wfn.org | Tensions in church rise following Cal-Nevada decision

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Feb. 22, 2000        News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville,
Tenn.     10-21-28-71B{089}

By United Methodist News Service

The dismissal of a case against a group of United Methodist ministers who
performed a same-sex union will likely intensify the debate over
homosexuality issues when the church's top lawmaking body meets in May,
according to people on both sides.

"If we had General Conference today, the emotional pitch would be very
high," said Marilyn Alexander, executive director of the Reconciling
Congregations Program, an unofficial United Methodist group that supports
full inclusion of homosexuals in the life of the church. "There's certainly
a group in the church that's very angry about this decision, and at the same
time, there's a group in the church that's very happy about this decision,
and I think that describes our church right now."

Tensions have been mounting since the Feb. 11 announcement that an
investigative committee would not place 67 clergy members in the
California-Nevada Annual (regional) Conference on trial in the church for
performing a same-sex union service. The group, which originally numbered
69, was charged with violating denomination law by co-celebrating a service
for two women in Sacramento, Calif., on Jan. 16, 1999. The committee's
decision came after a Feb. 1-3 hearing and three days of deliberations.

The United Methodist Book of Discipline states that union ceremonies for
homosexuals shall not be conducted by United Methodist ministers nor held in
United Methodist church buildings. Last November, a trial court of 13
Nebraska clergy members found former Omaha pastor Jimmy Creech guilty of
breaking this law when he performed such a ceremony for two men, and Creech
lost his ministerial credentials as a result. The Rev. Gregory Dell of
Chicago, who performed a similar service in his church, was convicted and
suspended for a year by a Northern Illinois panel last March. His suspension
ends July 1.

A few days after the Cal-Nevada decision was announced, three conservative
groups announced the formation of the Coalition for United Methodist
Accountability. The coalition describes itself as a group "of United
Methodist laity and clergy who have come together to seek doctrinal, fiscal
and procedural accountability in the life of the United Methodist Church."
The member organizations are Good News, the Institute on Religion and
Democracy, and the Confessing Movement. The formation of the coalition had
been planned before the investigative committee's hearing, according to a
news release by the group.

A separate denomination?

The conservative groups in the church are upset not only by the Cal-Nevada
decision, but also by comments made by San Francisco Area Bishop Melvin G.
Talbert regarding the authority of the annual conference. Talbert, who
announced the investigative committee's decision, added that while the
ruling may appear to have broken covenant with the Book of Discipline, there
is "another more basic and fundamental covenant that has precedence over
this one narrow focus of law." That is the covenant of the annual
conference, into which clergy members are received, he said. The committee's
decision reflected the Cal-Nevada Conference's "longstanding covenant
commitments for inclusiveness and justice."
 
"We believe that that is not the way the United Methodist Church structure
functions," said Patricia Miller, executive director of the Confessing
Movement, an unofficial United Methodist group focused on church renewal and
adherence to doctrine. "We are a connectional system," with authority
resting in the whole church, not just the annual conference, she said.

"The Cal-Nevada action heightens the intensity of the issue, particularly
when an annual conference seems to have almost declared itself autonomous,"
said the Rev. James V. Heidinger II, president and publisher of Good News.
He found Talbert's remarks "disturbing."

"That's a recipe for disintegration," he said. "So it will ... up the
intensity (at General Conference). I think all of us realize this is going
to be a critical issue in Cleveland, and this simply accents the need all
the more for the church to be firm in our stance on this issue and in
everyone's willingness to abide by the covenant."

Other United Methodists believe Talbert was on the mark. The bishop is
"absolutely accurate to the constitution of the church, and what he is
saying is in the spirit of what the Judicial Council has said over and over
and over," said the Rev. Jeanne Knepper, spokeswoman for the Affirmation
caucus, an unofficial church group focusing on gay, lesbian, bisexual and
"transgendered" concerns. The Judicial Council has made it clear that the
annual conference must evaluate who can be appointed or ordained, she said,
referring to the Discipline's prohibition on the ordination of homosexuals.
Clergy credentials rest within the annual conference, and that is the body
that handles charges against ministers, she said.

