency might have other
positions available for skilled rehabilitation
counselors. Thoughts of providing
case management or in-house training
related to disabilities came to mind
for both of us.
The director responded immediately,
asking if we would be interested in fostering
the person mentioned in the ad.
Our reply was simple enough. “Well, we
are not really in a position to care for
someone in our home. Our schedules
are hectic. We just need secure employment...”
The director said she wished we
would at least consider the opportunity
because she felt our educational background
would benefit this young man.
Besides, she said, he was difficult to place
given the severity of his disabilities. She
gave us a run down of his life and what
led up to his need for care at this time.
“His name is Al. He has been institutionalized
for nineteen of his twenty
years. He is part of a class action suit
against the institution. Now he has the
chance to live in the community...”
What followed was a harrowing list of
disabilities and an explanation of the
reconstructive surgeries ahead for Al. Al
would be meeting several potential “foster
parents.” Would we at least be willing
to meet him? We agreed.
A Decision That Changed
Us All
That conversation changed our lives
and the life of our worshiping community.
After we met Al, there was no
question. The decision was made jointly
between Al and the two of us. He came
to live with us in June of 1994 and together
we have crossed many bridges.
In our first meeting, we asked Al how
he felt about church and explained our
active participation in the Clifton Presbyterian
community. He was excited.
Being in an institution, he had limited
interaction with church congregations,
but expressed a strong faith. We explained
that Clifton was an inclusive
church and part of the More Light Network.
We talked about the homeless
mission that Clifton created fifteen years
ago. We explained how Tom is a volunteer
bus driver, picking up homeless men
at the stop in downtown Atlanta once a
week, and that I am the food coordinator
for the shelter. We also explained that
Clifton is a small community, with a
worshiping congregation of about forty
people. From the beginning, Al expressed
a deep understanding for disenfranchised
people. He said, “Most
people don’t care about homelessness.
I am glad Clifton gives them a home.”
In the months preceding Al’s placement
with us, Tom and I took every
opportunity to share about Al at church.
We shared a picture of him to ease any
shock for people who may not have encountered
a person with facial differences.
We explained what Al’s disabilities
were, hoping not to color any first
impressions. At the same time, we felt
that if the congregation knew about his
differences even before he joined in,
they would be able to move past the differences.
They would, we hoped, be able
to meet Al and discover the gifts he
would bring. With the best of intentions,
the congregation embraced Al,
sometimes even doting on him. Al says
“I didn’t know what to expect. I expected
them to be skeptical. I know my
disabilities surprised them.” Some
people were indeed skeptical, not only
of Al becoming part of the church community,
but of Tom and I signing up
for such a huge “undertaking.”
DeeAnna’s Journey
I first became involved at Clifton Presbyterian
as a volunteer in the homeless
mission. Every night the men sleep
in the sanctuary and every Sunday the
mats are rolled away to make room for
worship. The members of this church
bring guests into their church home
every night. Some guests remain for a
very short time; others become residents.
I watched volunteers, church
members, and homeless guests enter
into relationship with one another.
People who seemingly had nothing in
common, all very different and diverse,
were teaching and learning from one
another. People of different cultures,
races, sexual orientations, genders,
classes, and abilities were giving and
receiving from one another. I eventually
joined Clifton as a worshiping
member, in part because I believed in
the efforts of the homeless mission, but
also because of Clifton’s commitment
to inclusiveness and their decision to
become part of the More Light Network.
For years, before my decision to bring
Al into my life, Clifton modeled the
valuing of differences for me. Night after
night, Clifton brought marginalized
people into their home and offered hospitality.
There was never any ownership
of the residence; it was truly God’s house
for all who dwelled within. I believe this
witnessing allowed me to open my heart
and home to Al. The irony is that those
people in the Clifton community who
were hesitant and skeptical about Al
were the very people who were part of
the witness. They were instrumental in
bringing me to a place of truly valuing
differences.
VALUING DIFFERENCES:
A Process of Experience
By DeeAnna P. Merz with Al Duvall
Winter 1996 19
Learning to
Value Differences
I believe we learn to value differences
through experience. In my case,
Clifton Presbyterian Church taught me,
at the deepest level, how to value the
differences of homeless people and
people with different sexual orientations.
Interwoven among the homeless
guests were people with a variety of differences,
including disability. However,
as intimate as this portrait is, bringing
Al into the worshiping community was
a deeper cut even still. The fabric of
Clifton was no longer woven with differences
on the frayed edges; a person
with ability differences was now worshiping
in their midst and expected
nurturing. Al expected more than a hot
meal, a warm blanket, and occasional
conversation. He wanted to be able to
form lasting relationships and be valued
as an integral part of the community.
This did not happen overnight. Al
and church members reached a level of
vulnerability with each other over time.
Al began to share his pain and his joy.
He joined in the church activities and
began seeing the pastor for weekly visits.
He began asking for what he
needed— from help to the rest room to
a prayer request. People began to see Al,
not for what he had overcome, but for
his ideas and opinions.
I asked Al what he liked about
Clifton. He said very matter-of-factly,
“Well, Clifton is like another family for
me.” I asked Al how he thought people
or churches could begin to value ability
difference. He said:
Go to places that have people with
disabilities, like hospitals and institutions.
Volunteer at places like
that so you can begin to see what
their lives are like. That’s how you
get educated. Find a couple of
people that you really like and
have conversations with them.
That way, the disability won’t be
as frightening. Take someone with
a disability out just to be with
them. When you have someone
with a disability in your church,
educate them. I didn’t know much
about being Presbyterian,
or getting
baptized, but members of the
church talked to me and the pastor
gave me some literature. My
baptism was the greatest! It
changed me. In fact, my relationship
with God got stronger. It’s
like when people get married and
say their vows. I really am a child
of God. Churches also need to be
sensitive to language. Words like
crippled and lame are hard to hear.
We all just need to learn from each
other.
How Have We Changed?
In the time that Al has been with Tom
and me, the youth at Clifton have produced
and staged a play about valuing
different sexual orientations. Clifton has
begun to move beyond shelter in their
homeless mission. I have witnessed the
building of deeper relationships as volunteers,
members, staff, and other
churches have engaged in a deeper level
of commitment to the guests that reside
at Clifton. We are now talking about
how to make our church more accessible
to people with disabilities. I have
been a part of building deep, intentional,
and inclusive relationships
within my nuclear family and my
church family.
All of us at Clifton have taught and
we have learned. We have given and we
have received. We have grown and we
have experienced! That’s how we learn
to value differences. ▼
DeeAnna P. Merz and Al Duvall are members
of Clifton Presbyterian Church in Atlanta,
Georgia. DeeAnna works part-time
at the church as food coordinator for the
homeless mission. Al recently completed
course work at the Center for the Visually
Impaired and is now volunteering his time
at the Disability Action Center.
20 Open Hands
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The strategic plan of the Eastern
Pennsylvania Conference, United
Methodist Church, is “calling local
congregations to transformation.” In
this context a new conference position,
coordinator of human relations,
was created. A major emphasis
of this position, which Dody
Matthias has held for less than a
year, is to acknowledge the brokenness
of racism and to discern God’s
healing purpose. Since, however, the
roots of prejudice and privilege are
intertwined, the model that Dody
proposes here may well be instructive
for those working on brokenness
due to privileges of age, gender, orientation,
class, weight, ability, or
health.
—Editor
The acknowledgment of racism is
very painful for white (European-
American) people since we have
been socialized into it. We have had little
support in developing ways to look at
racism and, for that matter, to even know
what it is and how it is rooted in all the
systems of this society. To begin to comprehend
this sin, we need a life of prayer
and of reading and seeking the Word of
God, for it is this truth that sets us free.
Beginning Attempt
The Eastern Pennsylvania conference
staff and cabinet members first participated
in an all-day event. We got in
touch with white privilege,1 explored the
definition of racism as power to enforce
prejudice, and discussed a powerful
video, The Color of Fear, produced by Lee
Mun Wah following the L.A. uprisings.2
Since that day-long event, we have held
a four-part follow-up.
