Open Hands Vol 4 No 4 - Created to Create: Lesbian and Gay Men in the Religious Arts

Open Hands Vol 4 No 4 - Created to Create: Lesbian and Gay Men in the Religious Arts

4

4

1989

Spring

Uls your heart true to my heart as "mine is to yours? ..!!it is, give me your
Spring 1989 Vol. 4· No.4
Created to Create:
Lesbian and Gay Men in the Religious Arts
I
Vol.
4· No.4· Spring 1989
O pen H ands is published by Affirmation: United Methodists for lesbian/Gay Concerns, Inc., as a resource for the Reconciling Congregation Program. It addresses concerns of lesbians and gay men as they relate to the ministry of the church.
The Reconciling Congregation Program is a network of United Methodist local churches who publicly affirm their ministry with the whole fami Iy of God and who welcome lesbians and gay men into their community. In this network, Reconciling Congregations find strength and support as they strive to overcome the divisions caused by prejudice and homophobia in our church and in our society. Together these congregations offer hope that the church can be a reconciled community.
To enable local churches to engage in these ministries, the program provides resource materials, including Open Hands. Resource persons are available locally to assist a congregation that is seeking to become a Reconciling Congregation.
. Information about the program can be obtained by writing:
Reconciling congregation~ Program
P.O. Box 23636 Washington, DC 20026
Reconciling Congregation Program
Coordinators
Mark Bowman Beth Richardson
. Open Hands Co-Editors
M . Burrill Bradley Rymph
This Issue's Coordinators
Jerry W . Henry Beth Richardson
Typesetting and Graphic Design
linda Coffin leanne Poteet
Note to advertisers: Beginning with the Summer 1989 issue, Open Hands will accept paid advertising. For rate information, write to Open Hands or call: 202/863-1586.
Open H.... (formerly Mann.J '04' the Journey) is published four times a year. Subscription is $16 for four issues ($20 outside the U.S.A.). Single copies are available for $5 each; quantities ot 10 or more are $3 each .. Permission to reprint is granted upon request. Reprints of certain articles are avai lable as indicated in the bsue. Subscriptions and COfrespondence should be sent to:
Open Hands
P.O. Box 23636
W.shinglon, DC 20026
Copyright © 1989 by Affirmation: United Methodists for l esbian/Gay Concerns, Inc. Member of The Associated Church Press. ISSN 0888-8833
Created to Create:
Lesbians and Gay Men in the Religious Arts Contents
3
A Letter from the Open Hands' Staff
4
The Church, Art, and the Search for Truth Paul Abels
6
Profiles in Creativity: Gay Contributions through the Centuries Jerry W. Henry and Bradley Rymph
9
Walking on the Edges An Interview with Tina Heck
12
"Coming Out: A S tory in Mime" Mary Gaddis and Patricia Broughton
14
What's in a Name? Chris Glaser
16
"Meditations on God" Susan Echo
18
RESOURCES
19
"Ours the Journey" Julian Rush
20
Called to Serve Dale McCurdy
21
14Easter Alleluia" John S. Rice
22
RCP REPORT
Cover painting by Tim Achor-Hoch
Next Issue's Theme: Closetedness and the Church
Open Hands 2
Dear Open Hands' readers:
It's hard to believe that this issue completes four years of publication. What ajourney it's been! The flrst issue of Manna for the Journey (our original name) was cranked out on a word processor after-hours at Mark's offlCe. It was a risk of faith With no capital funds and no subscribers.
In these four years, we've changed our name, seen volunteer staff come and go, changed printers and graphic artists, tWisted authors' arms (over the phone) to get articles in, and cried over the increasing costs of production. There have been times we've thought we might not produce another issue. But thanks to you and our hundreds of other friends around the country, we've made it through four years -a major accomplishment.
We continue to grow -we have almost 1,500 subscribers in the United States and around the world. In the 16 issues published, we have attempted to offer in-depth coverage of a Wide variety of issues related to lesbians and gay men in the church. We have provided a written forum for many supporters of lesbian/gay concerns who otherWise would not have been publicly heard. We have provided nurture and support for the more than 140 pioneer congregations around the country who have declared themselves to be "Reconciling," "More Light," "Reconciled-in-Christ," or "Open and Afflrming. "
As we look toward our flfth year and beyond, we also antiCipate some changes. We want to continue to enhance Open Hands' usefulnE;lss to you and to ensure its long-term stability.
First of all, we must address the fmances of the magazine. In 1988, our income from subscriptions, renewals, and sales reached $18,757.93 (a 69% increase over our 1987 income). However, this was still over $10,000 short of the total cost of prodUCing, printing, and promoting Open Hands. This continuing deflcit drains resources from the other important ministries of Afflrmation and the Reconciling Congregation Program. Therefore, we have deCided to increase the basic subscription price to $16, effective June 1, 1989.
We were very reluctant to do thiS and made the decision only after consultation With many Open Hands readers and friends who have assured us that the long-term survival of the magazine is worth at least that much of their money. So the new subscription prices are:
One-year subscription $18 Two-year subscription $30 One-year subscription outside sao
the U.S.A.
Single issue .8
Of course, as has always been our policy, we Will send a subscription to those on limited incomes who cannot afford the full subscription price. To you, our current subscribers, we do make a special offer: we will renew your subscription for another year at the old price of $12 ifyou send in your paorment by July 31,1989.
This subscription increase is not the only change we are planning for Open Hands. We Will begin printing "letters to the editors" in one of our next issues. We want to give you, our readers, the opportunity to respond to what you read in Open Hands and also to share other concerns affecting lesbians and gay men in the church.
We hope to offer more "special reports" on events related to ministry With lesbians and gay men in the church, in cases where you would not find in-depth coverage in other religious publications.
We have some other ideas in mind as we evaluate what we have accomplished over the past four years. But we also want to hear what you think. If you could take a few minutes to write us a note telling what you like about Open Hands and where you would suggest changes, that would be gratefully received.
We are exceedingly glad as we reach this milestone of four years on the 'ourney. Yet we recogniZe that there are miles to go before we reach the Promised Land. We are most thankful that God has not abandoned us and that the mighty Winds of Pentecost continue to gently guide (and push) us forward.
Mark Bowman M. Burrill Bradley Rymph '
THE CHURCH, ART, and the SEARCH FOR TRUTH
by Paul Abels
One of the great spiritual struggles of our age is how to cling to the irreplaceable objects of beauty in our lives and at the same time share our possessions with the poor. In our churches, we may commit ourselves to preservation of a splendid historic church structure or repair of a stained-glass window and get lambasted by critics for diverting the church's money away from more needy causes, such as support for a local shelter for the homeless. At the individual level, we can buy a new, expensive stereo (because we love good music) -and, as we are signing the credit card receipt, remember that we have not yet paid up our pledge to that shelter.
We generally live with the tension of this dichotomy because we have grown to accept that this is the way that it is. The contradiction simply is a basic fact of life .
This dilemma lies at the very heart of the relationship between the church and art. Our culture has isolated the products of art, thoroughly commercialized and often deified them, while also isolating the poor and devaluing them as persons. Our economic system thrives on this dichotomy, and the church is thrust into its vortex.
We have reached this point partly because we have encouraged the "elite-izing" of art, puffing up the price of the so-called masterpiece to obscene tens of millions of dollars. By so doing, we have discouraged and further devalued the "ordinary" creative act. We can see this elite-izing happening presently with folk art, that creative expression which until recently was considered simply nice to have around, but not especially costly. Is this not what has been happening with Shaker furniture? For generations, it was considered good and useful but not expensive. Now, because it is "in," prices are reaching astronomical levels, and this folk craft -which only a few years ago would never have been found outside of rural areas -may soon be found only in the posh residences and offices of the wealthy.
What do religion and art mean? Each of these words is ambiguous and vague. Is religion the avenue through which we seek to find the meaning of the universe and life in it? If so, this search has led to the congealing of a few "mainstream" codifications of what are held to be valid meanings, one of which is Christianity, and its institutionalization, the church . And within what we call the church are, in tum, hundreds of manifestations of what are believed to be true Christian belief and practice. Each of these manifestations holds to a particular view of art in the religious experience with a particular historic and faith bias.
