Holy Covenant UMC, a Reconciling Congregation in Chicago, was featured on Chicago Public Radio this week. According to the interview with Pastor Trey Hall:
The median age in Hall's church is about 29. Looking in their faces, you'd have little idea that Methodism is in steep decline. Nor would you guess that just a few years ago, before Hall showed up, Holy Covenant was lucky to see 30 people on a typical Sunday. Hall sees lots of reasons why they're bucking the trend: a concern with social justice; an openness to gays and lesbians. They run a soup kitchen and an art gallery. But he also knows this church is, well, kind of fun. They do Bible study over beer sometimes; they spice up austere Lent services with Dolly Parton songs.
In last week's Flashnet we celebrated a Grassroots Miracle started at Good Samaritan UMC, a Reconciling Congregation in Edina, MN. They were able to get "For The Bible Tells Me So" into the hands of all US delegates to the 2008 General Conference. According to the Human Rights Campaign blog, the miracle continues...
Full story:
Groundbreaking film makes the rounds in Minnesota Click here
Someone at the Reconciling Ministries Network had some forethought and have gotten the domain www.generalconference2008.org. A very nice looking blog/web site there, and I am sure that it will be a good source for alternative reports out of the 2008 General Conference.
Full story:
Reconciling Ministries General Conference Site Click here
During General Conference, Reconciling United Methodists (RUMs) will worship, pray, and participate in the "holy conversations". This will not be confined to Fort Worth!
As the General Conference unfolds, local people can gather as “RUM Clusters”
to share the news – good and bad,
to share support – celebrations and hugs,
and to share devotions – songs and prayers.
We invite you to organize a local event in your area ~ we hope that anyone who is looking for community, will find a place of authentic welcome.
For information:
In Your Home Community Click here
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In Fort Worth
RMN just mailed the Common Witness Volunteer Information Packets. The entire packet is also available for download on our "Getting to Fort Worth Page".
GC 2008--Family: Remembering Rev. Bruce Hilton and 2008 Hilton Awards
The Rev. Bruce Hilton died on March 14, 2008. The PRN Steering Committee established the award in 2003, in honor of Rev. Virginia Hilton and Rev. Dr. Bruce Hilton, founders of the parents’ network in 2000.
The Hiltons were civil-rights workers in Mississippi for two years in the mid-1960’s; they have since been active against racism, anti-Semitism and sexism. Since 1980, they have been campaigning at General Conference for deletion of anti-gay language in UMC resolutions. In the 1980s, Virginia was the first non-gay member of the Affirmation steering committee, and was in the group planning the Reconciling Congregations Program,forerunner of RMN. Bruce is best known for his Abingdon Press book, "Can Homophobia be Cured?" The MFSA has awarded the couple its highest honor, the Ball Award.
Rev. Bruce Hilton
Born: June 3, 1930
Died: March 14, 2008
Remembered for: Pioneering medical ethicist, author, columnist, longtime journalist, United Methodist clergyman, traditional jazz musician; member of the Sacramento 68; and longtime advocate for the rights of minorities, women and the LGBT community.
Survived by: sons, Steve of Westborough, Mass., Philip of Sacramento, Thomas of San Francisco, Paul of San Francisco; brothers, Dave of Atlanta, Ga., and Don of Hereford, Texas; and two grandchildren (Max of Oakland, Calif., and Veronica of Westborough, Mass.). He was preceded in death by his wife, Virginia, who died in October 2007.
Memorial service: A service celebrating his life will be held at 2 p.m., April 5 at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, 2391 St. Mark’s Way, Sacramento 95864.
Remembrances: In lieu of flowers and cards, donations may be sent to: Parent’s Reconciling Network, 3801 Keeler Ave., Chicago, IL 60641; or Methodist Federation for Social Action, 212 E. Capitol St. NE, Washington, D.C. 20003.
