wfn.org | COB - Peggy Campolo speaks at Voices for an Open Spirit Dinner

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Peggy Campolo speaks at Voices for an Open Spirit Dinner

Bridge-building. It's a useful metaphor for conversations in 
communities, in churches, and even in the home. Peggy Campolo's 
message at the Voices for an Open Spirit (VOS) dinner Saturday 
evening offered personal testimony to the power of bridge-building, 
particularly regarding the controversial issue of human sexuality.

Campolo has been a long-time ally to the community of "God's children 
who happen to not be straight," as she puts it. An active member of 
the Council of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, 
she affirmed in her talk that "God's people of the rainbow" remain a 
model of Christ's love for the wider church, through their 
willingness to keep knocking on the doors others lock to keep them out.

She asked that those gathered remember that the entire church of 
Jesus Christ is suffering when valuable members are excluded from its 
midst, and that the lack of wholeness is real pain for the church, 
even if it is self-afflicted.

Campolo and her husband, Tony, share a deep, abiding faith in Jesus 
Christ. They share many points of common ground: respect for the 
dignity of all persons, care for the poor and disadvantaged, and 
their commitment to return to each other for dialogue and growth. Yet 
their disagreement about one issue--the role of monogamous, 
covenanted same-gender relationships in the church--is often the 
subject they wrestle with publicly, demonstrating the power of 
bridge-building even over rough waters. Church groups invite them to 
speak, to show the possibility for such a couple to find common 
ground without divorcing, even while many denominations seem ready to 
split over similarly passionate disagreements.

Campolo offered the gathered VOS members various practical 
suggestions for building bridges in the church, such as respecting 
others on your side of the bridge and refusing to put up 
"drawbridges" by ending conversations in a way that it cannot be 
resumed. She reminded the group that laws cannot remove prejudice, 
although there are many "sky-scrapers of justice" in the United 
States today, which she encouraged VOS members to "look up from 
bridge building from time to time" to see.

As one of the first events of the official Annual Conference session, 
VOS hopes its dinner will set a hopeful tone for progress throughout 
the Conference, according to VOS Council Member Dave Witkowsky of 
Elizabethtown, Pa. "This is a core mission for VOS," Witkowsky said, 
"to continue to provide new understanding and help people bridge 
gaps" in the church and elsewhere. He said he was surprised and 
pleased at the size of the turnout--evidence, he sees, that people in 
the Church of the Brethren "want new direction and new ideas."

Tony, who was present to hear her address, is a well-known 
evangelical preacher whose work focuses on simple living and ending 
global poverty. He has received some letters from would-be supporters 
who refuse to work with him unless he makes his wife stop speaking 
publicly about human sexuality.

His wife's continuing boldness in proclaiming the good news she hears 
in Christ's word reveals that neither he nor she have decided to 
follow such suggestions. Their example may in turn be a model for the 
Church of the Brethren.

--Audrey deCoursey is associate pastor of Highland Avenue Church of 
the Brethren in Elgin, Ill.

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The News Team for the 2010 Annual Conference includes writers Karen 
Garrett, Frank Ramirez, Frances Townsend; photographers Kay Guyer, 
Justin Hollenberg, Keith Hollenberg, Glenn Riegel; website staff Amy 
Heckert and Jan Fischer Bachman; and news director and editor Cheryl 
Brumbaugh-Cayford. Contact cobnews@brethren.org .

Go to www.brethren.org/Newsline to subscribe to the Church of the 
Brethren Newsline free e-mail news service and receive church news 
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