And what about art? Upon mention of art, we readily imagine products (objects) -paintings, sculptures, buildings, books, etc. But the arts embrace an incomprehensible range of creative, intuitive processes of the imagination (subjects), leading to an expression -only one form of which is the products. Therefore, we must add to the objects of art the process arts, including music, dance, theater, etc., which leave us with impressions and memories shaped through time. They are a process, though perhaps a product in the memory.
Each of us is more likely to have an opinion of what is good art or bad art than we are to have a definition of what art is. Roger Ortmayer, editor of motive magazine in the 1960s and later director of the Department of Church and Culture of the National Council of Churches, resolved this question for me when he said that "art is whatever artists do." With this definition, the judgment categories of "good" or "bad" simply do not apply. It leaves us only with making a choice -do I like it or not? We can rightfully say we like or don't like a particular manifestation of art, because art is a subjective idiom of communication. But in such circumstances does it matter if the art is good or bad? I think not.
The Balinese have said that "We have no art -we do all things well." The judgment upon Western culture that this remark contains is scorching. In our society, we set aside art as something special, participated in only by the few. For the people of Bali, the cultural objective is that whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well . Everything is done on a continuum of more or less equal value, rather than stacked in a hierarchy of values, some greater or lesser than others. Our masterpiece syndrome has eroded the broad base of creative expression which is fundamental to a vital religious (and certainly, artistic) life.
What, then, is the relationship between the church and art? I believe that it is where it has been at least since the beginning of this century -generally looking for common ground (at best), and merely surviving as a thread of interest (at worst). Ken Dewey, one of the leading "happening" artists of the 1960s, observed that "the common ground between religion and arts is the search for truth." This search is a driving force for the theologian, whether he or she is spinning out theories of grace or delving into the gospel of Mark for hidden meaning. The artist is attempting to do the same. The artist has a vision of the creation at hand (even a partial one). He or she spins out the shape, color, sound, or words with the expectation that when the
Open Hands 4
act is finished (if it ever is), one more window into the great mystery of life will be opened.
At one time in our Western world, religion and art were virtually synonymous. However, centuries ago, they parted ways, and now the two are almost irreconcilably divided. Some of us undoubtedly long -perhaps subconsciously -for their reunion. But I believe that religion and art are two distinct entities, each propelled by forces that upon close examination have much in common, including the search for truth.
One of the greatest dangers for both the artist and the theologian has always been replacing the search for truth with a proclamation of truth. In this instance -when it is believed that truth has been discovered -religion becomes orthodoxy and art becomes propaganda. The church ends up using art for telling its story , rather than joining with artists as coequal forces in the search for truth.
Only when the practice of religion remains open, exploratory, flexible, creative, and tentative (good enough for the time being -but there must be more) does it remain vital. Sadly, most American religious practice is sterile, rigid, and closed, devoid of the vitality of a searching faith.
Art can succumb to the same fate. When music settles for the comfortable, the familiar, the formula, it grows inane and morose. So it is, too, with visual arts, literature, theater. But in art (as sometimes in religion), there are moments of breakthrough, where a new statement is made , a new view of truth is exposed, and these are the moments for which we wait.
Another common ground in both religion and art -at their best -is a drive to create. Dorothy Sayers, in her book The Mind of the Maker, says that the sole , unique goal of the artist is to "make a new thing." She finds in this goal the nexus of relationship between God and God's creatures. She goes on to say that "the distinction between the artist and [one] who is not an artist thus lies in the fact that the artist is living in the 'way of grace,' so far as vocation is concerned."
Sayers then concludes with this stirring remark: "Perhaps the first thing [we] can learn from the artist is that the only way of 'mastering' one's material is to abandon the whole conception of mastery and to cooperate with it in love: whosoever will be a lord of life , let them be its servant. If the artist tries to wrest life out of its true nature, it will revenge itself in judgment, as the work revenges itself upon the domineering artist."
A similar attitude was put another way by Walter Wangerin, Jr., a Lutheran clergyman and author of Miz Lil & The Chronicles of Grace. In an interview, Wangerin reflected on the intersection of his two professions: "The two professions drew on the same resources in me and upon the same time. Ministry is a creative act, just as writing is a creative act. Both of them deal with human being. Both of them require integrity and affection."
Another, more contemporary definition of the goal of
the artist which has a social redemption twist is that of
Gore Vidal. In his book Sex, Death and Money, Vidal says
that:
politics in a work ofart is like a pistol shot at a
concert. But that was another century. Today the
pistol shots are the concert while the work of art is
the discordant interruption. To interrupt catastrophe
is the artist's highest goal at a time when, like it or
not, pure novelist and worldly polemicist are both
in the same boat, each bailing water since it is not
(yet) our nature to drown without a struggle.
This definition is based on the premise that life (collectively) would be so much worse than whatever it now is -i.e. , catastrophic -without the work of artists. If we are to accept this premise (which I sometimes do), I think it is a perfect metaphor for the church (at its best, of course).
#.ul of this seems to lie at such great distance from the prevailing attitude of American Christians, which is often limited to the observation, "Isn't it pretty," growing out of the social conditioning (reinforced by life in the church as mirror of that culture) that only those things that are conventionally "beautiful" are worthy of a place in (or permitted to enter) the church.
In recent decades, a faithful few in the church have been moving toward formulating a new aesthetic, one which is consonant with an honest and loving faith. This joining of integrity and affection, as Wangerin puts it, is our church and art agenda as we move into the 21 st century. We must finally move away from prostituting art and artists -most especially, musicians -for merely telling the church's story. Instead, we must engage in a mutually respectful search with artists for new visions of truth an~ new expressions of affection . One of the few resources which. churches have to lend to this journey is space, and space IS one of the most badly needed tools for artists . When churches share space with artists, they have to take risks that what artists will say and do may not be pleasing or pretty . But when an honest working relationship is estab-. lished between the church and artists it is less likely that we will take offense at the surprises, because they are rendered in love.
Churches must also let go of the longing to own masterpieces. That day is long gone and we have a new day before us. I do believe that we have a profound moral obligation to preserve and maintain the treasures that we have already inherited, whether they be musical works or paintings or architectural gems. But we have an even more compelling moral imperative to create a new thing.
But what about the other agenda of the church -to feed the hungry, house the homeless , clothe the naked? J tum to an essay of Albert Camus for a way to go about it: "There is beauty and there are the humiliated. Whatever difficulties the enterprise may present, Jwould like never to be unfaithful either to one or the other." There is no question that this enterprise is, indeed, very difficult. It is hard enough to work in the church to join integrity and affection without adding to it a struggle with artists. But if we are to succeed we have no other choice. For Camus the question is: how can beauty and the humiliated be understood together? For the Christian the question is: how could they possibly be understood separately? •
Paul Abels is executive director of Equinox, a community-services agency in ALbany, New York. He is a retired member of the New York AnnuaL Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Open Hands 5
-
Benjamin Britten Dtnid· Mk:bD1mae10
Open Hands
Profiles in Creativity
Gay Contributions through the Centuries
by Jerry W. Henry and Bradley Rymph
Over many centuries, gay men and lesbians -or persons who by today's standards would be considered gay or lesbian -have made innumerable contributions to the life ofthe church through the arts. The most visible arena for this creativity has probably been church music, but there have often been visual artists, writers, architects, glassworkers, and performing artists ofall descriptions who have offered their gifts to God through the Church.
We offer here briefprofiles ofjust afew ofthese artists. This clearly is not a complete list. Space does not permit such an accounting, and, undoubtedly, the lesbian/ gay identities ofmany ofthose who have made contributions through the centuries will forever remain unknown. Only recently have historians begun revealing evidence related to the sexual orientations of some of humanity's most creative geniuses.
