Open Hands Vol 13 No 2 - From One Womb, At One Table: The Rites of Baptism and Communion

Open Hands Vol 13 No 2 - From One Womb, At One Table: The Rites of Baptism and Communion

13

2

1997

Fall

Vol. 13 No. 2
Fall 1997
2 Open Hands
Vol. 13 No. 2 Fall 1997
Resources for Ministries Affirming
the Diversity of Human Sexuality
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: 773 / 736-5526
Fax: 773 / 736-5475
Member, The Associated Church Press
© 1997
Reconciling Congregation Program, Inc.
Open Hands is a registered trademark.
ISSN 0888-8833
w Printed on recycled paper.
NEXT ISSUE:
We’re Welcoming! Now What?
FROM ONE WOMB, AT ONE TABLE
The Rites of Baptism and Communion
AFFIRMING ONE BAPTISM
The Baptismal Promise: A Whisper from the Womb 4
MARILYN ALEXANDER
How do queer Christians remain strong enough in the
faith to witness to the baptismal promise of radical
equality?
Divinely Knitted in my Mother’s Womb 7
DICK POOLE
Psalm 139:1-18 expresses poetically how God has claimed
us even in our mother’s womb.
Welcoming Waters: Baptismal Traditions
and Inclusivity Concerns 8
GAYLE CARLTON FELTON
Baptism is about radical grace—and radical equality.
Baptists and Baptism: Diversity and
Spiritual Responsibility 10
TIMOTHY PHILLIPS
Is baptism about what we profess about ourselves or
about our spiritual responsibility within our faith
communities?
Reflections on the Trinitarian Formula 11
GAYLE CARLTON FELTON
The traditional naming of God is explored.
CLAIMING ONE TABLE
Gathering at God’s Feast 12
SCOTT WEIDLER
In God’s time frame, the maitre d’ (the church) will be as
hospitable as the host (Christ)!
When I Come to the Table of Remembrance 15
SKIP JONES
A gay Baptist shares his journey—from infant dedication
to feeling fully included at God’s table.
Fall 1997 3
Publisher
Mark Bowman
Editor
Mary Jo Osterman
Designer
In Print—Jan Graves
Illustrations
Kari Sandhaas
Program Coordinators
Mark Bowman
Reconciling Congregation
Program, Inc. (UMC)
3801 N. Keeler Avenue
Chicago, IL 60641
773/736-5526
Ann B. Day
Open and Affirming
Program (UCC)
P.O. Box 403
Holden, MA 01520
508/856-9316
Bob Gibeling
Reconciled in Christ
Program (Lutheran)
2466 Sharondale Drive
Atlanta, GA 30305
404/266-9615
Dick Lundy
More Light Churches
Network (PCUSA)
5525 Timber Lane
Excelsior, MN 55331
612/470-0093
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
Dick Hasbany, MLCN
Bobbi Hargleroad, MLCN
Dorothy Klefstad, RIC
Susan Laurie, RCP
Samuel E. Loliger, ONA
Tim Phillips, W&A
Lisa Ann Pierce, SCN
Dick Poole, RIC
Caroline Presnell, RCP
Paul Santillán, RCP
Margarita Suaréz, ONA
Stuart Wright, RIC
RCP PHOTO DISPLAY 27
WELCOMING COMMUNITIES 28
SELECTED RESOURCES 30
MOVEMENT NEWS 31
ASIDES
“In a profound sense...” ............... 6
THOMAS DIPKO
Communion Closet (cartoon) ...... 13
CHRIS GLASER
Mexican Folk Story (children) ...... 16
MARY POPE
A Reconciling Meal 16
MARY POPE
A pastor in inner city Des Moines describes a multichurch,
multi-cultural, multi-class, multi-orientation
Christmas Eve meal and communion.
Eucharist Defines Who We Are 17
JEFFREY PULLING
MCC churches hold together three ingredients in their
understanding of communion.
GIFTING THE CHURCH
Wound with a View: Our Gift to the Church 18
CHRIS GLASER
Our “wound with a view” provides queer Christian
survivors with a God-given opportunity to serve as
“wounded healers.”
Beginning with Theology, Not Lifestyle 20
RONALD COUGHLIN
The United Church of Canada offers a model for change
that focuses on who can be a member of the church.
Native Memories 21
ELEANOR H. JOHNSON
An American Indian woman shares her reflections on
native understandings of baptism and communion.
Sharing God’s Grace-Filled Gifts 22
HOWARD B. WARREN, JR.
A pastor takes authority for offering God’s gifts of
baptism, communion, anointing, and holy unions to
marginalized gays and lesbians.
SUSTAINING THE SPIRIT
Bethany Tuesday: A Place at the Table 24
MELANIE MORRISON
A new table ritual celebrates the inclusiveness of
“Bethany Tuesday” during Holy Week.
“Come to the Table” 26
JULIAN RUSH
“Come to the table where we are able to join in the feast
and to share in the love.” —From the musical “Caught in
the Middle.”
4 Open Hands
As many of you as were baptized into
Christ have clothed yourselves with
Christ. There is no longer Jew or
Greek, there is no longer slave or free,
there is no longer male and female;
for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
—Gal 3:27-28 NRSV
Thus the rite of baptism does not
accomplish the equality it is witness
to, but it is prophetic and empowering.
It calls the community forward
continually in the struggle to realize
its own baptismal character as a
community of equals “in Christ.”
—Marjorie Procter-Smith
In Her Own Rite1
Baptism. A rite of water and the
Spirit. A welcoming party. A
plunge into the deep end of the
pool. The sign of the Great Equalizer.
God’s way of reminding us of the sacred
worth of each of us. What a splendid
beginning. What a guidepost for
each of us to claim each other as children
of God and also to know ourselves
in that way. What a promise.
Then the needle runs off the record
and we hear only the scratching sound
of a phonograph off kilter. If we are all
recognized through baptism as members
of the Body of Christ, how then
can the church—as we see through
mainline denominations—exclude lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgendered
Christians? Why would the Christian
community put their core theology in
such jeopardy by their witness of queer
hatred, judgment, and fear?2 When we
feel the impact of this discrimination,
how can we as queer Christians be
strong enough in our faith to continue
to witness to the baptismal promise of
radical equality?
Whisper of Grace—or Duty?
It was a bright sunny day. In the clear
blue sky a lone falcon soared circles
above our heads. We were on our way
to The Womb, a cave-like shelter under
the red rock cliffs outside Sedona,
Arizona, aptly named for its curved
walls and v-shaped ceiling. As we approached
this curiosity, we stopped for
a shaded rest and a soothing drink. Our
guide led us in a meditation asking
Mother Earth for permission to enter
her sacred ground. I closed my eyes, listened
to our guide’s flute music, and
breathed in the smell of sage and dust.
My eyes filled with tears as I asked the
earth to allow me to walk on her body,
suddenly aware of the days I trudge
through life questioning my place here.
A melody came to me. “You are a part
of the earth. You are a beloved part of
the earth. You are loved by the earth.” I
could see an old woman’s face in the
red rock, hair wisps flowing gracefully
in the wind, calmly whispering her welcome.
I have a friend whose mother instilled
in her the old axiom “You must
justify your square foot of earth.” The
image of each of us standing on our own
separate piece of sod slides through my
mind. We would raise our hands when
we felt like we had done our duty, asking
if we could be excused now to go
play.
As queer Christians, in contrast to the
baptismal promise of God’s unconditional
acceptance, it is easy to feel ourselves
on a collective strip of sod, working
hard to justify our existence in the
church. This is the message of mainline
denominations: “Once you finish with
practicing your foolishness in bed, then
you can be ordained, lead choirs, and
in general be full members of the Body
of Christ. But until that time, you have
not justified your square foot of God.”
How then do we muster up our
strength, draw on the wellspring of the
baptismal promise, and remain rooted
in our Christian communities? How do
we answer the prophetic call of baptism
to create communities of “equals ‘in
Christ’”?
The Baptismal Promise:
A Whisper from the Womb
By Marilyn Alexander
Fall 1997 5
Baptismal Promise
Unraveled
After camp was over
in 1993, I was told
that I could no longer
be on the senior high
youth camp staff if I was
going to be out as a lesbian.
I had served five consecutive
years of faithful and
lively service at this campsite,
but I knew the discriminatory mandate
was coming. I had already seen
the very ugly face of homophobia enter
our campfire ring, poisoning the
smoke soul of our Christian community.
It was during the youth talent show
that the baptismal garment began to
unravel openly. Two young men began
their piece by saying they hoped they
did not offend anyone. They then began
singing an original song about the
intimate feelings they had for one another,
peppered with the chorus, “We’re
not gay. We’re not gay. We’re not gay.”
Those may not be the words exactly,
but that was the message. “We care for
each other, but we’re not you.”
I was stunned. This came at the end
of a long week in which I had been
asked to be silent about being a lesbian
and to closet any intimate conversations
with my partner who was also on staff.
However, I was even more dismayed
when I was told that one of the adult
co-leaders had approved the song. The
youth had gone to him earlier in the
day because they had a feeling that
something about the song might not
be right. For whatever reason, he gave
his okay.
This was after five years of growing
a Christian camping community based
on principles of love and justice. The
year before, we had built a program
around a quote by South African Archbishop
Desmond Tutu: “Oppression is
not only evil, it is blasphemous because
it makes a child of God doubt that s/he
is a child of God” and another by the
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
We had openly addressed
issues of racism, sexism, and heterosexism.
This was the community I had
come to know, but now I wondered if
only in words, only in intellect.
The adult staff could have recovered
even at that point after the talent show
revelations. There was still time for the
essential lesson in Christian community,
one of confession, repentance, and
reconciliation. But it did not happen.
The fear of what would happen if the
camp was perceived to be centered on
“the issue of homosexuality” was so
great that it kept the primary Christian
message from being experienced. The
smoke choked us; the fire chilled us.
I left with a profound sense of loss.
Also, I knew that because I could not
speak for myself as a lesbian, I had been
made (and in my acceptance of that silence
I had made myself) powerless to
address the two young men. Those two
and I ended camp in the closing circle
with a look and a nod that spoke unknown
volumes, wondering if the circle
would ever be complete again.
Renewed in the Waters
Now it’s August 1997. I’m back on
the lake shores with the sparkling
water at my front and tall pine trees at
my back, smelling the delicious air,
wondering why in the world I ever came
back. At General Conference in 1996 the
bishop had given me an open invitation
to come back to camp any time.
The new camp dean, along with a close
friend, saw to having my travel expenses
covered. Still, why put myself through
this? But, four years later, I am an out
lesbian. I am no longer silent. I do not
have to depend on others to speak for
me as a lesbian child of God. My sexual
orientation is no secret to the camp staff
or to the church at large. So why the
more ➟
6 Open Hands
“It was a profound moment...
the broken circle had now come back together.”
knot in my stomach, the reluctance to
trust the Christian community one
more time?
The two young men from the 1993
talent show are now graduating from
college and just happen to be staffing a
junior camp at the same campsite, the
same week. It’s been four years since
we laid eyes on one another. Do I want
this reunion?
We sit to the side of the crowded,
boisterous, camper-filled dining hall.
They tell me how long they have waited
for this time of reconciliation. I can
barely hear their words. They each tell
me what led up to writing and singing
their song, what they saw happen as a
result of it, and how their lives have
changed since. I tell them that I did not
hold them totally responsible since they
as youth had gone to an adult for advice.
“Even then,” one says, “we must
have known something was wrong or
we wouldn’t have asked about it.” The
other explains, “We were trying to affirm
male intimacy.” The one adds,
“One step forward, two steps backward.”
The other continues, “My life
took a 180 degree turn in a matter of
days. I couldn’t believe that I had hurt
someone I loved. I describe that time
as ‘when God hit me with a brick.’
That’s when I felt God calling me into
the ministry. I have gone through that
time over and over and over in my head.
I know back then I was homophobic;
that’s how I had been raised. I should
have known that was still a stab that I
was putting out there in the song.” We
all knew it had been a long four years.