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The Parents Reconciling Network invites you to the Opening Celebration of Reconciling witness for the 2008 General Conference. Join us Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at the First Christian Church, 612 Throckmorton Street, Fort Worth, Texas, (4 blocks NW of the Convention Center).
The celebration starts at 11:30 with a luncheon. Following lunch the Reverend William Taylor, of Houston, TX, a pastor who recently was forced to leave his church after refusing to condemn his gay son, will address the gathering.
The HILTON AWARD will then be presented to one of our recent nominees. Selection of the recipient is based on “giving significant support to other parents and increased hope for a more inclusive denomination."
An RMN commissioning service for volunteers serving at General Conference will follow.
Rev. Bill Taylor was recently forced to leave his church after refusing to condemn his gay son. Here is his story in his own words. The photograph on the right is of Roxanne and Bill Taylor.
In 2001, as I was finishing my tenure on the Bishop’s cabinet, where I had served as the Texarkana District Superintendent, I was thrilled to be appointed to First United Methodist Church in Conroe, Texas. Roxanne was hired to teach Government and Economics at Conroe High School. We were well received into the Conroe community and into the church.
For the first five years at Conroe First I had a magnificent ministry. The church grew from about 2400 to about 3100, while the budget doubled from just over $1 million to just over $2 million.
And then the wheels came off. My eldest child, Dawson, is gay. When I went to Conroe I didn’t know that. On a tearful night in the den of the parsonage Dawson told us that he was different. Even though I had suspected this, when he shared his sexual orientation with his mother and me, my world caved in. For a year I prayed fervently that God would change Dawson and make him “normal” – a heterosexual like his parents – or I asked God to change me to be fully accepting of him, his sexuality, and his life. My prayers were answered. Slowly, not even realizing that I was changing, I began to be accepting, not only of Dawson, but of all who are a part of the LGBT community.
In June, 2006 the Gay Straight Alliance – a group of high school students which Roxanne, in her quest for social justice and to be open and affirming to all her students, sponsors, decided to attend the Gay Pride Parade in Houston. Roxanne was interviewed by a reporter from the Houston Chronicle. What she said, and the only thing quoted in the Chronicle was: “What we are all about is creating an environment of tolerance.” That same summer, in July, Dawson came out publicly when he was ordained at the Cathedral of Hope, a United Church of Christ congregation in Dallas. With Roxanne’s involvement with GSA, and Dawson’s ordination, I was dragged out of the closet.
In August, 2006 I was asked to meet with a group of five men one Friday morning at 8 am in the office of a local dentist. They challenged me concerning my position on homosexuality based primarily on Roxanne’s quote in the newspaper. They were repulsed that I could even consider not condemning anyone who was is gay, because they told me, this is the Biblical mandate.
Let me share with you part of a letter I wrote to these men who confronted me:
Please understand that Dawson was reared in the church and is as faithful a Christian person as I have known in my thirty-three years of ministry. We fished together, played baseball, camped and hunted together. I did my best to be the finest male role model that I knew how to be. Dawson was active in the Boy Scouts and achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. When he told me that he felt called to ordained ministry in the United Methodist Church my heart leapt within me because for many years I had observed in him people skills, and many other gifts for ministry. With three small words, “I am gay” my hopes and my dreams for him were dashed. I knew that he could never be an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church.
Through several years of struggle, prayer, and searching the Bible, God answered my prayer. God changed me. Let me be honest. If I could make Dawson heterosexual, I would because his life would be easier and so would mine. But, this is not to be, and I am convinced he was born this way and that he, like you or me, was never given an opportunity to choose his sexual orientation.
Let me say to you that there are several statements in the Bible that I don’t believe…I do not believe that homosexual persons are sinners because they are born different than you or me.
Not only was I in a defensive posture because of my acceptance and love for those in the LGBT community but I was also defending my understanding and interpretation of the Bible. The word in the Conroe community was that the United Methodist pastor doesn’t believe the Bible.
