Open Hands Vol 17 No 3 - Singing God’s Song in a Foreign Land: Stories of Resistance

Open Hands Vol 17 No 3 - Singing God’s Song in a Foreign Land: Stories of Resistance

17

3

2002

Winter

2 Open Hands
Vol. 17 No. 3 Winter 2002
Shaping an Inclusive Church
The Ecumenical Quarterly
of the Welcoming Movement
Executive Publisher
Marilyn Alexander
Editor
Chris Glaser
Designer
In Print—Jan Graves
Editorial Advisory Committee
Jeff Balter, RIC
Vaughn Beckman, O&A
Daphne Burt, RIC
Ann Marie Coleman, ONA
Chris Copeland, W&A
Jocelyn Emerson, W&A
Gwynne Guibord, MCC
Bobbi Hargleroad, MLP
Tom Harshman, O&A
Alyson Huntly, ACP
Bonnie Kelly, ACP
Susan Laurie, RCP
Samuel E. Loliger, ONA
Paul Kozlowski McComas, RCP
Ruth Moerdyk, SCN
Mark Palermo, MLP
Caroline Presnell, RCP
Kathy Stayton, W&A
Margarita Suaréz, ONA
Judith Hoch Wray, O&A
and Program Coordinators
Open Hands is the quarterly magazine of the
Welcoming church movement, a Christian consortium
of denominational church programs in
Canada and the United States whose ministries encourage
and assist individuals and faith communities
in welcoming and affirming lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender people and their families
and friends. Open Hands was founded and is
published by the Reconciling Congregation Program,
Inc. of the Reconciling Ministries Network
(United Methodist), in cooperation with the six
ecumenical partners listed on page 3. Each program
is a national network of local congregations
and ministries that publicly affirm their welcome
of LGBT people, their families and friends. These
seven programs, along with Supportive Congregations
(Brethren/Mennonite [www.webcom.com/
bmc], Oasis Congregations (Episcopal), Welcoming
Congregations (Unitarian Universalist), and INCLUSIVE
Congregations (United Kingdom), as
well as the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan
Community Churches—offer hope that the
church can be a more inclusive community.
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, requests for advertising rates,
and other business correspondence should be
sent to:
Open Hands
3801 N. Keeler Avenue
Chicago, IL 60641
Phone: 773/736-5526
Fax: 773/736-5475
openhands@RMNetwork.org
www.RMNetwork.org/openhands/index.html
Member, The Associated Church Press
© 2002
Reconciling Congregation Program, Inc.
Open Hands is a registered trademark.
ISSN 0888-8833
Printed on recycled paper.
Note: The cover image is a rendering of a Marlan Proctor photo of the congregation of
1,100 “laying on of hands” in prayer surrounding Pastor Anita Hill and preacher Michael
Cobbler (center of photo—see p. 6 for complete story).
SINGING GOD’S SONG IN A FOREIGN LAND
Stories of Resistance
Welcoming Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People
editor’s word
5 Living “As If”
CHRIS GLASER
24 Welcoming God’s Love:
Traditional Marriages
RICK MAWSON AND WARREN KREML
Welcoming God’s Call: 6
Ecclesiastical Disobedience
ANITA HILL
Welcoming God’s Church: 9
A Critical Mass
VICTORIA RUE
next issue:
HOW I CHANGED MY MIND
Profiles in Grace and Courage
Winter 2002 3
Publisher
Reconciling Congregation Program, Inc. (UMC)
Reconciling Ministries Network
Marilyn Alexander, Coordinator
3801 N. Keeler Avenue, Chicago, IL 60641
773/736-5526
www.RMNetwork.org
Ecumenical Partners
Affirming Congregation Programme
(United Church of Canada)
Ron Coughlin, Coordinator
P.O. Box 333, Station Q, Toronto, Ontario
CANADA M4T 2M5
416/466-1489
www.affirmunited.org • acpucc@aol.com
More Light Presbyterians (PCUSA)
Michael J. Adee, Coordinator
369 Montezuma Ave. PMB #447
Santa Fe, NM 87501-2626
505/820-7082
www.mlp.org
Open & Affirming Ministries
(Disciples of Christ)
John Wade Payne, Interim Coordinator
P.O. Box 44400, Indianapolis, IN 46244
941/728-8833
www.sacredplaces.com/glad
Open and Affirming Program (UCC)
Ann B. Day, Coordinator
P.O. Box 403, Holden, MA 01520
508/856-9316
www.UCCcoalition.org
Reconciling in Christ Program (Lutheran)
Bob Gibeling, Coordinator
2466 Sharondale Drive, Atlanta, GA 30305
404/266-9615
www.lcna.org
Welcoming & Affirming Baptists (ABC/USA)
Brenda J. Moulton, Coordinator
P.O. Box 2596, Attleboro Falls, MA 02763
508/226-1945
www.wabaptists.org
Call for articles for Open Hands Fall 2002
Turning The Other Cheek
Terrorism and Non-Violence
On the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the U.S., we explore the natures
of terror, violence, and non-violence as they touch our experience as LGBT
people and our advocates. In our own time, Mohandas Gandhi, Dorothy Day,
Martin Luther King Jr., theologians, feminist writers, and others have questioned
the usefulness of terror and violence to produce an end that is just. A recent
book, Jack Miles’s Christ: A Crisis in the Life of God, suggests that when God
could not free the chosen people through military victory, a new divine strategy
was incarnated. In our own community, Soulforce came to be because Mel
White was transformed by the non-violent teachings of Jesus, Gandhi, and King.
What do you think of it all, as people who may have experienced spiritual
violence at the hands of “well-meaning” Christians, and yet as people impatient
to have our rights in the church and culture? Articles, prayers, Bible reflections/
studies, personal stories, opinions, analysis, photo essays, artwork welcome
from 50 to 2500 words.
Columns: My Turning Point (how you changed your mind on the issue), How
I Do Sex (how you reconcile or integrate sexuality and spirituality), My Church
(an extended profile of your welcoming congregation), In Solidarity (with other
justice issues), You’re Welcome (how to be welcoming), Worship, Spirituality,
Retreats, Resources (books and videos), Outreach, Leadership, Marriage, Health,
Youth, Campus, Children, and Family. These brief articles may or may not have
to do with the theme of the issue. 750-850 words.
Contact with ideas as far before deadline as possible.
Manuscript deadline: July 30, 2002
An article should be accompanied by the author’s two to three sentence selfdescription,
photo (snapshot okay—we can crop to face), contact information
including e-mail, plus any other photos helpful to the article. E-mail article as
an attached Word Perfect, Microsoft Word, or Rich Text Format files, or paste in
e-mail. Hard copy and photos should be sent to the mailing address below.
Chris Glaser, Phone/Fax 404/622-4222 or e-mail at ChrsGlaser@aol.com
991 Berne St. SE, Atlanta, GA 30316-1859 USA
www.ChrisGlaser.com
special pullout section:
11 Welcoming Communities 2002
Annual List
new features:
4 2002 Guest Columnist
IRENE MONROE
22 My Turning Point
PAUL MCCOMAS
sustaining the spirit
19 A Prayer for Gay People in the Church
MALCOLM BOYD
4 Open Hands
Anew year requires more than
changing our calendars.
New Year’s Eve holds important significance
in the life of African American
churchgoers, because it is about
creating a new life in the new year. As a
child growing up in the tradition, there
was always the mad rush every December
31 to clean the house, cook a pot of
black-eyed peas for good luck, call folks
to tell them if God wills you’ll see them
in the New Year.
Then we’d prepare for the most important
event on New Year’s Eve, the
Watch Night Service, which always
started at ten o’clock that evening. Putting
on your Sunday best, especially if
New Year’s Eve fell on a weekday, felt
strange, but you knew the significance
of that day as folks hurried to complete
their chores.
Many black churches across the
country celebrate Watch Night Services
and it can be traced back to December
31, 1862, also known as “ Freedom
Eve,” when African American slaves
came together across the nation to await
the good news that President Lincoln’s
Emancipation Proclamation had finally
become law. And on that day, January
1, 1863, a new life began for us even as
the Civil War was still going on.
During Watch Night Service, the
minister would always remind us of the
trials and tribulations of the year we
were about to leave behind. But the
minister would also tell us that the new
year was the first day of new beginnings,
just like our enslaved ancestors saw it.
And at every service I attended as a child,
when the clock struck midnight, the
people applauded, cried, dance and
sang. What hope and what inspiration
it was to know that in spite of the year
just lived, especially if it was fraught
with pain, violence and tragedy, a new
year comes in which we can free ourselves
from the year past!
But by freeing ourselves, the minister
would always admonish us, we had
to create it, because it would never come
freely at the hands of our oppressors.
Fast Forward to 1965, one of the
years in U.S. history during which racial
bigotry escalated to the national
stage. In February of that year, Malcolm
X was assassinated during a speech at
the Audubon Ballroom in New York
City. In March, thousands of marchers,
led by Martin Luther King Jr., completed
the Selma to Montgomery march to
dramatize voting rights denied them in
Selma. Two days earlier, Alabama state
troopers beat and tear-gassed many of
the demonstrators as they tried to cross
the Edmund Pettus bridge en route to
the state capitol. And in August, six days
of rioting erupted in the Watts section
of Los Angeles, ignited by police brutality.
In the face of this violence, African
Americans had to create a new plan of
action, and we did. In 1966, we became
more proactive, and created programs
to suit our needs and sensibilities in the
face of unrelenting violence. Bobby
Seale and Huey Newton formed the
Black Panther Party in Oakland, California,
and Maulana Karenga, then professor
and chairman of the African
American studies department at California
State University in Long Beach created
the cultural festival Kwanzaa.
As a celebration of the first African
slaves who arrived here in the New
World in 1619 and then finally freed
in 1865, Kwanzaa, the annual seven-day
celebration, pays tribute to who we are
as a people.
Who we are as an oppressed people,
however, does not ignore who we are
as an oppressor of people. While many
African American lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender people cannot celebrate
Watch Night Services with our
faith communities because of our
sexual orientation, many us have creatively
incorporated the spirit of Watch
Night in Kwanzaa. On the sixth day of
Kwanzaa, New Year’s eve, the principle
celebrated is kuumba, meaning creativity.
Creativity is essential for the life of
any people, and it has played a salient
role in the life and courage of African
American people.
Without it, African American music,
dance, scholars, theologians and activists
would have never been born. As a
progeny of this African American creative
legacy, I’ve learned to create a life
for myself in the midst of a raging war,
whether it’s homophobia in the black
church or it’s racism in the queer community.
And so enter 2002, a year to be
shaped by war while we see our needs
and concerns as lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender people pushed to the
back burner. We must create a life for
ourselves, one that speaks to our needs
at this particular time.
If we don’t create a plan of action in
this new year to address our needs, not
only will we have participated in our
own death and invisibility, but we will
have not really crossed over into a new
year, one that gives us creative hope,
creative agency, and creative courage.
Instead, we will remain stuck on a
new year’s eve.
Irene Monroe is a writer, theologian, and
motivational speaker. A Ford Foundation
fellow and doctoral candidate in the
Religion, Gender, and Culture program of
Harvard Divinity School, she is a regular
contributor to In
Newsweekly, a newspaper
for GLBT people
in New England.
OPEN HANDS COLUMNIST FOR THE YEAR 2002
Creating Freedom
Irene Monroe
New Feature: Each year the Open Hands Editorial Advisory Committee will select a columnist for the year.
Irene Monroe, already a frequent contributor and an outstanding writer, is our choice for 2002. Thanks, Irene!
Winter 2002 5
The apostle Paul gave us the concept of living
proleptically, “as if” the kingdom or commonwealth
of God were already here, as if we were already sharing a
common spiritual wealth. But Jesus gave Christians our
primary model for doing so, declaring that as the good work
of God occurs among us, the commonwealth of God is in
our midst. Living proleptically is living prophetically, and
that’s what Christians are “called out” to do.
We pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth
as it is in heaven.” I believe the commonwealth is among us
as human will and divine will coincide. I also believe that
people we recognize as “saints” enjoy such synchronicity a
little more and a little sooner than the rest of us. They have
one foot already in the commonwealth of God.
That’s what strengthens them when demonstrating at the
former School of the Americas in Georgia, or feeding and
living with the homeless in shelters, or taking care of the
daunting paperwork of administration required of nonprofit
help organizations. That’s what encourages them to
deliver sermons, teach Sunday school, and give generously
to their houses of worship and to a variety of charities.
It is the commonwealth of God in our midst that opens a
congregation to the fruits of the Spirit in lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender people. It is the commonwealth
of God that unites such congregations in the Welcoming
movement. Those welcoming congregations are the heart of
our movement even as our annual “naming of the saints” is
the heart of this issue, found in a special pullout section
that begins on page 11. They are the heart of resistance to
the broader church that would exclude rather than include.
When I preached at the ordination of openly gay elders
and deacons two decades ago at the West Hollywood
Presbyterian Church contrary to denominational policies, I
coined the phrase “ecclesiastical disobedience” to explain
what we were doing, comparing it to the “civil disobedience”
of Gandhi and King. I did not realize that a reporter
for the Los Angeles Times was there to pick up on my words
and writ them large in her story on our church!
Others also have “coined the phrase” independently,
because we all can see what we’re doing. By simply staying
in the church, LGBT people are resisting church policies that
would deny us access to the commonwealth of God. We are
singing God’s song in a land, a church, in many ways alien
to the commonwealth which we already enjoy: a commonwealth
where “steadfast love and faithfulness meet, righteousness
and peace kiss each other” (Psalm 85:10).
Every issue of Open Hands sings that song loud, clear, and
strong. This issue, we sing of how St. Paul Reformation
Lutheran Church welcomed God’s call of Anita Hill. We
sing of churches across North America which have welcomed
God’s love by blessing same-gender couples. We sing
of a movement among marginalized Catholics who welcome
God’s church rather than man’s (non-inclusive term
intended). And more.
Jesus cleared the area of the temple where marginalized
Jews could congregate, such as women and Gentile converts.
In other words, where most of us reading this could
gather close to Yahweh. We in the Welcoming movement
do no less. With other reformers, we serve as leaven, as salt,
as light—expanding the church, giving it flavor (and taste!),
bringing it out of the shadows. Just as the Israelites exiled
from their homeland in Babylon were challenged to sing
God’s song in the midst of their exile throughout a strange
land (see Psalm 137), we too are called to keep faith in the
midst of denominations that do not understand.
So we sing God’s song regardless and “as if.”
Chris Glaser’s most recent book is Reformation of the Heart:
Seasonal Meditations by a Gay Christian (Westminster John Knox
Press, 2001).
editor’s word Living “As If”
Chris Glaser
6 Open Hands
Christian Century magazine
named St. Paul-Reformation
Lutheran Church’s act of resistance one
of the top ten religious news stories of
2001. Calling and ordaining an openly
lesbian woman in a committed relationship
is big news. Although our extra
ordinem service of ordination garnered
the most publicity, I believe the vote to
call as pastor an openly lesbian woman
in a committed relationship is in many
ways the bigger event.
On December 2, 2000, 176 voting
members of St. Paul-Reformation (St.
Paul, Minnesota) gathered after worship
for an annual meeting to decide whether
or not to challenge the rules of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA) by calling a lesbian pastor. At
times, it has been difficult to gather the
50 persons required to conduct business
meetings at our multicultural, inner-city
church. For this vote, nearly 300 persons
stayed to see the outcome of the
meeting!
The ELCA’s Vision and Expectations
of Ordained Ministers requires “Ordained
ministers who are homosexual
in their self-understanding are expected
to abstain from homosexual sexual relationships.”
It was clear that we were
considering a step which might bring
our congregation up for discipline. A
lot of hopes and fears rested on this
decision. My heart was pounding as I
waited in the narthex for the discussion
to be completed and the vote taken. I
was hopeful about the outcome and
also fearful that division might result
from the vote.
A unanimous 176-0 vote sealed our
congregation’s leap of faith into the
realm of ecclesiastical disobedience.
Unanimous votes are hard to attain even
on issues as seemingly non-controversial
as choosing the color of new choir
robes. I believe the unanimity of our
decision shows our conviction that our
action is Gospel-based and at the heart
of what the Lutheran Church has stood
for theologically. Through a unanimous
vote, St. Paul-Reformation went on record
saying that we could no longer, in good
conscience, comply with the ELCA’s
policy because it is unjust and at odds
with the message of the Gospel.
As a Gospel-driven community, we
could no longer invite gay, lesbian, bisexual,
and transgender persons into a
church which welcomes them only conditionally
as second-class members.
We’ve come to know each other pretty
well at St. Paul-Reformation. The congregation
instituted Wingspan Ministry with
and on behalf of sexual minority persons
in 1982. After 20 years of outreach ministry,
our membership of 600 includes
24% GLBT persons, 15% persons of
color, and over 70% under age 50.
I am a lesbian woman in a committed
relationship. I’m a Christian who
first heard God’s call to ministry 23
years ago, and who wrestled with fulfilling
that call as a lay minister. I’ve
served on staff of St. Paul-Reformation
for 13 years, first as an associate with
Wingspan Ministry with and on behalf
of GLBT persons, and later as a
pastoral minister serving the whole
congregation.
The community of faithful folks
known as St. Paul-Reformation has
helped me grow in pastoral leadership,
sustained me through seminary studies,
clinical pastoral education, the
death of my parents, and given witness
to the depth and breadth of God’s grace.
When the ELCA refused to grant my
entrance to its official candidacy process
for ordination, St. Paul-Reformation
supported my application to the
Lutheran Extraordinary Candidacy
Project (ECP). The ECP was established
to provide a process for certifying the
credentials of openly GLBT candidates
who have satisfied all of the ministry
criteria established by the ELCA, but
who also feel bound by conscience to
oppose our denomination’s celibacy
requirement.
