wfn.org | Northern Illinois investigates possible discrimination at campground

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

July 8, 1999  News media contact: Tim Tanton*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
10-28-71B{366}

By Linda Rhodes*

CHICAGO (UMNS) -- An investigating team heard witnesses July 2 in an effort
to determine if the 140-year-old Historic Methodist Campground in Des
Plaines, Ill., discriminated against a homosexual couple, in violation of
the United Methodist Church's Social Principles, and then attempted to evict
the cottage owners who befriended the two gay men. 

The seven-member team is also trying to determine if the church has any
legal jurisdiction over the management of the campground.

After hearing nine witnesses in a closed session, the investigating team
members said they need to gather more facts and hear more witnesses before
submitting a report and recommendations. They scheduled a second meeting for
mid-July and said they hope to have a report by September. The report and
any recommended actions will be submitted to the Northern Illinois Annual
Conference during a special session Nov. 13 at Court Street United Methodist
Church in Rockford.

The investigation was initiated when the conference, meeting June 8 in
DeKalb, Ill., approved a resolution from the Rev. B.J.
Birkhahn-Rommelfanger, pastor of Ravenswood Fellowship United Methodist
Church in Chicago, that instructed the conference board of church and
society to investigate the allegations of discrimination and also determine
the status of "the covenant relationship, if any" between the campground and
the church.

According to the pastor, members of her congregation had said the campground
refused to rent a cottage for a second summer to a same-sex couple,
allegedly because of their sexual orientation. When Bill and Nannette
Graham, members of Ravenswood Fellowship and campground cottage owners, told
campground trustees they intended to invite the gay couple to be guests in
their cottage, they were threatened with eviction, Birkhahn-Rommelfanger
said.

"These allegations, if true, would constitute discrimination in housing
based upon sexual orientation, a violation of the Social Principles," the
resolution said.

Preferring not to consider the July 2 meeting a "hearing," Cecelia Long,
co-chair of the conference board of church and society, said the
investigating team held a "listening session. People were sharing
experiences they have had up to this point." Long also serves as one of the
two top staff executives of the churchwide Commission on the Status and Role
of Women.

Meeting with the investigating team were Birkhahn-Rommelfanger; the Grahams;
Bob Carroll, member of Covenant United Methodist Church in Evanston, Ill.;
Russell Elenz, member of Hemenway United Methodist Church in Evanston and
employee of a general agency of the United Methodist Church; Jim Harvey,
cottage owner; Pat Green, cottage owner; and Daniel Sailor, campground
historian.
	
Attorney John E. Juergensmeyer, a member of Wesley United Methodist Church
in Elgin, Ill., spoke on behalf of the campground, which is operated by the
Chicago District Campground Association.
	
Marj Cilley, president of the campground board of trustees, had initially
agreed to appear and then changed her mind. She said the reversal was based
on advice from campground attorney Paul Lewis, a member of Wesley United
Methodist Church in Aurora, Ill.
	
Juergensmeyer said he was contacted by Lewis the night before the scheduled
hearing and asked to represent the campground. Lewis recused himself from
the situation after realizing that he might have a conflict of interest
because of his recent election to the conference board of trustees,
according to Juergensmeyer.
	
Juergensmeyer distributed a written statement from Cilley indicating that
the trustees would be "happy to discuss our relationship with the United
Methodist Church at any time, as long as it is conducted in a dispassionate
atmosphere, in accordance with recognition of the United Methodist (Book of)
Discipline, and with recognition that the Chicago District Campground
Association is an independently chartered religious corporation which
legally owns the campground and has no financial support from the United
Methodist Church."
	
The investigating team said it wanted to hear directly from the campground
trustees. The Rev. Todd Singley, co-chair of the conference board of church
and society, said they will be invited to tell their side of the story at
the committee's next meeting.
# # # 
*Rhodes is communications director with the United Methodist Church's
Northern Illinois Annual Conference.

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