Sadly, this lack ofhistorical evidence is particularly the case with lesbian artists. Not only have historians hidden their subjects' sexual orientations; being mostly men, these historians have also neglected to consider the contributions ofwomen -whether heterosexual or lesbian -to be worth study or discussion. In addition, it has historically been easier for two women to maintain hidden lives than for two men living together. There can be no doubt that lesbians, as well as heterosexual women and gay men, have made notable contributions to the Church's artistic life throughout Christian history.
ARTHUR S. S ULLIVAN was apparently widely known to his contemporaries. The social rules of his
-From Penzance to "Onward, day unofficially stipulated that the
Christian Soldiers"
upper classes would be allowed their One of the greatest controversies "vices" so long as no public scandal that faced the committee assembling was likely.
the new United Methodist Hymnal was
deciding what to do with "Onward,
Christian Soldiers." To many people,
FRANZ SCHUBERT
the hymn was overtly militaristic and -A Life in Gay Circles
therefore unsuitable for the hymnal. To
many other United Methodists, howAnother composer who probably
ever, the hymn was a reminder of the was gay is Franz Schubert. He also is
need for Christians to be vigilant in represented in the new United Methotheir
quest to do God's will and addist Hymnal. The new musical settings
vance God 's word. for Holy Communion include a very
Many of the persons who fought singable set of selections adapted from (successfully) to preserve "Onward, Schubert's Deutche Messe. Christian Soldiers" might be surprised Relatively little information exto learn that the composer of St. Gerists about Schubert's private life. His trude, the hymn's tune, was a British music did not become widely known gay man named Arthur S. Sullivan. until many years after he died, and, as a Along with his musical partner, result, most of what is known about William S. Gilbert, he composed such him comes from memoirs written by popular Victorian satires as HMS Pinafriends. It is clear, however, that fore, The Pirates ofPenzance, and The Schubert most likely was gay. He travMikado. Sullivan is also represented in eled in predominantly gay circles. Of the new hymnal by the tune St. Kevin, the several friends he lived with from used for the hymn "Come Ye Faithful, his early teens, only one ever married Raise the Strain." -and that man at the age of 61.
Although Sullivan chose to live Schubert died at age 31 , after suffering
his life "discreetly," his homosexuality for years from syphilis.
6
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BENJAMIN BRITTEN
-20th-Century Choral
Composer
Any church choir that performs Christmas cantatas each year has probably at some time or another performed A Ceremony of Carols by Benjamin Britten. These choirs may also have performed Britten's other, shorter religious anthems -Hymn to St. Cecilia, Rejoice in the Lamb, and others.
Britten is considered to have been not just one of the most important 20th-century composers but one of the greatest British composers ever. He was a prolific writer of choral and orchestral compositions but is probably best known for his operas. Two of these -Billy Budd and Death in Venice -were based on literary texts with strong homosexual undercurrents.
With both Billy Budd and Death in Venice, Britten wrote the principal role for tenor Peter Pears. Pears and Britten met each other in 1934 while preparing a broadcast of Britten's A Boy Was Born. Three years later, after Britten had accepted his homosexuality, they became lovers. They lived together until Britten's death in 1976. In a 1980 interview, Pears described their union as having been filled with "passionate devotion, faith, and love."
LEONARDO DA VINCI
-Linking God and Humanity
Through Art
One of the most famous depictions of an event in Jesus' life is Leonardo da Vinci's painting The Last Supper. Many Christians recognize with awe the God-given creativity that Leonardo's work in this painting and others clearly displays.
Yet many of these same Christians might have trouble seeing God's presence in other aspects of Leonardo's life. At the age of 24, he was imprisoned for two months when he and four other young men were accused of having sex with a 17-year-old lad named Jacopo Saltarelli. Later, Leonardo hired a 10-year-old studio boy named Giacomo Caprotti, who was described as "graceful and beautiful, with fine curly hair, in which Leonardo greatly delighted." Salai, as the boy was nicknamed, eventually became Leonardo's pupil and lover. Leonardo also took in a young gentleman named Francesco Melzi, who became his lifelong companion and eventually was executor of Leonardo's estate.
Leonardo rejected strong convictions on either side of the religious controversies of his day. He had no use for such concepts as a special Creation or the Flood. But he was a deeply religious man, who loved the Church and who saw artists as forces able to link God, nature, and human existence.
MICHELANGELO
And His Love Sonnets
Probably the most famous of the visual artists commissioned to do works of art for the Vatican and various Italian patrons was Michelangelo Buonarotti. His creative genius shone through in such masterpieces as the sculptures the Pieta, David, and Moses, and his painting ofthe ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. All these masterpieces share in glorifying the muscular, male nude body.
Though Michelangelo always maintained a discreet silence about his sex life, his general partiality to young men was well known in Rome, where he lived. Some historians suspect that the male models he used for his statues of both men and women shared his bed as well as his studio. Michelangelo's affections were particularly strong for the young nobleman Tommasso Cavalieri and Febo di Poggio, a young prostitute who' worked as one of his models.
Michelangelo expressed his feelings for these men through sonnets that leave no secret of his affection . In one letter, he wrote, "Whenever I behold someone who. possesses any talent or liveliness of mind, or displays any excellence in action or grace of body, I am impelled to fall in love with him. I give myself up to him so entirely that I no longer possess myself, but am wholly his."
ALBRECHT DURER And the Praying Hands
One of the most commonly reproduced pieces of Christian art today is the classic engraving the Praying
Continued on p. 8
~of. dDtail of MiclIeWJplo'. P;~td
Open Hands 7
MALCOLM BOYD
This is ahomosexual bar, Jesus. It looks like any other bar on the outside, only it isn't. Men stand three and four deep at this bar -some just feeling a sense of belonging here, others making contacts for new sexual partners. This isn't very much like a church, Lord, but many members of the church are also here in this bar. Quite afew of the men here belong to the church as we" as to this bar. If they knew how, a number of them would ask you to be with them in both places. Some of them wouldn't, but won't you be with them, too, Jesus?
Reprinted from Are You Running wjth Me, Jesus?: Prayers by Malcolm Boyd. Copyright © 1965 by Malcolm Boyd. Reprinted by permission of the author.
As ayoung gay man, I was alonely outsider and rebel. I felt condemned by society for being who I was, and had no help to understand what being gay could possibly mean in any hopeful, positive, or creative ways.
The ideal of the lover was always close and tender to me. The lover would touch me, hold me ... laugh and cry with me ... understand ... be kind, not vengeful ... let me be myself, even while helping me to grow ... share in a loving mutuality ... .
My theology slowly took root in my experience and consciousness as agay man. Life around me, as within, seemed brutal, lonely, repressive. Who was God? Surely, the antithesis of what was brutal, lonely, repressive.
I adored God. God was my strength. God was with me. God cared. In God's view, everything came together somehow and made sense. God looked upon life and it was good. God made life. God redeemed life.
From my view, God was never the Torturer. God did not run concentration camps for people. God was not the Executioner, Cruel Judge, Absolute Monarch, Totalitarian Dictator, Capricious Deity.
I learned to know God as The Lover.
Reprinted from Gay Priest: An Inner Journey by Malcolm Boyd. Copyright © 1986 by Malcolm Boyd. Reprinted by permission 0/ the author.
Open Hands Continued from p. 7
Hands or, more properly, Hands in an Attitude of Prayer. The story of how this work of art by Albrecht Durer came to be created is also a beautiful story of the deep love between two men in 15th-century Germany.
As a young man, Durer aspired to an artistic career, as did a close friend of his. Neither man was wealthy, however, and they lacked the financial resources to study art at the same time. The friend agreed to work at manual labor and earn a living for the two of them while Durer pursued his studies. In tum, when Durer finished school, he agreed to work while his friend studied. Unfortunately, by the time Durer had completed his training, his friend's hands had stiffened from manual labor to the point where he could not pursue his own painting career. Later, when Durer prepared a series of anatomical drawings, he included an engraving of his friend's gnarled hands. Thus, the Praying Hands is one man's loving tribute to the selfless giving of another man, a memorial to their deep love for each other.