St. Paul-Reformation’s long-range
plan developed in 1993 called for an
openly gay or lesbian pastor serving the
congregation by the year 2000. Our
congregation has worked to educate
members of our denomination about
welcoming GLBT persons. I’ve personally
conducted hundreds of adult forums
about sexual minority persons,
which I’ve come to fondly call the Sunday
Morning “Meet the Homosexual
Show.”
Our congregation council appointed
a Call and Ordination Task Force in
1997 to study the issues, explore the
options, and engage the congregation
in dialogue and conversation about calling
an openly gay pastor. We exhausted
appeals to the ELCA for an exception
to be granted through which I might
be ordained to serve St. Paul-Reformation
as an approved member of the
denomination’s clergy roster. Over 700
persons across the ELCA sent letters to
support our request for an exception.
Hill reacts to the congregation’s thunderous
response as her ordination is proclaimed!
Wingspan Ministry will host a workshop on
nonviolence led by The Rev. Mel White and
Soulforce for the weekend of April 26–28,
2002, the first anniversary weekend of “our”
ordination. A documentary titled “This Obedience”
focusing on our ordination journey
and actions to move the ELCA will be premiered.
For registration information, contact
Wingspan Ministry, St. Paul-Reformation
Lutheran Church, 100 N. Oxford St., St. Paul,
MN 55104-6540; 651-224-3371; or e-mail
wngspan@aol.com. (See ad on page 4.)
Ecclesiastical Disobedience
Welcoming God’s Call
Anita C. Hill
Ordination photos by Marlan Proctor
Winter 2002 7
Even with broad support, our request
was denied.
By the time our congregation voted
to call, we understood what was at stake
and chose to move forward in faith as a
whole community together, seeking to
be obedient to our calling in Christ to
be fully, joyfully welcoming of all
people, no matter what their gender,
race, ethnicity, age, ability, orientation,
or relationship status. Our decision to
move into ecclesiastical disobedience
rests on our understanding of the inclusive
message of the Gospel, our concern
for justice, and ongoing evangelical
outreach.
Ordination Day: April 28, 2001
Perhaps I should explain more fully
why I call the ordination “ours.” It was
a joyous, amazing, community event
filled with God’s spirit, which has taken
on iconic proportions of its own. One
reporter noted that the ordination felt
like a wedding in which everyone
present were parents. I happen to be the
fortunate woman who received the call
to serve as pastor and who stood before
a glowing crowd on ordination day, but
it is clear to me that this ordination
belongs to all of us who have longed
for and worked hard for change in our
church regarding the status of lesbian
and gay people called to ministry. Sadly,
it seems at times the larger church is
still battling the right of lesbian and gay
people of faith to be in the pews, rather
than occupying the pulpits to which
God has called them.
“Our” ordination claims validity
within the Lutheran heritage of the
Church universal because it was authorized
by an expression of Christ’s
Church, with one active and three
former Bishops and 180 ordained pastors
present serving as signs of the whole
church and all Christians present representing
the whole church. St. Paul-
Reformation committed this action of
ecclesiastical disobedience as a means of
protesting the injustice of the ELCA’s
policy against ordaining gay and lesbian
persons in committed relationships. The
1,100 who participated in the service
of ordination joined in that protest.
Congregation Censured and
Admonished
In June 2001, St. Paul-Reformation
received a document of censure and
admonition from our synod bishop for
calling and ordaining a person not approved
for the clergy roster of the ELCA.
Sanctions and prohibitions against the
congregation preclude the opportunity
for any staff or members of St. Paul-Reformation
to serve as elected leaders
within our synod. As a result, I can no
longer hold the post of Dean of our
conference, and my colleagues forfeited
positions on committees and task
forces.
We are relieved that the censure and
admonition does not sever our relationship
with the ELCA. We are, at the same
time, deeply disappointed that in spite
of ELCA statements welcoming gay and
lesbian persons into the full life of the
church, the ELCA continues to perpetuate
an underclass within the church by
precluding gay and lesbian people in committed
relationships from ordination.
The church’s policy of conditional
welcome destroys faith and drives gays
and lesbians away from Christ. Each
time the church disciplines a congregation
for its call of an otherwise qualified
gay man or lesbian woman into the
Ministry of Word and Sacrament, the
church declares that gays and lesbians
are not fully welcome in the life of the
ELCA. This is contrary to the Gospel of
God’s love and care for all, contrary to
God’s call for justice, and contrary to
the ELCA’s proclaimed desire to welcome
all persons fully into the life of
the church.
St. Paul-Reformations’s “irregular/
extraordinary” ordination took place as
an act of protest and to help us be faithful
to our mission as a congregation.
Unjust policies must be changed for the
sake of the Gospel and for evangelical
mission. To that end, we will continue
to work to change the rule prohibiting
the service of gay and lesbian pastors
who are in committed relationships.
ELCA Churchwide Assembly
Because the censure date was set for
September 1, 2001, I was allowed to
participate as a voting member at the
ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly. Being
the first visibly open lesbian pastor in
the role of voting member at the ELCA
Churchwide Assembly in Indianapolis
(August 8 -14, 2001) was an experience
filled with both blessing and burden. I
don’t think I’ve ever worked as hard in
my life. I returned home weary of public
scrutiny, but also aware of feeling
spiritually deepened.
The Holy Spirit moved among us in
powerful ways. I am awed by the collaborative
efforts of The Lutheran Alliance
for Full Participation (Wingspan,
the Lutheran Network, Lutheran Lesbian
and Gay Ministries, the Extraordinary
Candidacy Project, and Lutherans
Concerned North America) working in
partnership with Mel White’s Soulforce
at the assembly. I found myself chal-
Kirk Anderson, St. Paul Pioneer Press
8 Open Hands
lenged and strengthened by the non-violence training of
Soulforce to renounce violence of fist, tongue, and heart. I’ve
controlled my fists for years, but I’ve too often harbored an
angry heart and sharp tongue. I pledged myself to act from
love for my church in non-violent ways.
As a voting member of the assembly, I had opportunity to
play a visible role as an openly lesbian pastor. I introduced a
motion to lift the ban against the rostered service of lesbian
and gay persons in committed relationships. Ultimately, the
ELCA chose to continue study rather than act decisively.
By a vote of 899-115, the assembly called for a study document
on homosexuality which includes “biblical, theological,
scientific and practical material” and addresses questions
related to the blessing of committed same-gender relationships
and the rostering of ministry candidates in such relationships.
These study materials will target use in congregations,
synods, hearings, and focus groups across the ELCA. A
final document with action steps for implementation is due
in 2005. In a related decision, the assembly voted to initiate a
process within the ELCA “to develop a social statement on
human sexuality.” No specific timeline was specified.
In what became known as “Anita Hill’s Substitute Motion,”
I called for changes in Vision and Expectations and Definitions
and Guidelines for Discipline, which would allow for
rostering of gay/lesbian persons who are in relationships which
are “mutual, chaste, and faithful.” After two lengthy sessions
of debate the move to lift the ban was replaced with creation
of “a specific plan and time line leading to a decision concerning”
rostering of such gay/lesbian people. Changes requiring
churchwide assembly action are to be brought to the 2005
assembly.
Unfortunately, the ban against gay/lesbian clergy in committed
relationships remains in place. I deeply grieve the pain
this continued stance of “second classness” in the ELCA has
caused. For too many people, despair is again settling in with
the awareness that their lives of faithful Christian witness have
not won the day in our church. The church’s responses to
gay/lesbian people and our families are life and death matters.
I am gravely disappointed that for 3 churchwide assemblies
over 6 years, we’ve been urged to wait while so-called
“more important matters” have been addressed. At the same
time, I have hope for the process in new ways. Never before
have I attended a churchwide assembly in which the tone was
more positive toward gay/lesbian persons in the church. Hundreds
of people supported the move to lift the ban and truly
welcome gay/lesbian persons into “full participation” including
rostered ministries in the ELCA.
For the first time, I perceive the votes to establish a study
regarding blessings of same-gender relationships and of ordination
of gay/lesbian candidates in committed relationships
as more than another move to put off dealing with the matters
at hand. Rather, we’ve provided new church leadership
the opportunity to prepare the ELCA to make decisions from
an informed position. I fully expect that justice will come soon
in our church, but sadly, not soon enough for some. It feels
like awaiting the second coming of Christ—we’ve been doing
that for a long time, now, too.
I continue to seek clarity about the “development of a plan
and a process for making a decision” about lifting the ban
against gay/lesbian clergy in committed relationships. It’s confusing
to me, and I fear that it could take even longer than the
projected date of 2005. I am glad that the ELCA’s new Presiding
Bishop Mark Hanson will have the chance to lead us in his
deeply spiritual, collaborative ways, seeking to draw our whole
church into unity so we might move forward together. I pray
we will do so with the conviction that ordination and rostering
of gay/lesbian candidates in committed relationships is the
right, just, and theologically sound step at last.
These are weighty matters. I am tired, yet spiritually in a
place of peaceful determination that justice will be done. I am
glad to be out of the spotlight of assembly, once again surrounded
by my family of choice and by the members of St.
Paul-Reformation. There’s much work to be done over the
next four years.
These are fragile yet powerful times in my life and in the
life of the ELCA and other Protestant denominations wrestling
with receiving all whom God has called to ordained ministry.
Please continue to keep gay/lesbian persons, including
me, in your prayers. I have been moved and uplifted by the
prayers of many this past year—as St. Paul-Reformation voted
to call and set my ordination date; on the weekend of my
ordination; during the Fred Phelps demonstration at our
church, and at churchwide assembly. I particularly appreciate
the prayers of my life partner, Janelle, who stood in silent
witness and prayer vigil with Soulforce and the Lutheran Alliance
for Full Participation at the ELCA assembly. We were
both deeply affected by Soulforce’s training in nonviolence
based on the work of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.
Anita C. Hill was “extraordinarily” ordained
in April 2001. Pastor Hill serves St. Paul- Reformation
Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minnesota,
an ELCA congregation dedicated to urban,
multicultural ministry since 1883. Anita and
her partner, Janelle Bussert, share their home
with two cats, Ferris and Isabel.
Anita Hill and her partner, Janelle Bussert, as the ordination service begins.
Winter 2002 9
A child with her family kneels each Sunday evening
in the living room.
Eight children and parents
kneeling to say the rosary.
Bead after bead passes through her fingers
“Hail Mary full of Grace…
Hail Mary full of Grace.”
This girl child kneels each Sunday with her family
in the local Catholic church, Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
They attend mass, first in Latin,
later in English.
A priest intones prayer formulas,
bells and smells create an aura of something special.
The girl, afraid to get Jesus stuck to the roof of her mouth,
swallows a flat wafer.
Each Saturday she also kneels in a black box called a confessional.
A slit of light—a sliding window opens.
In the dark, she confesses to a priest
sins of jealousy, pride, bad thoughts.
On the steps of the family’s front porch,
her brothers and sisters kneel, as the girl becomes a priest saying mass.
She places candied Necco wafers on little tongues.
Each child whispers “amen” as the sugary wafer is consumed.
The girl’s brother, after 8th grade, begins studies for the priesthood.
After one year of college, she enters a convent to become a nun.
The year is l968.
Her perceptions of Catholicism,
not questioned until she was in the convent,
begin to crack wide open.
And with those questions, it was the end of her kneeling,
the end of her silence,
and the beginning of her journey
to find others with whom she could envision
a future Roman Catholic Church.
As a woman and a lesbian, I stand way out on the margins
of Roman Catholicism—way out. So what’s a “girl” to do who
feels called to priesthood and to changing the patriarchal structures
of the Catholic Church? What I’ve learned from being a
theater writer, director and actor as well as feminist theologian
is to ACT AS IF. If you don’t want to leave the church
altogether, stay and change it. And that’s exactly what we have
been doing in “A Critical Mass: Women Celebrating the Eucharist.”
Together with Monica Kaufer, a Cenacle Sister, we
gathered a group of Roman Catholic women in l997 to create
a public feminist, inclusive mass. In October of that year, we
celebrated our first Eucharist.
From our first meetings and discussions as A Critical Mass,
it was important to me to make the connections between the
oppression of the Roman Catholic Church toward LGBT people
and the issue of the church’s misogyny. I had begun my journey
as a Catholic activist in l988 as member of the Cathedral
Project in New York City. As LGBT Roman Catholics we were
shocked and angered at Cardinal Ratzinger’s infamous “Halloween
letter” defining homosexuality as an “intrinsic moral
disorder.” We decided to stand once a month during the
Cardinal’s homily in St. Patrick’s as silent resistance to such
homophobia. After three months, the Cardinal called in the
New York City police to forcibly evict us from the mass. We
decided we would create our own inclusive mass. For one
year, standing on the sidewalk opposite St. Patrick’s Cathedral,
I and others con-celebrated mass with openly gay priests—
masses that celebrated the wholeness of our sexualities and
named ourselves as “church.” After each mass, we participated
in civil disobedience by either sitting on the cathedral’s steps
(we had been barred from church property), or lying down
on Fifth Avenue. We were always arrested and always let go.
The media covered our masses and actions and counted us
among other grassroots groups working for change in the
Roman Catholic church. This was the activist background that
brought me into the issue of women and priesthood.
In l997, as one of the leaders of A Critical Mass, I was faced
with a decision. I was counseled by members of the group to
focus only on women’s call to priesthood and place the issues
of LBGT people in the background. Some were uncertain that
my out identity might derail the focus of our work. Suffice it
to say that this was a painful situation that, unfortunately, is
not new to any of us. So I did. I chose to keep women and a
renewed priestly ministry as the focus of my work with A Criti-
A Critical Mass
Welcoming God’s Church
Victoria Rue
10 Open Hands
cal Mass. But, I must immediately add, the feminist mass we
have celebrated for four years is, of course, inclusive of everyone
and in every way. My LGBT sisters and brothers are often
in the congregation. And the public identity of A Critical Mass
continues to be focused on a renewed church, women’s call
to priesthood, and creating a discipleship of equals. Yet, it is
also very clear to me now that when bridges are not built
from women’s marginality to other marginalized groups such
as LGBT people, an opportunity is missed. When LGBT issues
are not linked to women’s issues, the congregation is not encouraged
to express their own LGBT joys and struggles.
Perhaps this is the struggle for feminists, and particularly
for lesbian feminists, who choose to stay in a tradition. We
are the women of “small steps” who must see the long vision
of changing a church tradition with a very long patriarchal,
homophobic, sex-negative history.
At this juncture, let me offer some historical background
to the issue of women’s ordination in the Roman Catholic
tradition. In l977, despite recommendations from the Pontifical
Biblical Commission that there were no Scriptural obstacles
to ordaining women, the Vatican issued a formal declaration,
“Inter Insignores,” against the ordination of women. It claimed
that the ordination of women in the RCC is not possible because
1) it has never been done before and, 2) women cannot
image Jesus because he was male, and since the priest is supposed
to image Jesus, women cannot be priests. In l995, the
Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a
“Responsum ad dubium” to “Ordinatio Sacerdoltalis” which
reinforced the teaching that women cannot be ordained by
claiming that it belongs to the “deposit of faith” and therefore
cannot be questioned.
Public opposition to Vatican policies and what is perceived
as a decreasing toleration for dissent from these policies has
mounted in recent years. What has arisen is a genuine feminist
reform-reconstruction movement. Women and men have
organized into grassroots groups, deciding they will stay silent
no more.
On Oct 5, 1997, calling ourselves “A Critical Mass: Women
Celebrating Eucharist” we created our first feminist mass. At
first we celebrated quarterly, and then, called further into our
commitment, we began to celebrate our mass once a month.
In October 2001, we will mark our fourth anniversary! If you
are in Oakland, California on the third Sunday of a month, at
2 in the afternoon, please come!
How does A Critical Mass: Women Celebrating Eucharist
enact the future? How does it create a Eucharist in which the
Roman Catholic tradition is held in tension with something
new?
Imagine if you will:
It’s a sparkling Sunday afternoon in Oakland, California.
You are in a small inner city park.
The park is the site of the former Oakland Cathedral which fell down in the
earthquake of l989.
For two hours before our mass begins, friends of A Critical Mass,
members of a Franciscan home church, feed two to three hundred homeless
people who call this park home.
During this time, some 300 people gather.
Bells ring. The liturgy begins.
A male priest walks down an aisle to a table that serves as an altar.
He is dressed in traditional robes to say a Roman Catholic mass.
He crosses himself and intones-
“In the name of the Father, and the Son....”
A blast from a trumpet and a shofar cut the air.
The priest stops his ritual actions, and as if a film in reverse, he backs up
the aisle he came from.
Seven women dancers, in silence, twirl down the same aisle past him.
They hand out long strips of colorful material to the congregation.
Everyone holds the material over their heads.
One of the women says,
“We remember Peter’s words: You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
God’s own people. As we place these stoles on our shoulders we acknowledge
and remember that as women and men through the rite of baptism, we
are all called to a renewed priesthood.”
The cloth is now a stole of ordination.
All silently slowly consciously place the stoles on their shoulders.
The women leaders silently make a sign of the cross.
But also add gestures that expand the four directions,
opening wide their arms to include each other, the city, everyone.
Again, the male priest walks down the aisle.
This time preceded by a woman carrying high above her head the Bible.
At the altar table, the book is held for the male priest.
He begins to read from the Gospel of John.
Again, the shofar and trumpet blast.
Again the priest backs down the aisle.
This time women dancers twirl down the aisle holding many books.
They call out their names: Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Rosemary Ruether,
Mary Hunt, Beverly Harrison, Katie Canon, Carter Heyward, Alice
Walker, Gerda Lerner, Audre Lorde, Judith Plaskow, Phyllis Trible, and
on and on….
Excerpts from gospels and epistles by women poets, writers and feminist
theologians are read.
The congregation breaks into two’s and three’s to reflect on the readings.
