wfn.org | Duke University Chapel to permit same-sex unions

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Dec. 7, 2000  News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202) 546-8722·Washington
10-21-28-71B{549}

By United Methodist News Service

The president and dean of United Methodist-related Duke University have
announced a new policy permitting the use of the school's chapel for
same-sex unions for couples who have a relationship with the university.

Agreeing with the recommendations of a committee of faculty, staff, students
and trustees, President Nannerl O. Koehane and Dean of the Chapel William H.
Willimon jointly announced the policy Dec. 4. They cited the university's
"wonderful tradition of rich religious diversity" as their rationale for the
change. 

Such ceremonies were previously not permitted in the chapel out of deference
to the institution's relationship to the United Methodist Church, which bans
the ceremonies in its churches and forbids its clergy to perform them. But
Koehane and Willimon stressed that the university religious life staff
represent more than 20 different faith groups.

"It is not, in our opinion, a matter of the chapel approving or disapproving
of this liturgical innovation, but rather a question of how much religious
diversity we should accommodate," Keohane and William said in a letter
thanking the committee for its work. 

"We now feel, as a result of the discussion on campus during the past three
months and the work of your committee, that we ought to allow these unions
to be celebrated by those clergy who are allowed, by their religious
communities, to officiate at such ceremonies," the two officials continued.

They said they are aware of the disagreements among religious groups on this
issue. "No one has suggested that we ask any clergy to perform these unions
if that clergy person, by reason of conscience, conviction or church
tradition, does not wish to do so," they said.

The new policy conflicts with the stand of the United Methodist Church, but
the chapel doesn't come under the denomination's rules, said Bishop Marion
M. Edwards, who leads the denomination's North Carolina Annual (regional)
Conference, where Duke is located. "The chapel, while on the campus of a
United Methodist-related institution, from its inception has never been a
United Methodist church. The chapel is not bound by the polity of our United
Methodist Book of Discipline." 

Edwards quoted a report by university Archivist William King that stated, in
part:  "Duke University would not be the institution it is today without its
historic and symbolic ties to the Methodist Church, but in reality it always
has been independent in governance."

"As a bishop of the church, I remind our United Methodist people that no
United Methodist clergyperson is to conduct such services," Edwards said.

Bishop Charlene P. Kammerer, who serves the nearby Western North Carolina
Conference, observed that although the new chapel policy conflicts with the
official position of the United Methodist Church, the policy "reflects an
open spirit of hospitality and pastoral care to the wider Duke University
community."

"The administration of Duke University has the right to make such policy and
has sought to do so in a spirit of thoughtful deliberation, consultation
with constituent groups and in recognition of the university's
nondiscrimination policy, and with sensitivity to the richness and diversity
of religious life at its core," she said.

Keohane and Willimon had asked the committee, led by the Rev. Anne
Hodges-Copple, Duke's Episcopal chaplain, to review the chapel policy
barring such rituals. The group wrote, "The committee, after much
deliberation, advises the president and dean to permit such ceremonies
between same-sex couples, consistent with current chapel policy." 

Other members of the study committee were King; Christine Campbell,
representing the graduate and professional students; Patrick Clark, an
undergraduate; the Rev. Jennifer E. Copeland, director of the Wesley
Fellowship of the United Methodist Campus Ministry; Sally Dickson, vice
president for institutional equity; Peter Fish, professor of political
science and law; Karen Krahulik, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transsexual Life Center; United Methodist Bishop C.P. Minnick, a trustee
emeritus; Vice Provost Judith Ruderman; the Rev. Charles M. Smith, a current
trustee; and Gerald Wilson, senior associate dean of Trinity College Arts
and Sciences.

Controversy resulted in 1997 when an employee at United Methodist-related
Emory University in Atlanta was denied use of a campus chapel for a same-sex
union ceremony. The school adopted a policy that allows such services only
for people who belong to a recognized group on campus that has a faith
tradition permitting same-sex ceremonies; the guidelines also require that
the service be performed by the campus chaplain for that group. No same-sex
union has taken place at Emory since the policy was enacted in 1997, said
university spokeswoman Elaine Justice.
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United Methodist News Service
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