United Methodist Church of the Tarrytowns in Tarrytown, NY
Posted prominently on their property for the past ten years, the United Methodist Church of the Tarrytowns’ mission statement guides their action locally and in the New York annual conference. A fall 2008 assessment of the church’s policy of inclusion highlighted the community’s desire to affiliate with RMN. Over the past year, in addition to studying inclusion, the church acted out their mission statement through sermons, dinner parties and participation in witnesses at the New York annual conference. In September, with the guidance of a Reconciling church in their district, the United Methodist Church of the Tarrytowns joined our national witness for inclusion by becoming a Reconciling Congregation!
United Methodist Church of the Tarrytowns Mission Statement:
"The United Methodist Church of Tarrytown is a welcoming congregation that seeks spiritual growth through scripture, reason, experience and worship. We use inclusive language to explore the many faces of God. We believe that music inspires us, that sharing binds us together, that reflection and prayer empower us to act, and that our beliefs are best expressed in our actions. We work for justice and reconciliation for all in the community and the world. We are all-inclusive, inviting all ages, races, cultures, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transsexuals, and those with differing abilities to join us for worship and fellowship."
Chestnut United Methodist Church & New Light Community in Portland, Maine
The Chestnut United Methodist Church & New Light Community are in partnership rethinking church and revitalizing United Methodist mission and ministry in Portland. The Chestnut UMC, formerly Chestnut Street, took a leap of faith in 2006, selling their large National Register of Historic Places facility to vision beyond their walls while worshiping in borrowed space. Clergy couple Sara and Allen Ewing-Merrill were appointed a year later to help revitalize Chestnut UMC and plant a new community (New Light) that would engage young adults who’d either had no, or bad, experiences with traditional church.
July 19, 2009, four months after moving to their new facility called Hope.Gate.Way, Chestnut UMC & New Light Community voted unanimously to become a Reconciling congregation. Grounded in their shared experience and vision for mission and ministry, they celebrate worship participation increasing, young adults seeking out their community and lives transformed by God’s inclusive love.
Reconciling Statement:
"We worship an inclusive and loving God, who calls all persons into relationship, both with God and with neighbor. In response to this love, demonstrated most perfectly in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves as an open and affirming community, welcoming all people regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, economic situation, or social status."
Homophobia and Heterosexism Site, General Board of Church and Society
The General Board of Church and Society launched a site on homophobia and heterosexism this week in response to the mandate from the 2008 General Conference. The Opposition to Homophobia and Heterosexism resolution, submitted by Libby Oberdorf of the Kansas East Annual Conference, was adopted by a vote of 544-365.
Many of the testimonies on the site were gathered by Young Adults in the Reconciling Movement.
There is an official position in The United Methodist Church on gay and lesbian sexuality, and that states the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.
The Judicial Council, the denomination’s highest court, in a ruling released Nov. 2 said that the Baltimore-Washington Annual (regional) Conference went too far in adopting its own statement declaring “a more authentic and truthful representation of The United Methodist Church” is that “we disagree” on gay and lesbian issues.
“The effect of the Baltimore-Washington resolution is to negate the church’s clearly stated position as reflected in current disciplinary language,” the council wrote. “Moreover, the Baltimore–Washington resolution attempts to articulate a new and different standard of church belief using language that has been specifically rejected by the General Conference.”
Meeting Oct. 27-31, the nine-member court considered the statement during a review of a decision of law by Bishop John Schol. The court’s ruling reverses his decision that the resolution of the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference was in order.
The court said that while such statements can be “aspirational in nature,” an annual (regional) conference “may not negate, ignore or violate” the Book of Discipline, “even when the disagreements are based upon conscientious objections.”
History of Resolution on Human Sexuality
During the 2009 regular session of the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference, the conference considered and adopted a Resolution on Human Sexuality. The resolution was sponsored by seven churches - three in Maryland and four in Washington, DC - who are part of the Baltimore-Washington Area Reconciling United Methodists (B-WARM), the recipients of Reconciling Ministries Network's 2009 Cup of Justice Award.