In my absence and silence, they had to
search their own hearts and souls; they
had to really seek for answers. They had
been on a journey towards claiming the
baptismal promise, seeing the Body of
Christ as a community of equals.
That evening, I led a program on
sexuality with the seventy senior high
campers. We laughed and joked about
how we show affection, how we express
our sexual attractions, ways we are in
relationships. We got a bit more serious
as I described the continuum of
sexual orientation, what it means for
all of us to have a sexual orientation—
bisexual, lesbian/gay, straight. Then we
moved into a segment on labeling others
and hating things we fear. At that
point, one of the former campers came
forward and told his story, from how
he had been raised in these camps, to
the homophobia he learned growing
up, to the details (without identifying
me) of that talent show now so long
ago. The campers were spellbound as
he confessed his transgression, told how
it had affected his life, and described
our reconciliation just hours old. Then
he called me by name.
It was a profound moment of tears
and hugs, there in the very room where
the talent show had been held, and
where the broken circle now had come
back together. I broke the spell of silence,
told of the poison that silence is,
and how I never thought I would come
back to this place. I told them of a letter
my grandfather once wrote to my
mother when she was a young child,
telling her, “Do not be so thoroughly
convinced of a certain thing that to have
it changed would wreck your thoughts
and so your life.” I told them that I was
glad I did not hold onto the homophobia
I had been taught in the church, that
I was glad I could let go of that and instead
open up to and hold onto God’s
powerful love for me. And I said that I
was glad this young man did not hold
on to his homophobia, for when he let
it go, his whole life opened up anew to
him.
What a moment. What an amazing
lesson in Christian community. We do
make mistakes, sometimes terribly hurtful
ones. However, we can then choose
to learn from them. We can risk having
our lives changed. We can be renewed
in the waters of baptism. As we seek new
life, we can emerge dripping with the
remembrance of the sacred worth of
each child of God.
Strength in the Whisper
Queer Christians can say “No
more!” to discrimination. We can
even leave a void where once we served
in silence. We can allow our absence to
become a classroom for those who seek
to learn. Many times it is the queer
Christians who must take the first step
in exemplifying the radical equality
taught to us through the rite of baptism.
It is then when we must claim without
a doubt that we are children of God.
We know this, not because we have justified
our square foot, but because God
has claimed us as God’s own. We find
our strength in the baptismal promise,
the whisper
You are a part of me.
You are a beloved part of me.
You are loved by me. ▼
Notes
1Marjorie Procter-Smith, In Her Own Rite
(Nashville: Abingdon, 1990), p. 145.
2“Queer” is a term increasingly used in a
positive way by the lesbian/gay, bisexual,
and transgendered communities to denote
their connections with each other.
Marilyn Alexander serves as a private
consultant and guest speaker to churches
and other organizations on issues of risktaking,
community building, and spiritual
renewal. A United
Methodist, she is the
co-author of We Were
Baptized Too: Claiming
God’s Grace for
Lesbians and Gays.
“In a profound sense,
it is hypocritical of the church to speak
of the ‘civil rights’ of gay or lesbian
persons when we are not willing, in civil
and reasoned and prayerful discourse,
to speak first about their baptismal rights
in the Body of Christ which they do not
wish to leave.”
—Thomas Dipko,
Executive Vice President
United Church Board for Homeland Ministries
Source
This quote is taken from a widely circulated
letter of Thomas Dipko’s which he originally
sent to St. Paul United Church of Christ in
Glenford, Ohio. Used with permission.
Fall 1997 7
“Prayer for deliverance
from personal enemies
(a lament).”
That’s the reference to Psalm 139
in the footnotes of the New Oxford
Annotated Bible (NRSV). I
suppose that’s true, when taking the
psalm as a whole. But it is the psalm’s
first eighteen verses that often form my
prayer. For me those verses are exclamations
of praise and awe— and profound
truth.
For much of my life I have been
plagued with “poor self image.” Given
that I am by personality a perfectionist,
that poor self image is no surprise. You
see, I can be acceptable only if I am perfect;
and since I am never perfect (or
only in illusory ways), I find myself in
this dilemma of poor self image.
Along with that has resided a poor
sense of “body.” As far back as I can
remember, I have had a sense that I was
fat and unattractive. I hated my body; I
hated who I was. Why couldn’t I be
thin, muscular, athletic, popular, out
going?
As I moved into middle age, I realized
that things (especially my body)
weren’t going to get any better. My
weight was less controllable because my
metabolism was slowing down. My hair
was falling out— and what was left was
increasingly gray. Nearsightedness was
progressing toward bifocals. My digestive
system began crying out for an acid
blocker.
Then came a spiritual retreat. I began
focusing on a recently reclaimed
photo of myself around age one
year, and I was deeply touched by how
happy and self-assured that little one
seemed to be. Oh, not at all like me (as
I experienced myself). Where could that
little one be hiding in my memory?
My spiritual companion during that
retreat suggested Psalm 139:1-18 as a
basis for my prayer. With that, a new
world began to open.
For it was you (God) who formed
my inward parts;
you knit me together in my
mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works.
—Ps 139:13-14
For I am fearfully and wonderfully
made. How those words assaulted me!
Somehow these words struck me not
simply as a theological precept but as a
most basic truth, yet a truth which I had
never known before. There is something
wonderful and awesome about me—and
not only my mind (which I had learned
to recognize as “good”) but also my
body, my physical fleshiness.
I was astounded, but also liberated.
That one-year-old baby whose photograph
mesmerized me knew something
that I had long forgotten, i.e., that I am
good—all of me: my fleshy “pot,” my
balding head, my softening muscles.
There in front of me in the Bible were
the words: I am wonderfully made. In my
physical, human birth from my mother’s
womb— even there— God’s hands
were active, lovingly molding me to be
who God wanted me to be. Who am I
(or anyone else, for that matter) to
declare God’s creative work sordid or
despicable or bad? “God’s hands”—
certainly metaphor— but what a wondrous
way of acknowledging God’s intimate
presence in our coming to being.
Indeed, it is an affirmation of our “inspirited
bodies” or of us as “embodied
spirits”—“God with us” and even more,
“God in us.” No, it is not a description
of some sadistic Creator God who plots
who will be blind or lame, who will be
diseased mentally or physically. Rather,
it is a great “YES!” to God’s presence in
all of us no matter what forms our
fleshiness take.
Even more empowering was that
event on 27 July 1947—before I
could say anything or do much of anything—
that event which took place at
Messiah Lutheran Church, Wesleyville,
Pennsylvania— that very concrete event
of baptism. There and then God and the
church declared me acceptable, beloved—
forever! Post-baptismal criteria
for judgment just don’t work. There was
nothing in the baptismal rite about how
the sacrament does not have any effect
if the baptized one turns out to be overweight
and flabby, or has a poor self
image, or is gay/lesbian/transgender/
bisexual. What was true at the time of
baptism is still true: I am (we are) acceptable
to God. Indeed, I am fearfully/
awesomely and wonderfully made. No one
can abrogate that divine fact. And because
of it, I am free. Thanks be to God!
So, all is well? Not completely. I am
still concerned about what people
think about me and how they perceive
me. I still get upset at times about being
overweight. I still think on occasion
that I ought to be perfect.
Yet deep within me I know that all
this stuff is nothing in light of God’s
creative hand in the womb— both the
physical womb of my mother and the
symbolic womb of the baptismal font
by which I was born into the people of
God. ▼
Dick Poole is a Lutheran pastor who does
spiritual direction/companioning at The
Claret Center in the Hyde Park area of Chicago.
He is a member of
Holy Trinity Lutheran
Church, an RIC congregation,
and serves on
the Open Hands advisory
committee.
Divinely Knitted in my Mother’s Womb
By Dick Poole
8 Open Hands
“Baptism...
not only a sacrament of radical grace but...
of radical equality.”
In none of my historical research on
baptismal traditions in United
Methodism and its predecessor denominations
have I found any mention
of homosexual persons or practices. It
is important to realize that this issue
simply did not exist for our church
throughout most of its history. Evidently
persons who lived in same-sex
relationships—as was rather common in
the nineteenth century, especially for
women—were welcomed into Christian
fellowship and church membership
without hesitation. Questions concerning
the acceptance of lesbian and gay
persons in United Methodism arose
only during the three most recent decades.
Examination of how our historical
traditions can inform us in the
church’s current debates must focus not
on past happenings but on enduring,
fundamental theological presuppositions
and how they have been expressed
in our baptismal ministry.
Radical Grace, Radical
Equality
One of the surprises of my research
on Methodism was the failure to
locate any published argument against
the baptism of infants. Our administration
of the sacrament to infants is a
powerful expression of our traditional
emphasis upon divine grace. God’s
grace comes to us—all of us—as pure
gift. It can never be earned or deserved.
In the baptism of a baby, we see with
startling clarity that all persons come
to God as helpless beings, wholly dependent
upon God’s gracious love, and
unable to do anything to save ourselves.
No where else is the radical nature of
grace more richly portrayed. God loves
and values those whom the power
structures of society have too often
viewed as nonpersons. In our present
society, we need reminding of this
truth, not only as it applies to infants,
but even more as it applies to homosexual
persons and others who are
marginalized and oppressed.
Baptism is not only a sacrament of
radical grace, but also a sacrament of
radical equality. In Peter’s vision described
in Acts 10, God jolted and scandalized
the apostle into recognizing that
the divine favor is not limited by prejudicial
human standards. This radical
equality before God was symbolized in
the early church by the removal of
clothing from those being baptized so
that they received the welcoming waters
nude. Paul, who like us was unable
to hold consistently to his highest spiritual
insights, expresses this radical
equality in Galatians 3:27-28 when he
exults that those baptized into Christ
have transcended human distinctions.
James F. White comments on this passage
that, “Sexual equality is the most
radical of all.”1 While White is speaking
of gender equality, I would argue
that his statement best describes the
radical equality of persons regardless of
sexual orientation. John Wesley reemphasized
the equality of the gospel by
asserting that all persons are lost in sin;
there is no inherent moral superiority
of any group of persons. Happily,
Wesley also insisted upon the universality
of divine grace; all who desire to
receive salvation may do so. God’s love
is equally available to all.
In 1667 the legislature of the colony
of Virginia passed a law stipulating that
the legal status of a slave was not altered
by baptism. Surely the very existence
of such a law is plain evidence that
some were glimpsing the liberating
potential of baptism. How did a person
who had been baptized as one’s brother
or sister in Christ still remain one’s
slave? Of course, colonial Virginians
had no monopoly upon the facile ability
to rationalize that with which we
ourselves are comfortable. The church
today is similarly guilty of justifying our
own ignorance and prejudices by representing
them as God’s will. Nowhere
is this exercised as much as in the contemporary
struggle with gay and lesbian
persons in both society and church.
Called to “Social Religion”
The sacrament of baptism calls us to
account. Baptism is grounded upon
the reality of a God who is active in
human history, a God who is able to
free us from the bondage of sin and to
enable us to live transformed and empowered
lives. God’s baptized people
are to be engaged in the process of sanctification.
We are to become a holy
people, both individually and collectively.
The familiar dichotomy between
a faith expressed in individual piety and
one exemplified in social action is absolutely
false. John Wesley affirmed that
“There is no religion but social religion,
no holiness but social holiness.” Christians
are to grow more and more into
the image of Christ and to work to shape
society into a facsimile of the Realm of
God. To do either requires us to reexamine
our values, to purify our motives,
and to reorder our actions—first in our
relationship with other baptized Christians
and further when we dialogue with
the secular world.
Welcoming Waters:
Baptismal Traditions and Inclusivity Concerns
By Gayle Carlton Felton
Fall 1997 9
It is in baptism that we are commissioned
into ministry. We are assigned
our task of continuing the work of Jesus
Christ in redeeming the world. Wesley’s
emphasis on divine grace was always
balanced with the necessity of the human
response of faith and faithful action.
In the vows of the United Methodist
baptismal ritual, we are asked, “Do
you accept the freedom and power God
gives you to resist evil, injustice, and
oppression in whatever forms they
present themselves?” To live out our
affirmative answer is to devote ourselves
to the struggle for justice love in all the
arenas of our private and corporate life.