I have estimated that over 100 families left the church in 2006 and 2007 and the income dropped by over $250,000 to the general budget and about $500,000 was lost to the building fund through cancelled pledge support), I was still optimistic and hopeful that this sinking ship of faith could be salvaged.
The proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back came when Dawson was asked to tell his story at the “Breaking of the Silence” luncheon last June at the annual conference session held in The Woodlands. I introduced him and he gave a moving testimony to his faith while telling his story – our story.
Several members of FUMC – Conroe attended this luncheon. Some were there because they were supportive while others were there to gather information about their controversial pastor and his deviate family. One member sent an e-mail to a large number of church members condemning Dawson and me and warning them about the evil which lurked in our community. This e-mail was forwarded to many others in the church and in the community, and was, I think, the last nail in the coffin of my once successful ministry at Conroe FUMC.
Through last summer and fall the worship attendance and giving continued to drop. In October I met with Bishop Huie, Dr. Jack Shelton and The Reverend B. T. Williamson. I wasn’t sleeping and for the first time in my life I was taking medicine nightly to help me to sleep. I had tried an anti-depressant earlier but it didn’t seem to stem the flow of my tears. The Bishop asked me if I would consider taking a sabbatical leave from January 1 – May 31, 2008. I wept in her office because I felt as though my ministry of over thirty-five years was being judged a failure. I agreed to do whatever she and the others felt were best for me and for the church. I have always been a loyal member of the Texas Annual Conference and have always done whatever was asked of me. On November 19th, 2007, at the annual charge conference, with Bishop Huie present, Conroe FUMC granted me a sabbatical leave through May 31st with the expectation that I will be given another appointment effective June 1, 2008. Today I have no idea where I will serve or where I will live beyond May 31. I am being paid my full salary and allowed to live in the parsonage.
Additional coverage:
First United Methodist Church, Conroe, TX Click here
Here is the Houston Chronicle article that "outed" the Taylor family to members of First United Methodist Church in Conroe, TX. The photograph on the right is of Roxanne and Dawson at his graduation from Perkins.
Roxanne Taylor, a teacher at Conroe High School, sponsored the Gay Straight Alliance. In June 2006, all her students decided to attend the Gay Pride Parade in Houston. Roxanne was interviewed by a reporter from the Houston Chronicle. She was quoted in the Chronicle saying: “What we are all about is creating an environment of tolerance.”
Krystin Danchak, 17, realized seven years ago that, unlike her female friends, she wasn't attracted to boys. A few years later, she told some friends that she was gay.
But an uneasy feeling came over her when her mother, Liesl Schmidt, asked her the question in November 2004.
"My mom and I are really close and I think that she noticed it," Danchak said. "Because before you come out, you have to act like you're straight. And I think she noticed that I had stopped acting."
With the support of her mother, the Conroe High School senior is comfortable with her sexual orientation. In fact, she and members of her school's Gay Straight Alliance will be official participants of Saturday's gay pride parade in Houston.
To the gay community, the club's participation is important because the Houston GLBT Pride Parade and Festival's theme this year is "Say it Loud" - which refers to gay people "coming out" to the public about their sexual orientation.
Even more importantly, community leaders and experts said, the students' participation validates a trend that people now are coming out at a much younger age.
Full story:
HOUSTON PRIDE 2006 / School club joining the parade / Some see it as validating a trend that gay people are coming out early Click here
Additional coverage:
MySpace Page for Gay Straight Alliance at Conroe High School Click here
Dawson Taylor spoke at the "Breaking of the Silence" luncheon in May, 2007 in the Texas Annual Conference. Several members of First United Methodist Church of Conroe, TX attended this luncheon. Some were there because they were supportive while others were there to gather information about their controversial pastor and his family.
As a gay man, some people call me strange, unnatural and—dare I say “incompatible with Christian teaching”—because I want everything my parents have.
What is the church so afraid of?