Now the bells ring again.
And again the male priest comes down the aisle.
This time he holds a large thin wafer and a chalice of gold.
He stops at the table and begins the words that only priests are allowed to
say
“On the night before he suffered, Jesus took bread blessed broke and gave it
to his disciples saying...”
Again, the shofar and trumpet blow.
Again the priest in reverse backs up the aisle.
continued on page 23
Winter 2002 11
WELCOMING COMMUNITIES 2002
There are 1567 churches, campus ministries,
judicatories, and national and international
ministries of mainstream denominations
that have publicly declared themselves
fully welcoming of lesbian and gay people in
Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United
States. More than half have done so in opposition
to their denomination’s policies. Most
of them openly welcome bisexual and transgender
people as well. The denominational
affiliation of each Welcoming community is
designated by the following codes:
TOTAL
AC, AM Affirming Cong. and Affirming Ministries (United Church of Canada) .............. 19
INC INCLUSIVE Congregations (United Kingdom, ecumenical) ...................... 2
ML More Light Presbyterians ......................................................................... 111
O* O, OAS, INT (Episcopal) .......................................................................... 165
ONA** Open and Affirming (United Church of Christ) ..................................... 428
O&A Open & Affirming (Disciples) ................................................................... 51
RIC Reconciling in Christ (Lutheran) ............................................................ 244
RC Reconciling Congregation (United Methodist) ........................................215
SCN Supportive Congregation Network (Brethren/Mennonite) ...................... 33
W&A Welcoming & Affirming (American Baptist) ............................................ 42
WEL Welcoming (Unitarian Universalist) ....................................................... 257
*O=Officially Welcoming; OAS=Oasis; INT=Integrity Host. **ONA/ncs are New Church Starts that are ONA.
PULL-OUT SECTION ➚
➚
WELCOMING CHURCHES
CANADA
ALBERTA
Calgary
Calgary Inter-Mennonite (SCN)
The Unitarian Church of Calgary (WEL)
Edmonton
Southminster-Steinhauer United (AC)
Unitarian Church (WEL)
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Burnaby
St. Paul’s United (AC)
Kamloops
Kamloops United (AC)
Kelowna
Unitarian Fellowship of Kelowna (WEL)
Vancouver
First United Church (AC)
Trinity United (AC)
Unitarian Church (WEL)
Victoria
Capital UU Cong. of Victoria (WEL)
MANITOBA
Winnipeg
Augustine United (AC)
First Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Young United (AC)
NEW BRUNSWICK
Saint John
Centenary-Queen Square United (AC)
ONTARIO
Hamilton
First Unitarian Ch. of Hamilton (WEL)
Kingston
Sydenham Street United (AC)
Ottawa
First Unitarian Cong. of Ottawa (WEL)
Scarborough (Toronto area)
Warden Woods Mennonite (SCN)
Thunder Bay
Lakehead U. Fellowship (WEL)
Toronto
Advent Lutheran (RIC)
Bathurst United (AC)
Bloor Street United (AC)
First Unitarian Cong. of Toronto
Glen Rhodes United (AC)
Metropolitan United (AC)
Trinity-St. Paul’s United (AC)
Waterloo
Olive Branch Mennonite (SCN)
Westminster United (AC)
QUEBEC
Montreal, Quebec City
Unitarian Church of Montreal (WEL)
SASKATCHEWAN
Regina
St. James United (AC)
Saskatoon
King of Glory Lutheran (RIC)
St. Thomas-Wesley United (AC)
UNITED KINGDOM
ENGLAND
Birmingham
Edgbaston Soc. of Friends (Quakers) (INC)
London
St. Botolph’s Ch. of England, Aldgate (INC)
UNITED STATES
ALABAMA
Auburn
Auburn UU Fellowship (WEL)
Birmingham
Pilgrim Cong. Church, UCC (ONA)
Huntsville
UU Church (WEL)
ALASKA
Anchorage
Immanuel Presbyterian (ML)
UU Fellowship (WEL)
Fairbanks
Midnight Sun United Ch. (ONA/ncs)
Juneau
Jubilee Community United Ch. (ONA/ncs)
Palmer
Church of the Covenant (W&A)
Sitka
UMC of Sitka (RC)
ARIZONA
Chandler
Valley UU Church (WEL)
Mesa
Celebration of Life Presbyterian (ML)
Phoenix
Asbury UMC (RC)
Augustana Lutheran (RIC)
Church of the Beatitudes (ONA)
Faith Lutheran (RIC)
Palo Cristi Presbyterian (ML)
Shadow Rock Cong. UCC (ONA)
Scottsdale
Scottsdale Cong. UCC (ONA)
Surprise
Christ the Healer, UCC (ONA/ncs)
Tempe
Desert Palm UCC (ONA)
University Lutheran (RIC)
Tucson
Church of the Painted Hills (ONA)
Desert Dove Christian Church (O&A)
First Christian (O&A)
First Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Rincon Congregational UCC (ONA)
Santa Cruz Lutheran (RIC)
St. Francis in the Foothills UMC (RC)
UU of NW Tucson (WEL)
UU of Tucscon (WEL)
ARKANSAS
Fayetteville
St. Martin’s Episcopal Center (INT)
Little Rock
Pulaski Heights Christian (O&A)
Trinity Cathedral (INT)
CALIFORNIA
Alameda
First Christian (O&A)
First Congregational (ONA)
Albany
Albany UMC (RC)
Altadena
Altadena Congregational (ONA)
Christ the Shepherd Lutheran (RIC)
Baldwin Park
First Presbyterian (ML)
Banning
St. Agnes Episcopal (O)
Bayside
Humboldt UU Fellowship (WEL)
Belmont
Congregational Church UCC (ONA)
Benicia
Community Congregational (ONA)
This nearly 8-foot-long iron fish hangs in the center of the sanctuary-inthe-
round at Wheadon United Methodist Church, an Evanston, Illinois
congregation renowned for its history of social activism and the third
UMC church to declare Reconciling status. Welded and installed in
1973 by then-pastor Rev. Al Streyffeler, the figure incorporates a
plumb bob as its eye. According to longtime Wheadonite Caroline
Presnell, “After Al preached on Amos in the late ’70s, we decided that
the fish, symbolizing Christ, was incomplete without the plumb line
[Amos 7:7-9], symbolizing justice.” The Pride banner has been entwined
through the fish’s frame since 1996; it is a duplicate of the banner
created for that year’s holy covenant service between Wheadon
members Carl Foote and Tom West. The banner subsequently was
worn by Jill Graham and the late Burton Samuels at their interfaith
wedding on the Wheadon front lawn. –Paul McComas
photo: Paul McComas
12 Open Hands
Berkeley
Berkeley/Richmond Intercity Min. (O&A)
Epworth UMC (RC)
First Baptist (W&A)
First Congregational (ONA)
New Spirit Community Ch. (ONA/ncs)
St. John’s Presbyterian (ML)
Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran (RIC)
Trinity UMC (RC)
University Lutheran Chapel (RIC)
University Church (O&A)
Campbell
First UMC (RC)
Carlsbad
Pilgrim Congregational UCC (ONA)
Carmel
UU of Monterey Peninsula (WEL)
Canoga Park
Emerson Unitarian Church (WEL)
Chico
Congregational Church (ONA)
Claremont
Claremont UMC (RC)
Claremont UCC, Congregational (ONA)
Cloverdale
United Ch. of Cloverdale (ONA)
Concord
First Christian (O&A)
Costa Mesa
Orange Coast UU Church (WEL)
St. John the Divine (O)
Cupertino
Redeemer Lutheran (RIC)
Danville
Danville Cong. UCC (ONA)
Peace Lutheran (RIC)
Davis
Davis UMC (RC)
Diamond Bar
Diamond Bar Cong. UCC (ONA)
El Cajon
Summit UU Fellowship (WEL)
El Cerrito
Christ Lutheran (RIC)
El Cerrito UMC (RC)
Mira Vista UCC (ONA)
Northminster Presbyterian (ML)
Eureka
First Congregational (ONA)
Fair Oaks
Fair Oaks UMC (RC)
Fairfax
Fairfax Community (ONA)
Fremont
Fremont Congregational (ONA)
Niles Congregational UCC (ONA)
Fresno
College Comm. Cong. (ONA)
First Congregational (ONA)
Wesley UMC (RC)
Fullerton
Fullerton Congregational (ONA)
Gardena
First UMC (RC)
Geyserville
Geyserville Christian (O&A)
Goleta
Live Oaks UU Congregation (WEL)
Guerneville
Community Church, UCC (ONA)
Hayward
Eden UCC (ONA)
New Fellowship UCC (ONA)
United Church (ONA)
Westminster Hills Presbyterian (ML)
Hollywood
Hollywood Lutheran (RIC)
Hollywood UMC (RC)
Hope Lutheran (RIC)
Irvine
Irvine UCC (ONA)
Kensington
Arlington Community UCC (ONA)
Lafayette
Lafayette Christian (O&A)
Laguna Niguel
Shepherd of the Hills (ONA)
La Puente
Delhaven Christian Church (O&A)
Larkspur
Redwoods Presbyterian (ML)
La Verne
Church of the Brethren (SCN)
Livermore
United Christian Church (O&A)
Long Beach
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
First UMC (RC)
Resurrection Lutheran (RIC)
St. Luke’s Episcpal (O)
St. Thomas of Canterbury (O)
The UU Church (WEL)
Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
Los Alamitos
Community Congregational UCC (ONA)
Los Angeles
All Saints’ Episcopal (O)
Bethel Lutheran (RIC)
First Unitarian of Los Angeles (WEL)
Hollywood Independent UCC (ONA)
Holy Nativity Episcopal (O)
Lutheran Church of the Master (RIC)
Mt. Hollywood Congregational UCC (ONA)
Pueblo Nuevo de Jesucristo (O)
St. Bede’s Episcopal (O)
St. John’s Episcopal (O)
St. Mary’s Episcopal, Palms (O)
St. Thomas the Apostle (O)
St. James’ Episcopal (O)
Trinity Episcopal (O)
United University (ML, RC)
Westwood Hills Congregational (ONA)
Wilshire UMC (RC)
Los Gatos
First UMC (RC)
Skyland Community (ONA)
Malibu
Malibu UMC (RC)
Marin City
St. Andrews Presbyterian (ML)
Martinez
Martinez UMC (RC)
Milpitas
Sunnyhills UMC (RC)
Modesto
College Avenue Congregational (ONA)
Morgan Hill
Morgan Hill UMC (RC)
Napa
Emmanuel Lutheran (RIC)
Newark
Holy Redeemer Lutheran (RIC)
North Hollywood
St. Matthew’s Lutheran (RIC)
Toluca Lake UMC (RC)
Novato
Faith Community Church (ONA)
Oakland
Beacon Presbyterian Fellowship (ML)
Faith American Lutheran (RIC)
First Congregational (ONA)
First Lutheran (RIC)
Lake Merritt UMC (RC)
Lakeshore Avenue Baptist (W&A)
Lutheran Peace Fellowship (RIC)
Montclair Presbyterian (ML)
Plymouth UCC (ONA)
St. Paul Lutheran (RIC)
Orinda
Orinda Comm. Ch. UCC (ONA)
Palo Alto
Covenant Presbyterian (ML)
First Evangelical Lutheran (RIC)
First Presbyterian (ML)
First UMC of Palo Alto (RC)
St. Andrew’s UMC (RC)
University Lutheran (RIC)
UU Church of Palo Alto (WEL)
Palm Springs
St. Paul in the Desert (INT)
Pasadena
All Saints’ Episcopal (O)
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Neighborhood Church (WEL)
Throop Memorial UU Church (WEL)
Pomona
First Christian Church of Pomona (O&A)
St. Paul’s Episcopal (O)
Portola Valley
Ladera Community Church (ONA)
Rancho Palos Verdes
Pacific Unitarian Church (WEL)
Redondo Beach
St. Paul’s UMC (RC)
Richmond
Grace Lutheran (RIC)
Riverside
First Congregational (ONA)
St. George’s Episcopal (O)
UU Church of Riverside (WEL)
Sacramento
Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer (RIC)
Parkside Community (ONA)
Pioneer Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Unitarian Universalist Society (WEL)
Salinas
Good Shepherd Episcopal (INT)
San Bernardino
First Congregational Church, UCC (ONA)
St. John’s Episcopal (O)
San Bruno
Peace Lutheran (RIC)
San Diego
First Lutheran (RIC)
First Unitarian (WEL)
Pacific Beach UMC (RC)
St. Paul’s Cathedral (INT)
San Diego Mennonite (SCN)
University Christian (O&A)
San Francisco
Bethany UMC (RC)
Calvary UMC (RC)
Christ Church Lutheran (RIC)
Church of the Advent (OAS)
Ch. of the Incarnation (OAS)
Church of St. John the Evangelist (OAS)
City of Refuge (ONA)
Dolores Street Baptist (W&A)
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
First Mennonite Church (SCN)
First St. John’s UMC (RC)
First Unitarian Society (WEL)
First United Lutheran (RIC)
Glide Memorial UMC (RC)
Grace Cathedral (OAS)
Golden Gate Lutheran (RIC)
Hamilton UMC (RC)
Noe Valley Ministry (ML)
Greater Atlanta Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) created
standing committees on race and on women as the need arose, so
when welcoming LGBT people was at issue, a straight ally, the Rev.
Emmett Herndon, recommended the establishment of a Committee on
Inclusion to assist churches in welcoming LGBT people, which he now
chairs. Shown is the committee’s display created by Mickie Williams and
the Rev. Carol Seaton, staffed at every presbytery meeting by Thelma
Castleberry (right), a ubiquitous straight ally, accompanied on this
occasion by Dr. Cynthia Warner (left).
Winter 2002 13
Pine UMC (RC)
Seventh Avenue Presbyterian (ML)
St. Aidan’s Church (OAS)
St. Francis Lutheran (RIC)
St. John the Evangelist Episcopal (OAS)
St. John’s UCC (ONA)
St. Mark’s Lutheran (RIC)
St. Paulus Lutheran (RIC)
Temple UMC (RC)
Trinity Church (OAS)
San Jose
Almaden Hills UMC (RC)
Alum Rock UMC (RC)
Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran (RIC)
1st Cong. Ch. of San Jose UCC (ONA)
First Christian Church (O&A)
New Community of Faith (ONA, W&A)
St. Paul’s UMC (RC)
Trinity Cathedral (INT)
San Leandro
San Leandro Comm. Church (ONA, W&A)
San Mateo
Chalice Christian Church (O&A)
College Heights UCC (ONA)
First Christian (O&A)
UU of San Mateo (WEL)
San Pedro
St. Peter’s Episcopal (O)
San Rafael
Christ in Terra Linda Presb. (ML)
Faith Lutheran (RIC)
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
First UMC (RC)
UU Congregation of Marin (WEL)
Santa Ana
Messiah Episcopal (O)
Santa Barbara
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
La Mesa Community (ONA)
Trinity Episcopal Church (O)
Santa Clarita
St. Stephen’s Episcopal (O)
Santa Cruz
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
First UMC (RC)
Grace UMC (RC)
Santa Monica
The Church in Ocean Park (RC)
St. Augustine-by-the-Sea Episcopal (O)
Santa Rosa
Christ UMC (RC)
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
UU Fellowship of Sonoma Co. (WEL)
Saratoga
Grace UMC (RC)
Sausalito
First Presbyterian (ML)
Sebastopol
Community Church (ONA)
Simi Valley
United Church of Christ (ONA)
Sonoma
First Congregational (ONA)
South Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe UU Fellowship (WEL)
Stockton
Central UMC (RC)
First Christian (O&A)
St. Mark’s UMC (RC)
Studio City
St. Michael and All Angel’s Episcopal (O)
Sunnyvale
Congregational Community (ONA)
Raynor Park Christian (O&A)
St. John’s Lutheran (RIC)
Sunol
Little Brown Church (ONA)
Thousand Oaks
Conejo Valley UU Fellowship (WEL)
Tiburon
Community Congregational (ONA)
Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran (RIC)
Westminster Presbyterian (ML)
Vacaville
St. Paul’s UMC (RC)
Vallejo
Fellowship UMC (RC)
First Christian (O&A)
Ventura
UU Church of Ventura (WEL)
Walnut Creek
Mt. Diablo UU (WEL)
Walnut Creek UMC (RC)
West Covina
Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran (RIC)
West Hollywood
Crescent Heights UMC (RC)
West Hollywood Presbyterian (ML)
Whittier
St. Matthias’ Episcopal (O)
Yucaipa
Faith Lutheran (RIC)
COLORADO
Arvada
Arvada Mennonite (SCN)
Arvada UMC (RC)
Aurora
Parkview Congregational UCC (ONA)
Boulder
Boulder Mennonite (SCN)
Community UCC (ONA)
First Christian (O&A)
First Congregational (ONA)
First UMC (RC)
Mount Calvary Lutheran (RIC)
St. John’s Episcopal (O&I)
UU Church of Boulder (WEL)
Castle Rock
Song of Joy Community (ONA/ncs)
Colorado Springs
All Souls Unitarian (WEL)
First Congregational (ONA)
High Plains UU Church (WEL)
Denver
Capitol Heights Presbyterian (ML)
Fireside Christian (O&A)
First Universalist (WEL)
Our Savior’s Lutheran (RIC)
Park Hill Congregational UCC (ONA)
Sixth Avenue United Church (ONA)
Spirit of Joy Fellowship (SCN)
St. Andrew’s Episcopal (O)
St. Barnabas Episcopal (O)
St. John’s Episcopal (O)
St. Paul Lutherans (RIC)
St. Paul’s UMC (RC)
St. Thomas Episcopal (O)
Warren UMC (RC)
Washington Park UCC (ONA)
Englewood
First Plymouth Cong. UCC (ONA)
Evergreen
Wild Rose UCC (ONA)
Fort Collins
Foothills Unitarian Church (WEL)
Fort Collins Mennonite Fel. (SCN)
St. Thomas Lutheran Chapel (RIC)
Grand Junction
Koinonia Church (SCN, W&A)
Greeley
Family of Christ Presbyterian (ML)
Gunnison
Gunnison Congregational UCC (ONA/ncs)
Lakewood
Lakewood UCC (ONA)
Littleton
Columbine UU Church (WEL)
Longmont
First Cong. UCC (ONA, W&A)
Pueblo
Christ Congregational, UCC (ONA)
UU Church (WEL)
Telluride
Christ Presbyterian (ML)
CONNECTICUT
Bridgeport (Stratford)
UU Church of Greater Bridgeport (WEL)
Cornwall
UCC in Cornwall, Cong. (ONA)
Coventry
Second Congregational (ONA)
Danbury
First Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Ellington
First Lutheran (RIC)
Fairfield
First Church Cong. (ONA)
Glastonbury
First Church of Christ Cong. (ONA)
Guilford
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Hamden
Spring Glen Church, UCC (ONA)
U Society of New Haven (WEL)
Hartford
Central Baptist (W&A)
First Church of Christ, UCC (ONA)
Immanuel Cong., UCC (ONA)
Madison
First Congregational (ONA)
Shoreline UU Society (WEL)
Manchester
UU Society: East (WEL)
Mansfield Center
First Church of Christ Cong. (ONA)
Meriden
UU Church in Meriden (WEL)
Middletown
First Church of Christ Cong. (ONA)
New Haven
Church of Christ in Yale Univ. (ONA)
The Church of the Redeemer, UCC (ONA)
First Church of Christ (ONA)
First & Summerfield UMC (RC)
United Church on the Green (ONA)
Noank
Noank Baptist (W&A)
South Glastonbury
Congregational Church (ONA)
Stamford
St. John Lutheran (RIC)
Storrs
Storrs Congregational (ONA)
Unitarian Fellowship of Storrs (WEL)
Uncasville
Uncasville UMC (RC)
Waterbury
South Congregational (ONA)
St. John’s Church (INT)
West Redding
UU Society of Northern Fairfield Cty (WEL)
Westport
Unitarian Church (WEL)
Windsor
First Church UCC (ONA)
DELAWARE
Newark
New Ark UCC (ONA)
Wilmington
First Unitarian Society of Wilmington
(WEL)
West Presbyterian (ML)
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Washington, D.C.