Biblical Reflection: Part 1
We read and reflected on Ephesians
2:13-16. Emphasis was on:
a. Our responsibility is not to rebuild
the dividing wall that God has already
broken down. We were reintroduced
to the fact that white privilege is one
way we rebuild the dividing wall of
racism.
b. It is in the flesh of Jesus that groups
become one. Being part of the body
of Jesus means no walls of division.
When we separate from one another,
it is we who have chosen to be outside
the body of Jesus.
Assumptions and
Consequences: Part 2
We saw and discussed the video Free
Indeed, a drama of four white,
middle-class young adults who play a
card game as a prerequisite for doing a
service project for a black Baptist
church.3 Their ensuing discussion addresses
issues of accountability, unseen
assumption, success, and what racism
does to white people.
Identification and
Commitment: Part 3
White (European-American) conference
staff and cabinet members
were invited to identify three white
privileges directly related to their jobposition
within the cabinet or staff and
then to respond to the following questions:
a. How do these privileges affect you?
b.What action will you take to address
white privilege within yourself and
your position?
Accountability: Part 4
White persons on the conference
staff and cabinet shared their responses
to the questions above, naming
how the privilege they identified affected
them and the action they would
take. White staff and cabinet members
then chose a white partner to whom to
be accountable. Finally, the two white
partners turned over hand-written cards
describing their actions to a person of
color on the staff/cabinet. The point was
made that white people are to hold one
another accountable and be accountable
to people of color.
A process was set up whereby the
white person “checks in” with her/his
partner as a support measure for the new
chosen behavior. The partners regularly
check in with the person of color who
holds their cards, reporting their
progress on their chosen action taken
to address white privilege.
Actions chosen by white conference
staff and cabinet members included
behaviors in setting aside privilege. For
example, one cabinet member who had
a role of power and authority within a
particular conference committee put his
white privilege to that role aside so that
an African-American man could participate.
The white cabinet member felt this
to be “freeing.”
Another action to address privilege
was a decision to change the rules so
that people of color would always be at
the table in discussions and decisionmaking
that affected their destiny. This
change has already resulted in “access
to the table” being gained by someone
who otherwise wouldn’t have been part
of decisions crucial to the person/group.
Ac-count’a-bil-i’ty: Answerable to...
White people are answerable to people of
color viz a viz their work on undoing/dismantling/
de-constructing racism. We know from
experience that well-intentioned white people
easily can make matters worse if we do not
check out our intended anti-racist actions
with the people who will be affected by our
actions. That’s why, in dealing with racism,
white people are accountable to people of
color. In the same way, in undoing sexism,
men are accountable to women; in undoing
heterosexism, heterosexual women and men
are accountable to gay/lesbian/bisexual
people.
TRANSFORMATION IN FRONT OF
OUR OWN EYES!
By Dody S. Matthias
Winter 1996 21
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Participant Reactions
It is difficult for white people to think
in terms of being accountable to
people of color. To be part of the body
of Jesus (Ephesians passage above) is to
be interdependent and accountable.
White persons are beginning to see this
as liberating, being “free indeed of white
privilege and how we play the game.”
African-American staff and cabinet
members felt this to be “a positive,
much-needed experience, my first of
this kind in the conference. I trust this
is just a beginning.”
Closed with Prayer
O God, you made us in your image
and redeemed us through Jesus.
Look with compassion on your people—
your body in this world. Take away the
arrogance and hatred which infect our
hearts; break down the walls that separate
us; unite us in one body of love;
and through our struggle and confusion,
work to accomplish your will.
Next Time
As a beginning attempt, next time I
would start with a shorter session,
using parts 1-4, rather than the film. I
would let people “sit” awhile with those
parts before going on to an all-day event.
The Color of Fear film is a very powerful
piece and can be overwhelming to some
people, especially as a beginning
effort.▼
Notes
1See Open Hands, Fall 1995, especially “Making
Tangled Roots Visible” and “Identifying
Race Privilege: From One White to Another.”
2Lee Mun Wah, The Color of Fear. Stir Fry,
1222 Preservation Parkway, Oakland, CA
94612. (510)419-3930. Rental: $200.
3Free Indeed is available from the Mennonite
Central Committee, PO Box 500, Akron, PA
19501-0500. Cost: $20.
Dody S. Matthias, a member of St. John
Lutheran Church in Potstown, Pennsylvania,
is part of the justice teaching collective,
HUPERETAI. She
wrote Working for
Life: Dismantling
Racism (see p. 25). She
also writes poetry.
1. Struggle with Definitions: Develop
class definitions of racism, sexism,
heterosexism, ageism, classism,
ableism... The common elements are
prejudice (an attitude), discrimination
(an action), privilege (a position), and
power (an action). How do they fit into
the definitions? Tip: to make the definitions
more than statements about individual
prejudice or discrimination of
one person or group against another, we
need to recognize the place of one
group’s power (because of their privilege)
to enforce prejudice.1 For example, people
of color may be prejudiced against white
people and individually discriminate
against them but white people hold the
power to enforce prejudice against
people of color. Les/bi/gay and transgendered
people may be prejudiced
against heterosexual people and individually
discriminate against them, but
heterosexual people hold the power to
enforce prejudice against les/bi/gay and
transgendered people.
2. Check your Attitude Before and
After: Create a worksheet using psychologist
Dorothy Riddle’s Attitude
Continuum:
Repulsion—Pity—Tolerance—Acceptance—
Support—Appreciation2
Include below the continuum a short
description of each point. Ask participants
to mark this continuum privately
at the beginning of your study. If you
are studying multiple forms of oppression,
mark the form for each.
At the end of the study, ask class
members to mark the continuum again.
Ask them to discuss with one other person
in class why they moved (or didn’t
move) on the continuum. Possible discussion
question: How does my privilege
affect my attitude?
For a more communal and visual
experience, print each word of the continuum
on a separate sheet of paper.
Place those word-cards on the floor in
the continuum order, leaving good space
between each word. Ask the class to
stand where they were at the beginning
of the course; then ask them to move to
where they are at the end of the study.
Discuss feelings and insights.
3. Check your Actions Before and After:
Create a similar form using the action
continuum in The Welcoming Congregation:
Oppressing—Denying/Ignoring—Recognizing/
Not Acting—Recognizing/
Acting—Educating Self—Educating
Others—Supporting/Encouraging—
Initiating/Preventing3
Include short descriptions of each of the
points. Use this form at the beginning
of a study series as described above. Give
class members time to explore silently
or with others their self-evaluations on
how they act. Possible discussion question:
How does my own privilege affect
how I act or don’t act?
In a later session, engage the class in
commitment/accountability discussions
and action decisions.4 In the last session
of your study, ask class members to
check the action continuum again, noting
any movement they have made. Possible
discussion: How has my commitment
to a particular action affected my
place on the continuum? ▼
Notes
1See Matthias, this issue, p. 20.
2Scott W. Alexander, The Welcoming Congregation
(The Unitarian Universalist Association,
25 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108-
2800), p. 58, for short descriptions of this
attitude continuum.
3Ibid., p. 59. A set of slightly different descriptions
is found in Warren J. Blumenfeld
and Diane Raymond, Looking at Gay and
Lesbian Life Upd. and exp. ed. (Boston: Beacon,
1993), pp. 258-62.
4See Eugene, this issue, p. 7; Matthias, this
issue, p. 20 ; and Matthias, Working for Life,
pp. 81-82 (full description in Selected Resources
p. 25).
VALUING DIFFERENCES:
Study Ideas
By Mary Jo Osterman with Dody S. Matthias
22 Open Hands
Weaving Diversity and Unity:
A Liturgy of Celebration
By Cathy Ann Beaty
Greeting
One: We are called to be a New Community, rejoicing in our diversity,
witnessing to God’s promise of new life.
