wfn.org | UFMCC Officer Decries Anti-Gay and Lesbian Violence to NCCCUSA

[FRANK_IMHOFF.parti@ecunet.org (FRANK IMHOFF)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: NCCCUSA News, 212-870-2227
Internet: news@ncccusa.org

UFMCC OFFICER DECRIES VIOLENCE AGAINST GAY AND LESBIAN PEOPLE,
CALLS FOR RECONCILIATION AND RENEWAL

 CHICAGO, Nov. 12, 1998 ---- Only a few weeks after the brutal murder of
Matthew Shepard, the National Ecumenical Officer of The Universal
Fellowship of Metropolitan Churches brought greetings to the National 
Council of Churches' (NCC's) annual General Assembly, decrying violence
against gay and lesbian people and calling for a time of reconciliation and
renewal.

 "The mandate is clear: as a Christian people, as people of faith, we must
get Matthew Shepard and all the potential Matthew Shepards off the fence,"
said the Rev. Dr. Gwynne M. Guibord, UFMCC National Ecumenical Officer for
the United States.  "We must do that together.  We must get the potential
kids off the fence."

 Open to all, the UFMCC has an outreach primarily to the gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgendered community, their families and friends.

"It must be said that we are hearing from Gwynne Guibord in the aftermath
of the incomprehensibly shocking and tragic death of Matthew Shepard, on
which we have spoken out as a Council," said the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown 
Campbell, NCC General Secretary.  "Among the many issues that the UFMCC
brings to us," she said, certainly people's safety "is high on all our
agendas.  NCC member communions are united in support of the civil rights
of all regardless of their sexual orientation."

 Dr. Guibord focused on issues facing gay and lesbian youth.  "All across
this country, every singe day, thousands of children are being taunted and
teased, bloodied and battered, condemned and coerced and murdered in their
hearts and souls and bodies - and it is allowed, and it is often
encouraged, in the name of Christianity," she challenged the delegates, who 
represent 35 Protestant and Orthodox communions.  She spoke of children who
"get the brunt of society's homophobia" and come to the UFMCC "frightened,
confused, and too often suicidal."

 Dr. Guibord praised the NCC for helping "to break the silence earlier this
year by speaking out swiftly and unequivocally in a press release to
condemn the bomb threats against our churches both in the United States and
in England" and for "the NCC's swift and powerful condemnation of the
brutal torture and lynching of young Matthew Shepard."

 But Dr. Guibord also pointed to the continued conflict and controversy
around these issues in the churches.  She chose "to begin with the
acknowledgment that denominations are being torn apart from within and 
without by issues of `homosexuality.'  Leadership and membership alike are
sick to death of that struggle, a struggle that has sincere and devout men
and women grappling painfully with one another."

 "Homosexuality will not just disappear from the church," Dr. Guibord said.
"We have filled the Christian church throughout its history and we always 
will.  We have always been its priests and ministers and deacons, its choir
directors, faithful workers, and Sunday school teachers.  The difference
now is that, despite it all, we've gotten healthier.  We've come out of the
closet into the light.  I know that makes a lot of people uncomfortable,
and that many would prefer us to go away.  The truth is we cannot.  People
can hate us, people can hurt us, people can forsake us, and even murder us,
but they cannot separate us from the love of Jesus Christ."

 "There are over 13 million gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgendered
people living in the United States today," she said.  "Thirteen million.
We will not simply go away.  The `transforming' or `change' or `ex-gay'
movement will not `change' or `cure' us."

 "We have been here at the NCC General Assembly meeting year after year,"
Dr. Guibord said.  "It would be easier for us to disappear.  But we cannot
because God created us to live in community.  It is in community lies the
salvation of the world.  We are here with you because we have much to teach
and much to learn from each other."

 The NCC and UFMCC have a history of more than 15 years of dialogue.  Along
the way, the UFMCC's application for NCC membership and later for observer 
status were turned aside.  But lines of conversation have stayed open,
formally and informally.  The UFMCC and gay/lesbian caucuses of the NCC's
member denominations meet alongside the NCC General Assembly, and invite 
Assembly members to join them for worship.

 "Next year is the anniversary of the NCC and the year of Jubilee," Dr.
Guibord said.  "Jubilee is a time of forgiveness of debt, a time of
reconciliation and renewal.  It is time for us as one community of faith 
with all our genuine differences to covenant with one another that we will
not abandon each other around the tough issues of homosexuality and
Christian community."

 Dr. Guibord described the history of the UFMCC, which began "almost
exactly 30 years ago" and its many ministries.  "While there are many
stereotypes and projections as to what our communities do, what UFMCC does,
in fact, is similar to what most Christian churches seek to do," Dr.
Guibord explained, and listed worship services, pastoral care, Bible study,
grief groups, global outreach ministries and mission and ecumenical and 
inter-religious work.

 The UFMCC "has well over 300 congregations in more than a dozen countries
around the world with a membership of over 45,000 people and the
participation of thousands many times over that," she reported.

-end-