The Cal-Nevada situation has brought out the stresses that exist in that
conference. A group of evangelicals has reiterated its desire to split off
from the conference, where it has felt marginalized. The Evangelical Renewal
Fellowship has petitioned General Conference to create a new Evangelical
Missionary Conference in the West. General Conference, convened every four
years, will meet May 2-12 in Cleveland.

"We find ourselves in a church whose theological and doctrinal roots we
still uphold and honor, yet uncomfortably surrounded by a brand of liberal
Christianity that in many respects is quite illiberal and dogmatic in its
dealings with evangelical congregations and pastors," the Rev. Richard
Thompson, of Palo Alto, Calif., said in a statement on Feb. 11, following
Talbert's announcement. The evangelicals "no longer wish to be isolated from
the rest of United Methodism in a conference that has by and large cut
itself off from the larger church," Thompson said. "We simply wish to rejoin
the United Methodist Church."

In an open letter to Atlanta Area Bishop G. Lindsey Davis, a North Georgia
delegate to the General Conference said the denomination should help the
California-Nevada Conference leave the United Methodist Church.

The conference, "through the actions of its Committee on Investigation and
the blessings of its bishop, has in effect established its annual conference
as a separate denomination," said delegate Joe M. Whittemore, of Hartwell,
Ga. "They have finally shown the courage to clearly establish the polity of
a new denomination, and we need to have the courage and Christian spirit to
wish them well and assist them by transferring their buildings, reserves,
health care, retirement benefits and all other assets to their new
denomination."

Davis said he is "deeply troubled" by the investigative committee's
decision. "In failing to uphold the discipline of our church, the committee
has called into serious question our ability as a denomination to live in
accountability with one another," the bishop said in a Feb. 14 statement
posted on Good News' World Wide Web site. "I believe their lack of action
has further eroded the unity of our church and will be destructive to our
primary task of making disciples for Christ. It is my prayer that the
delegates to General Conference will give serious consideration to ways in
which we can address this issue legislatively."

People on the liberal side, however, say they're opposed to a split of any
kind.

"We need to back away from that precipice where we talk about splitting the
church," said the Rev. Kathryn Johnson, executive director for Methodists
for Social Action (MFSA), an unofficial group that addresses a variety of
social concerns. The denomination needs to allow for differences at this
point; it needs to believe that people of faith can disagree and that they
need to seek God's guidance, she said.

"We're confident that over time, we're going to be able to work through this
and remain a United Methodist Church," she said.

Squaring off 

The Cal-Nevada decision, occurring so soon before General Conference, will
be uppermost in many delegates' minds, Miller said. They will be looking at
ways of addressing what happened, she said. "We are being bombarded with
communication, with e-mail and phone calls, from people very concerned about
what has happened in Cal-Nevada.

"This will now push the issue even to a greater degree to be discussed and
dealt with at General Conference," Miller said. "The issue now is clearly
broader than same-sex unions (and) ordination of clergy. It is now: is the
church going to deal with open disobedience in a fashion as outlined by the
Discipline, and if not ... what kind of amendments can be added to the
Discipline to ensure that this disobedience is curtailed and dealt with
through the policies of the church."

The Confessing Movement wants General Conference to reinforce and strengthen
the current language in the Discipline dealing with the church's position on
homosexuality. The general church's position has been clear, and reinforced
by a United Methodist Judicial Council ruling, "but the disobedience
continues." The Confessing Movement favors keeping the language on same-sex
unions where it is under the Social Principles but also listing it under
chargeable offenses, she said. There may also be some effort to strengthen
the whole trial system.

"If there is no change, the fact of the matter is our discipline is clear,
our doctrine is clear, and there will be no change in the clarity of the
United Methodist Church position," Miller said. "I believe what will happen
is (the Coalition for United Methodist Accountability) will be aggressive in
trying to deal with the disobedience that is not dealt with swiftly and
appropriately in the conference where it occurs."