All: We are weaving God’s New Community in God’s image.
One: We have gathered to celebrate the tapestry that the diversity of our lives creates.
All: We are weaving God’s New Community in God’s image.
One: May our presence and our worship proclaim God’s truth:
Our unity is God’s resurrection hope.
All: We are weaving God’s New Community in God’s image.
Hymn of Praise “Weave” verse 1
Acknowledging our Humanness
One: Giver of New Life, You have called us together from many places and You offer to
set us free if we trust in You.
All: Yet, more often than we care to admit, we cling to that which oppresses us because
it feels familiar and secure— and liberation calls us to unknown responsibilities.
May our fears and our doubts be transformed through the liberating life
of Jesus Christ. May we be challenged and empowered to accept responsibility for
co-creating our own lives in relationship with You. And may we find the courage
and boldness to overcome the conventional categories we place on ourselves and
others, that— freed from stereotypical thinking—we might discover the beauty
and diversity that is Your gift to us. Amen.
Affirming our Humanness
All: Our individual uniqueness is a gift of love,
our diversity a gift of grace,
and our unity a vision of hope.
One: May we celebrate the beauty and wonder
that God is weaving through us, God’s New Community.
Let us share the Peace of Christ with one another.
Hymn of Thanksgiving “Weave” verses 2 & 3
Going Forth into the World with Peace
One: May our hands reach to one another in hope.
All: May our hearts overflow with compassion.
One: May our lives embrace one another in peace.
All: May our spirits soar with God’s promise of new life in community.
Note
The print part of the liturgy may be reprinted
for local worship events only. Other uses, please
contact Open Hands. Please contact Rosemary
Crow for all reprinting of the song.
Cathy Ann Beaty is pastor of Spirit of the Lakes United Church of
Christ in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Spirit of the Lakes, which was
started as an inclusive community, is an Open and Affirming
congregation.
Sustaining
the Spirit
Winter 1996 23
Copyright ©1979 by Rosemary Crow. For permission
to reprint, contact her at 33 Dearhaven
Lane, Ashville, NC 28803. (704) 684-2223.
Rosemary Crow, composer and singer, has published seven albums. “Weave” was the
theme song for the Tri-Lutheran Women’s Convocation, American Baptist Women in Ministry
Conference, and national and international conventions of the Girl Scouts of America.
WEAVE by Rosemary Crow
24 Open Hands
On Weaving Community
from Diversity
In the kindom of God an all-inclusive, divine weaving of community
will perhaps occur. It’s certainly a marvelous vision!
In the meantime, given our earthly, limited reality, many
inclusivity discussions make me downright uneasy.
In the first place, I am uneasy because all-inclusive diversity
is not really what we’re seeking. Muttered under our breath is
usually at least one disclaimer to this ideal. We may include all
Christians, but exclude other faiths as valid in God’s holy community-
in-progress. We may include moderates, conservatives,
and evangelicals, but not fundamentalists. We embrace certain
analytical approaches and discard others. We insist on
certain creeds or no creeds. We insist on various positions on
ordination, abortion, or how to interpret particular biblical
passages.
When we speak within our various “communities,” we seem
to know (or are soon told!) what the real boundaries of
inclusivity are. “Of course, we don’t mean the serious fundamentalist
point of view; look at what fundamentalism has
wrought in other countries.” Or, “of course, we don’t include
serious feminist analysis…” Or, “of course, Christianity is superior...”
Etc. Etc. Etc.
In the second place, I am uneasy because in the midst of revolutions
of mammoth proportions those who place more value
on some positions are often dismissed out-of-hand with such
epithets as radical, marginal, extreme, out-of-touch, or “ideology
rather than analysis.” Usually, the dismissals come from
privileged mainstream persons, groups, or institutions enforcing
their own prejudices.
In the third place, I am uneasy when some who cry “diversity
is all” would have us believe that currently competing
alternatives are equal so we should just blend them. This is the
essence of tokenism: We let you into our system, but don’t
rock the boat by questioning us. Diversity, in such hands, becomes
a tool to maintain centuries-old beliefs and discriminatory
customs. It becomes a stealth weapon for the powerful
and privileged to hang on to both.
How do we work with the divine weaving-in-progress? Certainly,
we need to respect people who are different from us. Certainly,
we need to be open to encountering different ideas. Closing
ourselves off from difference ensures that we’re limiting the
divine weaving-in-progress. Being in dialogue with different
kinds of people and diverse ways of thinking and believing is
critical to the weaving of God’s community.
Still, having faced into difference rather than turning away
from it, we remain confronted with several tasks. Toinette Eugene
(p. 5) outlines three: confession, conviction, commitment.
Paul Egertson (p. 10) underscores biblical interpretation and
witnessing to our beliefs. Dody Matthias (p. 20) outlines a
process of accountability. As they imply, we still need some set
of values or criteria by which to judge our diversity-building
process. Which stances are faithful, loving, forgiving, just,
charitable? Which stances add to the divine weaving-inprogress?
Which limit or negate that weaving?
My set of values, based on a reading of scripture informed by
biblical criticism methods, liberation theology, and feminist
analysis, judges claims of inclusivity based on whether or not
they (a) are justice-based and liberation-oriented, (b) acknowledge
the divine spark in every person and in the natural world,
(c) involve a painful, but necessary, giving up of privilege to
equalize power, and (d) promote accountability—
to God and to persons and groups
who have been victimized by those who
hold the power to enforce prejudices. What
are your values?
Editorial
If you would like to write an article, contact Editor, RCP, 3801 N. Keeler, Chicago, IL 60641
Second Call for
Articles for Fall 1996
Gender and Transgender:
Exploring the Issues,
Sharing the Stories
We welcome additional articles, stories, and other resources for our gender and transgender
theme. We encourage transgendered people to write of their personal journeys, especially
as those relate to religious issues and acceptance (or non-acceptance) in a church community.
We invite pastors and lay people to write about their personal experiences of ministering
to and with transgendered people in a local congregation. What concerns have risen?
What joys and gifts have been received? Let us hear from you!
Write or call with idea: April 1 Manuscript deadline: August 1
One More Word
Winter 1996 25
Matthias, Dody S. Working for Life: Dismantling Racism. Lima,
Ohio: Fairway Press, 1990. Sixteen learning experiences on
dismantling racism through consciousness raising, education,
advocacy, and activism. Order: Eastern Pennsylvania
Conference, UMC, PO Box 820, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0820.
Rothenberg, Paula S. Race, Class, and Gender in the United States:
An Integrated Study. New York: St. Martin’s, 1995. Explores
infrastructures and workings of racism, sexism, classism.
Shearer, Jody Miller. Enter the River: Healing Steps from White
Privilege toward Racial Reconciliation. Scottsdale: Herald, 1994.
“A great primer, lovingly and encouragingly written without
flinching from the truth. Helpful to those beginning to
examine racism as well as those who have been on the journey
for a time.” —Dody Matthias.
Stroupe, Nibs and Inez Fleming. While We Run this Race: Confronting
the Power of Racism in a Southern Church. Maryknoll:
Orbis, 1995. The title says it.
That All May Enter: Responding to People with Disability Concerns.
Presbyterians for Disability Concerns, Education and
Congregational Nurture Ministry Unit, Resource Division,
100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, KY 40202.
Video/Film
Free Indeed. Mennonite Central Committee. A finalist in the
New York Film Festival, this 23-minute video challenges
white viewers to examine their privilege and what it is doing
to themselves and to others. Study guide. Order: PO
Box 500, Akron, PA 17501-0500. Cost: $20.
Mask. Screenplay by Anna Hamilton Phelon. Directed by Peter
Bogdanovich. 1985. Possible resource for group discussion
on difference and disability.
For Youth
Duvall, Lynn. Respecting our Differences: A Guide to Getting Along
in a Changing World. Minneapolis: Free Spirit, 1994. Explores
nature of prejudice from point of teens’ concerns: fears/
discomfort, language issues/jokes, attitudes/beliefs, conflicts.
