wfn.org | Emory, Southeastern Jurisdiction enter into covenant

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

July 25, 2000 News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202) 546-8722·Washington
10-21-71B{342}

By Alice Smith*

LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. (UMNS)  -- After some rocky times over the past several
years, Emory University and the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United
Methodist Church - which founded Emory - are conscientiously working to
recapture and rebuild a mutually supportive relationship.

"We are crafting a 21st Century relationship that makes sense in light of
the kind of church we have today and the kind of international university
that Emory has become," said North Georgia Bishop Lindsey Davis. "You
wouldn't expect the wineskins of the 1950s to fit the 21st Century."

The relationship has been beneficial since Emory's founding in 1836, noted
the university's president William M. Chace. "It's reinforced and deepened
in each passing generation . . .  which makes it different, but it's there."

During the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference, July 12-15, delegates
approved a covenant statement between the university and the church; heard
remarks by Chace, recent graduate Amos Jones, and new Candler Dean Russell
Richey; and voted down without debate a series of eight resolutions authored
by an Alabama-West Florida layman that asked the jurisdiction to assert more
authority and control over the university.

The resolutions, referred to the administrative council standing committee,
called for such actions as mandating the university president and the chair
of the board of trustees be United Methodist; prohibiting non-Christian
groups from holding worship services in United Methodist religious
facilities; and rescinding the policy that allows under the narrowest of
circumstances a same-sex union to take place in the university chapels.

The committee's recommendation of non-concurrence was approved readily by
the delegates. At the same time, the committee submitted its own resolution,
approved by the conference, asking the executive committee of the
Southeastern Jurisdiction Administrative Council "to engage the trustees of
Emory University with the concerns raised by the petitioner and to report
back to the 2004 Jurisdictional Conference."

A ninth resolution asking the jurisdiction to rescind a board of trustees
action granting insurance benefits to same-sex partners of university
employees was ruled out of order by the presiding officer at the time,
Bishop Lawrence McCleskey of South Carolina.

The financial administration committee, which initially handled the
resolution, had asked that it be referred to a legal body to determine
whether or not the jurisdiction could overrule a board of trustees' action.

"That is a rather inconclusive act for the committee," McCleskey responded.
"I am going to rule the petition out of order on the basis this body does
not have the authority to instruct the board of trustees."

In a newly adopted covenant jurisdiction officials and the board of trustees
agree to work toward a goal of having 60 percent of the trustees be United
Methodist. At present half of the 38-member board are bishops or members of
the church.

"The Emory board of trustees," the covenant states, "expects and welcomes
the opportunity for the United Methodist  leaders who serve on the board,
particularly the United Methodist bishops, to review with the whole board
current issues facing the church that are important to Emory and its
relationship."

The covenant is signed by current board chair Bradley Currey Jr. and by the
five United Methodist bishops presently serving on the board: Robert C.
Morgan, vice chair; Davis; Robert E. Fannin; Cornelius L. Henderson; and
Marshall L. "Jack" Meadors Jr.

In his report to the conference, Chace said Emory's fundamental moral and
ethical core and its commitment to bettering human lives in the Atlanta
community and around the world grows out of its church relationship. 

The university's "mission of teaching, learning and serving" is born out in
many ways, Chace said.  He cited research to eradicate AIDS and other
diseases; hands-on work with teachers to improve public education in
Atlanta; the work of Rollins School of Public Health, the "most
international of our schools"; and the services of Emory Healthcare, which
among other things, provides staffing for Grady Memorial Hospital, the
largest public, indigent-care hospital in the Southeast.

"There is no other major research university that fundamentally staffs an
indigent hospital," he elaborated in a later interview. "We've been doing it
for decades. We will not ever leave it, and that stems from a general
understanding at Emory . . . that the least among us should be served by
people blessed with great gifts."

Chace's words describing the university's mission were brought to life by
Amos Jones, a 2000 graduate who was one of 20 students selected by USA Today
as the best and brightest college students in the country.

"Emory, at a fundamental level, is a Godly institution because Emory is
concerned with the plight of the people of the world," said Jones, the
grandson and great-grandson of Baptist ministers. "As students we have the
opportunity there to take part in being stewards of the world as God
commanded us to."

While at Emory, Jones attended an early service at Cascade United Methodist
Church in Atlanta and university worship conducted by the Rev. Susan
Henry-Crowe, a United Methodist clergywoman who serves as dean of the
chapel.

With his interest piqued about United Methodism, he logged onto the
denomination's web site and found that Wesley United Methodist Church in his
hometown of Lexington, Ky., an African-American congregation, was founded in
1837. He also discovered five other African-American churches that predated
the Civil War, including Pleasant Green, which his grandfather and
great-grandfather served. All six are now listed on web site of the
Lexington Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Jones credited "the intellectual challenge and the social responsibility
that is placed upon us as students at Emory College" with leading him to
explore the Wesley Church history and create the tourist listing in
Lexington, Ky. - "something concerned with Christianity and the up-building
of the Kingdom. In a real sense Emory University is witnessing."

In his remarks to the conference, Richey, who just assumed duties at Candler
this month, said he had been impressed by several things: the hospitable
character of Emory; religious leadership within the university; the quality
of the staff, faculty and students; the orientation of the Candler program
toward the church; and the ongoing commitment of the university to the
school of theology.

"The presentation and the remarks by Emory officials reflect a deep
commitment from them to do their part . . . to understand the needs of the
church," Davis said. Likewise, "the leadership of the jurisdiction has made
some strong efforts to understand the unique dynamics of Emory."

The relationship was in need of some attention, Davis noted. 

At the 1996 Jurisdictional Conference delegates adopted by a 19-vote margin
a resolution disapproving Emory's offering of spouse-type benefits to
same-sex domestic partners.

In 1997 the administration and the North Georgia Conference locked horns
after the president said union ceremonies between gay and lesbian couples
could take place in Emory buildings, including the chapels and churches at
Emory and Oxford. At their annual meeting that year North Georgians asked
the president to rescind his action or they would go to the board of
trustees.

In response, the chaplains, Henry-Crowe at the university and the Rev. Sammy
Clark at Oxford College, drafted a compromise plan, approved by the
trustees, that allows the ceremonies to take place in the chapels only if a
clergyperson related to the university officiates and only if his/her faith
group officially permits such ceremonies. Only two faith groups represented
on campus allow such ceremonies, and none has taken place to date.

"The trauma of three years ago was a good lesson for us all," Davis said.
"Hopefully if you go through a painful time, you learn from it, and I think
those of us in the church and those in administrative leadership at Emory
have all learned a good bit from that experience." 

# # #

*Smith is director of the Georgia United Methodist Communications Council
with offices in Atlanta. 

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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