wfn.org | Re: United Methodist Daily News note 164

[owner-umethnews@ecunet.org]

"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (164
notes).

Note 161 by UMNS on June 17, 1997 at 15:50 Eastern (3348 characters).

CONTACTProduced by United Methodist News Service, official news
agency of the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville,
Tenn., New York, and Washington.

:  Joretta Purdue                           349(10-21-28-71B){161}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722           June 17, 1997

EDITORS NOTE: This may be used as a sidebar to UMNS #348 {160}

President Chace's
June 2 statement

     NOTE: Emory University President William M. Chace released
the following statement June 2, prior to the 1997 session of the
United Methodist Annual Conference described in the accompanying
story:
                              *  *  *

     Owing to the unfortunate misunderstanding of the meaning and
authority of the university's Equal Opportunity Policy (formally
adopted by the Board of Trustees in 1993), a member of the Emory
employee community and his partner were recently denied,
inappropriately, the use of a university facility on the Oxford
campus in which they had sought to solemnize their commitment,
which they deemed a marital one, to each other. I apologize to
both of them and to their relatives and friends for any anguish
and embarrassment caused by this denial.
     The university has clearly stated that, under the policy, no
member of this community is to be treated differently or
invidiously because of that person's sexual orientation. Nothing
customarily and routinely offered to one individual can be denied
to another. This is the meaning of equal opportunity.
     I recognized that this policy, unmistakable in its outline,
can present challenge or pain to those finding some of its
applications offensive to their religious and moral sensibilities.
We live in a time of controversy about matters of the heart. That
makes it a time like all times, but one no less burdened by
confusion and unsettled by conflict. The administrative colleagues
with whom I work seek to do well: at times they err as do I; but
we endeavor to make Emory a just and good place.
     In so doing, we recognize that a university is a place within
the larger society that does not seek to purge differences but to
live amid them. For that reason adherence to our policy of equal
opportunity is an obligation to be met by all of us for reasons
rising from the very nature of the educational aspirations that
ultimately bind us together.
     I now touch upon specific matters germane to this recent
event and to others that might be like it: 
     1. The university obviously has no charter or authority to
confer marital status on anyone; use of any of its facilities
(upon proper applications) implies no such conferral; 
     2. While the university is closely affiliated with the United
Methodist Church under the jurisdiction of that church's
Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference, it is an educational
institution; 
     3. While it respects the complexities of church polity,
particularly as that polity undergoes evolution and
reconsideration, it does not and cannot seek to unify at every
moment its educational aims with that polity.
     I ask all members of this capable and principled community to
join with one another in renewing our respect for the separate
virtues and the mutual loyalties that have made Emory strong in
the past and will offer us strength in the times to come.
                              #  #  #

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