All Souls Unitarian (WEL)
Augustana Lutheran (RIC)
Church of the Pilgrims (ML)
Christ Lutheran (RIC)
Christ UMC (RC)
Community of Christ Lutheran (RIC)
Dumbarton UMC (RC)
First Congregational (ONA)
First Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
Foundry UMC (RC)
Georgetown Lutheran (RIC)
Grace Lutheran (RIC)
Lutheran Church of the Reformation (RIC)
Luther Place Memorial Lutheran (RIC)
National City Christian Church (O&A)
New York Ave. Presbyterian (ML)
Riverside Baptist (W&A)
Sojourner Truth Cong. UU (WEL)
St. Thomas’ Parish (INT)
St. Paul’s Lutheran (RIC)
Westminster Presbyterian (ML)
FLORIDA
Bradenton
Manatee UU Church (WEL)
Clearwater
UU Church of Clearwater (WEL)
Daytona Beach (Ormond Beach)
UU Society Daytona Beach Area (WEL)
Dunedin
Faith Presbyterian (ML)
Fort Lauderdale
UU Church of Fort Lauderdale (WEL)
Gainesville
United Church (ONA)
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (WEL)
Key West
Holy Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
Lake Helen
First Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Lake Mary
Grace UMC (RC)
Miami Beach
Miami Beach Community (ONA)
Riviera Presbyterian (ML)
St. John’s UMC (RC)
14 Open Hands
North Palm Beach
First Unitarian (WEL)
Orlando
First Unitarian (WEL)
Pinellas Park
Good Samaritan Church (ML, ONA)
St. Petersburg
Lakewood UCC (ONA)
Sunrise
Christ the King Lutheran (RIC)
Tallahassee
St. Stephen Lutheran (RIC)
United Church (ONA)
Tampa
First United Church (ONA)
John Calvin Presbyterian (ML)
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Tavernier
Coral Isles Church, UCC (ONA)
Winter Haven
Trinity Congregational, UCC (ONA)
GEORGIA
Athens
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (WEL)
Atlanta
Clifton Presbyterian (ML)
Ormewood Park Presbyterian (ML)
St. Luke Lutheran (RIC)
Trinity UMC (RC)
UU Congregation of Atlanta (WEL)
Macon
High Street UU Church (WEL)
Marietta
Pilgrimage UCC (ONA)
Savannah
St. Luke Lutheran (RIC)
HAWAI‘I
Honolulu
Calvary By the Sea Lutheran (RIC)
Church of the Crossroads (ONA)
First Christian Church (O&A)
Honolulu Lutheran (RIC)
St. Mark’s Church (INT)
Kalaupapa
Kanaana Hou-Siloama, UCC (ONA)
Pearl City
Trinity UMC (RC)
IDAHO
Boise
First Cong. UCC (ONA)
St. Michael’s Cathedral (INT)
McCall
Community Congregational (ONA)
Pocatellow
Trinity Episcopal (INT)
ILLINOIS
Aurora
Lutheran Church of the Redeemer (RIC)
The N.E. Cong. UCC (ONA)
Bloomington
Unitarian Church of Bloomington (WEL)
Carbondale
Carbondale UU Fellowship (WEL)
Church of the Good Shepherd (ONA)
Champaign
Community UCC (ONA)
McKinley Memorial Presbyterian (ML)
St. Andrew’s Lutheran (RIC)
Chicago
Albany Park UMC (RC)
Augustana Lutheran (RIC)
Berry Memorial UMC (RC)
Broadway UMC (RC)
Christ the King Lutheran (RIC)
Christ the Mediator Lutheran (RIC)
Douglas Park Ch. of the Brethren (SCN)
Ebenezer Lutheran (RIC)
Epiphany UCC (ONA)
Epworth UMC (RC)
First UMC (RC)
First Unitarian Church of Chicago (WEL)
Galewood Community Ch., UCC (ONA)
Grace Baptist (W&A)
Grace UMC (RC)
Holy Covenant UMC (RC)
Holy Trinity Evangelical Lutheran (RIC)
Immanuel Lutheran (RIC)
Irving Park Christian (O&A)
Irving Park UMC (RC)
Lake View Lutheran (RIC)
Lincoln Park Presbyterian (ML)
Nazareth UCC (ONA)
New Hope UMC (RC)
New Light of Christ Lutheran (RIC)
Park View Lutheran (RIC)
Peoples Church (ONA)
Ravenswood UCC (ONA)
Resurrection Lutheran (RIC)
Second Unitarian Church (WEL)
St. James United Presb. (ML)
St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran (RIC)
St. Paul’s UCC (ONA)
Third Unitarian Church (WEL)
Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
United Church of Rogers Park (RC)
University Church (ONA, O&A)
Wellington Avenue UCC (ONA)
Elmhurst
Maywood House Church (RIC)
Decatur
UU Fellowship of Decatur (WEL)
East Peoria
New Church (ONA)
Evanston
Lake Street Church of Evanston (W&A)
Hemenway UMC (RC)
Unitarian Church of Evanston (WEL)
Wheadon UMC (RC)
Hazel Crest
Hazel Crest Community UMC (RC)
Jacksonville
Congregational Church, UCC (ONA)
La Grange
First Congregational (ONA)
Metamora
Christ UCC of Germantown Hills (ONA)
Naperville
Dupage UU Church (WEL)
First Congregational Church (ONA)
Hope UCC (ONA)
Normal
New Covenant Comm. (ML, ONA, O&A)
Northampton
St. John’s Episcopal (INT)
Oak Park
Euclid Avenue UMC (RC)
First United Church (ML, ONA)
Good Shepherd Lutheran (RIC)
Grace Church (INT)
Oak Park Mennonite (SCN)
Pilgrim Church (ONA)
Unity Temple UU Congregation (WEL)
Park Forest
UU Community (WEL)
Rockford
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Schaumburg
Prince of Peace Lutheran (RIC)
Springfield
Abraham Lincoln UU Congregation (WEL)
Streamwood
Immanuel UCC (ONA)
Urbana
UU Church (WEL)
Waukegan
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Wheaton
St. Paul Lutheran (RIC)
Wilmette
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Winfield
Winfield Community UMC (RC)
INDIANA
Bloomington
St. Thomas Lutheran (RIC)
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Fort Wayne
Plymouth Congregational, UCC (ONA)
UU Congregation of Fort Wayne (WEL)
Goshen
Circle of Hope Mennonite Fellowship (SCN)
Greencastle
Gobin Memorial UMC (RC)
Indianapolis
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Northeast UCC (ONA)
Lafayette
Shalom UCC (ONA)
UU Church of Lafayette (WEL)
North Manchester
Manchester Church of the Brethren (SCN)
South Bend
Central UMC (RC)
First Unitarian (WEL)
Southside Christian (O&A)
Valparaiso
Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
West Lafayette
Shalom UCC (ONA)
IOWA
Ames
Ames Mennonite (SCN)
Lord of Life Lutheran (RIC)
UCC Congregational (ONA)
University Lutheran (RIC)
UU Fellowship of Ames (WEL)
Cedar Rapids
Faith UMC (RC)
Peoples Church UU (WEL)
Clinton
Clinton-Camanche, Iowa MFSA (RC)
Davenport
Davenport Unitarian (WEL)
Des Moines
Cottage Grove Avenue Presbyterian (ML)
First Unitarian (WEL)
Plymouth Congregational UCC (ONA)
Trinity UMC (RC)
Urbandale UCC (ONA)
Grinnel
UCC Congregational (ONA)
Indianola
Crossroads, UCC (ONA)
Iowa City
Faith UCC (ONA)
UU Society of Iowa City (WEL)
Red Oak
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Urbandale
Urbandale UCC (ONA)
KANSAS
Kansas City
Rainbow Mennonite (SCN)
Olathe
St. Andrews Christian (O&A)
Topeka
Central Congregational UCC (ONA)
Wichita
First UU Church (WEL)
KENTUCKY
Henderson
Zion UCC (ONA)
Lexington
The UU Church of Lexington (WEL)
Louisville
Calvary Lutheran (RIC)
Central Presbyterian (ML)
First Unitarian (WEL)
Third Lutheran (RIC)
Mount Prospect
Grace and Glory Lutheran (RIC)
Union
High Point Church (ONA)
LOUISIANA
New Orleans
St. Mark’s UMC (RC)
MAINE
Alfred
Alfred Parish Church (ONA)
Bath
UCC, Congregational (ONA)
Camden
John Street UMC (RC)
Cumberland Center
Congregational Church (ONA)
Ellsworth
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Gorham
First Parish Cong. Ch., UCC (ONA)
Mt. Desert
Somesville Union Meeting House (ONA)
Parsonfield
Riverside UMC (RC)
Portland
Woodfords Cong. UCC (ONA)
Rockland
The First Universalist (WEL)
Saco
First Parish Cong. Ch. of Saco (ONA)
Sanford
UU Church (WEL)
South Portland
First Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Waterville
Universalist Unitarian (WEL)
Wilton
First Congregational (ONA)
MARYLAND
Adelphi
Paint Branch UU (WEL)
Annapolis
St. Margaret’s Episcopal (O)
Unitarian Church of Annapolis (WEL)
Winter 2002 15
Baltimore
All Saints Lutheran (RIC)
Brown Memorial Park Ave. Pres. (ML)
Cathedral Church of the Incarnation (INT)
Christ Lutheran (RIC)
Church of the Good Shepherd (O)
Church of the Holy Apostles (O)
Church of the Holy Nativity (O)
Church of the Redeemer (O)
Dundalk Church of the Brethren (SCN)
Epiphany Lutheran (RIC)
First & Franklin Presbyterian (ML)
Grace and St. Peter’s Church (O)
Govans Presbyterian (ML)
Holy Comforter Lutheran (RIC)
St. Andrew’s Episcopal (O)
St. George’s and St. Matthew’s (O)
St. James, Lafayette Square (O)
St. John’s Huntingdon (O)
St. John’s UMC (RC)
St. Margaret’s, Coventry (O)
St. Mark’s Lutheran (RIC)
St. Paul’s Parish (O)
First Unitarian of Baltimore (WEL)
Bethesda
Cedar Lane Unitarian (WEL)
River Road Unitarian (WEL)
Westmoreland Cong. UCC (ONA)
Catonsville
Immanuel UCC (ONA)
Cockeysville
Sherwood Episcopal Church (O)
Columbia
Abiding Savior Lutheran (RIC)
Christ UMC (RC)
Columbia United Christian (O&A)
Columbia United Christian (ONA)
St. John UM-Presbyterian (ML, RC)
UU Congregation (WEL)
Cumberland
Emmanuel Parish (O)
Holy Cross Episcopal Church (O)
Darlington
Deer Creek Parish, Grace Memorial (O)
Davidson
All Hallow’s Parish (O)
Deer Park
St. John’s Church (O)
Essex
Holy Trinity Church (O)
Frederick
St. Timothy’s Church (O)
Gaithersburg
Christ the Servant Lutheran (RIC)
Glencoe
Immanuel Church (O)
Glen Dale
St. George’s Episcopal (INT)
Lanham
Good Samaritan Lutheran (RIC)
Lutherville
Church of the Holy Comforter (O)
Towson UU Church (WEL)
Oakland
St. Matthew’s Church (O)
Odenton
Epiphany Episcopal Church (O)
Prince Frederick
St. Paul’s Parish (O)
Rockville
Rockville Presbyterian (ML)
Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
Unitarian Church of Rockville (WEL)
Silver Spring
Christ Congregational UCC (ONA)
Silver Spring Presbyterian (ML)
UU Church of Silver Spring (WEL)
Street
Holy Cross Church, The Rocks (O)
Takoma Park
Takoma Park Presbyterian (ML)
Timonium
Epiphany Church (O)
Walkersville
The Gathering–A Family of Faith (O)
MASSACHUSETTS
Acton
St. Matthew’s UMC (RC)
Amherst
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Immanuel Lutheran (RIC)
South Congregational (ONA)
Andover
Ballardvale United (ONA, RC)
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Arlington
First Parish UU Church (WEL)
Ashfield
First Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Athol
South Athol UMC (RC)
Auburn
Pakachoag (ONA)
Auburndale
United Parish of Auburndale (ONA, RC)
Barnstable
The Unitarian Church (WEL)
Boston
Arlington Street (WEL)
Church of the Covenant (ML, ONA)
Old South Church (ONA)
Union UMC (RC)
Braintree
All Souls Church (WEL)
Brewster
First Parish (WEL)
Cambridge
First Church, Congregational (ONA)
Harvard-Epworth UMC (RC)
Old Cambridge Baptist (W&A)
University Lutheran (RIC)
Concord
West Concord Union (ONA)
Danvers
Holy Trinity UMC (RC)
Duxbury
First Parish Church, UU (WEL)
Framingham
Edwards Church UCC (ONA)
First Parish in Framingham, UU (WEL)
Grace UCC (ONA)
Franklin
First Universalist Society (WEL)
Greenfield
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Harvard
The Evangelical Cong. Ch., UCC (ONA)
Harwich
First Congregational (ONA)
Hingham
First Parish Old Ship (WEL)
Hingham Congregational (ONA)
Holliston
First Congregational (ONA)
Jamaica Plain
Central Congregational (ONA)
First Church, UU (WEL)
Lexington
Follen Community Church (WEL)
The First Parish Church, UU (WEL)
Lexington UMC (RC)
Lincoln
The First Parish in Lincoln (ONA)
Malden
The First Ch. in Malden (ONA)
Marblehead
St. Stephen’s UMC (RC)
Marshfield
Marshfield UMC (RC)
Medford
UU Church (WEL)
Middleboro
First Unitarian Society (WEL)
Needham
Cong. Church of Needham, UCC (ONA)
First Parish UU (WEL)
Newburyport
Belleville Congregational UCC (ONA)
First Parish Society (WEL)
People’s UMC (RC)
Newton
Eliot Church of Newton, UCC (ONA)
Lutheran Church of the Newtons (RIC)
Newton Highlands
Congregational (ONA)
Northampton
First Baptist Church (W&A)
First Church of Christ (ONA)
Unitarian Society (WEL)
North Easton
Unity Church (UU) (WEL)
Norwell
First Parish Church (WEL)
UCC Congregational (ONA)
Osterville
United Methodist (RC)
Penbroke
First Church in Penbroke (ONA)
Plymouth
First Parish Church (WEL)
Provincetown
Universalist Meeting House (WEL)
Reading
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Salem
Crombie Street UCC (ONA)
First Universalist Society (WEL)
Saugus
East Saugus UMC (RC)
Shrewsbury
Mt. Olivet Lutheran (RIC)
Somerville
Clarenden Hill Presbyterian (ML)
First Cong. of Somerville (ONA)
Mennonite Cong. of Boston (SCN)
South Hadley
UMC of Holyoke, S. Hadley, & Granby
Springfield
First Ch. of Christ Congregational (ONA)
South Cong. Church, UCC (ONA)
UU Society of Greater Springfield (WEL)
Stowe
First Parish Ch. of Stowe & Acton (WEL)
Sudbury
The First Parish (WEL)
Memorial Congregational UCC (ONA)
Waltham
First Presbyterian (ML)
Wayland
First Parish Church, UU (WEL)
Wellesley
Wellesley Congregational (ONA)
UU Society (WEL)
Wendell
Wendell Congregational (ONA)
West Newton
First Unitarian Society (WEL)
Second Church in Newton UCC (ONA)
West Somerville
College Avenue UMC (RC)
Williamstown
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
First UMC (RC)
Winchester
First Congregational (ONA)
The Winchester Unitarian Society (WEL)
Worcester
Bethany Christian (W&A, ONA, O&A)
United Congregational (ONA)
UU Church (WEL)
MICHIGAN
Ann Arbor
Amistad Community Church, UCC (ONA)
Church of the Good Shepherd (ONA)
First UU (WEL)
Lord of Light Lutheran (RIC)
Memorial Christian (O&A)
Northside Presbyterian (ML)
St. Andrew’s Episcopal (OAS)
Bloomfield Hills
Birmingham Unitarian (WEL)
Detroit
Central UMC (RC)
First UU Church (WEL)
Truth Evangelical Lutheran (RIC)
Douglas
Douglas Congregational UCC (ONA)
East Lansing
Edgewood United Church (ONA)
UU of Greater Lansing (WEL)
Ferndale
Zion Lutheran (RIC)
Flint
UU Church of Flint (WEL)
Farmington Hills
UU Church of Farmington
Grand Rapids
Plymouth Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Kalamazoo
Phoenix Community UCC (ONA)
Skyridge Church of the Brethren (SCN)
Lansing
Ecclesia (O&A)
Lansing Church of the Brethren (SCN)