Exercises, discussion questions, bibliography.
Biblical/Theological Insights
DeYoung, Curtiss Paul. Coming Together: The Bible’s Message in
an Age of Diversity. Valley Forge: Judson, 1995. This resource
addresses racial and cultural diversity from a biblical perspective
by illustrating different ways people of color interpret
the Bible and how these intersect with traditional white
European perspectives.
Lee, Jung Young. Marginality: The Key to Multicultural Theology.
Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995. A new model to develop
non-dominating contextual theologies.
Solle, Dorothee. Creative Disobedience. Cleveland: Pilgrim, 1995.
Critiquing obedience to earthly leaders and institutions as
an unChristian virtue, Solle appeals to the life of Jesus who
submitted to the will of God through creative disobedience
rather than submitting to oppressive institutions of his day.
Treat, James. “The Canaanite Problem.” Daughters of Sarah
(Spring 1994): 20-24. Treat, an enrolled member of the
Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, explores Matt 15:21-
28 by drawing parallels between Jesus’ “Canaanite problem”
and white America’s “Indian problem.”
William, Gregory, H. Faith before Faithfulness: Centering the
Inclusive Church. Cleveland: Pilgrim, 1992. While retaining
hard-won emphases on tolerance, political involvement,
diversity, and justice, this author suggests a shift in image
from “mainline” church to “inclusive-evangelical” church
as a way for churches to regain their center in God.
Welcoming Work
Adleman, Jeanne and Gloria Enguidanos, eds. Racism in the
Lives of Women: Testimony, Theory, and Guides to Anti-racist
Practice. Binghamton, New York: Haworth, 1995. Essays on
anti-racism work in various aspects of life.
Amado, Angela Novak, ed. Friendships and Community Connections
between People with and without Developmental Disabilities.
Paul H. Brooks Publishing, PO Box 10624, Baltimore,
MD 21285-0624. Suggested by DeeAnna Merz for
individuals and churches exploring new ministries.
Barndt, Joseph. Dismantling Racism: The Continuing Challenge
to White America. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1991. A pastor in
the Bronx calls churches and individuals to the tasks of dismantling
racism and building “a racially just, multiracial,
multicultural society.” (back cover)
New Movement Resources
OK! We’re ONA. Now What? ONA Program, United Church
Coalition for Lesbian/Gay Concerns, 1995. 40pp. $8.
Check: UCCL/GC. Order: ONA-UCCL/GC, PO Box 403,
Holden, MA 01520-0403. Ideas on how your church can
express its ONA commitment.
Inclusive Faith. Lutherans Concerned/North America, 1995.
18-min. video. Order: Bob Gibeling, 2466 Sharondale
Dr., Atlanta, GA 30305. E-mail: gibeling@aol.com. Promotes
the Reconciled in Christ program through interviews,
music, discussion.
Selected
Resources
26 Open Hands
Brethren/Mennonite Churches Publicly
Announce Their Welcome
The Supportive Congregations Network (SCN) recently announced
the first twelve Mennonite and Church of the Brethren
congregations to join the network as “publicly affirming”
congregations (see p. 29). They have adopted a written and
public statement of welcome of gay, lesbian, and bisexual
people. SCN coordinator Jim Sauder notes that twenty-seven
additional congregations are designated “accepting congregations”
(but have not made a public statement) and still others
are “exploring congregations.” For more information about
SCN, write to PO Box 6300, Minneapolis, MN 55406 or call
612/305-0315.
Welcoming & Affirming Baptist Churches
Face Dismissal
Churches in Ohio and California that are members of the
Association of Welcoming & Affirming Baptists (ABC/USA) are
finding their denominational loyalty questioned. Although not
binding on local churches or denominational policy, the General
Board of the ABC/USA affirmed in 1992 that “the practice
of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.”
Some local American Baptist associations and regions are now
using this statement as a “litmus test” of adherence to what
some perceive to be a denominational policy. Action was taken
in September by the American Baptist Churches of Ohio to
remove First Baptist of Granville, Ohio, from membership
solely because the Granville church is a W&A congregation.
Similar action is expected in January to remove four California
Bay Area churches from the ABC of the West. Although
these churches will likely remain within the denomination,
the constant barrage of misinformation, the repeated questioning
of their Christian commitment, and the painful rejection
by the regional denominational family is difficult for W&A
pastors and congregations. Yet, while under attack, these
churches remain loyal to the ABC/USA and to the affirming
ministries to which they have been called by Christ. For more
information, contact Brenda J. Moulton, Association Coordinator,
PO Box 2596, Attleboro Falls, MA 02763-0894.
Lesbian/Gay Affirming Organizations
Witness at NCCC
National leaders of ten lesbian/gay affirming organizations,
meeting in Oakland, California on November 13-17 in conjunction
with the general board meeting of the National Council
of Churches of Christ (NCCC), successfully influenced inclusion
of sexual orientation language and issues in the NCCC’s
Human Rights document.
RCP Reaches Milestone of 100!
Pacific Beach United Methodist Church in San Diego, California,
declared itself a Reconciling Congregation on October
17, becoming the 100th Reconciling Congregation.
No New Church Profiles this Time
We know some of you were eagerly looking for your
church profile to be here, but we needed more space to
run the full welcoming church list (see p. 29). You’ll find
your church listed there. Watch for many new profiles in
the spring issue, as our movement continues to grow!
—Editor
RCP’s Open the Doors Campaign Builds
Momentum
The Open the Doors campaign is drawing the
support of thousands of United Methodists
across the country in a witness to the 1996 General
Conference, the denomination’s quadrennial
decision-making assembly. Noting that
churches’ doors have too often been closed
to lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons and
their families, the campaign is calling on The United Methodist
Church to “open the doors.”
The campaign was launched at the Reconciling Congregation
Convocation in July, 1995. Six regional Knock-Ins in October
brought together 160 activists from thirty-three annual
conferences to develop strategies in their communities and
conferences. Knock-In participants created plans to enroll 9,600
Reconciling United Methodists, to communicate personally
with their General Conference delegates, and to proclaim the
Open the Doors message.
As Open Hands went to press in mid-December, 2,000 persons
had enrolled as Reconciling United Methodists, proclaiming
“I join the witness to ‘open the doors’ of The United Methodist
Church to the participation of all people, regardless of
sexual orientation.” By February, 6,000 signatures are expected.
Volunteer campaign coordinators have been secured in about
one-half of the sixty-eight annual conferences in the U.S.
“This is the largest, grass roots witness on behalf of the full
participation of lesbians, gays, and bisexuals ever seen in The
United Methodist Church,” noted James Preston, RCP outreach
coordinator. “At the same time, we are also greatly expanding
the base of the Reconciling Congregation movement.”
Persons interested in enrolling as Reconciling United Methodists
or getting involved in Open the Doors should contact
the RCP office at 312/736-5526.
Movement News
Winter 1996 27
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A Unique Resource on
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Concerns in the Church for
Christian Education • Personal Reading
Research Projects • Worship Resources
Ministry & Outreach
Published by the Reconciling Congregation
Program in conjunction with More
Light, Open and Affirming, Reconciled in
Christ, and Welcoming & Affirming Baptist
Programs.
ADS
GATHERED IN SPIRIT
GAINING IN STRENGTH
The first national ONA Exultation, meeting from October 13-15, 1995 in Cleveland, Ohio, was indeed “an
exultation” due, in great measure, to the spirit and energy brought by 120 participants from all across the
country. Many were from Open and Affirming churches in the United Church of Christ and Christian
Church (Disciples) but a good number of those in attendance were from churches exploring or curious
about the Open and Affirming process.
Note
Michael Kinnamon’s speech and Chris Smith’s
sermon are available for $2.00 each. Send check
(payable to UCCL/GC) with your name and address
to: ONA-UCCL/GC, P.O. Box 403, Holden,
MA 01520-0403.