Is the church afraid that my love for someone of the same sex will somehow threaten heterosexual marriage? I do not understand how my desire to be in a monogamous, loving relationship threatens anyone. Heterosexual people seem to be doing a good enough job of threatening marriage on their own without any help from me!
Is the church afraid that my calling is somehow destructive to the church? I have never had a church member—when I arrive in a hospital room, officiate at their wedding or bury their loved one—ask me if I was heterosexual.
Or is the church afraid that if they accept me, then they’ll truly have to accept all people as Christ commanded us to do? Isn’t it time that we finally embrace the diversity of God’s creation and the diversity of the church?
My time in seminary was a very difficult time in my life. The opening hymn at my commencement was “O God, Our Help in Ages Past.” On that particular May afternoon at Perkins School of Theology, these words had a different significance in my life: “O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home!”
Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought about the journey that I had been on. I thought back to the first day of seminary.
We had gathered in Perkins chapel for a brief worship service and words of welcome. The associate dean said that we, as students, had the responsibility of bringing our voices to the table of theological education; we needed to bring our stories and share them in the community, so that we could all become better ministers and pastors through it.
I felt a knot in my stomach form. I began to wonder how, I, as a gay man—who, if outed would no longer be able to continue toward ordination in the United Methodist Church—was supposed to share his story.
The story of my faith and journey can be summarized this way: I cannot speak to nor preach about the love and grace of God without talking about my life as a gay man.
PRN is an organization of United Methodist parents of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered children. It began as an informal group in 1999 when Bruce and Virginia (Ginny) Hilton, both United Methodist pastors and parents of a Gay child, brought parents together. Their purpose was to present a visible witness of parents in support of ending the denomination's anti-homosexual stance and providing their homosexual children the same rights as heterosexual United Methodists at the United Methodist Church's 2000 General Conference.
Information:
Parents Reconciling Network Click here
Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG)
Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG) is a national non-profit organization with over 200,000 members and supporters and over 500 affiliates in the United States. This vast grassroots network is cultivated, resourced and serviced by the PFLAG national office, located in Washington, D.C., the national Board of Directors and 13 Regional Directors.
Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It Is
FamiliesLikeMine.com is a website created by Abigail Garner, author of the Lambda Literary finalist, Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It Is.
This site launched in 1999 with the mission to decrease isolation for people who have parents who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), and bring voice to their experiences.
Miracle Moments: The Oklahoma City Bombing and Real Family Values
We include these Moments of significant cultural shifts in the hope these societal events may positively impact life in our Church. The implication is not that these events happen spontaneously or miraculously. These highlights occur after years, even decades of struggle and hard work by many people. We offer them as blessings for our journey. Please send us your Miracle Moments to be included when space allows. Send to Moments@RMNetwork.org.
After Oklahoma Rep. Sally Kern's homophobic remarks equating homosexuality with terrorism, we share these remarks attributed to Tucker, who's mother was killed in the terrorist attack on Oklahoma city in 1995:
Rep Kern:
On April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City a terrorist detonated a bomb that killed my mother and 167 others. 19 children died that day. Had I not had the chicken pox that day, the body count would've likely have included one more. Over 800 other Oklahomans were injured that day and many of those still suffer through their permanent wounds.
That terrorist was neither a homosexual or was he involved in Islam. He was an extremist Christian forcing his views through a body count. He held his beliefs and made those who didn't live up to them pay with their lives.
As you were not a resident of Oklahoma on that day, it could be explained why you so carelessly chose words saying that the homosexual agenda is worst than terrorism. I can most certainly tell you through my own experience that is not true. I am sure there are many people in your voting district that laid a loved one to death after the terrorist attack on Oklahoma City. I kind of doubt you'll find one of them that will agree with you.
I was five years old when my mother died. I remember what a beautiful, wise, and remarkable woman she was. I miss her. Your harsh words and misguided beliefs brought me to tears, because you told me that my mother's killer was a better person than a group of people that are seeking safety and tolerance for themselves.
