Retired United Methodist Bishops Susan Morrison and Jesse Dewitt presided over the “ordination” of a lesbian United Methodist as a minister within the “Church Within a Church (CWAC)” movement. They also ordained a heterosexual woman who said she had been denied a United Methodist ordination because of her liberal views on homosexuality.
Methodist Bishops participating in service |
CWAC is supposed to be a pro-homosexuality alternative for United Methodists frustrated by the denomination’s continued opposition to same-sex unions and homosexual practice. The ordinations were also endorsed by the Reconciling Ministries Network.
These “ordinations” took place October 19 at historic Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church in Baltimore, site of the 1784 Christmas conference where Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke established of the ecclesiastical structure of American Methodism. The candidates for ordination were Annie Britton and Jenna Zirbel. Britton is pursuing her doctoral studies at United Methodism’s Boston University School of Theology, and she is pursuing “ministry opportunities” in Rhode Island. She said she was married to her partner three years ago in Massachusetts. Zirbel, who is a “married, straight woman with two children,” said the Iowa Conference would not ordain her because of her “support for gay rights” and “commitment to all marginalized people.” She currently works for an AIDS Council in northeastern New York.
|
Dr. West speaks from Luke |
Dr. Traci West, Professor of Ethics and African American Studies at Drew Theological School (a Methodist seminary), drew her sermon from Luke 4:18-19, where Christ declares that a passage from Isaiah is “fulfilled now in your hearing.” West argued that as Christ read the passage from his home synagogue in Galilee “there’s something going on in that moment when he is claiming all that home tradition.” She added that, similarly, “We gather in Baltimore to embrace tradition, we gather in the place where Methodism in the Americas was born…”
West declared, “Today Jenna and Annie, your tradition, your church, confirms your call by God. Of course it is extraordinary ordination because it is grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ.” She declared, “Go out there and do some ministry and let the oppressed go free! She said: “Our ordinary church tradition includes crusades and pogroms, stretching people on racks, killing thousands and thousands of so-called indigenous people and stealing their children, enslaving and lynching with the cross right up front, kicking out pastors who would offer lesbian and gay members of their congregation equal pastoral care,” and witch hunts. In contrast to what she asserted was the normative Christian tradition, “We do not embrace Christian tradition in that ordinary way.”
Rev. Kevin Johnson of both the United Methodist Church and United Church of Christ (UCC) and CWAC convener |
Regardless of which presidential candidate you endorse, contended West, “You gotta admire the way that Obama campaign staffers are dealing with white racism, and going out into the neighborhoods and talking to people.” Even so, she stated that for most of Americans, it is “hard work to get, really get, that white people are not superior, that heterosexuals are not superior” and that it is even harder “when the church is saying wait, no wait… hang in there a little longer,” on issues like homosexual ordination and marriage.
“Jenna and Annie,” charged West, “this ministry that you are called to is for the need of the poor.” In the current election discourse, West objected that “all we hear [from candidates] is the middle class; [there is] no mention of the poor.” Giving a personal example of this duty, West said that she recently attended a conference for “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender homeless youth in New York City,” where “I personally was reminded about this call to respond to the poor.”
West lamented, “Heterosexuality is, in fact, the way that we practice the criteria for ordination.” And she suggested “one of the reasons that we might be having trouble getting the sense” that “fulfillment of scripture is about good news for the poor, setting at liberty the oppressed” “is because we are steeped in the separation between what we do and what we say.”
Rather than the standard liturgical statements, the Church Within a Church confession and repentance acknowledged sins of being “afraid to believe in ourselves,” “prejudice…bigotry… [and] complacency with forms of privilege.” In the place of “forgive us and free us for joyful obedience,” the innovative passage reads “heal us… [and] encourage us as we proclaim our place at the table.” A prayer read by the Rev. Dr. Gil Caldwell, retired United Methodist minister and Civil Rights leader, concluded, “Your love is the true power that manifests itself within us. It is eternal and continues to renew, from age to age, forever and ever.” Alternative lyrics, written by Rev. Susan Beehler, accompanied the familiar hymn tune for “Be Thou My Vision.”
Annie Britton, one ordinand, receiving her stole from Dr. West |
While the extraordinary ordinations were not done under the official auspices of the United Methodist Church, United Methodist Bishops Susan Morrison and Jesse Dewitt were present to participate in the liturgy and laying-on –of-hands. Retired Bishops Judith Craig and Leontine Kelly were unable to attend, but sent their blessings in two episcopal letters. Bp. Craig wrote, “Today’s ordination is a sign and symbol to all who will see and comprehend that the Spirit will not be contained in human constructs and ideologies, but will move freely among ALL people who are yearning for the touch of the Holy One in their lives.” Bp. Kelly encouraged, “I commend all of you for your efforts and pray God’s blessings on these ordinations. When we start making our own eliminations of people at any level of the church we can find ourselves to be in opposition to what God is doing.”
Also present to give support and officiate were Mr. Jimmy Creech, formerly an ordained United Methodist elder, Rev. Kevin Johnson of both the United Methodist Church and United Church of Christ (UCC) and CWAC convener, and Rev. Susan J. Morrison of Lexington United Methodist Church in Massachusetts, the Rev. Dr. Herbert D. Valentine of the Presbyterian Church (USA), Rev. Patricia Barth of the UCC, Rev. Erik Christensen representing the homosexual-advocacy group in Lutheran churches, Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries. The Rev. James E. Taylor of Mount Pleasant UMC welcomed those gathered as host pastor for the event.
No comments yet