PLUGGING
RESOURCES: John
W. Lardin, Exultation
program chair,
highlights one of
many resources
available.
ONE OF 8
WORKSHOPS:
Gordon
Svoboda II, a
national staff
person, leads a
workshop on
the UCC human
sexuality
curriculum.
WELCOME: The Reverend
Paul Sherry, president of
the United Church of
Christ, addresses Exultation
participants.
YET ANOTHER ANNOUNCEMENT: Open
and Affirming program coordinator, Ann B.
Day, addresses the audience.
“Inspirational and rejuvenating!”
“Truly a peak experience!”
“Water upon dry land!”
—Evaluation comments made by participants.
In worship and workshops, through stories and songs, participants “exulted” in their common commitment
to shaping faith communities that welcome all people—lesbian, bisexual, gay, and straight. —Ann B. Day
DISCUSSING INCLUSIVENESS: Panel members (from left) Dorothy Gannon, Alvin Haven, Margarita
Suarez, Ann B. Day, Bennie Whiten, Jr., and Keith Townsend explore inclusivity issues in the UCC.
Photos: April Allison
JUST PEACE PLAYERS:
Massachusetts Conference
group offers an
original play, “Everything
Possible.” From
left: Deborah L. Clark,
Kate Stevens, Rebecca
Pugh Brown, Louise
Green.
YOUTH FOCUS
WORKSHOP: Greg
Anderson leads
“Affirming Gay and
Lesbian Youth:
Strategies for Faith
Communities.”
HETEROSEXISM:
Melanie Morrison
leads a workshop
on heterosexism
issues.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:
• Keynoter Michael Kinnamon, dean
of Lexington Theological Seminary in
Kentucky, speaks on “To Be Free and
United in Christ.”
• Closing Communion Service features
preacher, Christine Smith, associate
professor of preaching and worship,
United Theological Seminary of the Twin
Cities, Minnesota.
• Cleveland Area North Coast Men’s
Chorus perform in concert.
First National ONA EXULTATION Aptly Named!
28 Open Hands
MUSICAL LEADERSHIP: A joyful noise was
made throughout the weekend thanks to Elaine
Kirkland and Steven Cagle (not shown).
Winter 1996 29
OUR WELCOMING MOVEMENT GROWS
Since 1978, a total of 644 churches, campus ministries,
judicatories, and national ministries have publicly declared
themselves welcoming of all people, including gay men and
lesbians. This represents an increase of 39 percent over last year!
The 644 welcoming communities are found in eight different
denominations in forty-six states, the District of Columbia,
and Canada. We have included eighty-five Unitarian Universalist
Welcoming Congregations in the list for the first
time this year.
Following is a complete list of congregations, alphabetically
by state and city, followed by a list of campus ministries,
judicatories, and national ministries. The affiliation of each
is designated by the following codes:
ML More Light (Presbyterian)
ONA Open and Affirming (UCC)
O&A Open and Affirming (Disciples)
RIC Reconciled in Christ (Lutheran)
RC Reconciling Congregation (United Methodist)
SCN Supportive (Brethren/Mennonite)
W&A Welcoming & Affirming (Baptist)
WEL Welcoming (Unitarian Universalist)
Claremont
Claremont UMC (RC)
Claremont UCC, Congregational (ONA)
Concord
First Christian (O&A)
Danville
Peace Lutheran (RIC)
El Cerrito
Mira Vista UCC (ONA)
Eureka
First Congregational (ONA)
Fair Oaks
Fair Oaks UMC (RC)
Fairfax
Fairfax Community (ONA)
Fremont
Fremont Congregational (ONA)
Niles Congregational UCC (ONA)
Fresno
Wesley UMC (RC)
Hayward
Eden UCC (ONA)
Hollywood
First UMC (RC)
Irvine
Irvine UCC (ONA)
Lafayette
Lafayette Christian (O&A)
Larkspur
Redwoods Presbyterian (ML)
LaVerne
Ch.of the Brethren (SCN)
Long Beach
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
Los Angeles
Hollywood UMC (RC)
Mt. Hollywood Congregational UCC (ONA)
United University (ML, RC)
Wilshire UMC (RC)
Los Gatos
First UMC (RC)
Malibu
Malibu UMC (RC)
Marin City
St. Andrews Presbyterian (ML)
Milpitas
Sunnyhills UMC (RC)
Modesto
College Avenue Congregational (ONA)
Newark
Holy Redeemer Lutheran (RIC)
North Hollywood
St. Matthew’s Lutheran (RIC)
Toluca Lake UMC (RC)
Oakland
Faith Lutheran (RIC)
Lake Merritt UMC (RC)
Lakeshore Avenue Baptist (W&A)
Lutheran Peace Fellowship (RIC)
Montclair Presbyterian (ML)
Plymouth UCC (ONA)
St. Paul Lutheran (RIC)
Palo Alto
Covenant Presbyterian (ML)
First Evangelical Lutheran (RIC)
First Presbyterian (ML)
St. Andrew’s UMC (RC)
University Lutheran (RIC)
Pasadena
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Richmond
Grace Lutheran (RIC)
Riverside
First Congregational (ONA)
Sacramento
Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer (RIC)
San Diego
First Lutheran (RIC)
First Unitarian (WEL)
Pacific Beach UMC (RC)
San Francisco
Bethany UMC (RC)
Calvary UMC (RC)
Christ Lutheran (RIC)
Dolores Street Baptist (W&A)
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
First Mennonite Church (SCN)
First St. John’s UMC (RC)
First Unitarian Society (WEL)
First United Lutheran (RIC)
Glide Memorial UMC (RC)
Hamilton UMC (RC)
Noe Valley Ministry (ML)
Pine UMC (RC)
Seventh Avenue Presbyterian (ML)
St. Francis Lutheran (RIC)
St. John’s UCC (ONA)
St. Mark’s Lutheran (RIC)
St. Paulus Lutheran (RIC)
Temple UMC (RC)
Trinity UMC (RC)
San Jose
Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran (RIC)
First Christian Church (O&A)
New Community of Faith (W&A)
St. Paul’s UMC (RC)
San Leandro
San Leandro Community (W&A)
San Mateo
College Heights UCC (ONA)
San Rafael
Christ in Terra Linda Presb. (ML)
Faith Lutheran (RIC)
First Congregational (ONA)
First UMC (RC)
Santa Barbara
La Mesa Community (ONA)
Santa Cruz
Grace UMC (RC)
Santa Monica
The Church in Ocean Park (RC)
Santa Rosa
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
UU Fell. of Sonoma Co. (WEL)
Saratoga
Grace UMC (RC)
Sausalito
First Presbyterian (ML)
Stockton
First Christian (O&A)
Sunnyvale
Congregational Community (ONA)
Raynor Park Christian (O&A)
St. John’s Lutheran (RIC)
Tiburon
Community Congregational (ONA)
Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran (RIC)
Westminster Presbyterian (ML)
Vacaville
St. Paul’s UMC (RC)
Vallejo
Fellowship UMC (RC)
First Christian (O&A)
Walnut Creek
Mt. Diablo UU (WEL)
Walnut Creek UMC (RC)
West Hollywood
Crescent Heights UMC (RC)
West Hollywood Presbyterian (ML)
Yucaipa
Faith Lutheran (RIC)
COLORADO
Arvada
Arvada Mennonite (SCN)
Aurora
Parkview Congregational UCC (ONA)
Boulder
Community UCC (ONA)
First Congregational (ONA)
CONGREGATIONS
UNITED STATES
ALABAMA
Huntsville
UU Church (WEL)
ALASKA
Anchorage
UU Fellowship (WEL)
Palmer
Church of the Covenant (W&A)
Sitka
UMC of Sitka (RC)
ARIZONA
Glendale
Rapha Menn. Fellowship (SCN)
Phoenix
Augustana Lutheran (RIC)
Tucson
First Christian (O&A)