Here is the relevant text in the Resolution on Human Sexuality:
The Baltimore-Washington Conference, in searching its collective heart, and in responsibility to our calling to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, affirms the statement known as The Majority Report, adopted by the Human Sexuality Sub-Committee and the larger Church & Society II Legislative Committee of the General Conference on April 27, 2008, in keeping with Wesley's General Rules to do no harm, and to do good for the glory of God. This statement was and is a product of honest and genuine holy conferencing and represents a reflection of both grace and truth of which United Methodists throughout our connection can be proud. The spirit of this statement is clearly the heart of our future and a reflection, we believe, of the grace and truth of Jesus Christ.
We will follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit and affirm language that communicates a more authentic and truthful representation of The United Methodist Church, acknowledging that we disagree yet all seek a faithful witness and remain in love with God and in ministry together.
Bishop John Schol ruled that the resolution was not out of order following a request for a ruling of law.
The Judicial Council reversed the Decision of Law by Bishop John R. Schol.
I am sitting in an office at Foundry United Methodist Church. Six blocks down the road, President Obama is signing legislation adding sexual orientation and gender identity to our hate crimes laws. It has been 30 years since passage of the original hate crimes law (1979) and 13 years since the last failed attempt at amendment. (This amendment includes protection based on gender and for those with disabilities and adds resources to help local governments investigate hate crimes.)
The original law came as part of the civil rights tide that washed over this country during the 60’s and 70’s. That was when we began to understand our oppression was also a denial of our civil rights.
People began to come out. The public reaction often seemed like a game of whack-a-mole. Whenever someone decided to live a more authentic life by being honest about his or her sexual identity there were many around ready to knock them back into silence and conformity. That included family and police. Law enforcement was an openly hostile institution just as capable of rendering violence as others.
I joined Foundry in 1980, a year after passage of the original hate crimes legislation. During the early years of that decade little footprints were painted on the sidewalks of the DuPont Circle neighborhood in which Foundry is located. They marked the spot where gay men had been physically attacked and, in a few cases, murdered.
The violence had a profound impact on the entire neighborhood. It is one reason Foundry is a Reconciling Congregation and why most of the nearby churches have an open and welcoming attitude toward LGBT folks. Being a witness to violence, or knowing someone who has been beaten or killed, or realizing that such an act occurred just down the street calls up human capacities of compassion as well as questions about what it is we mean by justice.
During this time some of us who were members of Foundry began a bible study program that, after several years, launched a congregational discussion that ultimately led to Foundry’s becoming a Reconciling Congregation. Later, as clergy I had the privilege of being appointed to Foundry for a couple of years, one of which included the 10-year anniversary of the passage of the Reconciling resolution.
By then discussions had gone much further. The language of gay/lesbian was gone. The initials had grown to LGBTI. The term sexual preference, suggesting that we make a choice in our affectional ties/attractions was finally abandoned. In its place was sexual orientation. Gender identity emerged as term describing personal characteristics that many of us had to learn about—and many of us are still learning.
Along with all of those developments was emergence of the clear understanding that those tools by which we were being oppressed had to do with civil rights. In addition to hate crimes protection, we seek rights to military service, protection from discrimination in housing and employment, and marriage equality.
Civil rights are the product of the civil society, of which the church is only a member. The UM Church, claims it is committed to upholding the civil rights of all people to include LGBT people. We’ll get the civil rights, then we’ll see what the church does.
Now, as a retired pastor, I am once more sitting here in the DuPont Circle neighborhood, in an office at Foundry, assisting in an interim way, only for a few weeks. On this fateful day I should celebrate but I feel strangely quiet. Maybe that will change tomorrow evening when we all go down the road just a little to Asbury United Methodist Church where DC clergy in support of the proposed marriage equality law in Washington have called us to join in Soulful Voices for Marriage Equality—a Faith Celebration.
Vote Upcoming On Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA)
As people of faith, we know that equality, justice and fairness apply to ALL of the Creator’s children, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people (LGBT). The House of Representatives is expected to take up the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which bans workplace discrimination against LGBT people, H.R. 3017, before Thanksgiving. ENDA extends the existing federal law prohibiting employment discrimination to protect people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The bill includes a widely-supported religious organization exemption to ensure that the Constitutional rights of religious organizations are respected. However, opponents on the religious right are mobilizing and are claiming that LGBT people should not be protected from discrimination.