Slowly, painfully, the church is moving
toward the acceptance of racial and
gender equality. Sometimes we are even
practicing it! The salient issue of “evil,
injustice, and oppression” facing the
contemporary church is that of its attitude
toward and treatment of homosexual
persons. Regrettably, history
shows us that there is a paranoia in
human nature which causes us constantly
to seek a scapegoat for personal
and societal ills. In the United States,
this role has been filled at various times
by witches, foreigners, labor unionists,
communists, and Roman Catholics,
among others. Today’s scare tactics cast
lesbians and gays in this role.
Marked by our Baptism
It is extremely disheartening to see the
Christian church so often being
dragged, reluctant and late, into movements
for social justice. Why is it that
secular forces in our culture are in the
forefront of campaigns for inclusivity
while the church lags behind? This has
been the reality of reforms toward racial
and gender inclusiveness. It is certainly
the reality of the movement toward
inclusion of gay and lesbian
persons. The most significant impetus
toward full inclusivity of all persons
should not be that of political correctness
or human rights or economic fairness.
For Christians as individuals and
for the church as an institution, even
these positive values are eclipsed by the
demands of the authentic gospel of
Jesus Christ. Baptism incorporates us
into the Christian church. The church
is instituted by God to be a community
of faith and love manifesting to the
world what it means to live according
to the purpose of God. The church cannot
exemplify Christ to the world until
it has been itself shaped into the image
of Christ. The church cannot transform
the world unless it is itself being transformed
by Christ. Out of the welcoming
waters of baptism can—and by God’s
grace will—come a community marked
by inclusivity, reconciled and reconciling.
▼
Note
1James F. White, The Sacraments as God’s Self
Giving (Nashville: Abingdon, 1983), p. 97.
Gayle Carlton Felton, whose Ph.D. is in
history of American Christianity, is senior
consultant to the Divinity School of Duke
University. An elder in the North Carolina
Annual Conference of
The United Methodist
Church, she also serves
as a member of the
board of directors of the
Reconciling Congregation
Program.
ADS
10 Open Hands
What do Jesse Jackson, Bill
Clinton, and Jerry Falwell
have in common? They are
all baptized members of Baptist churches.
This fact alone should give pause to
anyone trying to identify a Baptist view
of anything. Add the twenty-plus different
Baptist groupings in the U.S., including
everything from rigid Calvinists
(Primitive, Reformed, and
some Regular Baptists) to historic
Arminians (General and
Free-will Baptists) and you only
begin to get the idea. Add also
Baptists who represent the extremes
of these views: Two-Seed-
In-The-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists
who believe that everyone
is born elect to salvation or
damned to hell based on a seed
in the soul at birth about which
one can do nothing, or Fire-Baptized
Holiness Baptists who are
free-will charismatics. There are
Baptists who worship on Saturday
(Seventh-Day Baptists), Baptists
identified with particular
nationalities (notably Swedish
and German Baptists), and African-
American Baptists in incorporated
and unincorporated
bodies (National Baptist Conventions)
and in a subset known
as Progressive Baptists. Even the
mighty Southern Baptist Convention
(SBC) which, with its
nearly 14 million members, often presumes
to speak for all Baptists, has its
divisions; the Baptist Alliance and the
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship are both
responses to conservatives in the SBC.
Although Baptists are popularly associated
with immersion— that mode of
baptism where candidates are totally
submerged in water— this has not always
been the case among Baptists and
those who do practice it disagree about
how it should be done.
Baptismal Diversity
Even this caricature does not do justice
to the diversity of Baptists. As a
non-creedal people who believe in freedom
of conscience and the independence
of local churches, Baptists vary
widely. They generally agree that baptism
is: (1) a profession of one’s faith
and (2) a welcome into the believing
community. Historically this has meant
that Baptists do not baptize anyone who
cannot profess faith (i.e., infants and
usually not young children) or those
who do not intend to become part of a
local congregation. In the context of
Baptist diversity, however, the content
of the faith one is professing and the
nature of the church to which one is
being welcomed is determined by that
person’s and the community’s theological
commitments. Baptists, in other
words, are likely to agree on the purpose
of baptism but not on its particular
meaning. A Fire-Baptized Baptist and
a Reformed Baptist may both agree
that they are professing faith at
their baptism but their testimonies—
even in their manner of
expression— are likely to be
very different.
In simplest terms, Baptists
tend to emphasize the subjective
in the act of baptism. It is
an expression of what the person
claims about herself or
himself. In other churches, especially
those which baptize
children, baptism is a more objective
claim being made on a
person by those who do so on
that person’s behalf. And it is
exactly at this point— the subjective/
objective— that baptism
becomes difficult for lesbians
and gay men. If baptism is
about what I profess about myself,
what happens when that
profession is at odds with the
theological commitments of
my community? Is my welcome
always contingent on a
community’s agreement with
what I say about myself?
Gay Dilemma
Several years ago I found myself in
the office of a Baptist pastor talking
about church membership. I understood
the pastor to be an open person
who had agreed to speak at support
group meetings for gays and lesbians
more than once. However, as we talked
about joining the local church, he indicated
that my friend, who had not been
baptized as an adult but who had been
Baptists and Baptism:
Diversity and Spiritual Responsibility
By Timothy Phillips
Fall 1997 11
actively involved in the church for over
fifteen years, would not be able to join
without being baptized. This, he said,
would be a problem because baptism
would mean my friend had to come out
about his sexual orientation and that
was likely to preclude his acceptance as
a member. I was furious at the exploitation
this represented after all those
years of faithful service. And, while I was
later to baptize my friend at another
Baptist church, I will never forget the
agony that conversation produced.
“True Church”
The experience of lesbian and gay
believers causes me to consider the
ways this subjective emphasis in baptism
leaves people with deep anxieties
about their welcome in the community
of faith. In the context of theological
diversity, baptism among Baptists may
better be understood as the act of taking
responsibility for one’s spiritual life
in a community of people who responsibly
share their own spiritual lives in
witness and service. Baptists have not
so successfully maintained this balance—
especially when theological agendas
and pietistic individualism overwhelm
the mutual responsibility of
spiritual life. The founder of the First
Baptist Church in America, Roger Williams,
may himself be a witness to this
imbalance. Williams, after leaving the
theological and civil dogmatism of Puritanism
to become a Baptist, later left
his own Baptist congregation to become
a “seeker” and despaired of ever finding
a “true” church.
As a welcoming and affirming Baptist,
I believe “true” church can never
be found in a place where people are
not free to profess the truth about themselves
and their faith. If spirituality is
not about speaking the truth, we may
all despair of ever finding a spiritual
home. ▼
Timothy Phillips serves as co-minister of
University Baptist Church, a Welcoming
& Affirming American Baptist congregation
in Seattle. He also serves as coordinator
of community life at Companis
Mission Workers, an agency providing volunteer
professionals to not-for-profit service
organizations.
This traditional threefold naming
of the persons of the Godhead
in baptism and other rituals is the
subject of considerable discussion in
many denominations today. How are
we to remain faithful to the orthodox
Christian understanding of the nature
of God while seeking ever more authentic
ways of calling God by name?
The problem with the traditional language
is, of course, that two of the persons
of the Trinity are designated by
male terms—Father and Son. This
should be of concern not simply to
those who understand themselves as
feminists, but to every faithful Christian.
This concern may be not so much
one of theology as one of linguistics.
All language for God is metaphorical
and analogical. We cannot say who God
is; we can only articulate human categories
through which we try to apprehend
God. God is like a Judge, a Father,
a Lord. Difficulties arise because language
not only expresses our thoughts;
language also shapes our thoughts. Centuries
of using predominately masculine
paternal language for God has
caused those images to be taken as literal
descriptions. Even more heretical,
the exclusive imaging of God as male
undergirds a human power structure in
which males are viewed as more like
God than are females. The injustices
flowing from this heresy are legion.
Unfortunately, it is exceedingly difficult
to find human language which
names God authentically, especially in
formulaic usage such as in baptism and
ordination. Common substitutions
such as Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer fail
to convey any sense of the interrelation-
Reflections on the
Trinitarian Formula
By Gayle Carlton Felton
ship of love which characterizes the
Godhead. Such terminology also names
God in terms of doing rather than of
being and attributes to single divine
persons functions in which all of the
Trinity participate.
The best study of this vexing issue is
Ruth Duck’s Gender and the Name of
God: The Trinitarian Baptismal Formula
(Cleveland: Pilgrim, 1991). One option
she mentions is: “In the name of God,
the Source, Word, and Spirit.” This is
attractive, but suffers from deficiencies
similar to those mentioned above. More
appealing is the formula used for years
now at Riverside Church in New York
City: “In the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God,
Mother of us all.” This retains the traditional
language, but adds maternal
imagery for all divine persons. Duck
herself favors the replacement of the
baptismal formula with a threefold
interrogation which would contain
both masculine and feminine God language.
All of these suggestions have
merit, but none are perfect solutions to
a complex problem. Stimulated by
Duck’s thought, I suggest: “In the name
of God who is known to us through
Jesus Christ and present with us as the
Holy Spirit.”
The issues of prime significance are
that we recognize the truly problematic
nature of the traditional male language,
that we apply our best thought and
prayer toward a solution, and above all
that we seek to speak of God and of
God’s whole people faithfully and authentically.
▼
Gayle Carlton Felton is a historian of
American Christianity (see p. 9).
“In the name of
the Father,
and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit”
12 Open Hands
“Let us build an American home for the twenty-first century where
everyone has a place at the table and not a single child is left behind.”
—President-elect Bill Clinton, 17 January 1993
Many of us will never forget Clinton’s words. Several days later I—a 33-yearold
church musician— stood, closet door slowly creaking open, with a good
friend and a million other people on the Washington mall, eagerly awaiting
the inauguration of a new president and a hopeful new era.
Although Clinton was not referring to the eucharistic table, the message was easily
transferred to the sacramental meal. The friend I stood with was also my pastor
and colleague. This was the same pastor who frequently and emphatically insisted
that the altar at which he presided week after week was not his altar—but Christ’s
altar. It was not the congregation’s table—but God’s table. No human restrictions
can keep anyone away. God welcomes all to the holy meal. As one who grew up in a
denomination that taught “close” (or “closed” as I experienced it) communion, this
kind of talk seemed radical. As that closet door gradually worked its way open and,
eventually, right off the hinges, I began to realize the importance of open and inclusive
communion, especially for gays and lesbians. No matter what the church—in all
its manifestations—says or does, everyone is welcome to God’s feast. The church is
quite good at saying and singing it:
This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you
and for all people for the forgiveness of sin.
—from the Holy Communion liturgy in Lutheran Book of Worship, 1978
One bread, one body, one Lord of all;
One cup of blessing which we bless,
And we, though many throughout the earth,
We are one body in this one Lord.
Gentile or Jew, servant or free, woman or man, no more.
—from “One Bread, One Body” by John Foley, S.J., b. 1939
One body we, one body who partake,
One Church united in communion blest,
One name we bear, one bread of life we break,
With all thy saints on earth and saints at rest.
—from “Come, Risen Lord” by George W. Briggs, 1875-1959
Gathering at God’s Feast
By Scott Weidler
Fall 1997 13
Elect from ev’ry nation, yet one o’er all the earth;
Her charter of salvation: one Lord, one faith, one birth.
One holy name she blesses, partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses with ev’ry grace endued.
—from “The Church’s One Foundation” by Samuel J. Stone, 1839-1900
Oh, praise inclusive love, encircling ev’ry race,
Oblivious to gender, wealth, to social rank or place.
We praise you, Christ! Your cross has made us one!
—from “Oh, Praise the Gracious Power” by Thomas H. Troeger, b. 1945
Just as the bread broken was first scattered on the hills,
then was gathered and became one,
so let your Church be gathered from the ends of the earth into your kingdom,
for yours is glory and power through all ages.
—from The Didache, ca. 2nd century
Remembering God’s Time
Despite what the church prays together
in word, deed, and song,
many of us know the harsh realities of
noninclusive communities gathered
around Word and sacrament. How can
persons, alienated from the very assembly
that claims to be “one body in
Christ,” claim their place at God’s table
when the maître d’ is unwilling to seat
them?
