Rebecca Richards

REBECCA RICHARDS

Born in 1948 and baptized at Calvary United Methodist Church in Arlington, VA.  Confirmed at Lincolnia UMC in Alexandria, VA.  Raised in a loving Christian home, we never missed a Sunday, Church suppers, picnics and activities like VBC and MYF were a must.  As a young adult, I joined as a Charter Member of Christ UMC in Columbia, MD.  After years of church leadership, including six as a youth group counselor, I knew I must follow the call into full-time ministry.

In 1989 I was ordained a Deacon.  My first full-time appointment brought me great joy - a two-point, "corn field" charge filled with people who seemed to love me as much as I loved them.  But that blessing became an obstacle.  My love for these people made it impossible for me to tell the lies necessary to hide my identity and the reality of the life-giving relationship I had with my partner.  I made the decision to surrender my credentials, and stood before the Executive Session of AC to say why I must leave.

I still love the church of my roots and am a member of St. John's UMC, Baltimore, MD.  This church family, affiliated with the Reconciling Congregations Program, has blessed my union with Kathy, tolerated my occasional preaching, and given me hope when I saw none.  Thanks be to a gracious God!

Of all the denominational subsets of stoles in the collection, United Methodists by far represent the largest percentage of LGBT clergy who were forced out of the ministry, or who left voluntarily because they could no longer tolerate serving in silence.  Rebecca's stole also reflects the hypocrisy of a denomination concerned with a significant shortage of rural pastors, while at the same time denying ordination and calls to committed rural pastors simply because of their sexual orientation.

Rebecca is a faithful servant of God and committed United Methodist to the very core of her being.  The grief and loss she experienced in leaving the ministry is painfully obvious in this brief story.  Fortunately, she has found a loving home at St. John's in Baltimore, and her grief has in now way diminished her faith in God's boundless love.

This is one of thirteen stoles given to us by Dumbarton UMC in advance of the 2000 General Conference of the United Methodist Church in Cleveland, OH.  Dumbarton is a Reconciling congregation, working for the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people into the life and leadership of the United Methodist Church.  In 1999, the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN) inquired about the possibility of having a display of the Shower of Stoles at the General Conference the following April.  At the time, there were only around twenty United Methodist stoles in the collection.  We decided to introduce the Shower of Stoles to the Reconciling community by bringing the twenty UM stoles and about a hundred others to RMN’s Convocation in Denton, TX over the Labor Day weekend.  Stoles started to trickle in during the fall, and by February they began coming in droves.  In all, we received 220 United Methodist stoles – the vast majority of them arriving within eight weeks of the Conference.  Thanks to a monumental effort by a number of volunteers who pitched in to help record, inventory, sew labels and make last-minute repairs, all of the new stoles were present in Cleveland.  Twenty more people brought stoles directly to Cleveland, bringing the total number on display to 240.

 Towards the end of the General Conference, twenty eight lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender United Methodists and allies stood on the Conference floor in silent protest over the Conference’s failure to overturn the ban on LGBT ordination – a profound witness and act of defiance for which they were later arrested.  As these twenty eight moved to the front of the room, another 200 supporters stood up around the balcony railing, each wearing one of the new United Methodist stoles.  Hundreds more stood in solidarity as well, in the balcony and on the plenary floor, wearing symbolic “stoles” made from colorful bands of cloth.  A group of young people from Minneapolis, members of a Communicant’s Class, had purchased bolts of cloth the preceding evening and stayed up all night cutting out close to a thousand of these “stoles."  In less than eight months, a handful of stoles had grown to become a powerful, visible witness to the steadfast faith of LGBT United Methodists nationwide.

 Martha Juillerat

Founder, Shower of Stoles Project

2006