Pilgrim Congregational UCC (ONA)
Livonia
Timothy Lutheran (RIC)
Muskegon
Our Savior Lutheran (RIC)
Port Huron
St. Martin Lutheran (RIC)
Portage Park
Chapel Hill UMC (RC)
16 Open Hands
Southfield
Calvary Lutheran (RIC)
Traverse City
UU Fellowship of Grand Traverse (WEL)
Williamston
Williamston UMC (RC)
Ypsilanti
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
MINNESOTA
Albert Lea
Christ Church Episcopal (O)
Austin
Christ Church Episcopal (O)
Brainerd
First Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Burnsville
Church of the Nativity (O)
Presbyterian Church of the Apostles (ML)
Chatfield
St. Matthew’s Church (O)
Duluth
Gloria Dei (RIC)
Pilgrim Congregational, UCC (ONA)
St. Andrew’s by the Lake (O)
St. Paul’s Episcoapl (O)
Eagan
Ss. Martha and Mary Episcopal (O)
Edina
Edina Community Lutheran (RIC)
Good Samaritan UMC (RC)
Falcon Heights
Falcon Heights UCC (ONA)
Frontenac
Christ Church Episcopal (O)
Hibbing
St. James’ Episcopal (O)
Lake Park
Houglum Lutheran (RIC)
Little Falls
The Church of Our Saviour (O)
Madison
Parkside Presby. Church (ML)
Mahtomedi
White Bear UU (WEL)
Mankato
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
St. John’s Church (O)
Maple Grove
Pilgrims United (ONA)
Marshall
St. James’ Church (O)
Minneapolis
Bethany Lutheran (RIC)
Bryn Mawr Presbyterian (ML)
Cathedral Church of St. Mark (O)
The Church of Gethsemane (O)
Christ the Redeemer Lutheran (RIC)
First Congregational (ONA)
First Unitarian Society (WEL)
First Universalist (WEL)
Grace University Lutheran (RIC)
Hennepin Avenue UMC (RC)
Hobart UMC (RC)
Holy Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
Judson Memorial Baptist (W&A)
Linden Hills Cong., UCC (ONA)
Lyndale UCC (ONA)
Lynnhurst Congregational (ONA)
Mayflower Community Cong. UCC (ONA)
Minnehaha UCC (ONA)
Mt. Olive Lutheran (RIC)
Our Savior’s Lutheran (RIC)
Parkway UCC (ONA)
Praxis (RC)
Prospect Park UMC (RC)
Spirit of the Lakes (ONA)
St. Andrew’s Lutheran (RIC)
St. James’ on the Parkway (O)
St. John the Baptist Episcopal (O)
St. Luke’s Parish (O)
St. Matthew’s Church (O)
St. Paul’s Parish (O)
St. Pede Lutheran (RIC)
The Parish of Holy Trinity & St. Ansgar (O)
University Baptist (W&A)
Univ. Lutheran Church of Hope (RIC)
Walker Community (RC)
Wesley UMC (RC)
Zion Lutheran (RIC)
Minnetonka
St. David’s Church (O)
New Brighton
United Church of Christ (ONA)
New Ulm
St. Peter’s Church (O)
Northfield
All Saints’ Church (O)
First UCC (ONA)
Onamia
Onamia UMC (RC)
Prairie Island
Church of the Messiah (O)
Red Wing
Christ Church (O)
St. Paul Lutheran (RIC)
Richfield
St. Nicholas’ Church
Robbinsdale
Robbinsdale UCC (ONA)
Roseville
St. Christopher’s Church (O)
Sauk Center
The Church of the Good Samaritan (O)
The Living Waters (O)
Shoreview
Peace UMC (RC)
St. Cloud
St. Cloud UU Fellwoship (WEL)
St. John’s Episcopal Church (O)
Univ. Lutheran of the Epiphany (RIC)
St. Paul
Ascension Church (O)
Cherokee Park United (ML, ONA)
The Church of St. Paul on the Hill & La
Mision El (O)
Dayton Avenue Presbyterian (ML)
Gloria Dei Lutheran (RIC)
Hamline UMC (RC)
Macalester-Plymouth United (ML, ONA)
St. Anthony Park UCC
St. Clement’s Church (O)
St. John the Evangelist (O)
St. Luke Lutheran (RIC)
St. Mary’s Church (O)
St. Paul Mennonite Fellowship (SCN)
St. Paul’s UCC (ONA)
St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran (RIC)
Shapiing Sancttuarry
Proclaiming God’s Grace
in an Inclusive Church
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Order from your denominational Welcoming organization
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A collection of essays, sermons,
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Claiming
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▼ Examines biblical references to
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Winter 2002 17
Stillwater
The Church of the Ascension (O)
Sunfish Lake
St. Anne’s Church (O)
Wabasha
Grace Memorial Church (O)
Waseca
Trinity Episcopal (O)
Wayzatta
St. Luke Presbyterian (ML)
White Bear Lake
St. John in the Wilderness (O)
MISSISSIPPI
Meridian
Church of the Mediator (INT)
MISSOURI
Columbia
Rock Bridge Christian (O&A)
Kansas City
Abiding Peace Lutheran (RIC)
All Souls Unitarian (WEL)
Country Club Congregational (ONA)
Epworth Roanoke UMC (RC)
Fountain of Hope Lutheran (RIC)
Kairos UMC (RC)
Spirit of Life Community (RIC)
St. James Lutheran (RIC)
St. Mark’s Lutheran (RIC)
Trinity UMC (RC)
Van Brunt Blvd. Presbyterian (ML)
St. Louis
Centenary UMC (RC)
Compton Heights Christian (O&A)
Epiphany (ONA)
Evangelical UCC (ONA)
Gibson Heights United (ML)
Lafayette Park UMC (RC)
St. Marcus Evangelical UCC (ONA)
Tyler Place Presbyterian (ML)
University City
Bethel Lutheran (RIC)
MONTANA
Billings
Billings UU Fellowship (WEL)
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Mayflower Cong. UCC (ONA)
Bozeman
UU Fellowship of Bozeman (WEL)
Butte
United Congregational Church (ONA)
Helena
Big Sky UU Fellowship (WEL)
Kalispell
Flathead Valley UCC (ONA)
Glacier UU Fellowship (WEL)
Missoula
University Congregational UCC (ONA)
UU Fellowship of Missoula (WEL)
NEBRASKA
Lincoln
St. Mark’s on the Campus (INT)
Unitarian Church (WEL)
Omaha
First Lutheran (RIC)
First UMC (RC)
Reconciling Worship Community (RC)
NEVADA
Las Vegas
Northwest Community, UCC (ONA/ncs)
UU Congregation of Las Vegas (WEL)
Reno
UU Fellowship of Northern Nevada (WEL)
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Chocura
UU Fell. of the Eastern Slopes (WEL)
Concord
South Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Exeter
Congregational (ONA)
Hanover
Church of Christ at Dartmouth (ONA)
Our Savior Lutheran (RIC)
Jaffrey
United Church (ONA)
Laconia
UU Society of Laconia (WEL)
Meridan
Meridan Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Milford
Unitarian Universalist Congregation (WEL)
Nashua
UU Church (WEL)
Pelham
First Congregational (ONA)
Plymouth
Plymouth Congregational (ONA)
Starr King UU Fellowship (WEL)
Sanbornton
Sanbornton Congregational UCC (ONA)
NEW JERSEY
Asbury Park
Trinity Episcopal Church (INT)
Belleville
Christ Church Episcopal (OAS)
Belvedere
St. Mary’s Episcopal (OAS)
Bloomfield
Christ Episcopal (OAS)
Boonton
St. John’s Episcopal (OAS)
Chatham
St. Paul’s Episcopal (OAS)
Cherry Hill
UU Church (WEL)
Chester
Church of the Messiah Episcopal (OAS)
Clifton
St. Peter’s Episcopal (OAS)
Closter
First Cong. Ch. UCC (ONA)
Denville
Church of Our Saviour Episcopal (OAS)
East Brunswick
East Brunswick Cong. UCC (ONA)
Englewood
St. Paul’s Episcopal (OAS)
Fort Lee
Church of the Good Shepherd (OAS)
Hackensack
Christ Episcopal (OAS)
Hackettstown
St. James’ Episcopal (OAS)
Harrington Park
St. Andrew’s Episcopal (OAS)
Hasbrouck Heights
Church of St. John the Divine (OAS)
Haworth
St. Luke’s Episcopal (OAS)
Hawthorne
St. Clement’s Episcopal (OAS)
Hoboken
All Saints Parish (OAS)
Jersey City
Grace Lutheran (RIC)
Grace Van Vorst Episcopal (OAS)
St. Paul’s Episcopal (OAS)
Kearny
First Lutheran (RIC)
Trinity Episcopal (OAS)
Leonia
All Saints Episcopal (OAS)
Lincoln Park
St. Andrews Episcopal (OAS)
Lincroft
First Unitarian of Monmouth Cty (WEL)
Madison
Grace Episcopal (OAS)
Maplewood
St. George’s Episcopal (OAS)
Mendham
St. Mark’s Episcopal (OAS)
Middletown
Old First Church (ONA)
Millburn
St. Stephen’s Episcopal (OAS)
Montclair
St. John’s Episcopal (OAS)
St. Luke’s Episcopal (OAS)
Unitarian (WEL)
Montvale
St. Paul’s Episcopal (OAS)
Morristown
Church of the Redeemer (OAS)
St. Peter’s Episcopal (OAS)
Unitarian Fellowship (WEL)
Mt. Arlington
St. Peter’s Episcopal (OAS)
Neptune
Redeemer Lutheran (RIC)
New Brunswick
Emanuel Lutheran (RIC)
Newark
Cathedral of Trinity and St. Philip (OAS)
Grace Episcopal (OAS)
Norwood
Church of the Holy Communion (OAS)
Nutley
Grace Church (O)
Oakland
St. Alban’s Episcopal (OAS)
Paramus
Central Unitarian Church (WEL)
Parsippany
St. Andrew Lutheran (RIC)
St. Gregory’s Episcopal (OAS)
Passaic
St. John’s Episcopal (OAS)
Paterson
St. Paul’s Episcopal (OAS)
Plainfield
First Unitarian Society (WEL)
Pompton Lakes
Christ Church (OAS)
Princeton
Christ Congregation (ONA, W&A)
Ramsey
St. John’s Episcopal (OAS)
Ridgewood
Christ Episcopal (OAS)
The Unitarian Society of Ridgewood (WEL)
Rutherford
Rutherford UMC (RC)
Short Hills
Christ Episcopal (OAS)
South Orange
First Presbyterian & Trinity (ML)
Sparta
St. Mary’s Episcopal (OAS)
Summit
Calvary Episcopal (OAS)
Christ Church (ONA)
Teaneck
St. Mark’s Episcopal (OAS)
Tenafly
Church of the Atonement (OAS)
Towaco
Church of the Transfiguration (OAS)
Titusville
UU of Washington Crossing (WEL)
Union City
St. John’s Episcopal (OAS)
Upper Montclair
St. James’ Episcopal (OAS)
Union Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Verona
Holy Spirit Episcopal (OAS)
Wantage
Good Shepherd Episcopal (OAS)
NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque
First Congregational, UCC (ONA)
First Unitarian (WEL)
St. Michael & All Angels (INT)
St. Thomas of Canterbury (INT)
Santa Fe
Christ Lutheran (RIC)
First Christian Church (O&A)
St. Bede’s Episcopal (OAS)
Unitarian Church (WEL)
United Church (ONA)
NEW YORK
Albany
Emmanuel Baptist (W&A)
First Presbyterian (ML)
First UU Society of Albany (WEL)
Bay Shore
St. Peter’s Church (INT)
Binghamton
Centenary-Chenango Street UMC (RC)
UU Congregation (WEL)
Blooming Grove
Blooming Grove UCC (ONA)
Brookhaven
Old South Haven Presbyterian (ML)
Brooklyn
All Souls Bethlehem (O&A, ONA)
Church of Gethsemane (ML)
First Unitarian Cong. Society (WEL)
King’s Highway UMC (RC)
Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian (ML)
Park Slope UMC (RC)
St. Jn-St. Matt-Emmanuel Luth. (RIC)
Bronx
Transfiguration Lutheran (RIC)
Buffalo
Westminster Presbyterian (ML)
Canandaigua
UU Church of Canandaigua (WEL)
Canton
The UU Church (WEL)
Churchville
Union Congregational (ONA)
Copake
Craryville UMC (RC)
Cortland
United Community Church (W&A, ONA)
Dobbs Ferry
South Presbyterian (ML)
18 Open Hands
Elmira
The Park Church (ONA)
Fairport
Mountain Rise UCC (ONA)
Gloversville
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Grand Island
Riverside Salem (ONA)
Henrietta
John Calvin Presbyterian (ML)
Huntington
UU Fellowship (WEL)
Ithaca
First Baptist (W&A)
First Baptist Church (W&A)
St. Paul’s UMC (RC)
Manhasset
UU Congregation at Shelter Rock
Marcellus
First Presbyterian (ML)
Merrick
Community Presbyterian (ML)
Mt. Kisco
Mt. Kisco Presbyterian (ML)
UU Fell. of Northern Westchester (WEL)
Mt. Sinai
Mt. Sinai Congregational UCC (ONA)
New Rochelle
Christ UMC (RC)
New York City
Broadway UCC (ONA)
Central Presbyterian (ML)
Church of the Holy Apostles (OAS)
The Community Church of NY, UU (WEL)
Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian (ML)
Grace & St. Paul’s Lutheran (RIC)
Holy Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
Jan Hus Presbyterian (ML)
Judson Memorial (ONA, W&A)
Madison Avenue Baptist (W&A)
Metropolitan-Duane UMC (RC)
Our Savior’s Atonement Lutheran (RIC)
Park Avenue Christian (O&A)
Riverside (ONA, W&A)
Rutgers Presbyterian (ML)
St. Paul & St. Andrew UMC (RC)
St. Peter’s Lutheran (RIC)
Trinity Lutheran Church/9th St. (RIC)
Trinity Lutheran Church/100th St. (RIC)
Trinity Presbyterian (ML)
Unitarian Ch. of All Souls (WEL)
Washington Square UMC (RC)
West-Park Presbyterian (ML)
Norwich
First Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Oneonta
First UMC (RC)
UU Society (WEL)
Palisades
Palisades Presbyterian (ML)
Plattsburgh
Plattsburgh UMC (RC)
Poughkeepsie
Unitarian Fellowship (WEL)
Richmondtown (Staten Island)
The Church of St. Andrew (INT)
Riverhead
First Congregational (ONA)
Rochester
Calvary-St. Andrews (ML)
Ch. of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene (INT)
Downtown United Presbyterian (ML)
First Unitarian (WEL)
First Universalist of Rochester (WEL)
Lake Avenue Baptist (W&A)
Third Presbyterian (ML)
Westminster Presbyterian (ML)
Saratoga Springs
Presb.-New Eng. Cong. (ML, ONA)
Saratoga Springs UMC (RC)
Sayville
Sayville Congregational UCC (ONA)
Schenectady
Emmanuel Bapt.–Friedens UCC (ONA, W&A)
First UMC (RC)
First Unitarian (WEL)
Sea Cliff
UMC of Sea Cliff (RC)
Slatehill
Grace UMC of Ridgebury (RC)
Slingerlands
Community UMC (RC)
Snyder
Amherst Community (ONA, O&A)
Staten Island
Atonement Lutheran (RIC)
Syosset
The Community Church (ONA)
Syracuse
First UU Society of Syracuse (WEL)
May Memorial UU Society (WEL)
Plymouth Congregational UCC (ONA)
Troy
First United Presbyterian (ML)
Utica
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
White Plains
St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal (INT)
Williamsville
UU of Amherst (WEL)
Yorktown Heights
First Presbyterian (ML)
NORTH CAROLINA
Asheville
UU Church of Asheville (WEL)
Chapel Hill
Church of the Reconciliation (ML)
Olin T. Binkley Memorial Baptist (W&A)
United Church (ONA)
Charlotte
Holy Covenant UCC (ONA)
Holy Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
UU Church of Charlotte (WEL)
Durham
Eno River UU Fellowship (WEL)
Pilgrim UCC (ONA)
Greensboro
UU Church of Greensboro
Hillsborough
Hillsborough UCC (ONA)
Raleigh
Community UCC (ONA)
North Raleigh United Church (ONA/ncs)
Pullen Memorial Baptist (W&A)
UU Fellowship of Raleigh
Wilmington
Church of the Servant (INT)
UU Fellowship (WEL)
Winston-Salem
Parkway UCC (ONA)
UU Fellowship (WEL)
NORTH DAKOTA
Fargo
Fargo-Moorhead UU Church (WEL)
St. Mark’s Lutheran (RIC)
OHIO
Akron
UU Church of Akron (WEL)
Brecksville
United Church of Christ (ONA)
Chesterland
Community Church (ONA)
Chillicothe
Orchard Hill UCC (ONA)