Ironically, I look to my German pietistic
Lutheran roots for help. (These
roots are not known for inclusivity or
hospitality.) As a child in a Lutheran
parochial school choir, I remember
singing the text: “God’s time is the best
time.” Somehow, I always knew that
God operates with a different clock and
calendar than we do. Years later, while
in graduate school at Notre Dame, this
understanding was confirmed during a
discussion of historic eucharistic debates.
Father Taft clearly explained that
the debates of how this becomes that,
or when this changes, or what is transformed,
all take place in human time.
For God “a day is like a thousand years.”
Father Taft’s term for this was “eternal
simultaneity.” All things occurring in
human time are forever and always taking
place simultaneously in God’s time.
Because of our baptism, we are adopted
into God’s time and out of the restraints
of human time. The human situation,
including the exclusion of gays and lesbians
at many Christian assemblies, is
not operative in God’s time.
Writer Madeleine L’Engle, in her
subtly radical and evocative way, often
speaks of the myth of Christianity. She
helps shatter the shell of literalness that
often limits our corporate Christian
experience:
When I receive communion I am
partaking in the most sacred myth
and ritual of the Christian church
(and let us remember that myth
is about truth). When we receive
the bread and the wine we receive
the truth of Jesus’ promise, the
truth of his love. We don’t need
to get hung up on words like transubstantiation,
which tend to take
the Eucharist out of the truth of
more ➟
CREDIT: Chris Glaser’s cartoon was originally published in More Light #23, 1 October 1977.
Used with permission.
14 Open Hands
myth and into the wimpiness of
fact. What happens when we receive
the bread and wine is a
mystery, and when we try to explain
it in any way we destroy our
own ability to partake in the truth
of this marvelous and eternally
mysterious ritual.
When we receive the bread and
the wine we are indeed taking
into ourselves Christ’s love, that
love that will be finally expressed
in the Second Coming.1
Hopefully, we also receive a healthy
dose of patience as we receive Christ’s
love. If we remember Christ’s welcome,
we can move with assurance to the table
week after week, no matter who or what
may wish to exclude us. When we leave
the table, however, we reenter human
time with all its realities, struggles, and
an occasional surprising joy! To God,
the past and current struggles for full
communion within the Christian family
are happening simultaneously with
the joyfully inclusive celebrations of the
future. We can only know a glimpse of
these celebrations and anticipate them
with fervent prayer and hope. However,
this must never lead us to complacency.
There will be great rejoicing when God’s
time and human time intersect, but we
must persevere in persistently and
calmly moving the church to that goal.
This is seldom easy. If the maître d’
at the front door of a restaurant is inhospitable
to us, it may be easiest to
back away and try a different dining
establishment. However, when we
know that Christ is the host, shouting
from the back kitchen for us to come
in and take a seat at the head of the
table, how can we say no? The feast is
waiting. It’s a fabulous feast that is
generous and graciously served with
food enough for all God’s children.
These children, blessed by God to be
gay and lesbian Christians, must remain
an active part of the whole church. Separating
into our own agenda-driven community
will never cause the necessary
intersection to occur. We must hear
God’s Word together, study and teach
together, feed the hungry together,
usher together, sing together, prepare
the altar together, and most of all, feast
together. Patient waiting may seem like
an eternity to us, but, again quoting
Father Taft, “eternity isn’t a hell of a
long time for God.”
Receiving the Healing
This past August, the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America celebrated
its tenth anniversary with a banquet,
under the theme “Grace Us With
Your Presence,” at its churchwide assembly
in Philadelphia. The decorations
for the evening came from more than a
thousand young children living near
Philadelphia who were asked to draw
pictures of what it would look like if
Jesus hosted a dinner for his friends. The
diversity of those gathered in fellowship
with God was remarkable. The varied
races, genders, and classes were clearly
recognizable in some drawings. Although
physical appearance didn’t identify
any of the guests as gays or lesbians,
I know they were there. And
probably more than 10 percent! Our patient
persistence is bearing fruit, if not
in our own generation, most certainly
in the next. Perhaps unknowingly, these
children share a vision where all God’s
people are openly welcome at the eucharistic
banquet and the maître d’ is as
hospitable as the host.
Sometimes the struggle has its casualties.
In any worthwhile effort, people
may be wounded in the process. In
claiming our place at the table, it is the
meal itself that offers healing: “Lord, I
am not worthy to receive you, but only
say the word and I shall be healed.”2 To
absent oneself from the sacrament removes
one source of healing given and
guaranteed directly from God.
Being a church musician, I am convinced
that the church eventually becomes
and believes what it sings:
Ho, ev’ryone who thirsts: come to the
waters!
All you who have no money: come to
the feast!
And you who are enslaved: come to the
waters!
This is the feast of freedom: come to
the feast!
For this is life: the waters that have freed
you:
For this is life: the saving stream of God:
For this is life: to share around the table:
O come to the feast!
And all who are oppressed: come to the
waters!
This is the feast of justice: come to the
feast!
And you, the lost and broken: come to
the waters!
This is the feast of healing: come to the
feast!
For this is life: to die and rise in Jesus:
For this is life: to share the life of Christ:
For this is life: the bread and wine of
justice:
O come to the feast!3
Bill Clinton’s vision for a thoroughly
inclusive America may have been overshadowed
by other events following his
inauguration. So it often seems that way
with the church. It can be difficult to
catch a glimmer of hope through the
ecclesial mire that seems to surround
so much activity in which Christians are
engaged. Yet through it all, the message
of the gospel remains clear—whenever
we eat this bread and drink this cup,
we proclaim the Lord’s death until he
comes (1 Cor 11). Our mandate—and our
welcome—could not be any clearer. ▼
Notes
1Madeleine L’Engle, “The Rock That is
Higher: Story as Truth,” in Glimpses of Faith.
2From the Roman rite (based on Matthew 8).
3Verses are from “Come to the Feast” text
by Marty Haugen. Copyright © 1991 by GIA
Publications, Inc., 7404 South Mason Avenue,
Chicago, Illinois 60636. Used with
permission.
Scott Weidler lives in
Chicago where he
serves the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in
America as associate
director for worship
and music.
Fall 1997 15
When I Come to the Table of Remembrance
By Skip Jones
First things first! We (every lesbian
woman and every gay man) are
children of the King. To God be
all glory, honor, and praise. Why? Because
God is holy and worthy, because
God gives us breath, and because we
are included in the household of God.
Like Paul, we are included; unworthy,
yes, but included nonetheless through
the love and grace of Christ our Savior.
Thus, for me, the Lord’s Supper is a time
to remember and thank God for including
me in his love, grace, and mercy.
Remembering My
Dedication
When I come to the table I remember
that the long journey/struggle
of life began for me with the Baptist
tradition of dedicating infants to God.
At the close of service on a Sunday
morning in 1939, my mother walked
down the aisle of the First Baptist
Church in Baltimore with me in her
arms. She stood with my grandparents,
other family members, and the pastor,
looking out at the congregation in front
of a massive communion table on
which the words “This Do In Remembrance
Of Me” had been carved in great
gothic letters. Mom gave me to Christ
in that simple service of dedication and
vowed to raise me as a child of the King.
My mother’s simple act of faith gave
me the only insurance policy anyone
ever needs, Jesus Christ. In all my fifty
eight years, even when I left him, Jesus
has never left me alone, ever!
My childhood Sunday school teacher,
Miss Marjorie, taught us to sing
“Jesus loves the little children, all the
children of the world...” It took me a
long time to discover that Jesus does love
all the children of the world— even his
lesbian and gay children.
Taking a Winding Road
My road to discovering the fullness
of God’s love was a long and
winding one with many dead ends and
detours. At age twelve I accepted Christ
as my Savior and was baptized. To be
honest, looking back, I doubt that I understood
the implications of my decision
for Christ. I knew in my early teens
that there was something different
about me. That led to the first of many
tests of my relationship with Christ.
A four-year tour of duty in the Navy
that began shortly after graduation from
high school provided an opportunity
for me to visit many different Christian
churches across the country. Most of
these churches adamantly taught that
being gay and a Christian was not possible.
They also guaranteed that all gays
and lesbians would surely spend eternity
with Satan. Did Jesus still love me?
How could he? I was queer.
I drifted away and didn’t come back
to the table for nearly twenty years. Yet
God had a marvelous plan designed for
me. To help us over the rough spots,
God sends “ambassadors” into our lives
just when we need them. During my
many years of searching, the love of
Jesus shone brightly in the face of a dear
friend whose actions exemplified the
Christ that lived in his heart. The prayers
of so many loved ones, including my
family and numerous surrogate moms,
helped me.
Then, on New Year’s Day 1984, I attended
service at Love Center Church
in Oakland, California. God opened a
door, welcoming me back to his table,
and I walked through. Pastor Walter
Hawkins and the Love Center family
welcomed me with open arms. Ever
heard the expression, “I loved him for
years but he never knew I was alive”?
Christ could have accurately made that
statement about me until Love Center
saved my life.
Coming to the Table Today
I come to the table now at the San
Leandro Community Church. No
one is excluded from our communion
table. We welcome all who claim Jesus
as Lord and Savior to kneel with us at
his table. In John 13:34-35, Jesus says:
“I give you a new command: Love each
other. You must love each other as I
have loved you. All people will know
that you are my followers if you love
each other” (New Century Version).
When we come to the table at San
Leandro, we break a piece of bread and
dip it in the cup for those we want to
include in the blessing of communion.
Let’s all break bread for those who don’t
get the acceptance part yet. Let’s pray
that acceptance will break out in every
denomination, in every persuasion, and
in every nation. ▼
Skip Jones is a member of San Leandro
Community Church of San Leandro, California,
one of the Welcoming & Affirming
Baptist churches disfellowshipped by the
American Baptist Churches of the West
(though not by the national denomination).
He considers himself a “Pentecostal
Baptist.”
16 Open Hands
Share a Mexican Folk Story
Each Christmas for the children’s time in
worship, I use The Legend of the Poinsettia
retold and illustrated by Tomie
dePaola (New York: Scholastic, 1994).
This Mexican folk story tells of the creation
of the beautiful red poinsettia out
of a weed when a young girl gives a
fistful of the weed to the Christ Child.
This story highlights Hispanic culture,
uses some Spanish words, and acquaints
Anglo children and adults
with a beautiful Mexican folk story.
—Mary Pope
A Reconciling Meal
By Mary Pope
As a young person raised on the
4-H motto “To Make the Best
Better,” I am aware that Trinity
United Methodist Church is always in
the process of becoming a Reconciling
Congregation—even five years after we
officially declared ourselves one. Still,
each Christmas Eve we enjoy a truly reconciling
moment within our church
building. Last year, a participating pastor
commented that the evening was
either the feeding of the five thousand
or the messianic banquet. Perhaps it is
a taste of both!
Three churches share space in our
building: Trinity, Church of the
Holy Spirit MCC, and La Methodista
Hispana. All three combine forces on
Christmas Eve to host a potluck meal
for all who wish to come. The Catholic
Worker House, two blocks away, joins
us for dinner and worship since they
have limited space and plenty of food
to share.
Each year, a few days before Christmas,
brightly colored invitations in
both Spanish and English are distributed
in a four-block radius around the
church. Persons who regularly eat
their weekday evening meal at Trinity
are also invited specifically. We
even have enough faith in the loaves
and fishes concept to place an announcement
in the religion section
of the daily newspaper!
A caterer in Trinity’s congregation
makes extra mashed potatoes and
gravy, dressing and other side dishes.
The congregations supply four turkeys
that are also cooked by the
caterer.
Two hundred plus persons eat
Christmas Eve dinner together each
year. Young and old, HIV positive and
negative, rich and poor, persons with
many shades of skin color, and persons
with various approaches to
personal hygiene, all sit down to eat
together.
Over 100 persons stay after the meal
for a bilingual (Spanish-English) eucharist
service. Separate booklets of hymns
from the public domain are printed in
Spanish and in English so that all of us
can sing in our preferred language.
Members of all three congregations lead
worship. While most who stay are members
of one of the three congregations,
some who stay have had no previous
connection with any of us.