The kind of giving demonstrated
by Durer and his friend is typical of the
sacrifices that men and women
throughout history have made for those
with whom they are in committed relationships.
The historical evidence
indicates that Durer and his friend were
almost certainly male lovers.
MALCOLM BOYD
-Running With Jesus
In 1965, an activist Episcopal priest published a book of poetically written prayers that evoked God's presence in the concerns both of everyday life and of a rapidly changing society. After a slow start, Malcolm Boyd's Are You Running with Me, Jesus? became a national best seller, garnering rave reviews in religious and secular publications. His prayers were used in worship services, studied in church school classes, and read by hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people.
Thirteen years and several successful books later, Boyd published an autobiography, Take Offthe'Masks. In it, he talked about coming to grips with one aspect of his personhood that he had long kept deeply private: his homosexuality . This time, the reaction was different. Secular and religious publications refused to review or (in some cases) accept advertisements for it, and television programs that had interviewed him before turned down opportunities to do so with this book.
Suddenly, religious people who had admired Boyd's work seemed to want to forget they had ever praised him.
But Boyd's voluminous writings could not be forgotten. Nor could his continuing literary productivity be stifled. The man who had gone from Hollywood promotion and production in the 1940s to the priesthood in the 1950s to leadership in the civil rights and peace movements of the 1960s continued his ministries while shifting the focus of his writings somewhat.
More than a decade after the release of Take Off the Masks, Malcolm Boyd continues to be a powerful presence in creative religious literature. While serving as writer-priest-inresidence at St. Augustine-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Santa Monica, California, he has written poetry and prose that celebrates gay love and spirituality. He has penned meditations integrating gay sexuality with his faith. In his 1986 book Gay Priest: An Inner Journey, for example, he portrays God as The Lover and Christ as The Runner. And he has helped prepare liturgical rituals that minister to the special needs of gay and lesbian Christians, including AIDS masses and "covenants of commitment." •
Sources for this article include:
Boughner, Terry. Out of All Time: A Gay and Lesbian History. Boston: Alyson, 1988.
Cowan, Thomas. Gay Men and Women Who Enriched the World. New Canaan, Conn.: William Mulvey, 1988.
Grief, Martin. The Gay Book of Days. Secaucus, N.J.: Lyle Stuart, 1982.
Profiles: Men and Women of the Bible. Study Book #1. Nashville, Tenn: Graded Press, 1986.
Jerry W. Henry is executive secretary for the FeLLowship of United Methodists in Worship, Music. and Other Arts. He is an ordained elder in the South Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and attends Grant Park-Aldersgate UMC , a Reconciling Congregation in Atlanta, Georgia.
Bradley Rymph is co-editor ofOpen Hands. He is a member ofChrist UMC, a Reconciling Congregation in Washington, D.C.
8
Walking on the Edges
An I nterview with Tina Heck
Tina Heck is an artist living in the San Francisco Bay area. Recently ordained as a Disciples ofChrist minister, she puts together herfaith and her art through creating art during worship experiences.
Asa lesbian artistminister, she walks on the edges ofseveral realms. In this interview with Open Hands, Tina shares what it' s like for her to walk on those edges and how she integrates those realms in her life.
How did you come to be involved in the religious arts?
I am a visual artist -a painter, illustrator, and graphic artist. When I came into the seminary at Pacific School of Religion to study for my Masters of Divinity degree, I discovered a program for worship and the arts. I immediately got involved and over the past three years have been more intentional about combining my call to ministry and my art. It is not possible to separate them anymore. It's not a common ministry; I'm having to create it as I go along. For example, my ministry is not going to a church and being an artist in residence. Through this process of discovery, I have begun to put art and religion together in unique ways.
What are some art projects in which you have been involved? What do they express for you?
One project I'm working on right .now is creating art during worship services, as a part of the worship experience. Using not just the traditional Christian symbols, I expand people's awareness. This weekend I was at a conference and did some painting during the worship service. I pushed people's "buttons" because I was using female imagery as God imagery. People were both very excited by it and at the same time disturbed by it. For me, it was a way to take a prophetic stance in a visual form.
I'm also working on a mural on women in the church as a part of my thesis project. It's a large portable mural on sections of canvas. This project is exciting because it deals with feminist theology in a way that's visual and not completely academic, the way it's usually been dealt with in religious studies.
I also have designed a number of logos in the past few months for different groups and ministries, including AIDS ministries, here in the Bay Area. The elements of visualizing healing, spiritual awareness, the importance of spirit, and bodies are all brought together through such religious art. A creation-centered spirituality comes out of my art. I'm not into drawing chalices or church buildings. My work is more bodycentered. People respond to it, which says to me there is a real need to get new imagery in the religious world. We need to get away from the traditional cross and fish images that we've known for so many years.
I have also done flyers and bulletin covers. The bulletin covers for church services are often in a series, expressing a particular theme, like one I did during Lent.
Are your projects by commission?
For a couple of years getting paid was rare. Much of my art has been something I've been able to give to people as a gift. Now I'm moving into charging a fee for what I do since it's my
Open Hands 9
-
-""" .-. ............ ...... -, ... -----..... -----.",-.." --., -' ,..~ , ,,, ---. . . , -, -spiritual
life or even a healthy emotional life if I was completely isolated from the gay or lesbian Christian community. That would be very difficult. I would not consciously choose to go into that kind of position. I know a lot of people are in that position, and it's very difficult to move out of isolation, I'm aware of that. But I really am thankful for the gay and lesbian community here. It very much sustains me.
What barriers have you experienced in your pursuit ofreligious arts?
I've met up with some folks who don't think art is valid. I think that just comes from the fact that many people think art is this sideline thing, something you do as a hobby. The secular world is so much more accepting of art as a serious study, as a serious vocation. Especially in studying for the ministry, there's a real expectation to become a mainline minister and preach and teach and do all those things that are very common. Anything that really pushes those boundaries out, people don't know what to do with. For instance, if you write plays and you're a minister, I don't think your congregation is going to understand. That's one way I have met with barriers. I don't fit in anywhere as a religious artist, as a lesbian artist minister. I'm really walking on the edges of a lot ofexpectations, not only as a lesbian but as an artist as well.
The other barrier I've run up against is my own expectations, in terms of translating theology into a visual form, into an art form instead of an academic form . That expectation comes from the seminary more than anywhere else. Seminaries are higher education, graduate work. And even if I do all my academic work and do it well, the visual arts do not carry anywhere near the weight that academic work has. It's considered "light-weight" or "artsy-fartsy" or whatever you want to call it. It's definitely not considered as substantial as academic work.
That's reflective of our complete overload on "left-brain" learning -words and theories rather than dealing with the experience of the whole person. I think that barrier is everywhere, not just in the church. The exception to that being in the art world, of course, where visual arts are counted as significant.
How do you see religious arts moving, changing, growing?
For one thing, the arts in the church period, regardless of sexuality, are really just beginning to sprout some new life. It's something that churches are beginning to see is really very much needed. Some churches, more than others, are actively incorporating arts into in their own worship. Art in general, and visual arts especially, are really going to make a big impact in the next 10 years on the life of the church. Music and drama have had their place for years, and awareness of their value as art forms is growing also. Visual arts are coming alive much more. I think churches are hungry for it.
Because it's been absent?
Exactly. Especially Protestant mainline churches have had a horrendous lack of visual imagery , with the exception of a few banners that we put together. (And half the time those are very embarrassing!) I think artists in the church make up a small group of people who are really committed to making art a dynamic, vital part of the faith community. It's one way gay and lesbian artists can be directly involved in the church in very life-giving, creative ways. That kind of possibility is so hopeful, so dynamic. Art is one avenue among others for gay and lesbian people to be giving of themselves.
Doing the kind of art I do can be a risk. Because I'm doing imagery that is radical to many, it disturbs people. And yet, our society is much more tolerant of artists than of preachers. It's a very different thing to do radical imagery as an artist than to get up in a pUlpit and say such radical things.
