Robert Duncan Campbell

In Memory of
ROBERT DUNCAN CAMPBELL

This stole is in memory of Robert Duncan Campbell.  Initially going by the name of Robert (Bob) Campbell, he serve in a variety of local United Methodist church settings as either or both music and youth director.  He was a very gifted baritone singer, a composer and lyric writer.  One year he was the Annual Conference Song Leader.  Bob's gifts for ministry were affirmed by their fruit:  growing musical programs and expanding youth ministries.

The local church where Bob was a member ignored him and a (now well known) lesbian.  "We love you two so there is not an issue here!"  It was only late, in the mid-eighties, where three more events converged with these two's continual push, that something did happen in that local church.

As Bob struggled with what it meant to be gay and to be in ministry, he realized he could not continue to work in the UM church and be who he was.  As he came out, he started using his middle name, Duncan, as his first name.  Duncan became a landscape gardener, creating and maintaining one of a kind, custom-made gardens.  He continued singing and composing.  He started having proceeds of any concerts that he did, most of which were performed in churches, go to support ministries of those living with AIDS or cancer.  He joined with two other gay men to continue the concerts and complete a CD.

As a gift to the local UM church that ignored Duncan when he came out, and for a denomination he loved, Duncan went back in the mid-nineties and worked with the clergy in his "home" church to start a process that lead to that church becoming a Reconciling Congregation, but not before Duncan died.

This stole was given to at the 2000 General Conference of the UnitedMethodistChurch in Cleveland, OH.  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, including the unknown donor of this stole, 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