The success of this annual Christmas
Eve celebration should not surprise
us. In the 1960s, Trinity members
worked with the local Black Panthers
to feed breakfast to hungry school children.
Breakfast is still provided each
school day in our building. When the
local African American radio station
needed a home, Trinity was ready to
welcome it. When ANAWIM, a local
group formed to provide decent housing
for poor persons, needed space to
start their program, Trinity supplied that
space. When Church of the Holy Spirit
MCC was considered too controversial
to be housed in other church buildings,
Trinity welcomed that congregation
warmly.
One of Trinity’s members recalls the
“good old days” when the church was
always full. (Our 78-member congregation
had over 900 members in the
1950s.) He serves as greeter with a huge
smile on his face. He is overjoyed that
the church is crowded “like the old
days” each Christmas.
As I reflect on our Christmas Eve experience,
I sometimes wonder why
this particular experience seems different
from all the other places in the city
who serve Christmas meals to the poor.
To me, the most outstanding difference
is that all of us sit down to eat together.
We who call ourselves “the church”
do not stand behind a table and dish
out food to “those other people.”
Some of “those other people” help
serve food and set up extra tables.
Some of “us” who are very young or
very old are served. Two men who are
mentally challenged cheerfully clear
tables and collect trays. Barriers are
broken down. Sexual orientation and
HIV status are non-issues as we all
work together to provide hospitality
to each other.
Being a Reconciling Congregation
means being constantly challenged to
reach out in ever expanding circles
to all of God’s people. Being a Reconciling
Congregation means to continue
“to make the best better.” ▼
Mary Pope is pastor of Trinity United
Methodist Church,
which is a mission
of the Iowa Annual
Conference and located
in the inner
city of Des Moines,
Iowa.
Fall 1997 17
The Eucharist Defines Who We Are
by Jeffrey Pulling
In a church as theologically and
liturgically diverse as the Universal
Fellowship of Metropolitan Community
Churches, our weekly celebration
of holy communion demonstrates—
more clearly than anything else
we do or say—who we are and what we
believe. The more I share ecumenically,
the more I realize how revolutionary it
is for us in MCC to hold together in our
eucharistic understanding the three ingredients
of: (a) a personal, embodied
sharing of the elements; (b) wide latitude
in individual interpretation of this
sacrament; and (c) an open invitation.
First, as a “sacrament” (a visible, tangible
means of encounter with God),
communion really should be embodied,
a physical way for us to get in touch
with God and with who we are. Our
MCC eucharistic practices of laying on
of hands, holding, embracing, and personally
praying or blessing are all embodied
ways of sharing this spiritual
nourishment with each other. Our embodied
sharing of communion expresses
how important our bodies are
in sharing/communicating Good News
with others. Our mouths, hands, and
arms are embodied vehicles of God’s
love. Because we can affirm our sexuality
as a gift of God, we can affirm our
bodies.
Second, we give wide latitude as to
how the sacrament of holy communion
is to be individually understood/
interpreted, not insisting on one right
way of understanding what is happening
in this sacred meal. Initially this latitude
allowed us to exist at all as an ecumenical
church. Persons come to MCC
with eucharistic understandings that
range from transubstantiation to a symbolic,
memorial meal (and everything
in between). To share this sacrament
together, we have had to allow for varied
personal understandings. By not
insisting on one right way of interpreting
the eucharist, we have reaped the
benefit of opening ourselves up to the
richness of all the various Christian
meanings of this sacrament, traditional
and contemporary.
Some churches see holy communion
as an expression of their unity. Thus
they place great importance on all participants
in the meal being members of
that faith community and holding the
same beliefs about it. We in MCC, however,
have developed an understanding
of holy communion, unintentionally I
think, that sees this sacrament not as
an expression of the unity we already
have, but rather as a way to unity. By
sharing in this meal together, we bring
all of our different views and journeys
together and we experience the Spirit
of Christ together.
Third, we practice “open communion.”
We extend an invitation for “all”
to share in this sacred meal with us.
Participants do not have to be members
of MCC or of any church. Interpretations
of “open communion” vary in
local MCCs.
In the church in which I grew up,
communion was never served to children.
As much as I wanted to share in
this sacrament, I had to wait until I was
confirmed at age thirteen. In this way I
would be “old enough to understand
what I was doing.” My response now to
this is that no one at any age can possibly
“understand” the mystery of this
meal. It is not given to us to understand,
but for our enjoyment and spiritual
nourishment, and to reconnect us with
God-in-Christ.
Some churches stress the importance
of “worthiness” in recipients, citing
Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 11. However,
Paul was addressing himself to the
abuses of some of the Corinthian Christians
who were greedy, miserly, and
uncaring about the poor in their midst.
To twist this into denying the sacred
meal from those deemed “morally unworthy”
is diabolical in my estimation.
Can you imagine Jesus withholding
from anyone what he has to offer? ▼
Jeffrey Pulling has been involved with the
Metropolitan Community Churches for
twenty-five years, serving on both coasts
in various pastoral, educational, and administrative
ministries. He is currently
pastor of the Metropolitan Community
Church in the Valley in North Hollywood,
California. He represents
the MCC on the
Faith & Order Commission
of the National
Council of Churches
of Christ, U.S.A.
The MCC Way: Holy
communion is embodied as
individuals, couples—and
sometimes a family-of-choice
group—come forward.
Photos: Pete Taylor
20 Open Hands
Beginning with Theology, Not Lifestyle
By Ronald Coughlin
With these words, an openly
gay member of The United
Church of Canada engaged
the debate over acceptance of gay and
lesbian ministers within our denomination.
It was 1988. Following four
years of church-wide study and despite
dire warnings of rending the church
asunder, the church’s highest policysetting
body, the General Council, declared:
“All persons, regardless of their
sexual orientation, who confess
faith in Jesus Christ and obedience
to him, are welcome to be
or become full members of The
United Church of Canada.”
“All members of The United
Church of Canada are eligible to
be considered for ordered [ordained
and diaconal] ministry.”
“It is inappropriate to ask about
the sexual orientation of those in
the candidacy process or those in
the call, appointment, or settlement
process.”
The acceptance of this statement
within a larger document entitled Membership,
Ministry and Human Sexuality
was due to two trends within the United
Church tradition. First, the United
Church is deeply rooted in the social
gospel, social justice traditions in
Canada. Back in 1976, the United
Church submitted a brief to the provincial
government of Ontario and the federal
government requesting that discrimination
on the basis of sexual
orientation be prohibited in their human
rights codes. It was a natural shift
to think that if discrimination based on
sexual orientation should be prohibited
in secular society, it should also be prohibited
within the church. Second, the
United Church refused to engage in discussions
about appropriate sexual behavior
and issues of lifestyle, but focused
instead on who can be a member
of the church. By beginning with the
theological issues of baptism and
church membership, the General Council
was able to take this very significant
step.
Debates within the church are not
new. The early church was full of
them, including who should be members.
Was the new faith only for Jews?
Could people who were considered
unclean be baptized and become members?
A strange little story in Acts 8:26-40
gives us some insight. The story is filled
with mystery and magic. It tells of an
angel ordering Philip around, sending
him out to a wilderness road in the
desert, Philip chasing down a chariot
where he meets an exotic foreigner, a
conversation and witnessing to Jesus,
the sudden appearance of water in the
middle of this desert, a baptism, and
then suddenly flying through the skies
and landing in another city.
A tale about a flying disciple is an
extraordinary event; so much so that,
if we are not careful, we might miss the
real point of this story. Two extraordinary
things occur: Philip encounters an
Ethiopian eunuch and shares the Good
News of Jesus Christ; the foreigner is
baptized. Hearing this story with modern
ears may not allow us to understand
the extraordinary nature of this tale.
The early church had a strong belief
that their message was only for Jews.
Yet, though the Ethiopian was probably
a Jew or a convert to Judaism, he was
still not allowed to enter the synagogue
or temple. The reasons? He was a eunuch—
he had been sexually altered—
and the laws of Deuteronomy clearly
state that such a person was outside the
faith community (Deut. 23:1). He was
a foreigner. He was an important person
in his local government, a man of
power and authority. Most people of the
early church hearing this story would
consider this Ethiopian unclean, uninvited,
unwelcome, and unapproachable.
Yet Philip talks to him, converts
him, and baptizes him. The Ethiopian
experiences the wonder of welcome and
inclusion in the community of faith and
goes on his way rejoicing. Here is the
first story of a welcoming congregation!
We need to be reminded that we
are called to share God’s grace
and abundant love. It is not ours to give
or withhold. We are called to act like
Philip in reaching out to those who have
been on the margins of our church.
The United Church of Canada did
not disintegrate over its decision of
1988. Since that time the church has
ordained/commissioned six openly gay
or lesbian ministers and placed them
in their first pastoral charges. One of
our conferences recently elected an
openly lesbian minister as its president.
The church has extended medical, dental,
and survivor benefits to same-sex
partners of all church employees. In
1990, the church established a fund to
assist ministers “who are experiencing
difficulties in maintaining employment
in the church because of known or perceived
sexual orientation.”
There are still people within the
church who are unhappy with the actions
of 1988. However, by and large,
The United Church of Canada continues
to try to be a place of welcome and
belonging. ▼
Ronald Coughlin, an ordained minister, is
a national staff resource person for the
ministry vocations and
internship programs of
The United Church of
Canada. He volunteers
as literature secretary
for the Affirming Congregations
Program.
“Speak to me! I was baptized in the United Church. I belong to this church. Don’t leave me out!”
Fall 1997 21
“To be restored to harmony,
one must make amends not only to Creator God
but to all that there is.”
And Jesus came and said to them,
“All authority in heaven and on
earth has been given to me. Go
therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded
you; and lo, I am with you always,
to the close of the age.”
—Matt 28:18-20 RSV
I am an American Indian woman. I
thank the Open Hands advisory
committee person who thought
that our American Indian native views
on baptism and communion would
have some significant things to offer in
regards to the issues and concerns of
gays and lesbians.
As I read informative articles from
the Winter 1997 issue of Open Hands
(Sowing Seeds of Inclusion), I was reminded
that there are folks who are
inclusive of the Great Commission
(above). And the Christian church, as I
understand, is slowly attempting to be
inclusive of diverse sexualities and
multiculturalism. However, did the
church need 500 years on this island to
do so?
American Indian people on this island
have never been an irreligious
people. We are tribal people consisting
of various clans which create a community.
Each clan has a specific duty such
as peacekeepers, public criers, policing
and discipline, firekeepers, warriors,
sargent-at-arms, and so forth. Duties
may vary among tribal nations. Each
tribe has a story to tell of its origin—
how all humans and all things came
into being. Mainly, a spiritual source
such as Earthmaker, the Great Mystery,
Great Spirit, and Creator and others are
given homage to, for our existence.
Based on this concept, all clans function
as a tribal unit, with each clan serving
and performing its specific duty for
the health and welfare of the people.
All of these functions are spiritually
based and therefore bring a communion
between the Creator and the tribal
people. We always must be attentive to
the needs of the next person and all that
there is (the elements, fowl, animals,
plant life, and fish).
Baptism is conceived as a means of
communion between God, the Father,
and God the Son, and God the
Holy Spirit, and self, and all that there
is. Some of the tribal folk see baptism
as the Way of giving a child into God’s
keeping to the close of the age, thus
receiving the gift of eternal life. The
baptized one grows into adulthood
through observation of other adults
who set examples of appropriate behavior.
Not to be overlooked is the baptizer.
This person practices a lifestyle
of good principles and moralities commanded
by God and the Circle of Life.
Within the Circle of Life, respect and
integrity are two principles that are
commanded by Creator God. One must
be inclusive of all people as described
in clan duties, coordinating one’s skills
and talents for the health and welfare
of the community. The reverse would
be disharmony and brokenness. The
noun to describe this concept in scriptural
terms could be sin. My tribal language
does not have a definite noun to
describe sin. However, one can relate
to disharmony and brokenness.