St. Francis in the Foothills UMC (RC)
ARKANSAS
Little Rock
Pulaski Heights Christian (O&A)
CALIFORNIA
Alameda
First Christian (O&A)
First Congregational (ONA)
Albany
Albany UMC (RC)
Altadena
Altadena Congregational (ONA)
Christ the Shepherd Lutheran (RIC)
Baldwin Park
First Presbyterian (ML)
Belmont
Congregational Church UCC (ONA)
Benicia
Community Congregational (ONA)
Berkeley
Berkeley/Richmond Intercity Min. (O&A)
Epworth UMC (RC)
First Baptist (W&A)
First Congregational (ONA)
St. John’s Presbyterian (ML)
Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran (RIC)
Trinity UMC (RC)
University Lutheran Chapel (RIC)
University Church (O&A)
Carlsbad
Pilgrim Congregational (ONA)
Carmel
UU of Monterey Peninsula (WEL)
30 Open Hands
Sojourner Truth Cong. UU (WEL)
St. Paul’s Lutheran (RIC)
Westminster Presbyterian (ML)
FLORIDA
Clearwater
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Gainesville
United Church (ONA)
UU Fellowship (WEL)
Key West
Holy Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
Orlando
First Unitarian (WEL)
Pinellas Park
Good Samaritan (ML, ONA)
Tallahassee
United Church (ONA)
Tampa
First United Church (ONA)
Good Samaritan Presb. (ML)
John Calvin Presbyterian (ML)
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
GEORGIA
Atlanta
Clifton Presbyterian (ML)
Grant Park-Aldersgate UMC (RC)
HAWAII
Honolulu
Church of the Crossroads (ONA)
Honolulu Lutheran (RIC)
ILLINOIS
Carbondale
Church of the Good Shepherd (ONA)
Champaign
Community UCC (ONA)
McKinley Memorial Presbyterian (ML)
St. Andrew’s Lutheran (RIC)
Chicago
Albany Park UMC (RC)
Augustana Lutheran (RIC)
Broadway UMC (RC)
Christ the King Lutheran (RIC)
Christ the Mediator Lutheran (RIC)
Ebenezer Lutheran (RIC)
Grace Baptist (W&A)
Grace UMC (RC)
Holy Covenant UMC (RC)
Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran (RIC)
Immanuel Lutheran (RIC)
Irving Park Christian (O&A)
Irving Park UMC (RC)
Lake View Lutheran (RIC)
Lincoln Park Presbyterian (ML)
Mayfair UMC (RC)
Nazareth UCC (ONA)
Norwood Park UMC (RC)
Peoples Church (ONA)
Resurrection Lutheran (RIC)
St. Mark’s Lutheran (RIC)
St. Paul’s UCC (ONA)
Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
United Church of Rogers Park (RC)
University Church (ONA, O&A)
Wellington Avenue UCC (ONA)
Elmhurst
Maywood House Church (RIC)
Evanston
Lake Street Church of Evanston (W&A)
Hemenway UMC (RC)
Wheadon UMC (RC)
Oak Park
Euclid Avenue UMC (RC)
Good Shepherd Lutheran (RIC)
Rockford
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Waukegan
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Wilmette
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Winfield
Winfield Community (RC)
INDIANA
Bloomington
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Indianapolis
Disciples Peace Fellowship (O&A)
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Northeast UCC (ONA)
South Bend
Southside Christian (O&A)
West Lafayette
Shalom UCC (ONA)
IOWA
Ames
Ames Mennonite (SCN)
Lord of Life Lutheran (RIC)
University Lutheran (RIC)
Cedar Rapids
Faith UMC (RC)
Clinton
Clinton-Camanche, Iowa MFSA (RC)
Davenport
Davenport Unitarian (WEL)
Des Moines
First Unitarian (WEL)
Plymouth Congregational UCC (ONA)
Trinity UMC (RC)
Urbandale UCC (ONA)
Iowa City
Faith UCC (ONA)
KANSAS
Kansas City
ecumenikos (ML, ONA, O&A, RC)
Olathe
St. Andrews Christian (O&A)
Topeka
Central Congregational UCC (ONA)
KENTUCKY
Henderson
Zion UCC (ONA)
Louisville
Central Presbyterian (ML)
Third Lutheran (RIC)
Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
LOUISIANA
New Orleans
St. Mark’s UMC (RC)
MAINE
Ellsworth
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Rockland
The First Universalist (WEL)
MARYLAND
Adelphi
Paint Branch UU (WEL)
Baltimore
Christ the Servant Lutheran (RIC)
Dundalk Ch. of the Brethren (SCN)
First & Franklin Presbyterian (ML)
St. John’s UMC (RC)
St. Mark’s Lutheran (RIC)
Bethesda
Cedar Lane Unitarian (WEL)
River Road Unitarian (WEL)
Columbia
Columbia United Christian (O&A)
St. John UM-Presbyterian (ML, RC)
UU Congregation (WEL)
Gaithersburg
Christ the Servant Lutheran (RIC)
Lanham
Good Samaritan Lutheran (RIC)
Rockville
Rockville Presbyterian (ML)
Silver Spring
Christ Cong. UCC (ONA)
Silver Spring Presbyterian (ML)
Takoma Park
Takoma Park Presbyterian (ML)
MASSACHUSETTS
Amherst
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
South Congregational (ONA)
Andover
Ballardvale United (ONA, RC)
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Auburn
Pakachoag (ONA)
Boston
Arlington Street (WEL)
Church of the Covenant (ONA, ML)
Mennonite Congregation (SCN)
Old South Church (ONA)
Braintree
All Souls Church (WEL)
Brewster
First Parish (WEL)
Cambridge
First Church, Congregational (ONA)
Old Cambridge Baptist (W&A)
University Lutheran (RIC)
Danvers
Holy Trinity UMC (RC)
Framingham
Grace UCC (ONA)
Greenfield
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Hingham
Hingham Congregational (ONA)
Holliston
First Congregational (ONA)
Jamaica Plain
Central Congregational (ONA)
Middleboro
First Unitarian Society (WEL)
Newburyport
Belleville Congregational (ONA)
Newton Highlands
Congregational (ONA)
Northampton
Unitarian Society (WEL)
Osterville
United Methodist (RC)
Provincetown
Universalist Meeting House (WEL)
Reading
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Roxbury
Church of the United Community (O&A,
ONA)
Salem
Crombie Street UCC (ONA)
Colorado Springs
All Souls Unitarian (WEL)
Denver
Capitol Heights Presbyterian (ML)
Park Hill Congregational UCC (ONA)
Sixth Avenue United (ONA)
Spirit of Joy Fellowship (SCN)
St. Paul’s UMC (RC)
Washington Park UCC (ONA)
Evergreen
Wild Rose UCC (ONA)
Fort Collins
St. Thomas University Lutheran (RIC)
CONNECTICUT
Coventry
Second Congregational (ONA)
Fairfield
First Church Cong. (ONA)
Glastonbury
First Church of Christ Cong. (ONA)
Hamden
U Society of New Haven (WEL)
Hartford
Central Baptist (W&A)
First Church of Christ, UCC (ONA)
Madison
Shoreline UU Society (WEL)
Mansfield Center
First Church of Christ Cong. (ONA)
Middletown
First Church of Christ Cong. (ONA)
New Haven
Church of Christ in Yale Univ. (ONA)
First & Summerfield UMC (RC)
United Church on the Green (ONA)
Noank
Noank Baptist (W&A)
Rockville
First Lutheran (RIC)
South Glastonbury
Congregational Church (ONA)
Stamford
St. John Lutheran (RIC)
Storrs
Storrs Congregational (ONA)
Waterbury
South Congregational (ONA)
Westport
Unitarian Church (WEL)
Windsor
First Church UCC (ONA)
DELAWARE
Newark
New Ark UCC (ONA)
Wilmington
West Presbyterian (ML)
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Washington, D.C.