As a person of faith, please consider taking the following steps this week:
1. Call your member of the House of Representatives
a. U.S. Capitol switchboard at 202.224.3121 and be connected to your Representative based on your zipcode.
b. Identify yourself as a person of faith and a constituent.
c. "As a person of faith and a constituent, I would like you to please tell Representative _______ that I would like him/her to support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. ENDA would ban discrimination against all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the workplace. Please let him/her know that people of faith in his/her district do support fairness and support ENDA."
2. Write a positive letter to the editor expressing support for ENDA as a person of faith. In your letter, call on your Representative and Senators to fight to pass an ENDA that includes all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and provide heartfelt reasons (like a personal story) for why it is the right thing to do.
For more information go to www.unitedenda.org. To let those working on ENDA know what your representative or his/her staff says about supporting ENDA, e-mail Laura.Hart@unitedenda.org.
The following personal essay reflecting on the Maine marriage campaign is from Harry Knox, director of HRC’s religion and faith program:
“By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and wept…how could we sing the songs of Zion…?”
This morning I am wondering who and what I am. Once again, when American voters have had an opportunity to affirm my humanity and the loving commitment I have made to my husband, a majority of those voters have made a conscious decision to deny my humanity and treat me as if my citizenship and my marriage mean nothing; all the while patting themselves on the back for their piety. The slap they intended is received. I am made to wonder – Am I human? Am I an American? Am I a Christian? Am I married?
It is clear that most voters in Maine, like majorities in other states before them, intend for me to feel less than human. People we respect as sisters and brothers in the human family, we treat as equals. Those majorities have reserved to themselves a legal right they feel specially entitled to – in spite of the fact that my husband and I face all the health, financial, familial and social challenges they do, and need the same supports they enjoy.
Here’s what I know...
FOR CAMPAIGN RESULTS
No On 1
NO on 1/Protect Maine Equality was a statewide, grassroots campaign defending the marriage equality law challenged by Question 1. Voting NO on Question 1 preserves the law that was enacted this Spring after thousands of Mainers testified before the Legislature.
Marriage equality honors the commitment that thousands of loving same-sex couples in Maine have made to each other, often for decades.
Without marriage equality loving, committed same-sex couples are not recognized as a legal pair. They cannot file taxes jointly, do not have access to health insurance as a family and are not allowed to inherit property at the time of death without the hardship of crushing taxes. Their children are not entitled to all of the rights and protections conferred automatically on a family headed by a married couple.
Separate is not equal and everyone, including gay and lesbian couples, should be treated equally under the law. Marriage equality reflects traditional Maine values of fairness and equality.
Referendum 71 needed to be approved to keep the domestic partnership law in Washington State. There are several hundred rights at stake. A few examples of rights we need you to approve:
The right to use sick leave to care for a domestic partner
The right to wages and benefits when a domestic partner is injured, and to unpaid wages upon the death of a domestic partner
The right to unemployment and disability insurance benefits
The right to workers' compensation coverage
Insurance rights, including rights under group policies, policy rights after the death of a domestic partner, conversion rights and continuing coverage rights
Rights related to adoption, child custody and child support
Reconciling Movement News Roundup brings together news about the Reconciling Movement and societal events that positively impact the progress of the Reconciling Movement. If you would like to submit news, please send it to rmnetworknews@gmail.com.
Please let us be part of your support and let us know how we might help. One way is to let us pray for you. We invite you to send your prayer requests to us and be counted in the weekly offering of joys and concerns. You may email these requests to prayer@rmnetwork.org.
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.
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New Reconciling Communities in NY and ME
I am sitting in an office at Foundry United Methodist Church. Six blocks down the road, President Obama is signing legislation adding sexual orientation and gender identity to our hate crimes laws. It has been 30 years since passage of the original hate crimes law (1979) and 13 years since the last failed attempt at amendment. (This amendment includes protection based on gender and for those with disabilities and adds resources to help local governments investigate hate crimes.)
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NO on 1/Protect Maine Equality was a statewide, grassroots campaign defending the marriage equality law challenged by Question 1. Voting NO on Question 1 preserves the law that was enacted this Spring after thousands of Mainers testified before the Legislature.