To be restored to harmony, one must
make amends not only to Creator God
but to all that there is. Specific tribal
religions practice various ways of receiving
atonement or forgiveness. Several
ways are through the Sweat Lodge, feasting,
fasting, prayer, and the Christian
rite of holy communion. These are
means of purification. Receiving the
power of the Spirit through water
cleanses all impurities both physically
and emotionally. This is similar to the
gifts that are received through the bread
and the wine, I believe. Although different
elements are used, the results are
inclusive of all things.
Some natives are more Christianized
than others and have put aside traditional
practices. Such natives may
view diverse sexuality as an endangerment
to native society, perhaps through
homophobic tendencies similar to our
white counterparts. Yet, clanship is relatively
prominent in native communities.
Those who are of diverse sexualities
were (and are) part of tribal societies,
each with specific talents and duties
contributing to the Circle of Life. Some
were caretakers of the young and old,
warriors, firekeepers, and other duties.
All are important facets of a native community.
Each tribal member is seen to be as
honorable as the next person— and
should be, since all things are perceived
as being given by God, Creator, Great
Spirit, Great Mystery of all sources. To
be in harmony with our Creator God is
far more honorable than to dishonor
the Great Commission. ▼
Eleanor H. Johnson is
a member of the Hochunk
Nation, Wisconsin.
A former Lutheran
minister, she
lives in Wittenberg.
Native Memories
By Eleanor H. Johnson
22 Open Hands
What joy I have discovered in
being called out by God to
share, without any reservations,
the canon, sacraments, and ordinances
of the church with all. This ministry
began with my work with HIV/
AIDS folks and has spread to the broader
rainbow community.
Sharing Grace
Let me share three baptisms at which
I officiated on the Saturday before
Easter. Several months before, I had received
a call from a long-time client of
the Damien Center whose physical
health was deteriorating. His sister, who
was part of a very conservative church,
loved her brother and wanted him baptized
by immersion. Bob could not remember
his baptism as a child and
thought this would be wonderful preparation
for a spiritual journey. He insisted
on three things—he would not
repent of his homosexuality— he
wanted a minister who was gay to baptize
him— and any church in which he
was to be baptized would be told this
in advance. The three of us talked and
prayed. I suggested using a large hot tub
or pool, but a church was what was really
needed. The sister called many
churches and got nowhere. I then suggested
she try her own church, as they
would know her sincerity. The minister
said, “Yes, how about Holy Saturday?
All the Easter decorations will be
out. I’ll come over, warm the pool, and
get you into rubber clothes.” Then he
asked if he could do a short devotional!
After the service I stopped at the
home of Kent whom I had been visiting
in and out of the hospital for five
years. He clearly let me know he wanted
no prayers, no spiritual talk. Yet he welcomed
my presence as part of his healing
and hope. His mother had renounced
him when he announced he
was gay. His two sisters from other conservative
churches said he deserved
what he got. His only family was one
brother and his mate of eight years. I
met his mate Bruce during the last four
weeks when he was doing full-time
home care of Kent with the help of
friends and Damien Center volunteers.
Bruce wished Kent would be baptized
with him and have a holy union. In the
last two weeks I visited almost daily.
When I visited on that Saturday before
Easter, I told them about the baptism I
had been involved in. Kent said, “Gee,
I wish I had been baptized. I am so unsure
of what I face.” Bruce said, “What’s
stopping you? I’d like to be baptized,
too.” I responded, “You have a minister;
now all you need is water.” Kent
turned to Bruce and said, “Get the silver
bowl and use the Perrier water and,
Howard, can we also have a holy
union?” The wildly inclusive love of
God was in that room, waiting, preparing.
What eternal joy the three of us
found as the words of sacrament and
ordinance were spoken that day. Kent
journeyed on to God’s full life fortyeight
hours later.
On that sacrament day, God’s agenda
had not yet ended. There was Bobbie at
Parkview Manor, our extended care facility
dedicated to HIV/AIDS people.
Bobbie walked the halls with smiles,
hugs, and a mostly forgetful mind as a
result of dementia. Most times when he
would see me he’d say, “Rev. Warren, I
don’t remember my baptism and I think
I am going to hell.” I would always respond,
“Bobbie, get some water.” I then
would baptize him in front of other
folks who would help him remember
at least for that week. That Easter Saturday,
Bobbie wasn’t in the hall, but in
bed, very ill. I sat by his bedside and
prayed. In time his eyes opened. He
looked at me and started to make his
usual remarks. I just took water from
his bedside and made the sign of the
cross on his forehead. He said “Thanks,
I won’t need it again.” He breathed his
last earthly breath several hours later
and the wind of the Holy Spirit swept
him into God’s eternal arms.
Sharing God’s Grace-Filled Gifts
By Howard B. Warren, Jr.
God’s Own: Kent and Bruce pose
in 1990 at the Cincinnati Botanical
Gardens.
Faithful Friends: Dan, Tim, and
Brian claimed connection with God
despite the church’s rejection.
Fall 1997 23
Offering Hope and Joy
In my work I have found the Roman
Catholic sacrament of anointing so
wonderful in the last days or weeks of
this life. Dan, Brian and Tim met twenty
years ago in upstate Indiana and began
a lifelong friendship and business. Dan
and Tim exchanged vows and rings as
a couple eighteen years ago in the presence
of their best friend Brian. When
Dan was told he had a lesion on the
brain and only a few months to live, I
began weekly home visits. They collected
angels, in many art forms, not
just physically, but spiritually. When I
returned from a conference, I discovered
that Dan was going in and out of
coma. I took oil from the Holy Land to
anoint him. I extended the basic ceremony
so that as I made the sign of the
cross on his forehead, the other two
men anointed Dan with their own
words on other parts of his body. I sat
in that holy room for two hours and
watched Tim and Brian gently talk with
Dan about moving on, how his dad
would greet him, how the house angels
would follow him. I quietly asked,
“How did you guys learn this?” They
said, “When we met one another and
realized we were gay, we knew we
would not be fully accepted by the Roman
Catholic Church, so we took what
we had learned, internalized it, and
grew with God.”
On Gay Pride Day each year I make
myself available to perform holy unions
or marriages for anyone who wishes it.
One Pride Day, Lisa and Dora watched
several of these ceremonies. Shyly coming
forward, they said they had been
together for thirty-five years and never
dreamed marriage could be a reality for
them. Some friends got flowers; they
already had rings. As I read the service
of marriage (adapted from the Book of
Common Worship so it is inclusive of
same-sex couples), I noticed that Lisa
and Dora were so touched by the service
and the knowledge that it did apply
to them, that one or the other of them
always had tears in her eyes. They were
surprised by Joy; what they thought was
impossible simply happened.
Partnering with God
Some of you might ask, “Is what I do
in accordance with my denomination?
Have I gone too far?” My answer?
The very practical Trinity has placed me
here to use the grace-filled gifts of God.
In these ten years of being out as a gay
person with HIV/AIDS, I have worked
with more than 800 HIV/AIDS persons
who have made their journey into God’s
eternal arms. I am convinced that God
does not do disease. God can and does,
through us, do healing and hope. We
must help erase the false God inculcated
by shame and guilt that the church has
proclaimed loudly and/or silently to our
people. We can be partners with God
through our use of the sacraments and
ordinances of the church. The canon
of the Bible and the canon of the Book
of Common Worship are simply not
closed. The wildly extravagant, inclusive
love of God prompts us to open
them up at any time where they can be
helpful in healing and hope. What great
love those who are the left out, the others,
find in the sacraments and ordinances
of the church when they are invited
to participate. ▼
Howard B. Warren, Jr., director of
pastoral care at The
Damien Center in Indianapolis,
Indiana,
has been an ordained
Presbyterian pastor for
thirty-seven years. In
1997 he chose early retirement.
24 Open Hands
Gathering Chant
No. 742 The New Century Hymnal (UCC)
Call to Worship
One: We gather in the presence of the Holy One,
known by many names:
I am who I am
forgiving love
unending mystery
refuge for the lonely
liberator of the oppressed
lover of all peoples.
All: As we gather remembering God’s many names,
may we also remember that this is holy ground
where each of us is called by name.
One: This is holy ground.
In the presence of these sisters and brothers
we dare to speak of our pain and our hope.
All: This is holy ground.
We gather with a sense
of reverence and awe,
deeply grateful for love
at the heart of the universe
that will not let us go.
One: This is holy ground.
We are called to remember
not only that we are loved
but also that today is the acceptable time,
now is the dawning of hope.
Not tomorrow, not someday. Now.
All: God needs us to be lovers and healers
and doers of justice.
Not tomorrow, not someday. Now.
We gather in anticipation.
Song: “Spirit of our Lover God”
Tune: “Spirit of the Living God,” Daniel Iverson, 1926
Words: Melanie Morrison, 1997
Spirit of our lover God,
source of ecstasy
fill us with a joy that sheds
all complacency
Touch us, fill us, heal us, move us,
Spirit of our lover God,
source of ecstasy.
Spirit of our dreamer God,
fresh as morning dew,
fill us with a wild, bold hope
making all things new.
Touch us, fill us, heal us, move us,
Spirit of our dreamer God,
fresh as morning dew.
Spirit of the living Christ,
passionate and free,
bless this table with your love
that seeks diversity.
Touch us, fill us, heal us, move us,
Spirit of the living Christ,
passionate and free.
Scripture Reading
Mark 14:1-9
Bethany Tuesday:
A Place at the Table
By Melanie Morrison
Sustaining
the Spirit
During Holy Week, Christians gather on Maundy Thursday to remember the
Last Supper that Jesus shared with his disciples. Tradition has it that only the male
apostles sat at table with Jesus that night. Mark’s gospel tells of another meal that
Jesus shared with his friends and disciples two nights earlier in Bethany (Mark 14:1-9).
This meal better represents the inclusive table community at the heart of Jesus’ ministry
and is, therefore, worthy of our remembrance and celebration during Holy Week.
The order of service that follows is a table ritual to be celebrated at the close of a meal
that is shared together on “Bethany Tuesday.”
Fall 1997 25
Reflection on the
Readings
We are gathered on
this Tuesday evening
during Holy Week to
remember and celebrate the
meal at Bethany because that
meal, more than the all-male supper
remembered in many churches on Maundy
Thursday, represents the inclusive table community at
the heart of Jesus’ ministry. The host in Bethany is a
man considered by scriptural law unclean because he
has leprosy. At least one woman is present who
performs a prophetic and pastoral act of anointing. It
is the kind of meal that angered those who so
frequently said of Jesus: “Look, he eats with the
disreputable, the deviant, and the despised.”
Those of us who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or
transgendered have a very strong hunch about what
really went on—behind the synoptic curtains—at meals
such as the one in Bethany. We understand why
people mistakenly accused Jesus of being a glutton
and a drunkard after hearing the sounds emanating
from those households. We know that such meals
were not somber, tight-lipped gatherings where the
guests ate stale old breads and dutifully stayed within
the lines painted by orthodoxy and decorum. They
were banquets made sumptuous by the love of those
who were not meant to survive but did; the love of
those who learned that unless they hold on to each
other they might not get there. We can imagine the
kinds of stories told at that table in Bethany; how the
pain was palpable and the humor outrageous. We
know, by experience, how pain and joy can coexist so
close up against each other that they are almost
indistinguishable, filling up and spilling over in a
passion that often strikes the respectable as
unseemly.
As we remember the kind of table community that
gathered around Jesus, let us give thanks and offer
prayers to the One who loves us without end.
Prayers of the People
A Ritual of Anointing Spoken by worship leader
In memory of the woman in Bethany who anointed
Jesus, I invite you to anoint one another as a way of
announcing the good news of God’s radically inclusive
love. There are two bowls of water which we will pass
in opposite directions. As you receive the bowl, dip
your finger into it and trace on your neighbor’s
cheeks a path of tears, saying: “Your tears are a
blessing, salt of the earth.” Then dip your finger again
in the water and touch your neighbor’s lips, saying:
“Continue to speak the truth.” A third time, dip your
finger in the water and trace a circle on your
neighbor’s palm, a symbol of continuity, community,
and divine love at the heart of the universe. As you
trace that circle, say: “Sister/brother, carry on!”
