UCC LGBT Coalition intensifies efforts with new structure and leadership

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Coalition intensifies efforts with new structure and leadership

> Written by Gregg Brekke
> June 30, 2011

Following its National Gathering this week in
Tampa, the UCC's Coalition for LGBT concerns has
new leadership, a new structure and a plan to
maintain and strengthen the Open and Affirming
(ONA) movement. This turnaround follows a March
announcement that the organization was facing the
imminent shutdown of its office in Cleveland and
a bleak future as a much-reduced organization
with a minimal budget and no staff.

At the Gathering, the Coalition's annual meeting,
members voted to replace its outgoing Board of
Directors with a six-member "Leadership Team."
These leaders are the Rev. Yvette Flunder, the
Rev. Julie Kilmer, Phil Porter, Enzi Tanner and the Rev. Rebecca Voelkel.

At the same meeting, Coalition members voted by a
wide margin to shift from a membership model to a
professional non-profit model of governance and
endorsed plans to launch a two-year plan for
church wide consultation on the future of LGBT
ministry and advocacy in the church.

"As the result of falling contributions and a
decision by a foundation to withhold funds needed
to support the Open and Affirming movement, the
Coalition's Board was seriously considering a
plan to close most of its operations except for
basic maintenance of our system for certifying
new Open and Affirming churches," said Andy Lang,
the Coalition's executive director. "Like other
non-profits, a sharp decline in charitable giving
had seriously affected our financial viability."

The result, Lang said, is a movement with renewed
confidence in its future and its relevance in the United Church of Christ.

The new Leadership Team will supervise the

two-year consultation. "Everything is on the
table, and everyone will be heard," said Lang.
"We want to create the space for a wide-open and
robust conversation that can create an LGBT
ministry relevant in the 21st century and worthy
of the diversity of our church - in race, ethnic
origin, age, ability, gender and gender identity."

Preaching at the closing worship service for the
Gathering, the Rev. Malcolm Himschoot affirmed
the consultation as a necessary break for the
work of the Coalition. "You can't [be perpetual]
by being continuous ? you have to take breaks,"
he said. "Just as there are rests in music for
breathing, time for pause are needed so we can go on."

While the consultation lays the foundation for a
renewed LGBT movement in the UCC, the Coalition
is not going into hibernation. "Increasingly, our
focus will be on ONA churches - both existing
churches and congregations that are moving
towards this step," Lang said. "We want to grow
the ONA movement, reaching congregations that
until now have been beyond our reach."

The Coalition anticipates it will register ONA
church number 1,000 in early 2012. "When this
happens, 20 percent of UCC congregations will
have adopted covenants welcoming LGBT people into
membership and ministry," said Lang.

But Lang is aware of the gap that exists for the
other 80 percent of UCC congregations. "Most LGBT
youth in this church are growing up in
congregations that have not yet made a clear
decision for inclusion," he said. "This leaves
LGBT youth isolated and vulnerable - without role
models and often without appropriate pastoral
care. We cannot abandon them. It is critically
important that the Coalition find ways to build
relationships with churches whose tradition or
culture until now have kept them outside the ONA family."

Helping congregations move towards an ONA

covenant is not the Coalition's only goal for the
ONA movement, Lang said. "We want to build
community in the ONA movement," he said. "Many,
possibly most ONA churches have little or no
relationship with each other. This is a missed
opportunity in states where marriage equality is
on the table, or where LGBT rights are under
attack. Working with each other and with
ecumenical partners, ONA churches can help change
the political playing field for LGBT equality."

The Coalition, he said, is committed to building
effective ONA networks that can advocate
effectively with and for the LGBT community.