Cincinnati
Church of Our Savior (INT)
Clifton UMC (RC)
Mt. Auburn Presbyterian (ML)
Saint John’s Unitarian Church (WEL)
Cleveland
Archwood UCC (ONA)
Euclid Ave. Congregational UCC (ONA)
Pilgrim Congregational UCC (ONA)
Simpson UMC (RC)
Trinity Cathedral (INT)
Trinity UCC (ONA)
UU of Cleveland (Cleveland Hts) (WEL)
West Shore UU (WEL)
Zion UCC (ONA)
Cleveland Heights
Church of the Redeemer (RC)
Hope Lutheran (RIC)
Noble Road Presbyterian (ML)
Columbus
Calvary Lutheran (RIC)
First English Lutheran (RIC)
First Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
North Congregational UCC (ONA)
Redeemer Lutheran (RIC)
St. Mark Lutheran (RIC)
Dayton
Congregation for Reconciliation (ONA)
Cross Creek Community (ONA)
Faith UCC (ONA)
Miami Valley Unitarian Fellowship (WEL)
Delaware
Delaware UU Fellowship (WEL)
Granville
First Baptist (W&A)
Lakewood
Cove UMC (RC)
Liberation UCC (ONA)
Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
Lorain
First Cong. Church, UCC (ONA)
Marietta
First UU Church (WEL)
Norton
Grace UCC (ONA)
Oberlin
First Church in Oberlin (ONA)
Sandusky
UU Fellowship of Erie Cty (WEL)
Shaker Heights
First Unitarian of Cleveland (WEL)
Sheffield Lake
United Church of Christ (ONA)
Strongsville
Southwest UU Church (WEL)
Toledo
Central UMC (RC)
St. Lucas Lutheran (RIC)
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma City
Church of the Open Arms, UCC (ONA)
Epworth UMC (RC)
First Unitarian Church of Okla.City (WEL)
Mayflower Cong. Ch., UCC (ONA)
St. Andrew’s Presbyterian (ML)
Tulsa
College Hill Presbyterian (ML)
Community of Hope, UCC (ONA)
Community UU Congregation (WEL)
Fellowship Congregational, UCC (ONA)
OREGON
Ashland
The Rogue Valley UU Fellowship (WEL)
United Church of Christ, Cong. (ONA)
Beavercreek
Beavercreek UCC (ONA)
Beaverton
Southminster Presbyterian (ML)
Bend
First Presbyterian (ML)
UU Fellowship of Central Oregon (WEL)
Corvallis
First Congregational Church (ONA)
First UMC (RC)
Grace Lutheran (RIC)
Estacada
Estacada UMC (RC)
Eugene
First Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Unitarian of Eugene & Lane Co. (WEL)
Forest Grove
Forest Grove UCC (ONA)
Gresham
Eastrose Fellowship UU (WEL)
Zion UCC (ONA)
Hillsboro
First Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Hubbard
Hubbard UCC (ONA)
Klamath Falls
Klamath Falls Cong. UCC (ONA)
Lake Oswego
Lake Oswego UCC (ONA)
Milwaukie
Clackamus UCC (ONA)
Kairos-Milwaukie UCC (ONA)
Portland
Ainsworth UCC (ONA)
Bridgeport Community Church (ONA/ncs)
First Congregational (ONA)
First UMC (RC)
Metanoia Peace Community (RC)
Peace Church of the Brethren (SCN)
St. James Lutheran (RIC)
St. Mark Presbyterian (ML)
Trinity Cathedral (INT)
University Park UMC (RC)
Waverly Heights Cong., UCC (ONA)
Salem
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
First Unitarian Society (WEL)
Morningside UMC (RC)
Springfield
Church of the Brethren (SCN)
Wilsonvillle
Meridian UCC (ONA)
Winter 2002 19
PENNSYLVANIA
Allentown
Muhlenberg College Chapel (RIC)
St. John Lutheran (RIC)
Bethlehem
Trinity Episcopal (INT)
Devon
Main Line Unitarian (WEL)
Drexel Hill
Collenbrook United Church (ONA)
Drexel Hill UMC (RC)
Harrisburg
Unitarian Church (WEL)
Lansdale
Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
Levittown
United Christian Church (O&A, ONA)
Lewisburg
Beaver Memorial UMC (RC)
Norristown
Olivet-Schwenkfelder UCC (ONA)
Philadelphia
Calvary UMC (RC)
First UMC of Germantown (RC)
Germantown Mennonite Church (SCN)
Holy Communion Lutheran (RIC)
Holy Trinity Church (INT)
Old First Reformed (ONA)
St. Michael’s Lutheran (RIC)
Tabernacle United (ML, ONA)
Unitarian Society of Germantown (WEL)
Univ. Lutheran of the Incarnation (RIC)
Pittsburgh
First Unitarian (WEL)
Sixth Presbyterian (ML)
St. Andrew Lutheran (RIC)
Reading
Trinity Lutheran (RIC)
State College
Univ. Baptist & Brethren (SCN, W&A)
Smithton
Thomas UU Church (WEL)
State College
UU Fellowship of Centre County (WEL)
Upper Darby
Christ Lutheran (RIC)
Wayne
Central Baptist (W&A)
York
UU Congregation of York (WEL)
RHODE ISLAND
East Greenwich
Westminster Unitarian (WEL)
Newport
Newport Congregational (ONA)
North Providence
St. James Church
Pawtucket
Park Place Cong. UCC (ONA)
Providence
Beneficent Cong. Church (ONA)
Mathewson Street UMC (RC)
SOUTH CAROLINA
Charleston
Circular Congregational (ONA)
Columbia
Gethsemane Lutheran (RIC)
SOUTH DAKOTA
Erwin
Erwin UCC (ONA)
TENNESSEE
Chattanooga
Christ Church–Episcopal (INT)
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Knoxville
Ch.of St. Michael and All Angels (INT)
Tennessee Valley UU (WEL)
Memphis
Calvary Church (INT)
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Nashville
Brookmeade Congregational UCC (ONA)
Edgehill UMC (RC)
First UU Church (WEL)
Hobson UMC (RC)
St. David’s Episcopal (INT)
TEXAS
Austin
First English Lutheran (RIC)
First UU Church (WEL)
St. Andrews Presbyterian (ML)
St. George’s Episcopal Church (O)
Trinity UMC (RC)
College Station
Friends Congregational (ONA)
St. Francis’ Episcopal Church (O)
UU Fellowship of Brazos Valley (WEL)
Corpus Christi
St. Paul UCC (ONA)
Dallas
Bethany Presbyterian (ML)
First Community Church (ONA)
First Unitarian (WEL)
Midway Hills Christian (O&A)
Northaven UMC (RC)
El Paso
St. Timothy Lutheran (RIC)
Fort Worth
Angel of Hope Christian Church (O&A)
St. Matthew’s Lutheran (RIC)
Garland
Ascension Lutheran (RIC)
Houston
Bering Memorial UMC (RC)
Comm. of the Reconciling Servant (ML)
Community of the Servant-Savior (ML)
Covenant Baptist (W&A)
Faith Covenant (ML, ONA)
First Congregational (ONA)
First UU Church of Houston (WEL)
Grace Evangelical Lutheran (RIC)
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church (O)
Lubbock
St. John’s UMC (RC)
Mesquite
St. Stephen UMC (RC)
Plano
Community UU Church (WEL)
San Antonio
Spirit of Life (RIC)
UTAH
Midvale
St. James Episcopal (INT)
Ogden
UU Church of Ogden (WEL)
Salt Lake City
All Saints Church (INT)
First Unitarian Church (WEL)
Holladay UCC (ONA)
Mount Tabor Lutheran (RIC)
South Valley UU Society (WEL)
VERMONT
Bennington
Second Congregational (ONA)
Burlington
Christ Presbyterian (ML)
College Street Congregational (ONA)
First UU Society of Burlington (WEL)
Middlebury
Champlain Valley UU Society (WEL)
Congregational UCC (ONA)
Putney
United Church (ONA)
Rutland
Rutland UMC (RC)
Saxton’s River
Christ’s Church (ONA)
Thetford
First Congregational Church (ONA)
Westminster West
Congregational Church (ONA)
VIRGINIA
Alexandria
Hope UCC (ONA)
Mount Vernon Unitarian (WEL)
Peace Lutheran (RIC)
Annandale
Little River UCC (ONA)
Arlington
Clarendon Presbyterian (ML)
Rock Spring Cong. UCC (ONA)
Unitarian Church (WEL)
Burke
Accotink UU Church
Centreville
Wellspring UCC (ONA)
Charlottesville
Sojourners UCC (ONA)
Harrisonburg
Sanctuary UCC (ONA)
Manassas
Bull Run UU (WEL)
Oakton
A Prayer for Gay People
in the Church
Malcolm Boyd
We stand inside your church, Jesus. Long ago we realized
that we must regard the lilies of the field, putting our
trust in you.
Pressured to hide our identities and gifts, we serve you with
an unyielding love.
Taught that we should feel self-loathing, nevertheless we
look into your face and laugh with grateful joy, Jesus.
Victims of a long and bitter persecution, we assert an unshakable
faith in your holy justice.
Our “sin” and “damnation” were drummed into us as thoroughly
as if we were mere sheet metal. We were carefully
taught to apologize for our creation, although it was
in your image.
We learned what it means to be misunderstood, perceived
as alien, even sometimes demonized and hated. We also
know your grace and love as our savior.
We thank you for sharing human life with us, dying for us
on the cross, and blessing us with holy baptism and holy
eucharist.
We are alive and well and stand inside your church, Jesus.
Bless us to your continued service. Amen.
Malcolm Boyd, an Episcopal priest
since 1955, is the author of Gay Priest and
Take Off the Masks. Augsburg Fortress
Press has recently published his Running
With Jesus: The Prayers of Malcolm Boyd.
20 Open Hands
I was a teenage homophobe. But like Michael Landon’s
teenage werewolf before me, I became, in time, utterly
“transformed.” Indeed, I performed an about-face on
the morality of sexual orientation before my teen years
ended—all by the grace of God.
This story begins in the mid-1960s, when my parents
enrolled me in kindergarten a year early. I’d tested bright
enough, so in I went. No one had bothered, however, to test
for social maturity: my classmates had far more interactive
experience than I did, and it showed. In addition, though
I’m just shy of 6’3” today, back then—as an almost-fouryear-
old amongst almost-five-year-olds—I was the shortest
kid in class. As a small, smart, socially awkward boy, I was
taunted and teased, bullied and berated. I went on to spend
the entirety of my childhood with the self-same set of
classmates, all the way through high school graduation. If
there was a silver lining to the abuse I endured, I suppose it
lay in my developing in the process an empathy for victims,
an intolerance for intolerance—and a hunger for justice.
My budding progressivism, however, had its limits. I
remember walking home from high school one day with my
classmate, Carol, and her older sister, Janet, and shaking my
head at their “crazy talk”—namely, that “the world would be
a better place if everyone were bisexual.” In retrospect, these
two teenage girls spoke with a prophetic voice: one that I, as
yet, was unready to hear.
By my freshman year of college in 1980 (my chance, at
last, to fly the coop and reinvent myself amongst new
people) progressivism was embedded in my very soul. Four
years earlier, at 14, I had volunteered for the presidential
campaign of environmentalist Congressman Mo Udall, and
now I was campus rep for the Carter-Mondale re-election
effort. I was pro-feminist, pro-workers’ rights and an
outspoken critic of racism wherever I found it. Yet I still
believed that homosexuality was wrong. God help me, I
laughed at and even told the occasional anti-gay joke. The
contradiction inherent in my so doing was lost on me.
In discussions with Craig and Ken, a pair of other
(indeed, more-) liberal-minded dorm-mates who, like Carol
and Janet before, took it upon themselves to challenge my
prejudice, I opined that same-sex romance was “unnatural,”
as evidenced by the fact that it didn’t lead to reproduction.
“Man,” Craig would say, “that’s some bad ideology.”
(Though in retrospect, my stance may have been based
primarily in a frustrated virgin’s envy toward anyone who
was, in fact, getting some.)
One day toward the end of the school year, I was alone in
my room, studying the final chapter of my psychopathology
text book. The American Psychiatric Association, I read, had
overturned its prior categorization of homosexuality as a
mental illness and now described it as a viable alternate
“lifestyle.” I found this fact interesting, though not earthshattering.
No, what got my attention was the black-andwhite
photo accompanying that section. I can see it as
clearly today, in my mind’s eye, as I saw it then before me:
two middle-aged men, each with an arm around the other’s
shoulder, staring directly into the camera with eyes that
bespoke a lifetime of oppression—and an absolute determination,
in spite of it all, to be who they were.
It was a kairos moment. The Divine spoke to me through
the men in that picture, and the message was a question:
“Well, Paul. Who’s the bully now?”
Or in other words, words once posed of another Paul:
“Why do you persecute me?”
I sat there transfixed, equal parts moved and ashamed.
Then, finally, I felt grateful. After a while I got up and
walked over to the room across the hall. “Hey, Craig,” I said.
“About all that ‘gay stuff’ you and Ken and me were
discussing? Um. . .you were right. I was wrong. Thanks.”
They say there’s nothing like the faith of a convert. And
indeed, for 22 years now, the struggle for Queer inclusion
has been a core component of—and an enriching, inspiring
force within—this straight man’s life. I’d like to take this
opportunity to thank Craig and Ken for their well-timed
challenge, as well as to let Carol and Janet know that the
protagonist of my first novel, to be published later this year,
is a bisexual woman who shares their views! While I’m at it,
perhaps I should try to track down the men in that photo,
or their families, and let them know the impact their mere
image had on one teenage boy: a boy whose friends had laid
the foundation for growth, and whose God then provided it.
Paul McComas, here wearing a second-
hand U.S. Border Patrol jacket,
“crossed the border” into inclusion in
1980, the year this picture was taken.
Paul is a writing instructor whose
short-story book, Twenty Questions
(1998, Fithian Press), is in its
second printing and whose novel, Unplugged—
excerpted twice in Open
Hands—will be published by John
Daniel & Company this September.
Paul and his wife Chris, a student at
Garrett Evangelical Theological
Seminary, are members of Wheadon
UMC, a Reconciling congregation in Evanston, Illinois. Paul recently
joined the editorial board of Open Hands.
My Turning Point
Paul McComas
We welcome 800-word submissions to “My Turning Point,” a regular feature of Open Hands
told in first person about how you changed your mind about lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender
people. Please include a snapshot of yourself and a brief self-description.