Song: “You are the Seed”
No. 528 The New Century Hymnal (UCC)
Benediction
Permission
Permission is granted to reprint this service for local worship events,
provided this permission line is included. All other uses must have
written permission of the author.
Melanie Morrison is an ordained United Church of Christ minister
who serves as co-director of Leaven, a non-profit organization
in Lansing, Michigan. She is author of The Grace of
Coming Home: Spirituality, Sexuality, and the Struggle for
Justice.
26 Open Hands
Words and music by Julian Rush
Copyright 1997. Used with permission. Come to the Table from the Musical, “Caught in the Middle” by Jean Hodges
Fall 1997 27
Overwhelming Consensus
✦Biggest and best ever!
✦Excellent speakers!
✦Exuberant singing!
✦Inspiring worship!
✦Good diversity of participants!
✦Atmosphere of love, grace, and acceptance!
The Setting
✦Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia
✦A round table was the central symbol
✦Posters with names of 12,000 Reconciling
United Methodists surrounded the gathering
✦Banners from RCs and campus ministries
hung above the hospitality area
FIFTH NATIONAL CONVOCATION OF RECONCILING CONGREGATIONS
500 United Methodists COME TO THE TABLE
Other Highlights
✦Bishops Melvin Wheatley and Dale White
honored at celebration, along with other
“Denver 15” bishops, for prophetic witness
at 1996 General Conference.
✦Covenant groups form heart of gathering,
meeting daily for reflection and storytelling.
✦Two original dramas performed: Caught in the
Middle and All in our Family.
✦150 persons participated in preconvocation
forums for
• clergy
• parents of l/g/b persons
• persons of color
• youth/students/seminarians
BIBLE STUDY: Leaders David Otto
and Janet Wolf captivate participants
with stories of rollicking
humor and penetrating passion.
WORSHIP: Spirit-filled worship framed and
set the tone for the convocation weekend.
KEYNOTE: Dr. Kelly Brown-Douglas
draws upon Martin Luther King’s
incarnational theology as basis for
an “inherent Christian responsibility
to protest injustice.”
PERSONS OF COLOR: Persons of color gather
prior to convocation and report concerns to closing
plenary.
YOUTH: Youth create tablecloth portraying
their convocation experience.
STRATEGY: Participants gather in daily area
strategy sessions to plan ongoing RCP witness
in different regions of the country.
DANCE: Convocation rocks
with Saturday night dance.
HABITAT: Twenty RCP volunteers
come to Atlanta early to spend day
constructing two Habitat for humanity
homes.
Photos: Bruce Barnes
This conference has given me the hope and
strength to be the new Methodist church—
the next generation. Praise God!
Colorado layperson
This convocation has been one of the most
transforming experiences of my life.
Kansas student
I have received a vision of hope,
the drive of a dream, and the
empowerment to return home and
extend the table to all God’s children.
Pennsylvania pastor
If we could only take back to our homes
the conviction that this is not just
a gay thing—it ’s a church thing!
Texas seminarian
One of the joys of this convocation is the
opportunity to hear those voices
God called but the church has quieted.
North Carolina layperson
28 Open Hands
Welcoming
Communities
More Churches Declare Welcoming Stance
Faith Covenant Church
Houston, Texas
“Faith Covenant” is the relatively new name for
the congregation formerly known as “Seabrook—A Uniting
Church.” It is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Its pastor, the Rev. Dr. F.W.
(Mike) Luedde, describes the congregation as folks who have
matured in their faith and worked through their doubts. Becoming
a More Light congregation is a public declaration of
long-standing convictions within the congregation.
First Presbyterian Church
Waltham, Massachusetts
First Presbyterian was founded by Nova Scotians who immigrated
to Waltham just before the turn of the century. The
congregation remained almost totally Euro-American in
makeup until the last three years. It is now a lively mix of West
Africans, Korean-Americans, Afro-Americans, Haitians, Puerto
Ricans, and Euro-Americans. The membership is professional,
blue-collar, and unemployed. The church’s mission statement
includes the call “to reach out to our neighbors with the word
of Christ to those who see it, and with care and support for
those who need it.” Toward that end, the church of 40 members
leads worship monthly at a nursing home, cooks for a
soup kitchen, and gathers diapers and baby food for a food
shelf.
Ormewood Park Presbyterian Church
Atlanta, Georgia
Ormewood Park is a neighborhood church in an urban community
in Atlanta. It makes its building available to a number
of community groups and is often the center for neighborhood
gatherings. The Rev. Sharon Taylor reports the congregation
began a period of restoration in the early nineties which
has led to a new openness to its neighborhood.
Trinity Presbyterian Church
New York City, New York
Begun 125 years ago as a children’s mission, Trinity began
an organized Presbyterian congregation in 1947. The membership
of approximately 125 is divided equally among Asians,
African-Americans, Caucasians, and Hispanics. The church has
two homeless shelters, a feeding program, and a number of
children’s programs. It has been served for the last 22 years by
the Rev. Robert Helm.
First Congregational Church UCC
Eugene, Oregon
Strengthened by worship and music that are inspiring
and diverse, this 800-member congregation is strongly
committed to mission in the area of homelessness and affordable
housing. This fall it will complete the first of several Habitat
for Humanity houses; “sheet rock parties” are moving things
along! In keeping with its ONA commitment, the church provides
meeting space for a Metropolitan Community Church
(MCC) congregation and a chapter of Parents, Family and
Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).
South Congregational UCC
Concord, New Hampshire
The 600 members of this downtown congregation continue
to build on a strong history of mission by hosting community
organizations, engaging in outreach projects, and supporting
the arts community. It has one of the largest youth programs
in the city and sends senior high youth on an annual mission
trip (in Spring 1998 they will do housing repair in West Virginia).
Each year the church also holds a SERV “Hands Across
the World” Bazaar to benefit that organization and other charities.
Since becoming ONA, the church has had more gay and
lesbian persons worshipping with and joining the congregation.
An ongoing ONA Committee explores ways that the congregation
can widen its welcome to the gay, lesbian, bisexual
community as well as be open and affirming in the areas of
mental health concerns and the handicap accessibility of a
newly purchased, adjoining church building.
College Avenue United Methodist
Church
Somerville, Massachusetts
Located in a suburb of Boston adjoining the more prestigious
Cambridge, College Avenue in the 1950s was a prominent
church in the annual conference. The community has traditionally
been home to many immigrants. Following a long
period of decline, College Avenue has been in a renaissance
the past few years. The congregation of 380 members is very
active in the community, hosting a full-time homeless shelter,
several 12-step programs, and a weekly dinner for persons with
AIDS. Sunday morning worship includes a traditional worship
service and a folk/rock service. The church’s RC decision was
rooted in a retreat during the summer of 1996 which prepared
an ambitious plan for congregational revitalization—a plan
which has been over 90 percent completed.
MORE LIGHT
OPEN AND AFFIRMING
RECONCILING CONGREGATIONS
WELCOMING CHURCH LISTS AVAILABLE
The complete ecumenical list of welcoming churches is
printed in the winter issue of Open Hands each year. For a
more up-to-date list of your particular denomination, contact
the appropriate program listed on page 3.
Fall 1997 29
RECONCILED IN CHRIST
El Cerrito United Methodist Church
El Cerrito, California
When El Cerrito UMC was founded in 1906, it was in a
rural area east of San Francisco Bay. Now this congregation of
170 members serves a vast urban area. El Cerrito is known for
its strong music ministry. Church programs have been expanding
recently to respond to needs of families with children.
Immediate goals of the congregation are to grow and reach
out to the larger community. For five years, the congregation’s
mission statement has included ministry with persons regardless
of sexual orientation. Affirming that the presence of gay,
lesbian, and bisexual persons has enriched the congregation’s
life led to the official RC decision.
First United Methodist Church
Ellensburg, Washington
Ellensburg is situated in an agricultural valley along the
eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains near the center of the
state of Washington. A state university is located there, with a
student population of approximately 6,000. First UMC has
264 members, about 100 of whom are active participants in
the life of the church. Participants come from all walks of life
and span all ages. The process of becoming a Reconciling Congregation
involved a number of educational studies and forums,
culminating in a survey of the congregation regarding a
proposed reconciling statement. When 74 percent of those responding
approved adoption of the statement, the administrative
board voted approval in June 1997.
Grace United Methodist Church
Lake Mary, Florida
Grace UMC is located fifteen miles north of Orlando. This
500-member congregation which is diverse in age, race, and
culture, will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 1997. Grace is a
mission-oriented church with programs including a day care
center for preschoolers, an AIDS support group, youth mission
trips, clothing for children in need, and a weekly feeding
program. Members volunteer at a low-income nursing home
and support an abuse center. The vote of the administrative
council to become an RC, which followed a three-year discussion,
was unanimous.
Simpson United Methodist Church
Cleveland, Ohio
Located on the west side of Cleveland, this congregation of
125 members celebrated its 100th anniversary on October 5.
Simpson’s members are a mixture of suburbanites who grew
up in the neighborhood and neighborhood persons. The congregation
is heavily involved in community ministry, housing
a police auxiliary office, a senior citizens center, and several
12-step groups. The Simpson Neighbors organization works to
improve housing in the area. The congregation is currently
trying to begin a parish nurse ministry.
First Lutheran Church
Oakland, California
First Lutheran Church is a small congregation located
in the foothills of Oakland. Its primary task is concerned
with the change in paradigms of our world and transforming
our traditional Northern European Lutheran identity into one
which reflects the growing diversity of our society. First
Lutheran’s ministry includes music, volunteerism, participation
in a faith-based community organization and serving
people in need. The church’s decision to become a Reconciled
in Christ congregation reflects both its practice and its theology.
The congregation intends to carry out this commitment
through supporting issues of inclusiveness and justice in the
church.
St. Thomas Lutheran Church
Bloomington, Indiana
Founded in 1960 and now approximately 475 members, St.
Thomas became an RIC congregation in the fall of 1996, in
response to a ministry of welcoming and affirming gay/lesbian/
bisexual people that has existed within the congregation
and community for many years. St. Thomas sponsors a “GLB
Lutherans and Friends” group (established in 1990 by the
congregation’s committee on social ministry) that meets several
times a year for dinner and fellowship. The pastors have
spoken in public support of g/l/b rights on a number of occasions.
The church offers education to its members on g/l/b
and AIDS issues. Abundant energy within the congregation is
directed toward issues such as support of children’s education,
youth activities, social ministry, international concerns, and
local interfaith activities.
30 Open Hands
On Baptism and Communion
Alexander, Marilyn Bennett and James Preston. We Were Baptized
Too: Claiming God’s Grace for Lesbians and Gays. Louisville:
Westminster John Knox, 1996. In-depth look at justice
implications of mainline baptismal theology interspersed
with stories from the lives of lesbian and gay Christians.
Brock, Rita Nakashima, Claudia Camp, and Serene Jones. Setting
the Table: Women in Theological Conversation. St. Louis:
Chalice, 1995. Essays provide a dynamic look at the emerging
consciousness of feminist theology. See especially ch. 13
on “Setting the Table: Meanings of Communion.”
Brown, Lester B., ed. Two Spirit People: American Indian Lesbian
Women and Gay Men. Binghamton, NY: Harrington Park,
1997. See especially the preface, “Sharing the Gift of Sacred
Being” by Duane Champagne. This book also offers an interesting
description of how traditional American Indian
culture posits not two genders, but six gender styles.
Caldwell, Elizabeth Francis. Come Unto Me: Rethinking the Sacraments
for Children. Cleveland: United Church Press, 1996.
Explores the roles of baptism and communion in the growing
faith of children. Provides models for intentional liturgical
and educational transformation. Discussion questions.
Davies, Horton. Bread of Life & Cup of Joy: Newer Ecumenical
Perspectives on the Eucharist. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.
Explores eucharist as memorial, thanksgiving, sacrifice,
eschatological banquet, communion, mystery, and as liberation
and justice.
Doran, Carol and Thomas H. Troeger. Trouble at the Table: Gathering
the Tribes for Worship. Nashville: Abingdon, 1992. These
authors lift up worship as a public event which must be continuously
renewed and revitalized. They explore and develop
techniques for handling resistance to change in worship.