I think art speaks to people on a deeper level. We're so bombarded with words that the visual arts are able to really hit often on a deeper level for people. They can take something in through art that may be just as radical as a sermon, if not more so, but it reaches a different part of them. We assimilate and integrate art and words different ways in our brains. Because of that, I find it exciting the kind of changes in the community that can come through art and the kinds of messages that gay or lesbian artists can bring.
TiM Heek is an artist
living in the
San Francisco Bay area.
Havingfinished her
Master ofDIvinity Degree
at Pacific SchooL ofReligion.
she is currentLy working
on a M.A . degree in worship
and the arts.
Open Hands 11
Coming Out:
Alone in a closet whose walls are named fear, hate, other; lesbian. Alone in a dark cramped closet, suffocating. To come out requires courage, courage to squeeze through a narrow door. And so you do. Come out fearfully, and go back in. Come out eagerly, with extended hand that's knocked away. Come out tough this time, you'll not get hurt, only to be slammed into the ground. And writhing you crawl back into the closet. Tears. Anger. A gun could easily kill oneself . .. others. No! The gun flung. Damn! Fists slam, and then, open hands. Wonder. Claiming self naming self finding the door. Open hands reach out, reach out to be embraced.
-Patricia Broughton
12 Open Hands
AStory in Mime
Mary Gaddis is thefounder of Women Empowering Women in northern CaLifornia. where she aLso works as a pLumber and pipe fitter. Mary has presented her "coming out" mime and other stories to church audiences around the country. After one such presentation. one observer. Patricia Broughton, wrote the poem that accompanies the photographs. Patricia is a freeLance writer and photographer in Chicago.
Open Hands 13
What's in a arne?
by Chris Glaser
The 1978 General Assembly of the former United Presbyterian Church dealt a decisive blow to the gay and lesbian struggle for ordination. I had figured prominently in the nationwide debate over a controversial task force recommendation that homosexuality should not necessarily bar someone from ordained ministry in the denomination. I had served on that task force as its only penly gay member. During the same time period , I had become national coordinator of Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns and had begun directing a ministry reconciling the church and the lesbian/gay community called Lazarus Project. Much of my identity, as perceived by others, was related to my sexuality.
A few weeks after the task force recommendation was rejected and a ban on ordination was put in place by that General Assembly, a friend decided I needed to get away and took me to Aspen, Colorado.
14 Open Hands
Aspen in the summertime is fresh and green and Eden-like. As I climbed a mountain, I felt my soul undressing, removing layers of identity that hung heavy on iny shoulders. I was no longer gay; I was no longer Presbyterian; I was no longer male. As I unburdened myself of these identities, the elemental parts of myself joined nature around me. I no longer blocked the wind: it seemed to breeze through me. I no longer simply observed the beautiful green of the grass and blue of the sky and grey of the rocks:
my eyes were one with them. My soul soared as my body ascended. "What a relief!" I thought. "What a release."
And then, as if all of this were not enough, I made a serendipitous discovery. At the top of the mountain that I climbed was a meadow, surrounded by aspens whose fresh leaves flickered in the wind as candle flames in a sanctuary. I laughed aloud, tears of joy sprang from deep within me, and I danced ecstatically.
This vision that I was something more than the labels applied to me has stayed me in the most turbulent times of chaos and confrontation. It has also helped me see that others are something more than the labels by which I try to lay hands of understanding on them. Better to reach out with open hands than hands that grasp identities solely, whether the identities are of me or ofothers. And to know that rising above identities and labels leads to a green, wooded meadow restores my soul when I feel that I'm close to burnout.
As natio nal coordinator of Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns, I received letters from those who similarly did not want to be defined simply by labels, specifically, their sexual orientation. I also occasionally received letters from those whose unmarried status, particular vocation, or inclusion of opposite gender personality traits caused others to
suspect or assume they were lesbian or gay. A gay man told me that he was considering marriage so that, when he was divorced, no one would question his sexuality. A nongay woman found herself the object of gossip in her denomination because she attended a largely gay congregation. A nongay unmarried minister described being frequently refused consideration for jobs because he had no "proof' of heterosexuality. Rather than embittering him toward the lesbian/gay movement in the church, this experience had created in him a deep solidarity with us. (Sadly, this isn't always true even for gay and lesbian church workers. Many have kept their distance from the very movement that sacrificially works for their rights in the church!)
Perhaps no single group of professional church workers has suffered more suspicion and stereotyping than church artists: organists, choirmasters, liturgical performers, iconographers, and so on. Part of the reason is that it is true that a disproportionate number of gay men and lesbian women are drawn to church careers as well as to creative expressions of their faith. I believe that the attraction to serve the church and the development of aesthetic sensitivity grows out of the experience of being a dispossessed minority within society and the church. This leads to motives for church work ranging from the basic needed for approval to the complex transformation of suffering into beauty.
Another reason that lesbians and gay men may choose a ministry in the arts is that it is a form of ministry that does not require ordination, presently forbidden for them in most of Christendom. Less scrutiny of personal lives is involved, and more privacy is possible. This is not to say that a ministry in the arts is a second choice. Rather, it is an option for spreading the gospel as viable as becoming a pastor, yet with a greater guarantee of personal freedom.
Despite the sizable lesbian/gay minority, most church artists are not gay or lesbian, and they rightly resent being labeled or imagined to be homosexual because of their vocational choices . Many of their lesbian/gay counterparts resent such labeling, too. I would hope that this would not set church artists over against the movement for lesbian/gay rights in the church. Rather, I would hope these artists would join the unmarried non gay man described earlier. He transformed the pain of discrimination for whom people mistook him to be into solidarity with those who suffer discrimination because of who they are.
Like the king of Denmark who wore a yellow star in solidarity with his Jewish subjects when Nazi Germany began its occupation of their country and the persecution of the Jews, so God may be calling church artists to figuratively wear pink triangles to protect those among them who are lesbian or gay. Labels are burdensome, but as Christians we are called to bear one another's burdens. How often I have felt compelled to speak up for lesbian and gay rights in the church when I wished other people in the room would share the burden! As a result, I have been labeled a "militant radical ," a member of "the homosexual lobby," and "an angry young man," when, indeed, my friends regard me as friendly and vulnerable, and my fel low church workers consider me pastoral and patient.
Nongay church artists have less to fear than those who are gay or lesbian, though those who speak up for gay rights in the church may do so 'at vocational and personal cost. Lesbian and gay artists must speak up themselves whenever possible , and at least financially support those who sacrifice time and vocation to speak on behalf of their rights.
The 'kingdom or commonwealth of God is the, aspen meadow beyond labels and identities where "there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female." It is there waiting for us whenever we need to lay aside our burdensome identities, so that our soul may be restored and our vision and perspective may be renewed. But, even as Jesus took on his identity as a first-century Palestinian Jew to do his ministry, so we are called to our ministries within our several identities. Part of that ministry, I believe, is leading others in our communal ascent above labels to enjoy ourselves and one another as children of God's creation. •
Chris Glaser is the author ofUncommon Calling: A Gay Man's Struggle to Serve the Church (Harper & Row, 1988). He is a member of United University Church in Los AngeLes, a federated United Methodist-Presbyterian congregation. It is both a Reconciling Congregation and a More Light Church.
A Prayer for
Martin Luther King, Jr./s
Birthday
God of aII colors: the one who made me want to speak and to write with quiet, eloquent significance, was black. Yet, though principal of my high
school,
his family was not allowed
to buy a home in our
neighborhood .
God, forgive us.
God, deliver us.
For we have accepted the gifts of
many while rejecting their body-selves because of color, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation,
appearance.
Help us to realize if the gifts are beautiful, so are they. Help us to celebrate others'
value
by their fruits
not the shape of the trees.
-Chris Glaser
Reprinted from "A More Light Prayer Book," More Light Update, the newsletter of Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns, January 1989.
Open Hands 15
Meditations on God
by Susan Echo
I.
God is a woman
who sings the blues
and it ain't
My Man Done Got Away.
God is in the body
of a woman or child
beaten with a stick
or a fist.
It ain't got to do just with
the body, or sprinkling the water, or bread.