Winter 2002 21
Fairfax Unitarian (WEL)
Reston
Washington Plaza Baptist (W&A)
Roanoke
Unitarian Universalist (WEL)
Virginia Beach
Christian Church Uniting (ONA, SCN)
Winchester
UU of the Shenandoah Valley (WEL)
WASHINGTON
Bellevue
Eastgate Congregational UCC (ONA)
First Congregational, UCC (ONA)
First UMC (RC)
Bellingham
First Cong. of Bellingham (ONA)
Bremerton
Kitsap UU Fellowship (WEL)
Carnation
Tolt Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Chelan
Fullness of God Lutheran (RIC)
Chewelah
Chewelah UCC (ONA)
Edmonds
Edmonds UU (WEL)
Ellensburg
First UMC (RC)
Everett
First Congregational (ONA)
Federal Way
Wayside UCC (ONA)
Kirkland
Holy Spirit Lutheran (RIC)
Kirkland Congregational, UCC (ONA)
Leavenworth
Faith Lutheran (RIC)
Marysville
Evergreen UU Fellowship (WEL)
Medical Lake
Shalom UCC (ONA)
Mountlake Terrace
Terrace View Presbyterian (ML)
Olympia
Comm. for Interfaith Celebration (ONA)
Olympia UU Congregation (WEL)
Pullman
Community Congregational UCC (ONA)
Reston
Washington Plaza Baptist (W&A)
Richland
Shalom UCC (ONA)
Sammamish
Sammamish Cong. UCC (ONA)
Seattle
Alki Cong. UCC (ONA)
Bethany UCC (ONA/ncs)
Broadview Community UCC (ONA)
Central Lutheran (RIC)
Fauntleroy UCC (ONA)
Findlay Street Christian (O&A)
First Baptist (W&A)
First Christian Church of Seattle (O&A)
Gethsemane Lutheran (RIC)
Gift of Grace Lutheran (RIC)
Immanuel Lutheran (RIC)
Keystone Cong. UCC (ONA)
Magnolia UCC (ONA)
Normandy Park Cong. UCC (ONA)
Pilgrim Congregational (ONA)
Plymouth Congregational (ONA)
Prospect UCC Cong. (ONA)
Ravenna UMC (RC)
Richmond Beach Cong. UCC (ONA)
Trinity UMC (RC)
St. Paul’s UCC (ONA)
University Baptist (W&A)
University Christian (O&A)
University Congregational (ONA)
University Temple UMC (RC)
Wallingford UMC (RC)
Spokane
Unitarian Church (WEL)
Suquamish
Community Congregational (ONA)
Tacoma
First UMC of Tacoma (RC)
Resurrection Lutheran (RIC)
Vancouver
East Vancouver UMC (RC)
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
Walla Walla
First Congregational Church
White Salmon
Bethel Cong., UCC (ONA)
Woodinville
Northshore UCC
WEST VIRGINIA
Huntington
First Congregational (ONA)
Morgantown
UU Fellowship of Morgantown (WEL)
Wheeling
UU Congregation (WEL)
WISCONSIN
Brown Deer
Brown Deer UCC (ONA)
Delavan
Delavan UMC (RC)
Eau Claire
University Lutheran (RIC)
Green Bay
Union Cong. UCC (ONA)
Kenosha
Bradford Comm. Church UU (WEL)
Madison
Advent Lutheran (RIC)
Community of Hope UCC (ONA)
First Baptist (W&A)
First Congregational UCC (ONA)
First Unitarian Society (WEL)
James Reeb UU Congregation (WEL)
Lake Edge Lutheran (RIC)
Lake Edge UCC (ONA)
Orchard Ridge UCC (ONA)
Prairie UU Society
Plymouth Congregational UCC (ONA)
St. Francis House (INT)
University UMC (RC)
Milwaukee
Broken Walls Christian Comm. (W&A)
Cross Lutheran (RIC)
Incarnation Lutheran (RIC)
Lake Park Lutheran (RIC)
Pentecost Lutheran (RIC)
Plymouth UCC (ONA)
Reformation Lutheran (RIC)
St. Paul’s Lutheran (RIC)
Village Church, Lutheran (RIC)
Racine
Olympia Brown UU Church (WEL)
Our Savior’s Lutheran (RIC)
Sheboygan
Wesley UMC (RC)
Sturgeon Bay
Hope UCC (ONA)
Waukesha
Christ the Servant Lutheran (RIC)
Maple Avenue Mennonite (SCN)
Wauwatosa
Mt. Zion Lutheran (RIC)
CAMPUS MINISTRIES
LCM, LSC, LSM=Lutheran Campus Ministry,
Student Center, Student Movement
UCM=United Campus Ministry
UMSF=United Methodist Student Fellowship
CANADA
MANITOBA
Univ. Of Manitoba, Winnipeg (AM)
SASKATCHEWAN
LSC, LSM, Saskatoon (RIC)
UNITED STATES
ARKANSAS
St. Martin’s Ctr, Fayetteville (INT)
CALIFORNIA
BRIM. Berkeley (O&A)
Cal-Aggie Christian House, UC-Davis (RC)
UCM, UC, Riverside (RC)
UCM, USC, Los Angeles (RC)
Wesley Fdn., UC-Berkeley (RC)
Wesley Fdn., UC-Santa Barbara (RC)
Wesley Fdn., UCLA, Los Angeles (RC)
COLORADO
LCM-Co.State Univ., Ft. Collins (RIC)
LCM, CU-Boulder (RIC)
Wesley Foundation, U. of Denver (RC)
DELAWARE
Wesley Fdn., UD, Newark (RC)
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
UMSF, American U. (RC)
ILLINOIS
Agape House, U. of Illinois, Chicago (RC)
Ill. Disciples Fdn., UI, Champaign (O&A)
UMSF, Ill. Wesleyan, Bloomington (RC)
UCM, No. Illinois, DeKalb (RC, ONA)
U. Christ. Min., Northwestern, Evanston (RC)
INDIANA
LCM, IU, Bloomington (RIC)
IOWA
LCM, UI, Iowa City (RIC)
Stud. Cong., Luther Coll., Decorah (RIC)
KANSAS
Episc./Luth. Ctr, U. of KS, Lawrence (RIC)
LCM, KSU, Manhattan (RIC)
United Methodist CM, UK, Lawrence (RC)
KENTUCKY
Louisville Presb. Theo. Seminary (ML Chap.)
MARYLAND
U. of Md. Episc. CM, College Park (INT)
MICHIGAN
Guild House, UM, Ann Arbor (O&A, ONA)
Wesley Fdn., Cen. MI U., Mt. Pleasant (RC)
Wesley Fdn., U. of Michigan, Ann Arbor (RC)
MINNESOTA
Augsburg Coll. LCM, Minneapolis (RIC)
Episc. Ctr, Minneapolis (INT)
LCM in Minneapolis (RIC)
Stud. Cong., St. Olaf, Northfield (RIC)
MONTANA
U. of Montana LCM, Missoula (RIC)
NEBRASKA
St. Mark’s on Campus, Lincoln (INT)
NORTH DAKOTA
Univ. Lutheran Center, NDSU, Fargo (RIC)
OHIO
UCM, OU, Athens (O&A, RC, W&A, ONA)
OREGON
LCM in Portland (RIC)
Wesley Fdn., UO, Eugene (RC)
PENNSYLVANIA
Christ Chapel, Gettysburg College,
Gettysburg (RIC)
LSC-LCM, Kutztown U, Kutztown (RIC)
TENNESSEE
Wesley Fdn., Vanderbilt, Nashville (RC)
TEXAS
LCM, UT, Austin (RIC)
VIRGINIA
Campus Christian Community, MWC,
Fredericksburg (RC, RIC)
WASHINGTON
Common Min., Wash. State U.,Pullman (RC)
LCM, WWU, Bellingham (RIC)
Wesley Club, UW, Seattle (RC)
UM Fellowship, UPS, Puget Sound (RC)
WISCONSIN
LCM, UW, LaCrosse (RIC)
LCM, Metro Milwaukee(RIC)
LCM, UW-Stout, Menomonie (RIC)
St. Francis House, Madison (INT)
Wesley Fdn., U. of Wisconsin, Madison (RC)
JUDICATORIES
which have passed welcoming resolutions
Conferences (ONA)
California/Nevada N. Michigan
California/Nevada S. Minnesota
Central Atlantic New Hampshire
Central Pacific New York
Connecticut Ohio
Massachusetts Rocky Mountain
Conferences (RC)
California-Nevada Oregon-Idaho
New York Troy
Northern Illinois Wisconsin
Regions (O&A)
Northern California/Nevada
Synods (ML)
Synod of the Northeast
Synods, ELCA (RIC)
Delaware-Maryland Pacifica
Eastern North Dakota Rocky Mountain
Eastern Wash.-Idaho Sierra-Pacific
Greater Milwaukee Southeastern
Metro Chicago Southeast MI
Metro New York Southeast PA
Metro Wash., D.C. Southwest CA
Minneapolis Area Southwestern TX
New England St. Paul (MN) Area
Northeast Pennsylvania Upstate New York
NATIONAL MINISTRIES
which have passed welcoming resolutions
Disciples Justice Action Network (O&A)
Disciples Peace Fellowship (O&A)
Gen’l Commission on Christian Unity &
Interreligious Concerns (RC)
Lutheran Student Movement—USA (RIC)
Lutheran Volunteer Corps (RIC)
Methodist Fed. for Social Action (RC)
Urban Servants Corps (RIC)
INTERNATIONAL
MINISTRIES
Baptist Peace Fell. of North America (W&A)
22 Open Hands
PULL-OUT SECTION ➚
➚
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Send to:
Open Hands, 3801 N. Keeler Avenue, Chicago, IL 60641
Phone: 773/736-5526 Fax: 773/736-5475
www.RMNetwork.org/openhands/index.html
Shaping An Inclusive Church
Quarterly magazine of
Welcoming congregations
in the U.S. and Canada
Skinner
House Books
ISBN
1-5896-409-6
At bookstores
or call
800-215-9076.
On the web:
www.uua.org
“Andrew’s story about coming out as a bisexual is
embedded in a much broader tale of ‘coming out’ as a
complete human being. Ultimately, Swinging On The
Garden Gate…demonstrates the sweet liberation, the
immersion in the sacred that comes to us when we find
the courage to answer God’s call without shame,
clothed only in the naked reality of who we are.”
—Richard Broderick, The St. Paul Pioneer Press
Swinging on the Garden Gate
A Spiritual Memoir by Elizabeth Andrew
Winter 2002 23
This time seven women step to the table with overflowing baskets.
All types of breads and goblets of wine.
The words spoken earlier by the lone priest are now said by everyone.
Each of the seven women leaders folds the bread and wine to her body.
“This is my body—this is my blood.”
They put the bread and wine on the table and turn to each other.
Touching an arm or shoulder, they say, “this is my body—this is my blood.”
Now all present turn to their neighbors and take a hand or touch a
shoulder “This is my body— this is my blood.”
Music plays.
The bread and wine is passed around the congregation.
These words, “this is my body—this is my blood” known as
the “words of institution” are the central ritual of the traditional
Roman Catholic mass. A Critical Mass honors this tradition
and opens the moment into an embodied theology that
celebrates not sacrifice, not blood violently spilled, but rather
the blood of our bodies that holds our relationship—not a
thin insubstantial wafer but a luscious hunk of bread, and a
hearty drink of wine. The women and men reach out to each
other, embracing one another with “this is body—this is my
blood.” With this act, a visceral web of life is enacted—our
participation in the Divine.
A Critical Mass enacts the traditional mass, and deconstructs
it with a feminist liturgy that offers embodied prayer, gestures,
silence, and the use of the arts to evoke multiple points
of view, inclusive language, a celebration of the body and new
visions of Divinity.
A Critical Mass: Women Celebrating
Eucharist is a prayerfilled
vision of the future. It is the
“not yet” of the Roman Catholic
Church calling forth inclusivity
instead of elitism, grassroots
shared power instead of hierarchy.
A Critical Mass is a ritual act
that is enacting the future. It is an
act of ecclesial disobedience that
models a renewed church and a
vital liberative theology. A traditional
symbol of the mass is the
altar which represents sacrifice. At
a Critical Mass, the altar becomes
a round welcome table, where all
are embraced and find nourishment.
And certainly the women
and men who are this community
do not all think alike. There are
multiple points of view for example
about the meaning of our
bread and wine. These are held in
tension and find expression in the
Rue continued from page 10 liturgy—a liturgy that has a basic feminist inclusive framework
that allows each mass to be similar but also creatively different.
A Critical Mass has grown over four years of celebration
into a community of women and men that call themselves
church. This community finds their authority in both Roman
Catholic tradition and the lives of women and all those on
the margins of the church. We believe as a community of
Roman Catholic people that in the mass we celebrate, Jesus is
truly present, as he is truly present whenever we gather for
prayer, feed the hungry and clothe the naked, mourn with
those who suffer, work for justice and peace, and celebrate,
heal and reconcile in Jesus’ name.
To paraphrase a biblical idea: For God so loved the Roman
Catholic Church that she gave the church A Critical Mass:
Women Celebrating Eucharist and other inclusive eucharistic
movements, not to condemn the church, but that the church
might be saved through them!
Please visit our website: www.acm-oakland.org or email us at:
critmasswomeneucharist@pacbell.net
Victoria Rue, Ph.D. teaches in the Religious Studies Department
of St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. Her beloved partner
of 13 years, Kathryn Poethig, teaches in the Global Studies
Department of the same university. Victoria is
a theater writer, director, and feminist theologian.
She is the co-founder of “A Critical Mass:
Women Celebrating Eucharist.” Her most recent
play is “Like Heaven” written in collaboration
with a Vietnamese-American theater
company San Khau Viet CALI in San Jose, California.
True Photo
24 Open Hands
“You may ask, ‘How did this tradition
get started?’ I’ll tell you. I don’t know!
But it’s a tradition. Because of our traditions,
everyone here knows who he
is and what God expects him to do.” So
declares Tevye in the musical Fiddler on
the Roof. He is a simple, poor man, eking
out a living with his wife Golde,
wondering how will he ever get his five
daughters married, with no money, no
dowry, no family position.
Why are people attracted to each
other? Have you ever wondered about
that yearning we have for the one we
love, our special “soul-mate”? Why do
people marry? How did this tradition
get started?
Long ago people told stories to explain
the strong attractions between
lovers. Ancient Greek myths tell of a
male being separated into two males, a
female being separated into two females,
and an androgynous being separated
into a male and a female. From
the original human being, the Genesis
story suggests, the Lord God made companions:
male and female. These stories
seek to explain strong forces that
draw lovers together for companionship,
to feel whole again. [Boswell, 58-
59, ref. Plato, Symposium. This and future
Boswell references are to John
Boswell’s Same Sex Marriages in Pre-
Modern Europe (Villard Books, 1994)]
There is a romantic jewelry set consisting
of a single heart cut into two
jagged pieces. Each person wears half a
heart, and when they are together the
pieces match, and form a whole.
Same idea. Romantic, satisfying, and
it fits.
What’s behind a
traditional marriage?
In ancient times all human relationships
were defined by systems of domination
and subordination. Women
were considered sexual property. Men
had free sexual use of any people under
their political or economic domination.
Women were abducted, conquered,
bought, and sold. A man’s
sexual access was limited only by the
property rights of another man of equal
or superior status.
Many forms of coupling (unions or
marriages, if you will) were developed
to define boundaries of property ownership,
to provide support for women
and children, and to establish inheritance.
For childless couples adoption set
inheritance rights. In early marriage
rituals a woman was adopted into her
husband’s family, changing her surname
to his family name.
The Biblical witnesses affirm mutually-
committed loving relationships,
but never condemn loving committed
relationships between people of the
same gender. There is no single approved
form of marriage specified in the
Bible. Many traditional biblical models
of marriage seem strange to us today:
Abraham married to Sarah also had a
concubine Hagar; Jacob married Leah
and also married her sister Rachel; Esau
had at least three wives; David had at
least eight wives; Gideon had many
wives and one concubine; Rehoboam
had eighteen wives and sixty concubines;
and Solomon had more than 700
wives and 300 concubines.
“Nothing in the ancient world quite
corresponds to the idea of a permanent,
exclusive union of social equals, freely
chosen by themselves to fulfill both
their emotional needs and imposing
equal obligations of fidelity on both
partners.” [Boswell, p. 38.]
In any ancient city, most people were
not married at all. Slaves were forbid-
Tr aditional Marriages
Welcoming God’s Love
Rick Mawson and Warren Kreml
Rachel & Jennifer
Middle Collegiate Dutch Reform Church
New York City - October 1998
Winter 2002 25
den to marry. Marriage was for the upper
class and was concerned first and
foremost with property rights. For these
reasons sometimes children as young
as six were married. Political marriages
occurred between ruling houses where
the people never lived together.
For most of recorded history, marriage
matches were traditionally property
negotiations between families, not
the couples. The value of a woman was
first in her virginity before marriage (to
keep blood lines pure), her ability to
provide male children as heirs, and of
course her dowry and social class. Engagement
negotiations preceded the
wedding ceremony and were symbolized
by an engagement ring.
Ancients began marriage with property
concerns, moved to raising children,
then possibly love. Moderns begin
marriage with love as a requirement,
then possibly to children, and finally
concerns over property, especially at
times of divorce or death.
According to tradition, Jesus’ first
miracle was at a wedding in Cana. He
told stories of wedding feasts, of brides
and grooms. So, we were surprised to
find out that Christians discouraged
marriages for more than 500 years after
the crucifixion. Marriage, or sexual expression
within marriage, were strongly
discouraged in favor of celibacy! Celibacy
was a “purer form of Christian
devotion.” (Read again the passage from
1 Corinthians 7.)
Not until 1200 years into the Christian
era were “traditional” Christian
marriage ceremonies performed in
churches, around the altars, and recognized
as sacramental. By then, more
than half of the whole of Christian history
as we know it had already passed!
Covenants and Contracts
Our whole society has always had an investment in supporting the development
of long-term, stable family relationships. To that end, over the
centuries, many traditions, rituals and laws have developed around the
process of establishing new families. These principles have helped families
by providing a healthy, supportive social structure in which they can thrive.
Couple’s Covenant
When two people get to know each other and decide to spend the rest
of their lives together, they enter into an honor-bound covenant with one
another and exchange private vows with one another. Sometimes they say,
“We are married in our hearts, and we don’t need a piece of paper to tell us
that.” Many live together for many years based upon this private covenant
of the heart.
Wedding Covenant
When a couple decides to share their honor-bound covenant vows with
their family and friends, that is the time for a wedding. Many time-honored
traditions come into play in a wedding, giving a place for families of
origin and friends to gather to hear the vows exchanged by the couple, and
to add their own covenants of support for the new family.
Within a religious community setting, there are prayers of thanksgiving
to God for the love that is shared, asking for God’s blessing and support of
the new family. Among family and friends a wedding marks the beginning
of a marriage, sometimes referred to as a Holy Union.
Weddings become very important occasions for community validation
of the couple’s relationship. This validation is just as important for gay and
lesbian couples. Weddings provide sustaining memories in more stressful
times.
Marriage Contract
When a couple gets a marriage license from the state, signs it, makes
marriage vows before an official recognized by the state, and has those
vows witnessed in writing, then the couple enters into a marriage contract.
(The clergy in a religious wedding ceremony perform dual roles as representative
of the religious community and also as an official of the state.)
Once a couple enters into a contract of marriage, 1100 or more laws
apply to their relationship providing legal privileges, obligations, and protections
to each of them and any children they may have. These provisions
of marriage laws are only available to male-female couples, and so far have
been withheld from same-gender couples. In the U.S., only Vermont,
through civil union contracts, addresses some of that inequity for samegender
couples in a limited way.
Frequently male-female couples, after the loss of a previous spouse, enter
into private honor-bound covenants of the heart with a new person,
then choose to have weddings to allow family and friends to participate in
their marriage vows. Some couples choose to not enter into a legal contract
of marriage because of the loss of retirement benefits or for other
reasons. Same-gender couples do not have that option yet.
Kenneth & Mark
Central Congregational Church, UCC
Jamaica Plains, Massachusetts
June 21, 1997
26 Open Hands
Of course Christians did marry, common-
law fashion, simply by living together
and declaring their marriage to
the community. Others followed the
ritual pattern of the pagan Roman civil
ceremonies, the model we now consider
to be a traditional Christian wedding
ceremony. Over the years the pagan elements
have been Christianized.
The Traditional Wedding
In such a wedding, the community
of family and friends gathers to witness
the public wedding vows. Private commitments
are made public. Traditional
wedding costumes, flower-decorated
settings, and music mark these events
as special. Ceremonial candles evoke
God’s presence, marking a solemn occasion.
On the arm of her father, the
bride walks down the aisle to join the
groom at the altar. There the property
exchange will be made.