Duck, Ruth C. Gender and the Name of God: The Trinitarian
Baptismal Formula. Cleveland: Pilgrim, 1991. Duck explores
how God is named in worship, especially in the baptismal
formula and how language shapes us. She suggests ways of
shaping liturgical language so that it is not gender biased.
Felton, Gayle Carlton. This Gift of Water: The Practice and Theology
of Baptism Among Methodists in America. Nashville:
Abingdon, 1992. Tracing the development of baptismal theology
and practice in Methodism, Felton seeks to enrich our
contemporary celebration of baptism as a sign of God’s grace.
Jeter, Joseph R. Jr. Re/Membering: Meditations and Sermons for
the Table of Jesus Christ. St. Louis: Chalice, 1996. One hundred
forty-one meditations on the eucharist. Full of images,
quotes, and stories. Divided into sections: biblical, historical,
literary, seasonal, contemporary, personal, and valedictory.
Procter-Smith, Marjorie. In Her Own Rite: Constructing Feminist
Liturgical Tradition. Nashville: Abingdon, 1990. Foundational
and constructive in approach, this book addresses the benefits
of and necessity for dialogue between the liturgical and
feminist movements. See especially ch. 6 on “We Must Learn
Our Common Symbols: Baptism and Eucharist.”
Smith, Harmon L. Where Two or three Are Gathered: Liturgy and
the Moral Life. Cleveland: Pilgrim, 1995. Writing for a broadly
ecumenical audience, Smith explores the interconnections
between how we worship and how we behave. Liturgy itself
is deeply moral and has profound implications for how we
think about social issues.
Tirabassi, Maren C. and Kathy Wonson Eddy. Gifts of Many
Cultures: Worship Resources for the Global Community. Cleveland:
United Church Press, 1995. Marvelous collection of
original global liturgical materials which can enrich our crosscultural
awareness and appreciation. See especially pp. 98,
110-111 on baptism and ch. 16 on communion.
Watkins, Keith. The Great Thanksgiving: The Eucharistic Norm
of Christian Worship. St. Louis: Chalice, 1995. Explores the
principles of a worship that is “table-centered” rather than
“pulpit-centered.” See also chapters 9-10 on baptism.
Whitcomb, Holly W. Feasting with God: Adventures in Table Spirituality.
Cleveland: United Church Press, 1996. Taking various
themes like wisdom or creativity as points of departure,
this book offers sixteen feasts which explore creative and
spiritual ways of enjoying food. Rituals, recipes, more.
White, James F. The Sacraments as God’s Self-Giving. Nashville:
Abingdon, 1983. A basic primer for examining the sacraments
of baptism and communion.
Selected
Resources
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Send to: Open Hands, 3801 N. Keeler Avenue, Chicago, IL 60641
Phone: 773/736-5526 Fax: 773/736-5475
Published by the Reconciling Congregation
Program in conjunction
with More Light, Open and Affirming,
Reconciling in Christ, and Welcoming
& Affirming Baptist programs.
A Unique Resource on
Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual
Concerns in the Church for
Christian Education • Personal Reading
Research Projects • Worship Resources
Ministry & Outreach
Fall 1997 31
Movement News
Reconciling Lutheran Youth Make Stand
The triennial ELCA Youth Gathering, held in New Orleans
in July, brought together 37,000 Lutheran youth and leaders
from across the U.S. At an evening worship service held in the
Superdome, with all 37,000 people present, a courageous
young man named Steve Rohr gave the evening message. Steve
is a member of St. Francis Lutheran Church in San Francisco,
a Reconciled in Christ congregation which was expelled from
the ELCA for ordaining non-celibate gay clergy. Steve’s talk
had the youth hanging on every word. He spoke directly to
gay and lesbian youth and told them they should never be
ashamed of who they are. Sharing his vision of an inclusive,
welcoming community of faith, Steve said the church’s message
to gay and lesbian youth should be “Come in and come
out”—one of the most memorable lines heard in Lutheran
circles in years. His talk was surprising to many clergy and
advisors, but the youth gave him a long-standing ovation.
An even more historic event occurred the next day at
Lutheran Youth Organization convention. This official youth
group of the ELCA meets every three years to plan for the
future. Two hundred duly elected voting members—among
the brightest and best youth of the ELCA—represented every
synod. By an astounding margin of 81.1 percent, they passed
a resolution calling for three historic steps:
1. The LYO and appropriate ELCA divisions investigate the
possibility of developing a pre-gathering conference (in the
year 2000) for gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth...to provide
a safe space for gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth
and...programming on personal and faith issues.
2. The 2000 Gathering Advisory Committee (planning the next
ELCA Youth Gathering) be strongly encouraged to incorporate
programming for the whole gathering which addresses
the personal and faith issues affecting gay, lesbian,
and bisexual youth.
3. At least one Lutheran gay, lesbian, or bisexual youth be on
the planning committee for this event.
The discussion on this resolution was astounding. Several
youth spoke of their congregation as being RIC. One young
man came out as being gay, a young woman as being bisexual,
and another woman as having a gay father. It became clear
that the youth know they are ahead of the church at large and
are energized by this. They reject the notion that this is too
controversial and feel called to help move the church forward.
A wind of change!
A few weeks later the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
America met in Philadelphia for its biennial churchwide assembly.
In discussion about changing the Visions and Expectations
document, which governs ordination practices, a seed
of change was planted. Although the assembly voted not to
change the document at this time, the discussion gave a chance
for the youth to speak. One delegate who had been at the
ELCA Youth Gathering told of the actions described above.
He told all 1,045 voting members that the youth are challenging
the church to move forward. A turning point in the
struggle? It is not just gay and lesbian people who are seeking
change but the rising leaders of the ELCA who want the church
to be welcoming to people of all sexual orientations.
Nebraska Holy Union May Test UM Law
Jimmy Creech, pastor of First United Methodist Church in
Omaha, received widespread media coverage in September
for celebrating a service of blessing for a lesbian couple in his
congregation. News of the service was leaked to local press in
advance. In response to press inquiries, Creech stated: “I accepted
the invitation [from the two women] with a deep sense
of admiration for their devotion to one another, their integrity
and their strong faith.... It was an appropriate response
for me to make as a pastor, even though I understood that to
do so would be in conflict with the official position of The
United Methodist Church.”
The 1996 General Conference of The United Methodist
Church adopted a first-ever policy statement on same-gender
unions: “Ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall
not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted
in our churches.” This sentence was placed in the Social Principles
rather than in the body of church law which raises questions
of whether this policy is legally binding or “instructive
and persuasive” (as the Social Principles are introduced). The
denomination’s Judicial Council has never ruled on
whether or not the Social Principles are legally binding.
Several complaints against Creech have been filed with his
bishop, Joel Martinez. These complaints begin a review process
that may or may not lead to formal charges and a trial. A
trial would allow the possibility of appeal to the Judicial Council
on whether the statement about same-gender unions, along
with the rest of the Social Principles, are legally binding.
A coalition of United Methodist activists who support the
right of clergy to celebrate same-gender unions has formed
the Covenant Relationships Network (CORNET). CORNET
emerged in July at the RCP convocation under the auspices of
Affirmation: United Methodists for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual
Concerns. For more information on CORNET, see its web page:
www.umaffirm.org/cornnews/ or contact Jeanne Knepper at
503/760-4215.
Open and Affirming UK?
No, not yet...lots of lesbian and gay clergy in the United
Kingdom (UK)...very few out. However, a recent survey of
United Reformed congregations revealed that 48 out of a response
of 590 were prepared to call a minister who is in a
single-sex partnership. No comparable figures are available
for other denominations in the UK (England, Wales, Scotland,
and Northern Ireland).
The ecumenical Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement
(LGCM) of the UK gets a steady trickle of inquiries from people
32 Open Hands
Call for Articles for
Summer 1998
Bisexuality
This issue will focus on helping readers grasp the complexity and diversity of sexual
orientation, sexual practice, and sexual identity, with a particular focus on bisexuality.
Seeking analytical, theoretical articles, poetry; also personal stories by bisexual
persons and transgendered persons who are dealing with orientation concerns.
Write with idea: January 1 Manuscript deadline: May 1
If you would like to write an article, contact Editor, RCP, 3801 N. Keeler, Chicago, IL 60641
wanting to know where they would be welcome at worship,
and a smaller trickle from congregations wanting to know
how they can become (and be listed as) open. Because no one
denomination seems ready to begin a program in the UK,
LGCM has decided to take the initiative to introduce the welcoming
church program idea across denominations. LGCM
will put together a discussion packet and maintain a list of
various welcoming places (ONA, RCP, etc.) as they develop.
Janet Webber, a retired United Reformed Church minister
and a lesbian, recently visited the U.S. to learn more about
U.S. ecumenical welcoming programs. She attended the annual
welcoming program leaders and Open Hands advisory
committee meeting in late September in Chicago, and visited
churches on the east coast. Webber expressed her thanks for
“letting me in on the U.S. scene and sharing material and ideas
with me over a fortnight...” She returned to the UK to “try to
get things in motion— first step to call together representatives
of inquiring congregations to form a base group.”
Welcoming Program Leaders and Open
Hands Advisory Committee Meet
Program leaders and Open Hands advisory committee members
from eight
denominational
welcoming programs
met jointly
for their fifth annual
session in
Chicago on 26-27
September. Those
participating represented the Affirming (United Church of
Canada), More Light (Presbyterian), Open and Affirming
(United Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ), Reconciled
in Christ (Lutheran), Reconciling (United Methodist), Supportive
(Brethren/Mennonite), and Welcoming & Affirming (Baptist)
programs. The group also welcomed Janet Webber (see
article above).
The program leaders heard updates on the successes and
struggles of each program, celebrated the existence of over
700 welcoming congregations, campus ministries, judicatories,
and other groups. (Complete roster is printed in each
winter issue of Open Hands). The program leaders also affirmed
our collective efforts— and the major contribution of Mary Jo
Osterman—to publish the ecumenical Bible study, Claiming
the Promise, last winter. Based on the success of that project,
the group is stepping up efforts to publish an ecumenical
welcoming worship resource. The group discussed ways to
utilize the services of Marty Hansen, who is funded for the
next year to provide fundraising and media support for the
ecumenical movement. The leaders group moved forward on
plans to host a mass ecumenical gathering of welcoming
churches in August 2000. The leaders group encouraged three
programs who are not yet formally participating in the cooperative
publication of Open Hands to officially join this cooperative
effort. All expressed interest. Finally, the program leaders
set 25 January 1998 as the annual Ecumenical Welcoming
Sunday.
The Open Hands advisory committee met jointly with welcoming
program leaders to evaluate the past four issues of the
magazine, set upcoming themes (see below), and approve some
changes in the magazine’s format (which will appear in the
Spring 1998 issue). The advisory committee then met alone
to refine both the themes and the new changes.
Upcoming Open Hands Themes
Winter 1998 We’re Welcoming! Now What?
Spring 1998 Sexual Ethics
Summer 1998 Bisexuality
Fall 1998 A House Divided
Winter 1999 But We Welcome Everyone! Why Bother?
Spring 1999 First We Listen! Voices Around the Globe
Summer 1999 Creative Chaos and the Movement
UpComing Gatherings
6-8 November 1998
Fifth North American Lutheran Conference on AIDS,
Secaucus, NJ. Intended for clergy, seminarians, Christian
education staff, lay ministers, social ministry organization
staff, people living with HIV, and others. Contact:
Loretta Horton, 1-800-638-3522, x 2404.
Winter/Spring 1998
RCP Leadership Training Seminars. For Reconciling Congregation
Program activists. Contact: James Preston, 773-
736-5526; james@rcp.org.
23-25 January Nashville, TN
30 January-1 February Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
27 February-1 March Los Angeles, CA
13-15 March Washington, DC
20-22 March Denver, CO
20-22 March 1998
“Connecting Families” Conference, Laurelville Mennonite
Church Center near Pittsburgh, PA. Contact: Brethren/
Mennonite Council for Lesbian and Gay Concerns, 612-
722-6906 or BMCouncil@aol.com.