The body is an altar upon which
we no longer sacrifice.
Hey You There!
Take off your shoes
And ask the spi rit
if it's okay for you to visit
this particular temple,
and at this particular time.
Or wash your feet
and come back later,
when the table is set for you.
Or not at all.
Don't desecrate my temples,
my calves,
my palms.
My navel,
my nipples,
my ear lobes,
my pudenda,
or that sensitive corner
in the small of my back.
II.
God is a magpie whose airborne, wings beat and punctuate the wind like a semaphore code which we have yet to crack.
God's eternal laugh floods the universe, is picked up by mechanical sensors and is mistaken for the Big Bang. But God keeps on laughin.
God plays the blues and caresses his horn like a Louie Armstrong who doesn't sweat and trumpets his love around the universe wrapping it in a string of so many notes like stars.
III.
She's sneaking
out back' the house
down by the creek
hidin' behind the
broken-open cattails for cover,
Singin for all Her people,
cryin that they
are starvin with hungry bellies,
are bruised with the leprosy
of a hated disease,
are driven away by the people they love,
cryin cause they can't tell
even thei r best friend the
name of the person
whom they really love,
are disinherited from
their roots, their pasts,
their families, their very lives.
Minds torched by Gaslights, they are
alone. All alone.
16 Open Hands
IV.
They are gagged and fettered against
god's house,
and barred from
uttering the words, from
issuing forth the chalice and the bread
to those who need to drink
from the hands of their
own apostolic procession
to be reconciled and made whole.
The blood in the church is from the fists
pounding at the door,
not from the lamb on the altar,
or the overturned cup.
Not the sacrificial lamb on the door jam.
Those not in the sanctuary
are not passed over
.
-;:;.....V9"..:.c.(but are victim to the falloutbullets,
bombs, napalm,
deportation and death, or else
the white ashes of
our only eons
reigning from the sky.)
It is the oil of their hands
on the door jam
~;;;J that lubricates the hinges
for those who hold the keys.
V.
God-dess
is clearing her throat
bout ready to
give us all
a piece of her mind
'Bout how we spoil her planet,
not just by spittin on the sidewalks
(which don't 'xactly amuse her),
but by these eternal erections,
these unholy chemical combustions,
these super-instant destructo machines,
these lazer reflective panels
in her heavenly spheres,
from cannons to mustard gas,
to the Trident to the neutron bomb,
from (whose Empire anyway?) State Building
to the futuristic obsceni~ies
of Three Mile Islands.
VI.
If God were to tal k,
what would she say
about sex? or How would she
sing that song?
(Shug Avery seems to be our only
contemporary clue ....)
I don't think she'd sing it to us
'bout steamrollers, babe
"roll on over you."
If she were a dyke like me
she'd sing it sweet and soft
with lips puckered like a kiss to the wind
to those of declining body
seeking haven and rest in a home where they won't be invisible or mistaken for someone else,
to those who are victims of others who lash out in their own internalized insidious self-loathing,
to those who have answered the call but aren't allowed in the door who are not able to touch the altar,
to those who hide and clothe their most profound love/communion for fear of losing their sources of survival in the world,
to those broken in spirit who lost the string leading back to the labyrinth of love.
Susan Echo lives and writes in Denver and currently serves on the Coordinating Council of the United Church Coalition f or Lesbian/Gay Concerns. Her poetry has been published in WomanSpirit and Women Energy.
Open Hands 17
-
--------~------------------~-------------------RESOURCE
Art & Religion -General
Bryans, Nena. Full Circle: A Proposal to the Church for an Arts Ministry. San Carlos, Calif.: Schuyler Institute for Worship and the Arts, 1988.
L'Engle, Madeleine. Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art. Wheaton, Ill. : Shaw Publications, 1980.
Yates, Wilson . The Arts in Theological Education: New Possibilities for Integration. Decatur, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1988.
Bryans and Yates each argue that the arts are essential to the church's effective performance of its ministries. Each book offers models for integrating the arts into the church's life. L'Engle explores the creative/spiritual process from a writer's point of view.
Clowning, Mime, & Religion
Kipnis, Claude. The Mime Book. New York: Harper and Row, 1974. Robertson, Everett. The Ministry of Clowning. Nashville: Broadman, 1983. Shaffer, Floyd. If I Were a Clown. Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984.
Shaffer presents a theological basis for clowning, while Robertson offers a good "how-to" book on clowning in worship. Kipnis's book, though not specifically religious in focus, is a classic work on mime.
Dance & Religion
Daniels, Marilyn. The Dance in Christianity. Ramsey, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1981.
Gagne, Ronald; Kane, Thomas; and VerEecke, Robert, eds. Introducing Dance in Christian Worship. Washington, D.C.: Pastoral Press, 1984.
Rock, Judith. Performer as Priest and Prophet: Worship in Music and Dance. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988.
Three good, historical overviews of the
use of dance in Christian worship.
Music & Religion
Johnson, Lawrence J. The Mystery of Faith: The Ministers of Music. Washington, D.C.: Pastoral Press, 1983.
Pastoral Music. Bimonthly journal of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, Washington, D.C.
Johnson explores the varying roles of music in worship, using history, liturgical documentation, and reflection. Pastoral Music contains essays and reviews about the use of music in worship.
Visual Art & Religion
Adams, Doug, and Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane, eds. Art as Religious Studies. New York: Crossroad, 1987.
Apostolos-Cappadona, Diane, ed. Art, Creativity, and the Sacred: An Anthology in Religion and Art. New York: Crossroad, 1983.
Dillenberger, Jane. Style and Content in Christian Art. New York: Crossroad, 1986.
Dillenberger, John. The Visual Arts and Christianity in America: From the Colonial Period to the Present. rev., enl. ed. New York: Crossroad, 1988.
Tina Heck says that the first two of these books "reflect a lot on different kinds of perspectives people have in t rms of art and religion and how they meet, where they connect." The Dillenberger books are well-regarded scholarly works on Christian art. Jane Dillenberger is an art historian at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, while John is a theologian there.
Gay Men & Lesbians in the Religious Arts
Boughner, Terry. Out of All Time: A Gay and Lesbian History. Boston: Alyson, 1988.
Cowan, Thomas. Gay Men and Women Who Enriched the World. New Canaan, Conn.: William Mulvey , 1988.
Rowse, A. L. Homosexuals in History: Ambivalence in Society, Literature and the Arts. New York: Macmillan, 1977.
These books explore the contributions that gay men and lesbians have made to society, the arts, and religion over the centuries. Boughner and Cowan present selected personality profiles, including such creative geniuses as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Benjamin Britten. Also included among the many profiles are King James I of England and Scotland, who commissioned the translation of the Bible that commonly bears his name, and Erasmus, a medieval Bible translator and scholar. Oxford historian Rowse explores various historical ages
and the contributions that different gay
men made to their respective societies.
Women & the Arts
Hedges, Elaine, and Wendt, Ingrid, eds .. In Her Own Image: Women Working in the Arts. New York: Feminist Press, 1980.
Nochlin, Linda. Women, Art, and Power and Other Essays. New York: Harper and Row, 1988.
Hedges and Wendt present an interesting anthology of essays about women in the arts, both historical and contemporary, and about the significance of women's art as a force for social change. They also include illustrations and examples of visual and literary works of art by various women. Nochlin offers seven essays on different women artists and on women in art history.
Inclusive Worship Resources
The following books contain musical or liturgical material that can be useful to any congregation attempting to design its worship life to include persons (such as lesbians and gay men) who can feel excluded by the language and imagery of traditional worship resources:
Duck, Ruth C. Bread for the Journey: Resources for Worship. New York: Pilgrim, 1981. Flames of the Spirit: Resources for Worship. New York: Pilgrim, 1985. Inclusive-language liturgical resources.
Duck, Ruth c. , and Bausch, Michael G., eds. Everftowing Streams: Songs for Worship. New York: Pilgrim, 1981. Excellent collection of new hymns and inclusive-language modifications of old favorites. A particular favorite in Affirmation circles.