The priest describes marriage as a
fulfillment of God’s will and announces
that “we are here to witness and bless
marriage vows.” He reads from the
Bible. The address to the couple warns
them to take their vows with sober seriousness,
and asks if anyone objects to
this marriage.
The priest asks each member of the
couple for their consent to this marriage.
And they give it. (It used to be
that only the man gave consent. The
woman had no say in the matter. Mutual
consent was not common until the
twelfth century.)
The father gives the bride to the
groom. Sometimes the dowry was also
transferred at this point. (Today, the
bride’s family traditionally pays for the
wedding.) The priest joins the couple’s
right hands (the most universal symbol
of marriage throughout the ages, coming
from the Roman tradition of shaking
hands to confirm a contract.) Each
makes their vows to the other, holding
right hands, often placed upon a Bible.
The priest blesses the wedding rings
which are exchanged as outward and
visible signs of the inward vows they
have made to each other. (Rings, of
course, are signs of ownership: she’s
married and therefore off limits. Most
recently also applied to men.)
In prayer, the priest blesses the marriage
by requesting peace, growth in
Tower of Congregations and Committed Hearts
Rick Mawson
Our church’s Open and Affirming Committee was planning for the 2001
Gay Pride Parade and Celebration in Santa Rosa, California. Having participated
since 1996, we identified a problem. Only the gays, lesbians, and their families
who are already involved in a church had approached our booth in previous
years at the Celebration, held on our local junior college campus. Others walked
by, seeing our church banner, apparently curious about what we were doing
there, but unwilling to approach our booth. We asked ourselves, what could we
do to make contact easier? About 10,000 GLBT people were expected, and we
wanted to do something that would attract attention and share the good news
of what is happening across the country in the Welcoming movement.
Searching the internet, looking at the websites of
the Welcoming programs, we found the names of 885
welcoming and affirming congregations! We decided
to list all of their names in rainbow colors on a barbershop-
pole rotating tower. Using three stacked
painted cardboard shipping barrels, mounted on a
rotating platform powered by a wheelchair motor, we
made a ten-foot tall display—big enough to be seen
from across the campus. Then we found the list of
1500 Welcoming congregations listed in Open Hands,
and also become aware that there were 300 Metropolitan
Community Churches. So on a sign circling
with the tower we printed “Now More Than 1,800
Congregations Welcome and Affirm GLBT Persons.”
Since then we have become aware of 200 Reform Jewish
congregations that also welcome gays and lesbians.
To demonstrate the “affirming” part of the “welcoming and affirming,” we
created a large mobile stretching out above the Tower of Congregations with
rainbow-colored hearts bearing photos of 70 couples rotating with the tower.
We sent out e-mails to 500 congregations requesting wedding pictures of samegender
couples and their basic information. The pictures were included in a
booklet entitled “It’s Happening Everywhere” to be sent to the couples as well
as handed out at the Gay Pride Celebration. Many congregations wrote back
saying that they had voted to be Open and Affirming or Welcoming, but had
regretfully never had a service of Holy Union.
When the pictures did come in, it became a time of tearful joy. We could
hardly wait to get the mail each day. Precious people were sharing a personal
part of themselves with some folks they did not know from a little town called
Santa Rosa. On June 10th, our church, First Congregational UCC in Santa Rosa,
had a service of blessing as the marchers went to City Hall to begin the Gay
Pride Parade. We unfurled our church banner attached to a pole that we would
carry as we marched.
Thousands lined the parade route, waving to us, whistling, smiling, giving us
a thumbs up. Many took our brochures about our congregation and our Open
and Affirming policies.
At the Celebration that followed, The Tower of Congregations and Committed
Hearts attracted many hand-holding couples. Many we had never seen before
stopped to read the names of the churches and to look at the pictures of the
couples. Many spoke with us. We asked how long they had been together and
their answers ranged from 2 to 27 years. We asked if they had ever had a wedding
or blessing service. Only a few couples said, “Yes,” and spoke about it in
detail. Most said, “No,” but would like to some day. One of the couples who
had shared their picture with us for our project had told us that what we were
doing was important because it will help other couples envision what is possible
for them. It certainly helped us all envision what is possible for the church!
Winter 2002 27
A CLARIFICATION OF POLICY regarding the blessing of
covenant commitments between people of the same gender
within the worship life of our faith community:
WHEREAS First Congregational United Church of Christ,
after faithful consideration and prayer, became an Open and
Affirming Church by congregational vote November 19,
1995, making a commitment to openly celebrate the diversity
of its membership: to welcome and affirm every person
regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation,
age, economic status, and physical or mental abilities
into the full life and ministry of the church; and
WHEREAS First Congregational United Church of Christ
has an established policy regarding the use of church property
and the official services of the clergy of the church in
the blessing of couples in wedding services or marriage ceremonies;
and
WHEREAS the Church has historically encouraged
couples, who have chosen to commit themselves to each
other within life-long covenants of mutual responsibility
and love, to marry, and to make their marriage vows to each
other in a public affirmation of the sacred within their commitment
to one another, in a service of worship with family
and friends, seeking the blessings of God and the ongoing
support of those who gather to witness and share in their
vows; and
WHEREAS the blessings of marriage rituals, within the
church, become important defining moments in the lives
of couples as they recognize the faithfulness of God as the
Giver of the love they share, and that God’s Spirit is also a
participant in their covenant, offering a sustaining foundation
for the family life they have chosen; and
WHEREAS a sacred marital blessing serves to validate a
couple’s covenantal relationship among family and friends,
enabling each one of us to promise to recognize, honor,
and support the couple’s commitments, providing sources
of encouragement and forgiveness in times of difficulty; and
WHEREAS traditionally the clergy of the United Church
of Christ perform dual roles while officiating at a marriage
ceremony for a heterosexual couple, functioning first as a
representative of God and the church, recognizing and giving
blessing to the sacred covenant between God and the
couple that their vows of commitment will endure; and secondly
as an official representative of the State of California
for those couples who choose to enter into a legal contract
of marriage that is recognized and supported by State law;
and
WHEREAS the State of California has so far chosen to
withhold from couples of the same- gender, the protections
provided by law to a married couple consisting of a man
and a woman; and
WHEREAS First Congregational United Church of Christ
is committed to the protection and support of sacred loving
covenants made between people of good faith, regardless
of gender;
BE IT THEREFORE RECOGNIZED that First Congregational
United Church of Christ in Santa Rosa, California intends to
make it clear in all of its policies and publications that, as
far as the faith community of the church is concerned, there
shall be no distinction made between offering the blessings
of God and the church to heterosexual couples, and the
blessings of God and the church to same-gender couples, in
public wedding or marriage ceremonies (sometimes referred
to as “holy unions”), not withstanding the legal status of
those marriages.
Adopted April 1, 2001 (Suggested by Rick Mawson.)
One Model for Covenant Commitment Blessings
Hearts from the Tower of Congregations and Committed Hearts.
28 Open Hands
From an 11th century Liturgy of Union
Forasmuch as Thou, O Lord and Ruler, art merciful and loving, who
didst establish humankind after thine image and likeness, and who didst
deem it meet that thy holy apostles Philip and Bartholomew be united,
bound one unto the other not by nature but by faith and the spirit. As
Thou didst find thy holy martyrs Serge and Bacchus worthy to be united
together, bless also these thy servants, (name), and (name), joined
together not by the bond of nature but by faith and in the mode of the
spirit, granting unto them peace and love and oneness of mind. Cleanse
from their hearts every stain and impurity, and vouchsafe unto them to
love one other (and let their brotherly union be) without hatred and
without scandal all the days of their lives, with the aid of the Mother of
God and all thy saints, forasmuch as all glory is thine. [Boswell, 295]
mutual love, and sometimes children.
He would wrap his stole around their
right hands, tying a knot, symbolizing
their union. Hence the saying, “they
have decided to tie the knot.” He might
drape a light cloth over the couple as a
blessing symbolizing their new home
and family. He pronounces the couple
as “man and wife” (“property” theme
again)—in our times, “husband and
wife” (“union-of-equals” theme), and
introduces them to the gathered community.
The veil, symbol of virginity, is raised
and the bride becomes available to her
husband. The couple seals their vows
with a kiss. And then they receive
communion from a common cup, the
bread of the Eucharist as their first meal,
asking to be fed by the Spirit, receiving
Christ’s presence in their marriage. A
benediction is pronounced and the
bride and groom lead the procession
back out into the world. It is a time of
joy, tears and hope.
Then the party begins. The wedding
banquet is another almost universal part
of public marriages. Food, drink, music
and dancing. Toasts to happiness, a
fruitful marriage and long life. Witnesses
sign official marriage documents
for the civil authorities and the church.
Alfred & Michael
Riverside Congregational Church, UCC
East Providence, Rhode Island
November 22, 1992
Frank & George
Plymouth Congregational UCC
Coconut Grove, Florida
August 2, 1997
Beth & Jenny
Quaker Meeting House
Woods Hole, Massachusetts
October 9, 1993
Marilee & Erin
Metropolitan Community Church
San Francisco - July 29, 2000
Sarah & Krista
Congregation Bet Mishpachah
Reform Synagogue
Washington, D.C.
May 27, 2001
Winter 2002 29
And there is more: as a holdover
from when women were stolen from
their homes by men, the groom is expected
to carry his bride over the threshold
of their home. And then the marriage
bed. Many marriages are not
considered complete until they are
“consummated,” as they say.
Which brings up the question of
technically when does the marriage actually
take place? Is it at the time of
consummation, first sex, the conquest?
Is it at the time of the property exchange?
Is it at the time of mutual consent?
Is it at the time of signing the
marriage contract? Is it when the public
vows are taken, or is it when the private
vows were made? Is it when the
priest pronounces that they are married?
Is it when the first male child is
born? At different times, each of these
criteria has been used to mark the official
confirmation of a valid marriage.
Our traditions provide treasured
guidance for us. Traditions can also
carry the baggage of outgrown values.
Our prayer is that God will help us discern
the difference. The creative tension
among the biblical witnesses, our Christian
traditions, and the Holy Spirit helps
us define who we are, helps us to do
what God expects us to do.
John Boswell Studies
John Boswell, the late professor of
history at Yale University, searched ancient
manuscripts in London, Paris,
Munich, Rome and southern Italy looking
for Christian ceremonies blessing
marriages. Among liturgies for marriages
between men and women he
discovered about 100 manuscripts of
same-sex “union” (or “marriage”) ceremonies.
They go back to the 8th century
with references that go back to the
4th century. Dr. Boswell documented
in scholarly detail his discoveries in his
1994 book, Same-Sex Unions in Premodern
Europe. We are indebted to him
for his revealing work.
Boswell discovered that for both
same-gender and opposite-gender marriages,
the church only blessed the
union, and did not create the marriages.
Both forms of blessings were based on
the Roman secular model. The samegender
forms became Christianized earlier
than opposite-gender ones and
always involved mutual consent. Samegender
forms were from earliest times
performed at the altar. Same-gender
ceremonies and man/woman ceremonies
had similar structures. Same-gender
liturgies were performed for women
as well as men at least from the 12th
century on. Their unions, in terms of
equality between the partners and mutual
consent, closely resembled modern
concepts of marriage.
The traditional same-gender ceremonies
stress spiritual values of love
(agape). The traditional dual-gender
ceremonies stress children and goods.
Dual-gender ceremonies are based on
the reproduction model of Adam and
Eve, Abraham and Sarah: “Be fruitful
and multiply.”
The same-gender ceremony is identical
to the ceremony for a second marriage,
as in remarriage after the death
of a prior spouse. It is based on love
and companionship rather than procreation,
although same-gender couples
could adopt children.
The secular public revulsion against
homosexuals began to spread in the
West in the 14th century. By the mid-
18th century, prejudice “crashes down”
and people begin to be burned at the
stake.
According to Boswell, same-gender
marriage ceremonies have been used all
over the catholic world for 1500 years.
In the 17th and 18th centuries the
Vatican issued a syllabus, a list of approved
ceremonies which included the
same-gender marriage liturgies, and
those approvals have never been rescinded.
Serge and Bacchus
Serge and Bacchus were Roman soldiers
of high standing in the late third
century. They were close to the Roman
Emperor. They were Christian men,
united in their love for each other in a
way similar to other Christian married
couples. Those who envied their close
ties to the Emperor denounced them as
“Christians.” The Emperor became an-
“Nothing in the ancient world quite corresponds to
the idea of a permanent, exclusive [heterosexual]
union of social equals, freely chosen by themselves
to fulfill both their emotional needs and imposing
equal obligations of fidelity on both partners.”
–John Boswell
30 Open Hands
gry at this and ordered Serge and
Bacchus to sacrifice to his Roman gods.
They refused.
Immediately the Emperor ordered
their belts cut off, their tunics and military
garb removed, and had women’s
clothing placed on them
and paraded them through
the middle of the city, bearing
heavy chains around
their necks. This was a
classic way of humiliating
males in a society obsessed
with warrior masculinity.
It failed to embarrass them. They said
something like this, “You have dressed
us as brides with women’s gowns and
joined us together. Since wearing female
clothing does not prevent women
from honoring God, it should hardly
stop us.”
In the literature of the time, there
was no suggestion of sexual crimes on
the part of Serge and Bacchus, but lots
of theological argument over paganism
and idolatry. The emperor banished
Serge and Bacchus saying, “If they persist
in their unholy religion (Christianity),
execute them!” They remained
faithful Christians. As a result, Bacchus
was flogged to death. His remains were
thrown out as meat for the dogs.
Serge was forced to run ten miles in
“shoes of torture” into which nails had
been driven up through the soles, pointing
into his feet. He did not betray his
faith, so Serge was ordered executed.
Before he died, Serge prayed for his executioners.
Serge and Bacchus were officially
declared Saints by the Catholic Church
and their lives are commemorated by a
feast celebrated October 7th in the liturgical
year. Their images in sculpture
and painting feature touching halos.
Traditional liturgies for same-sex unions
frequently invoke the memory and inspiration
of this faithful couple, these
saintly martyrs. Their relationship became
an ideal model of a loving, committed,
Christ-based marriage for both
“gay” and “straight” Christians for centuries.
Our Shame and Some Good News
We have been ashamed of the role
that we, as Christians, have played in
the violent persecution of our gay
brothers and sisters. When we are silent,
in our culture of violence, we abandon
our brothers and sisters to the bullies
of our pulpits and streets.
Yet good news emerges from our
faith tradition. Serge and Bacchus
opened a door of compassion through
their loving commitments and faithful
martyrdom. It is good news to discover
that within the Body of Christ, Christians
have already blessed same-gender
unions. What a treasure! Those traditional
blessings have survived underground
for centuries of terror: human
bonfires fueled by the
bodies of our brothers
and sisters.
The biblical witnesses,
our Christian
tradition, and the Holy
Spirit are calling us to
compassion. We believe
it is time for us to officially re-affirm
and resurrect our ancient Christian
tradition of blessing same-gender marriages,
affirming God-created souls who
have found each other in love.
Within the body of Christ, within
our congregations, within our community,
let us make it known to all couples
who hunger for affirmation of their love
commitments that we will stand with
them, join with them, by blessing their
vows to one another and praying “that
they may love, honor, and cherish each
other, and so live together in faithfulness
and patience, in wisdom and true
godliness, that their home may be a
haven of blessing and of peace, through
our Lord Jesus Christ.”
As Tevye would say, “Because of our
traditions, everyone here knows who he
is and what God expects him to do.”
Warren Kreml is a retired United Church
of Christ minister and chair of the Open
and Affirming Committee at First Congregational
UCC in Santa Rosa, California.
Until recently he served as National Coordinator
of the UCC Parents of Lesbians and
Gays.
Rick Mawson, a United Church of Christ
clergyman, is an Associate in Ministry (a
volunteer position) at First Congregational
UCC in Santa Rosa, CA. He earns his living
in his computer business, Mawson
Computers (www.mawson.com). Rick has
been active in the Open and Affirming
process since 1992, focusing on what the
biblical witnesses say and don’t say about
God’s attitude regarding committed loving
relationships between people of the
same gender.
We believe it is time for us to officially re-affirm
and resurrect our ancient Christian tradition of
blessing same-gender marriages, affirming Godcreated
souls who have found each other in love.
Serge and Bacchus
Winter 2002 31
2002 marks our sixtieth year
of providing safe space to
seekers searching for
inspirational, restorative,
energizing experiences.
Kirkridge is a Retreat and Study Center
rooted in Christ
close to the earth
Where people from diverse backgrounds
find community
And experience the transforming power
of the Spirit
for personal wholeness
reconciliation
and justice in the world
We will be having retreats led by
Daniel Berrigan, Walter Wink,
Robert Raines. There will be
events on diversity, creative aging, writing, making a living, art-journaling,
events of a special interest, such as Qigong, and for particular groups: a men’s
abuse recovery weekend led by Mike Lew, a women’s retreat led by Joan Borton,
and an Interfaith Dialogue on alternative responses to violence as a one day
event in June. Earthcare in May and Charles Cook’s Awakening to Nature offer
opportunities for renewing and nurturing our kinship with the natural world.
Events which might be of special interest to Open Hands readers:
Christian People of the Rainbow 2002, coloring Outside the Lines
led by Virginia Mollenkott, Dale English, Robert Goss, Erin Swenson
June 6 – 9
Thomas Merton, Active Contemplative, and Henri Nouwen,
Contemplative Activist: Two Models of Spiritual Life
led by Michael Christensen and Rebecca Laird
August 2 – 4
Sankofa, a retreat for young GLBT adults of color
August 2 – 4
To receive more information about these and other events or to receive our catalogue, write us at
Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center, 2495 Fox Gap Road, Bangor, PA 18013 or call (610) 588-1793.
You may register on-line by visiting our web site.
www.kirkridge.org