wfn.org | Bishop Talbert Responds to Same-Sex Union Story

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

CONTACT: Thomas S. McAnally			 (10-21-28-71B){144}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470	 March 11, 1998

California-Nevada cabinet will operate
within 'Book of Discipline', bishop says

by United Methodist News Service

	The cabinet of the California-Nevada Conference has no official
policy regarding same-sex unions, Bishop Melvin G. Talbert said in a
brief statement issued by his office March 9.
	Talbert was responding to a March 3 news story about a press
conference in San Francisco where Golden Gate District Superintendent
Thomas Kimball said the cabinet was "unequivocal" in its support of
pastors who perform ceremonies for same-sex partners. The story, issued
by United Methodist News Service, was written by Charley Lerrigo, editor
of the California-Nevada United Methodist Review newspaper.
	Lerrigo wrote the story after attending a public meeting and
press conference held in support of the Rev. Jimmy Creech, pastor of
First United Methodist Church in Omaha. Creech is facing a church trial
in Nebraska for performing a same-sex covenanting ceremony in his church
last September.
	At a packed house at Metropolitan Community Church in San
Francisco, Kimball told Creech, "If Nebraska kicks you out, we'll find a
place for you."
	When contacted by United Methodist News Service, Talbert said he
didn't want to elaborate on his printed statement because of the pending
trial, which begins March 11. However he did stress, "At no point have
the cabinet and I discussed operating outside the Book of Discipline."
	In his printed statement, Talbert said, "We perform our ministry
in compliance with the Book of Discipline and in keeping with Judicial
Council Ruling No. 694. We encourage all our pastors to do their
ministry in compliance with the Book of Discipline."
	The 1993 Judicial Council decision was made in response to
actions by the Minnesota and Troy Annual (regional) Conference calling
for services of blessing and celebration for same-sex couples.
	Following a hearing in Atlanta Oct. 28, 1993, the nine-member
court said, "The annual conference has no authority to establish or
alter the official rites and rituals of The United Methodist Church. It
is the responsibility of the pastors in charge to perform their duties
in compliance with the Discipline and be obedient to the Order and
Discipline of the Church."
	Meanwhile, Bishop Susan M. Morrison and the district
superintendents of the Troy Annual Conference released a statement March
9 supporting Creech's decision "to respond to the pastoral needs of
members of his congregation by performing a service of holy union."
	The Troy leaders also affirmed a petition approved by the 1997
Troy Annual Conference asking the next General Conference in the year
2000 to remove from the Social Principles a sentence inserted by the
1996 General Conference. The sentence says, "Ceremonies that celebrate
homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not
be conducted in our churches."
	The Troy Conference includes all of Vermont and portions of
upper New York.
The General Conference, the top legislative body of the church, meets
every four years, and it is the only group that can make official policy
for the denomination. 
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United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
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