Huber, Jane Parker. A Singing Faith. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1987. All new lyrics set to familiar hymn tunes.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford . Women-Church: Theology and Practice. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1985. Both a theological discussion of feminist liturgy and a collection of rituals for a variety of occasions. Includes "Coming-Out Rite for a Lesbian" and "Covenant Celebration for a Lesbian Couple."
Winter, Miriam Therese. WomanPrayer / WomanSong: Resources for Ritual. Oak Park, Ill.: Meyer Stone Books, 1987. New music and liturgy from a feminist Catholic perspective.
Several of these resources were suggested by J. Bruce Stewart. director of the Center for Liturgy and the Arts, Annandale. Virginia.
18 Open Hands
Ours the Journey Julian B. Rush
f 3 r r
1.
In the midst of new di -men-sions, In the face of chang-ing ways,
2.
Thru the flood of starv -ing peo -pIes, war -ring fac -tions and des -pair,
3.
Thru the years of hu -man strug -gle, walk a peo -pie long des -pised,
4.
We are Black and we are A -sian, In -di -an, His pan -ic, White,
5.
We are man and we are wo -man, all per -sua -sions, old and young,
6.
Should the threats of dark pre -dic -tions cause us to with -draw in pain,
~
B
r: r~r f & Who will lead the pil -grim peo -pies wan -der -ing their sep -arate ways? Who will lift the o -live bran -ches? Who will light the flame of care? Gays and les -bi -ans to -geth -er fight -ing to be re -al ized. We a rain -bow co -a -Ii -tion, all of va -lue In thy sight. Each a gift in thy cre -a -tions, each a love song to be sung. May thy bla -zing phoe -nix spir -it res -ur -rect the church a gain.
God of rain -bow, fier Y pil -lar, lead -ing where the
ea -gles soar, We, thy peo -pie, ours the jour -ney
now and e -ver, now and e -ver, now and e -ver -more.
© 1985 Julian B. Rush
All Rights Reserved International Copyright Secured Printed in U.S.A.
Open Hands 19
by Dale McCurdy
When I was in high school in the late 1960s and active in what was then the Methodist Youth Fellowship, I knew that I was called to work in the church. I wasn't able to ascertain what shape that calling would take until my late twenties when I entered full -time church work in the United Methodist Church after several years of teaching and professional singing.
At the large church where I served as full-time director of music, I was able to create a vital and active music ministry. This gave me great personal satisfaction and touched the minds and hearts of many children, youth, and adults in the congregation.
I was a consecrated diaconal minister and had been working at this church ten years when it became apparent to me that my goals for ministry in that particular congregation had been reached. I knew it was time to set my sights on different targets and "write a new chapter" in my life and ministry.
After months of networking, resume writing, and applying for new positions, I discovered ajob which looked attractive at a church of another denomination over 2,000 miles from the church I had been serving. I was invited to an interview where the pastor and layperson who was chair of the search committee talked specifics of a job offer with me. We discussed salary (a very nice increase, for which I
20 Open Hands
was grateful), benefits, generous moving expenses, and the date when I would first conduct the music at the new church.
I obviously had the strengths, skills, and commitment which the church required in a music director. I knew that under my direction the music ministry at that church could grow and that a new era could begin for them. I had additional expertise in church growth and evangelism which was needed by the congregation.
For the preceding two years, I had been on a spiritual journey which led me to believe that I might benefit from the more evangelicallinward-centered faith the new church espoused. I felt that I would be able to grow and learn from being a part of their tradition, and they from me with my peculiarly United Methodist understanding that "the world is our parish. "
A few days later I received a formal confirmation of the job offer. I remember the exact words of the committee chair during that late night call and my feeling of excitement when he said, "Dale, will you come to our community and serve as director of music at First Church?" I replied that I would be delighted.
The following day I resigned my position at the church which had nurtured me, and where I had gone thro~gh so much of my faith journey. The outpouring of love, joy for me in my new adventure, and gratitude for my ministry at the church was overwhelming. I arranged for housing in the new community, and looked forward to an exciting new ministry.
The next week I received a telephone call from the new church. The pastor said, that since they had suspected that I was a gay person, they were rescinding the call to ministry. His exact words were, "You need to know that our denomination and our local church feel that gay people are not appropriate in ministry."
I felt betrayed, hurt, and angry . I was denied the opportunity to serve a church where my talents could have been used in a dramatic new way. Not only was I left adrift without a ministry, but with a lease signed in a new community where I knew no one. The church even wrote me a form letter thanking me for my interest in the position as if I had not received a call to serve that congregation and as if I were merely one of many applicants.
Iquickly sought out a new church home in my new community, which turned out to be a United Methodist Reconciling Congregation, Wallingford UMC in Seattle. Here I felt care, concern, and inclusion in contrast to the rejection and hatred evidenced by the other congregation. At this congregation's worship, I learned that I am not alone in feeling called to do the work of the church, and that there is a growing movement afoot to spend more time in the church including people rather than excluding people.
Through the kindness of people in the new community, I was put in touch with a Lutheran congregation where I now serve as part-time director of music. I was encouraged to find another congregation, one which reacted to me as a person in a much more Christlike fashion. Not all who call themselves Christians are prisoners of their own fear.
I am not serving a church full-time but am taking this opportunity to evaluate
my calling and see where I perceive that God needs me to serve. Paradoxically, the church which was so concerned about my sexuality has had a part in creating a person who is even more committed to resisting injustice, ignorance, and hatred,
What I have learned is that God calls each of us to service of one kind or another. Being · embraced in the loving nature of God, I feel even more powerfully the words of Paul, "Neither powers nor principalities nor ... can separate me from the love of God."
Sadly, my experience is not uncommon. Many other lesbian and gay people strive to live out their calling to celebrate the religious arts within church communities and are pushed away. How do we deal with this fear on the part of the church and its people?
One way, I believe, is to continue to claim the church as our own . We refuse to let others define ourselves or our ministry. The church belongs to all of us, and, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "Until we are all free, none of us is free."
Another road we can choose to travel is one of mutual support with other gay/ lesbian people and non-gay/lesbian people whose visions of the church are inclusive. I personally have felt the support of many friends. lowe a great debt especially to those with whom I shared many hours in a support group.
I jealously guard a regular time of prayer, reading, and reflection to enable me to remain faithful. I thank God for writers like Chris Glaser (Uncommon Calling) and Brian McNaught (On Being Gay) who helped me affinn my calling as a gay person through their impassioned writing.
One effective way I have found as a gay Christian to empower myself is to be constantly aware of opportunities to share my witness with others. While we remain nameless, it is easy for the church to be condemnatory. When we come out to others in love, however, we can celebrate an important victory. We enable others as members of the body of Christ to be true to the gospel as proclaimed for ALL people.
In the final analysis, however, the approval of a committee, the General Conference, the bishop, or the pope is not necessary for our affinnation. The right to claim Christ as our Savior belongs to each man and woman as a child of God. •
Dale McCurdy servedfor 10 years as diaconaL ministerofmusicatCommunity UMC. NaperviLLe. ILLinois.
Easter Processional
By John S. Rice
CHRIST THE LORD IS RISEN TODAY, ALLELUIA! How can I sing your song in a strange land? SONS OF lvfEN AND ANGELS SAY, ALLELUIA! Where the words and the rules exclude me, RAISE YOUR JOYS AND TRIUMPHS HIGH, ALLELUIA! And where your Church won't accept me? SING YE HEAVENS, AND EARTH REPLY, ALLELUIA! Deliver me, 0 God, from these, my excuses for not singing.
LIVES AGAIN OUR GLORIOUS KING, ALLELUIA! Explode my understanding, 0 God, WHERE, 0 DEATH, IS NOW THY STING? ALLELUIA! Until my words can't contain your inclusive love, ONCE HE DIED, OUR SOULS TO SAVE, ALLELUIA! Until my fear won't silence my witness, WHERE'S THY VICTORY, BOASTING GRAVE? ALLELUIA! Until even death is trusted to be always in your care.
