{"id":12285,"date":"2016-05-02T16:54:01","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T23:54:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=12285"},"modified":"2016-05-05T08:11:48","modified_gmt":"2016-05-05T15:11:48","slug":"15-united-methodist-clergy-candidates-come-out-as-gay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/15-united-methodist-clergy-candidates-come-out-as-gay\/","title":{"rendered":"15 United Methodist clergy, candidates come out as gay"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kathy L. Gilbert<\/strong>
\nMay 2, 2016 | UMNS<\/h4>\n

Fifteen United Methodist clergy and clergy candidates took a leap of faith together and came out as lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer members of the New York Conference.\u201cIt is with fear and trembling that I step forward and step out,\u201d said the Rev. Siobhan Sargent, associate pastor at the United Methodist Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew in New York and one of the 15 signers of\u00a0an open letter<\/a>\u00a0to the people of The United Methodist Church.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Rev. Sara Thompson Tweedy speaks at a Methodist In New Directions event during the New York Annual Conference at Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y., on June 7, 2013. MIND is an unofficial group in the New York Annual (regional) Conference that advocates for greater inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals. Photo by Dave Sanders.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is the first time clergy and candidates have come out as gay in a group. It could be a chargeable offense under United Methodist Church law for a LBGTQ person to be ordained. The announcement comes just days before the 2016 General Conference opens in Portland, Oregon, on May 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cI signed this letter because it\u2019s spiritually suffocating to stay in the closet,\u201d said Bruce Lamb, one of the first candidates confirmed by the New York Conference as a gay man in March. He will be commissioned as a provisional elder in May.<\/p>\n

General Conference is the only entity that speaks for The United Methodist Church. The denomination\u2019s top lawmaking body will be considering petitions to change or stand firm on church law, which states that the practice of homosexuality \u201cis incompatible with Christian teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCharges could be brought against me, but I will no longer lie about who I am in order to be in ministry. I pray for the day when we can all live as our authentic selves in the church,\u201d Lamb said.<\/p>\n

Lea Matthews, director of ministry operations at St. Paul and St. Andrew, will be commissioned as a deacon in June. In July, she will take on the role of associate pastor of family life and connection. She also signed the open letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I understand that I risk my standing in The United Methodist Church with this public step, I do so following the way of Jesus. I do not walk this path alone. I am surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, made up of my fellow signers, our brave allies in this conference, and my church family at SPSA, who offer prayerful support. I sign in solidarity with those on the letter, and acknowledge that there are many others across the denomination who are not as fortunate as we are here in the New York Annual Conference,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The New York Conference has spoken out against the denomination\u2019s exclusion of LGBTQ people from ordained ministry for decades. On\u00a0March 1 the conference\u2019s board of ordained ministry announced<\/a>\u00a0it would not consider sexual orientation in evaluating a clergy candidate even if that individual has a spouse of the same gender.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
LEARN MORE<\/h5>\n

Read the letter and see the signers.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

See a timeline on General Conference action since 1972<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Bishop Jane Allen Middleton, interim episcopal leader of the New York Conference, said the statement from the 15 pastors and candidates for ministry brings a new reality: \u201cWe are not of one mind on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Middleton asked for patience, understanding and love from those who made the statement and from those who believe the pastors are wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope and pray that there will be a new day in The United Methodist Church where all persons are welcomed and fully accepted. As we continue to live together with our differences, let us remember the words of Paul, \u2018And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.\u2019 [1 Corinthians 13:13].\u201d<\/p>\n

The bishop said she would send a pastoral letter to some members of the conference later on May 2.<\/p>\n

Time to stand up<\/h4>\n

\u201cThe church is asking us not to be fully human. There comes a time when oppressed people have to stand up for themselves and their lives and this is our time,\u201d said the Rev. Sara Thompson Tweedy, chair of\u00a0Methodists in New Directions<\/a>, which organized the group effort to release the letter.<\/p>\n

Tweedy faced an official complaint in 2013<\/a>\u00a0for being a \u201cself-avowed practicing\u201d gay clergy member. The complaint was dismissed after 14 months of investigation.<\/p>\n

Pleading for a change<\/h4>\n

\u201cThere are 15 of us who are nervous, scared, excited and holding together because we believe we have to tell our truth, and I hope the church listens,\u201d Tweedy said.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Dorothee
Dorothee Benz takes part in a panel discussion during the 2016 Pre-General Conference Briefing in Portland, Ore.\u00a0
Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Dorothee Benz, a delegate to the 2016 United Methodist General Conference and founding member of MIND, said for more than 40 years, LBGTQ people have been pleading for a change.<\/p>\n

Benz said the institutional channels to change are closed to LBGTQ people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have no other ways to plead with the church to make a change other than direct action,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is big step forward, it is hugely inspiring to me as a lay person whose job is not on the line to have my clergy colleagues to do this and to do this as a group is powerful,\u201d Benz said.<\/p>\n

Tweedy agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never ever had a bishop ask me how it feels to be an out LGBTQ clergyperson \u2014 not one,\u201d Tweedy said.<\/p>\n

Lamb said he thinks about \u201cchildren in our churches that hear this harmful rhetoric that they are incompatible with Christian teaching and how this does violence to our souls.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u201cWe cannot pretend to somehow excise the queer parts of ourselves; we can no longer be forced to separate our sexuality and spirituality \u2013 a part of ourselves that is interconnected \u2013 in order to stay in ministry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The letter named clergy and clergy candidates who have faced complaints or been removed from United Methodist ministry: Cynthia Meyer, Benjamin Hutchison, M Barclay, Amy DeLong, Drew Phoenix, Beth Stroud, Karen Dammann, Rebecca Steen, Mark Williams and Rose Mary Denman.<\/p>\n

The letter ends by calling on all United Methodists to refuse \u201ctheir own complicity in our denomination\u2019s systemic oppression\u201d of LGBTQ people and \u201cto protest this injustice at General Conference and elsewhere until it is finally ended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilbert is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service. Contact her at\u00a0(615) 742-5470\u00a0or\u00a0<\/em>newsdesk@umcom.org<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kathy L. Gilbert May 2, 2016 | UMNS Fifteen United Methodist clergy and clergy candidates took a leap of faith together and came out as lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer members of the New York Conference.\u201cIt is with fear and trembling that I step forward and step out,\u201d said the Rev. Siobhan Sargent, associate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":12288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[449,3],"tags":[483],"class_list":{"0":"post-12285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-conference","8":"category-umns","9":"tag-umcgc"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/bod-rainbow-stole-1-582x388.jpg?fit=582%2C388&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-3c9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12285"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12294,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12285\/revisions\/12294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}