All Souls Unitarian (WEL)
Augustana Lutheran (RIC)
Christ Lutheran (RIC)
Christ UMC (RC)
Church of the Reformation (RIC)
Community of Christ Lutheran (RIC)
Dumbarton UMC (RC)
First Congregational (ONA)
First Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
Foundry UMC (RC)
Georgetown Lutheran (RIC)
Grace Lutheran (RIC)
Riverside Baptist (W&A)
Winter 1996 31
Shrewsbury
Mt. Olivet Lutheran (RIC)
Sudbury
The First Parish (WEL)
Wellesley
Wellesley Congregational (ONA)
Wendell
Wendell Congregational (ONA)
West Newton
First Unitarian Society (WEL)
Second Church in Newton UCC (ONA)
Williamstown
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
First UMC (RC)
Worcester
First Baptist (W&A)
United Congregational (ONA)
MICHIGAN
Ann Arbor
Church of the Good Shepherd (ONA)
First UU (WEL)
Lord of Light Lutheran (RIC)
Memorial Christian (O&A)
Northside Presbyterian (ML)
Bloomfield Hills
Birmingham Unitarian (WEL)
Coloma
Coloma UMC (RC)
Detroit
Truth Evangelical Lutheran (RIC)
Douglas
Douglas Congregational UCC (ONA)
East Lansing
Ecclesia (O&A)
UU of Greater Lansing (WEL)
Kalamazoo
Phoenix Community UCC (ONA)
Skyridge Ch.of the Breth. (SCN)
Ypsilanti
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
MINNESOTA
Edina
Edina Community Lutheran (RIC)
Good Samaritan UMC (RC)
Mahtomedi
White Bear UU (WEL)
Mankato
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Maple Grove
Pilgrims United (ONA)
Minneapolis
Community of St. Martin (RIC)
First Congregational (ONA)
First Unitarian Society (WEL)
First Universalist (WEL)
Grace University Lutheran (RIC)
Hennepin Avenue UMC (RC)
Holy Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
Judson Memorial Baptist (W&A)
Lyndale UCC (ONA)
Mayflower Community Cong. UCC (ONA)
Our Savior’s Lutheran (RIC)
Prospect Park UMC (RC)
Spirit of the Lakes (ONA)
St. Andrew’s Lutheran (RIC)
Temple Baptist (W&A)
University Baptist (W&A)
Walker Community (RC)
Wesley UMC (RC)
New Brighton
United Church of Christ (ONA)
Northfield
First UCC (ONA)
Robbinsdale
Robbinsdale UCC (ONA)
St. Cloud
Univ. Luth. of the Epiphany (RIC)
St. Paul
Macalester-Plymouth United. (ML, ONA)
Mennonite Fellowship (SCN)
St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran (RIC)
Wayzatta
St. Luke Presbyterian (ML)
MISSOURI
Kansas City
Abiding Peace Lutheran (RIC)
All Souls Unitarian (WEL)
Fountain of Hope Lutheran (RIC)
Kairos UMC (RC)
St. Mark’s Lutheran (RIC)
Trinity UMC (RC)
Van Brunt Blvd. Presbyterian (ML)
St. Louis
Centenary UMC (RC)
Epiphany (ONA)
Gibson Heights United (ML)
St. Marcus Evangelical UCC (ONA)
University City
Bethel Lutheran (RIC)
MONTANA
Missoula
University Congregational UCC (ONA)
NEBRASKA
Omaha
First Lutheran (RIC)
NEVADA
N. Las Vegas
Wesley UMC (RC)
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Hanover
Our Savior Lutheran (RIC)
Jaffrey
United Church (ONA)
Milford
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Plymouth
Plymouth Congregational (ONA)
NEW JERSEY
Cherry Hill
UU Church (WEL)
Morristown
Unitarian Fellowship (WEL)
Plainfield
First Unitarian Society (WEL)
South Orange
First Presbyterian & Trinity (ML)
Titusville
UU of Washington Crossing (WEL)
NEW MEXICO
Santa Fe
Christ Lutheran (RIC)
Unitarian Church (WEL)
United Church (ONA)
NEW YORK
Albany
Emmanuel Baptist (W&A)
Binghamton
Chenango Street UMC (RC)
UU Congregation (WEL)
Brookhaven
Old South Haven Presbyterian (ML)
Brooklyn
Church of Gethsemane (ML)
First Unit. Cong. Society (WEL)
Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian (ML)
Park Slope UMC (RC)
St. John-St. Matt.-Emmanuel Luth. (RIC)
Buffalo
Amherst Community (ONA, O&A)
Westminster Presbyterian (ML)
Churchville
Union Congregational (ONA)
Craryville
Craryville UMC (RC)
Dobbs Ferry
South Presbyterian (ML)
Gloversville
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Grand Island
Riverside Salem (ONA)
Henrietta
John Calvin Presbyterian (ML)
Huntington
UU Fellowship (WEL)
Kingston
Trinity UMC (RC)
Manhasser
UU Cong. at Shelter Rock (WEL)
Marcellus
First Presbyterian (ML)
Merrick
Community Presbyterian (ML)
Mt. Kisco
Mt. Kisco Presbyterian (ML)
Mt. Sinai
Mt. Sinai Congregational UCC (ONA)
New York
Broadway UCC (ONA)
Central Presbyterian (ML)
Church of St. Paul & St. Andrew (RC)
Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian (ML)
Grace & St. Paul’s Lutheran (RIC)
Jan Hus Presbyterian (ML)
Judson Memorial (ONA, W&A)
Madison Avenue Baptist (W&A)
Metropolitan-Duane UMC (RC)
Our Savior’s Atonement Lutheran (RIC)
Park Avenue Christian (O&A)
Riverside (ONA, W&A)
Rutgers Presbyterian (ML)
St. Peter’s Lutheran (RIC)
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran (RIC)
Unitarian Ch. of All Souls (WEL)
Washington Square UMC (RC)
West-Park Presbyterian (ML)
Oneonta
First UMC (RC)
UU Society (WEL)
Palisades
Palisades Presbyterian (ML)
Poughkeepsie
Unitarian Fellowship (WEL)
Rochester
Calvary-St. Andrews (ML)
Downtown Presbyterian (ML)
First Unitarian (WEL)
Lake Avenue Baptist (W&A)
The House Church (ONA)
Third Presbyterian (ML)
Westminster Presbyterian (ML)
Saratoga Springs
Presb.-New Eng. Cong. (ML, ONA)
Saratoga Springs UMC (RC)
Sayville
Sayville Congregational UCC (ONA)
Schenectady
First Unitarian (WEL)
Williamsville
UU of Amherst (WEL)
Yorktown Heights
First Presbyterian (ML)
NORTH CAROLINA
Chapel Hill
Church of the Reconciliation (ML)
United Church (ONA)
Durham
Eno River UU Fellowship (WEL)
Raleigh
Community UCC (ONA)
Pullen Memorial Baptist (W&A)
Wilmington
UU Fellowship (WEL)
Winston-Salem
First Christian (O&A)
UU Fellowship (WEL)
OHIO
Brecksville
United Church of Christ (ONA)
Chesterland
Community Church (ONA)
Cincinnati
Mt. Auburn Presbyterian (ML)
Cleveland
Archwood UCC (ONA)
Liberation UCC (ONA)
Pilgrim Congregational UCC (ONA)
West Shore UU (WEL)
Cleveland Heights
Church of the Redeemer (RC)
Noble Road Presbyterian (ML)
Columbus
Calvary Lutheran (RIC)
First English Lutheran (RIC)
First UU (WEL)
Redeemer Lutheran (RIC)
Third Avenue Community (RC)
Dayton
Congregation for Reconciliation (ONA)