As someone left motherless and victimized by terrorists, I say to you very clearly you are absolutely wrong.
You represent a district in Oklahoma City and you very coldly express a lack of love, sympathy or understanding for what they've been through. Can I ask if you might have chosen wiser words were you a real Oklahoman that was here to share the suffering with Oklahoma City? Might your heart be a bit less cold had you been around to see the small bodies of children being pulled out of rubble and carried away by weeping firemen?
I've spent 12 years in Oklahoma public schools and never once have I had anyone try to force a gay agenda on me. I have seen, however, many gay students beat up and there's never a day in school that has went by when I haven't heard the word **** slung at someone. I've been called gay slurs many times and they hurt and I am not even gay so I can just imagine how a real gay person feels. You were a school teacher and you have seen those things too. How could you care so little about the suffering of some of your students?
Let me tell you the result of your words in my school. Every openly gay and suspected gay in the school were having to walk together Monday for protection. They looked scared. They've already experienced enough hate and now your words gave other students even more motivation to sneer at them and call them names. After all, you are a teacher and a lawmaker, many young people have taken your words to heart. That happens when you assume a role of responsibility in your community. I seriously think before this week ends that some kids here will be going home bruised and bloody because of what you said.
I wish you could've met my mom. Maybe she could've guided you in how a real Christian should be acting and speaking.
I have not had a mother for nearly 13 years now and wonder if there were fewer people like you around, people with more love and tolerance in their hearts instead of strife, if my mom would be here to watch me graduate from high school this spring. Now she won't be there. So I'll be packing my things and leaving Oklahoma to go to college elsewhere and one day be a writer and I have no intentions to ever return here. I have no doubt that people like you will incite crazy people to build more bombs and kill more people again. I don't want to be here for that. I just can't go through that again.
You may just see me as a kid, but let me try to teach you something. The old saying is sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you. Well, your words hurt me. Your words disrespected the memory of my mom. Your words can cause others to pick up sticks and stones and hurt others.
Reconciling Ministries Network mobilizes United Methodists of all sexual orientations and gender identities to transform our Church and world into the full expression of Christ’s inclusive love. Founded in 1984, RMN consists of 295 congregations, 36 campus ministries, 84 reconciling communities. Extension ministries include the Parents' Reconciling Network, Reconciling Ministries Clergy, United Methodists of Color for a Fully Inclusive Church, and RMN's student movement, MOSAIC.
3801 North Keeler Avenue
Chicago, IL 60641
Phone: 773-736-5526
Fax: 773-736-5475
Please e-mail all questions or website errors to webspinner@rmnetwork.org.
Reconciling Communities in the News
At Home
The Hiltons were civil-rights workers in Mississippi for two years in the mid-1960’s; they have since been active against racism, anti-Semitism and sexism. Since 1980, they have been campaigning at General Conference for deletion of anti-gay language in UMC resolutions. In the 1980s, Virginia was the first non-gay member of the Affirmation steering committee, and was in the group planning the Reconciling Congregations Program,forerunner of RMN. Bruce is best known for his Abingdon Press book, "Can Homophobia be Cured?" The MFSA has awarded the couple its highest honor, the Ball Award.
The Parents Reconciling Network invites you to the Opening Celebration of Reconciling witness for the 2008 General Conference. Join us Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at the First Christian Church, 612 Throckmorton Street, Fort Worth, Texas, (4 blocks NW of the Convention Center). 
Rev. Bill Taylor was recently forced to leave his church after refusing to condemn his gay son. Here is his story in his own words. The photograph on the right is of Roxanne and Bill Taylor.
Dawson Taylor spoke at the "Breaking of the Silence" luncheon in May, 2007 in the Texas Annual Conference. Several members of First United Methodist Church of Conroe, TX attended this luncheon. Some were there because they were supportive while others were there to gather information about their controversial pastor and his family.