Good News also wants to see a strong reaffirmation of the current stand in
the Discipline, perhaps with a little tweaking in the wording, Heidinger
said. "We want to see it strong enough that it sends a signal across the
church that we're really serious about this, and rather than people
continuing to tear up local congregations by trying to force them to become
something they don't want to become, that if they can't abide by the
decision of General Conference, they ought to consider amicable separation.

"Maybe as an act of integrity, they ought to go somewhere else, where they
can participate fully according to their own convictions," Heidinger said.
Good News has sent a 10-minute videotape with that message to the General
Conference delegates, the bishops and its own supporters.

Advocates for the full inclusion of homosexuals in the life of the
denomination will focus on changing or removing language in the Discipline
that describes the practice of homosexuality as incompatible with Christian
teaching. That is the most vital issue, Knepper said.

Three of the leading liberal groups have formed a coalition called AMAR to
lobby for such a change. The name is a play on the Spanish word meaning "to
love" and the first letters of the member groups: Affirmation, the Methodist
Federation for Social Action, [A]nd the Reconciling Congregations Program.

AMAR hopes that the church would realize that the language is "both untrue
and very hurtful" and would remove it, Knepper said. If not, the group would
like to see the wording changed to note that there are many voices in the
church on this issue, and that all United Methodists don't agree, she said.

General Conference also should change the provisions in the Social
Principles concerning holy unions, Johnson said. "It's that provision that
is bringing us to the point where we're trying pastors. We feel we need to
back away from that as we continue to dialogue and discern God's will at
this point, and not be in the position where we're trying pastors and
expelling them and removing their orders."

The church needs to look at how the Book of Discipline "contradicts itself,"
Alexander said. The book makes the affirming statement that homosexuals are
people of sacred worth, yet bisexuals, gays and lesbians cannot be ordained
and clergy members can't perform same-sex unions, she said. The Discipline
also has a paragraph about supporting the civil rights of gays and lesbians,
she said. The book contains both affirming and discriminatory polices, and
that's how the church ended up with two different decisions like those in
the Nebraska and Cal-Nevada cases, she said. 

If both sides are low key at General Conference, Knepper said things
probably will stay as they are. However, stridence from either end will
likely push delegates toward the other side, she said.

Enforcing the Discipline

MFSA's Johnson believes the church will see more union services such as the
one in Sacramento. "For years, pastors have been responding to requests in
congregations, and as long as those continue to come, which they will,
pastors will continue in good conscience" to perform those services, she
said. Gay and lesbian lifestyles have become more accepted in society, and
holy union services are more commonplace than people probably realize, she
said.

Culturally, the tide is turning, Knepper said, and she has seen the attitude
within the church shift positively toward Affirmation. "From my perspective,
the tide has turned, and it's going to move in our direction," she said. "I
don't know if it's this General Conference or the next one or the one after
that, but the tide has turned." 

However, Heidinger said he believes he knows where the local churches across
United Methodism stand "and I don't think they want to see the Discipline
changed on matters of human sexuality." He said 85 percent of the people
"don't want to see us put the church's stamp of approval on homosexual
practice."

Attorneys working for the new Coalition for United Methodist Accountability
will monitor future cases and charges that arise in the church, and if they
see failure to follow the Book of Discipline or other church policies, "they
will take action on behalf of those of us supporting faithfulness to church
doctrine and discipline," Miller said.

That action could include presenting arguments during a church trial and
appealing a decision to the Judicial Council. The coalition said it will
exhaust all remedies within the church, and it might look outside the church
for remedy if necessary.

A precedent exists for civil courts ruling in cases when churches are not
following their own polity, Heidinger said, citing a recent decision
involving the United Church of Canada. The coalition would prefer to see the
accountability enforced within the church, but the group will be ready to go
outside to the civil court system if it must, he said. "You never do that
enthusiastically, but it may become necessary."
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United Methodist News Service
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