Faith UCC (ONA)
Granville
First Baptist (W&A)
Norton
Grace UCC (ONA)
Oberlin
First Church in Oberlin (ONA)
Shaker Heights
First Unitarian of Cleveland (WEL)
Toledo
Central UMC (RC)
OKLAHOMA
Tulsa
UM Community of Hope (RC)
OREGON
Ashland
United Church of Christ (ONA)
Beaverton
Southminster Presbyterian (ML)
Corvallis
First Cong. Church ONA)
First UMC (RC)
Estacada
Estacada UMC (RC)
32 Open Hands
Eugene
Unit. of Eugene & Lake Co. (WEL)
Klamath Falls
Klamath Falls Cong. UCC (ONA)
Lake Oswego
Lake Oswego UCC (ONA)
Milwaukie
Clackamus UCC (ONA)
Milwaukie UCC (ONA)
Portland
First Congregational (ONA)
First UMC (RC)
Metanoia Peace Community (RC)
Peace Church of the Breth. (SCN)
Southwest United (ONA)
St. James Lutheran (RIC)
University Park UMC (RC)
Salem
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
First Unitarian Society (WEL)
Morningside UMC (RC)
Springfield
Church of the Brethren (SCN)
PENNSYLVANIA
Devon
Main Line Unitarian (WEL)
Harrisburg
Unitarian Church (WEL)
Lansdale
Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
Levittown
United Christian Church (O&A, ONA)
Philadelphia
Calvary UMC (RC)
First UMC of Germantown (RC)
Old First Reformed (ONA)
St. Michael’s Lutheran (RIC)
Tabernacle United (ML, ONA)
Univ. Lutheran of the Incarnation (RIC)
Wayne
Central Baptist (W&A)
RHODE ISLAND
East Greenwich
Westminster Unitarian (WEL)
Newport
Newport Congregational (ONA)
SOUTH CAROLINA
Columbia
Gethsemane Lutheran (RIC)
SOUTH DAKOTA
Erwin
Erwin UCC (ONA)
TENNESSEE
Knoxville
Tennessee Valley UU (WEL)
Memphis
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Nashville
Brookmeade Congregational UCC (ONA)
Edgehill UMC (RC)
First UU Church (WEL)
TEXAS
Austin
First English Lutheran (RIC)
Trinity UMC (RC)
Dallas
Bethany Presbyterian (ML)
First Unitarian (WEL)
Midway Hills Christian (O&A)
Fort Worth
St. Matthew’s Lutheran (RIC)
Houston
Bering Memorial UMC (RC)
Comm. of the Reconciling Servant (ML)
Plano
Dallas North Unitarian (WEL)
UTAH
Salt Lake City
South Valley UU Society (WEL)
VERMONT
Bennington
Second Congregational (ONA)
Burlington
Christ Presbyterian (ML)
College Street Congregational (ONA)
Middlebury
Congregational UCC (ONA)
Rutland
Rutland UMC (RC)
VIRGINIA
Alexandria
Mount Vernon Unitarian (WEL)
Peace Lutheran (RIC)
Arlington
Unitarian Church (WEL)
Harrisonburg
Sanctuary UCC (ONA)
Oakton
Fairfax Unitarian (WEL)
WASHINGTON
Chelan
Fullness of God Lutheran (RIC)
Federal Way
Wayside UCC (ONA)
Leavenworth
Faith Lutheran (RIC)
Marysville
Evergreen UU Fellowship (WEL)
Medical Lake
Shalom UCC (ONA)
Mountlake Terrace
Terrace View Presbyterian (ML)
Olympia
Comm. for Interfaith Celebration (ONA)
Pullman
Community Congregational UCC (ONA)
Richland
Shalom UCC (ONA)
Seattle
Broadview Community UCC (ONA)
Central Lutheran (RIC)
Findlay Street Christian (O&A)
First Baptist (W&A)
Pilgrim Congregational (ONA)
Plymouth Congregational (ONA)
Prospect UCC Cong. (ONA)
Ravenna UMC (RC)
Richmond Beach Cong. UCC (ONA)
University Baptist (W&A)
University Christian (O&A)
University Congregational (ONA)
Wallingford UMC (RC)
Spokane
Unitarian Church (WEL)
Suquamish
Community Cong. (ONA)
Vancouver
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
White Salmon
Bethel Cong., UCC (ONA)
WEST VIRGINIA
Wheeling
UU Congregation (WEL)
WISCONSIN
Brown Deer
Brown Deer UCC (ONA)
Eau Claire
Ecumenical Religious Center (RIC)
University Lutheran (RIC)
Madison
Community of Hope UCC (ONA)
First Baptist (W&A)
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Orchard Ridge UCC (ONA)
University UMC (RC)
Milwaukee
Church of the Reformation (RIC)
Cross Lutheran (RIC)
Plymouth UCC (ONA)
Village Church, Lutheran (RIC)
Racine
Our Savior’s Lutheran (RIC)
Sheboygan
Wesley UMC (RC)
CANADA
ALBERTA
Edmonton
Unitarian Church (WEL)
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Vancouver
Unitarian Church (WEL)
ONTARIO
Thunder Bay
Lakehead U. Fellowship (WEL)
Waterloo
Olive Branch Mennonite (SCN)
SASKATCHEWAN
Saskatoon
King of Glory Lutheran (RIC)
CAMPUS MINISTRIES
Key:
LCM=Lutheran Campus Ministry
UCM=United Campus Ministry
UMSF=United Methodist Student Fellowship
UNITED STATES
CALIFORNIA
Cal-Aggie Christian House, UC-Davis (RC)
Pride Alliance, Chapman U., Orange
(O&A)
UCM, USC, Los Angeles (RC)
Wesley Fdn., UCLA (RC)
Wesley Fdn., UC-Santa Barbara (RC)
COLORADO
LCM, CU-Boulder (RIC)
DELAWARE
Wesley Fdn., UD, Newark (RC)
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
UMSF, American U. (RC)
ILLINOIS
UMSF, Ill. Wesleyan, Bloomington (RC)
UCM, No. Illinois, DeKalb (RC)
INDIANA
LCM, IU, Bloomington (RIC)
IOWA
LCM, UI, Iowa City (RIC)
MICHIGAN
Guild House, UM, Ann Arbor (O&A, ONA)
MINNESOTA
LCM in Minneapolis (RIC)
LCM, SCS, St. Cloud (RIC)
Stud. Cong., St. Olaf, Northfield (RIC)
NORTH DAKOTA
Univ. Lutheran Center, NDSU, Fargo (RIC)
OHIO
UCM, OU, Athens (O&A, RC, W&A)
Wesley Fdn., Oh. Wesleyan, Delaware (RC)
OREGON
LCM in Portland (RIC)
Wesley Fdn., UO, Eugene (RC)
PENNSYLVANIA
LCM at Kutztown (RIC)
TEXAS
LCM, UT, Austin (RIC)
WASHINGTON
LCM, WU, Bellingham (RIC)
Wesley Club, UW, Seattle (RC)
WISCONSIN
LCM, LaCrosse (RIC)
LCM, Metro Milwaukee(RIC)
LCM, UW-Stout, Menomonie (RIC)
CANADA
SASKATCHEWAN
Luth. Stud. Movement, Saskatoon (RIC)
JUDICATORIES
More Light Synods (ML)
Synod of the Northeast
Open and Affirming Conferences (ONA)
California/Nevada N.
Central Pacific
Connecticut
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
New Hampshire
Ohio
Rocky Mountain
Southern California
Open and Affirming Regions (O&A)
Northern California/Nevada
Reconciled in Christ Synods (RIC)
Eastern North Dakota
Eastern Washington-Idaho
Greater Milwaukee
Metro Chicago
Metro Washington, D.C.
Pacifica
Rocky Mountain
Sierra-Pacific
Southeast Michigan
Southeast Pennsylvania
Reconciling Conferences (RC)
California-Nevada
New York
Northern Illinois
Troy
NATIONAL MINISTRIES
Gen’l Comm. on Christian Unity & Interreligious
Concerns (RC)
Lutheran Student Movement—USA (RIC)
Methodist Fed. for Social Action (RC)