LOVE'S REDEEMING WORK IS DONE, ALLELUIA! Continue in me your work of redemption FOUGHT THE FIGHT, THE BATILE WON, ALLELUIA! That by your constant nurture and gentle care DEATH IN VAIN FORBIDS HIM RISE, ALLELUIA! My life may be a sign that all of stubborn creation CHRIST HATH OPENED PARADISE, ALLELUIA! Is being made new and whole.
SOAR WE NOW WHERE CHRIST HAS LED, ALLELUIA! Rearrange my secret words of sorrow and fear FOLLOWING OUR EXALTED HEAD, ALLELUIA! Into lusty songs ofIOvingkindness and joy; MADE LIKE HIM, LIKE HIM WE RISE, ALLELUIA! Pry my fingers loose from their enduring excuses OURS THE CROSS, THE GRAVE, THE SKIES, ALLELUIA! That they may hug, heal, and perhaps play castanets.
John S. Rice is director of Worship Works. a nationaL worship resource network.
Open Hands 21
~I----_RC
-«.J _ P RE_POR_T-_
about 200 in the mid-1970s. The past few years have brought slow but steady growth, with a current membership of
235.
Euclid's focus of ministry falls into two primary arenas. Its "church and world concerns" ministry has addressed a variety of concerns locally , nationally, and globally. As one sign of its growth and commitment, the congregation's budget for church and world concerns has increased from $3,000 to $24,000 over the past five years.
The ministry of education is also an important part of the Euclid community. The Christian education program ad-
A
IDS ministries
A Resource for Christian Education and Study
Sexuality and spirituality
Welcome to New Reconciling Congregations
Euclid UM C
(Oak Park, Illinois)
Euclid UMC is an active and growing congregation in Oak Park, a multiethnic suburb of Chicago. The congregation was founded in 1898 and is one of five United Methodist churches in Oak Park.
Like many other churches, Euclid suffered a significant decline in the 1960s, dropping to a membership of
Homophobia in the church Sexual ethics
~ Every issue focuses on a particular theme related to m inistry with lesbians and gay men. ~ Every issue provides thought-provoking and discussion-generating a.rticles which probe the breadth of the particular theme. ~ Every issue also provides suggested resources for further study. ~ Used in both adult and youth settings.
ISSUES AVAILABLE:
o "Be Ye Reconciled" (Summer 1985)
o "A Matter ofJustice" (Winter 1986)
o "Our Families" (Spring 1986)
o "Our Churches' Policies" (Summer 1986)
o "Images of Healing" (Fall 1986)
o "Homophobia and the Church" (Winter 1987)
o "Minorities within a Minority" (Spring 1987)
Single issue: $5
o "An Emerging Community"
(Summer 1987)
o "Sexual Violence" (Fall 1987)
o "Spirituality and Sexuality"
(Winter 1988)
o "Building Reconciling Ministries" (Spring 1988)
o "AIDS and the Church"
(Summer 1988)
o "Raising Reconciling Children" (Fall 1988)
o "Sexual Ethics" (Winter 1989)
10+ copies: $3 each
Single copies available for review at no charge.
Annual subscription (four issues): $16
Please prepay your order with 15% postage and handling to: Open Hands. P.O. Box 2.3636. Washington. DC 20026. For information. write or call 202/863-1586.
22 Open Hands
dresses the needs of the full congregation from young children to older adults.
The process of becoming a Reconciling Congregation began at Euclid about 18 months ago. As part of this process, discussion was held in every committee, in adult Christian education classes, and in special forums. Concerns about being a Reconciling Congregation were addressed in newsletter articles and a congregational survey. One of the key struggles was with the meaning of being a "reconciling" community rather than just an "open" community (the former signifying taking a proactive, inviting stance).
Euclid's decision to become a Reconciling Congregation is a part of its ongoing commitment to a church inclusive of all of God's people.
Walker Community UMC
(Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Walker Community UMC is an inner-city church that has gone through a transformation process during the past 20 years. The community has been a center for community organizing efforts since the late 1960s. Ministries have included addressing housing and education needs and providing alternative institutions to serve the community. Fresh Air Community Radio found its home in the congregation's building. The Southside Family School has evolved out of years of struggle for change within the public school system. Several community theaters, including Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, began on stage in Walker's facilities. The current congregation has its roots in these new community-based institutions.
Walker Community is a small congregation, recovering in many senses. The congregation has grown to 111 members from a low of 42 in the mid1970s. Spiritual recovery and growth are common themes for community members with small groups, workshops, and retreats available for such experiences.
In 1983, Walker became a public sanctuary for refugees from EI Salvador and Guatemala; two Guatemalan refRe
p REPORT
ugees have found safe haven in this community. The decision to become a Reconciling Congregation was more a matter of recognizing what has been the stance of this church for many years. Now in its second century, Walker hopes to be a beacon of light welcoming people of all faiths into a community of nurture and growth -"we sing the songs of all people as we honor the Source of Life. "
* * *
With the addition of Euclid and Walker Community, there are now 38 Reconciling Congregations across the country. Thanks be to God!
"Renewing Our Vision: Parables of Hospitality, Healing, and Hope" To Be Convocation Theme
Plans for the second national gathering of Reconciling Congregations were ironed out by the RCP Advisory Committee at its recent meeting. Set for February 16-18, 1990, the convocation program will focus on grounding our reconciling movement in our biblical witness. The program will include group Bible study, workshops on local church ministries, several worship celebrations, and a festive banquet on Saturday night.
The convocation will be held at the Fort Mason Conference Center on the historic San Francisco waterfront. Fort Mason is a federal park overlooking the San Francisco Bay, a short walk from Fisherman's Wharf.
The weekend will also include special programs for junior and senior high youth participants.
One highlight of · the weekend is sure to be the Saturday night celebration. Julian Rush (pastor of St. Paul's UMC, Denver, director of Colorado AIDS Project, and accomplished composer) is writing and directing a musical/dramatic performance for an ad hoc group of "RC Players."
The convocation is intended primarily for representatives from Reconciling Congregations but will also be open to a limited number of other persons -members of prospective Reconciling Congregations, representatives from other denominations, national church staff, and other interested individuals. So begin thinking about whether you would like to be a participant in this historic and spirit-filled gathering.
The registration fee of $100 for the first representative of a Reconciling Congregation, $75 for each additional RC representative, and $150 for participants not from Reconciling Congregations will include all meals and participation in all convocation activities. A convocation brochure and registration information will be available in the early fall of 1989.
Watch future issues of Open Hands for further information and plan to be in San Francisco in February!
Future Issues of
Open Hands
The upcoming issues of Open Hands will be:
Summer '89 Closetedness and the Church Fall '89 Family-Related Concerns Winter '90 Interfaith Lesbian/Gay Movement Spring '90 Addiction! Co-dependency Summer '90 Celebrating Reconciling Congregations Fall '90 Toward a Gay/Lesbian Theology Winter '91 Adolescents and Homosexuality
If you are interested in writing for one of these issues of Open Hands or could recommend someone else as a possible writer, write to the Open Hands staff at P.O. Box 23636, Washington, DC 20026.
A path to greater understanding ...
And God Loves Each
One:
A Resource for Dialogue
on the Church
and Homosexuality
This booklet's gentle, personto-person approach is a perfect starting place for congregations or individuals dealing with questions about homosexuality:
~ How do people be<.:ome homosexuall
~ What does the Bible say about homosexuality'~
~ What's it like to be gay or lesbian in the <.:hur<.:h today'~
"For all who feel the pain ofour times, this much-needed booklet identifies a path to greater love and understanding."
-C. Dale White, bishop, New York Area, UMC
Written by Ann Thompson Cook, 1988. 20 PI'. Published by the Dumbarton UMC Task For<.:e on Reconciliation; distributed by the Reconciling Congregation Program.
$4.95 per <.:opy
$3.00 for bulk orders (10 or more)
Please prepay your order with
15% postage and handling to:
Reconciling Congregation
Program, P.O. Box 23636,
Washington, DC 20026.
Open Hands 23