www.iwgonline.org
Home
Site map
Search
News
May 2005 Newsletter
Newsletter Archive
Opinion
Letters
Pulpit
Religious Liberty
Equal Marriage Rights
Reproductive Freedom
Sexuality
Statements
Documents
Links
By Subject
By Tradition
Interfaith Organizations
Welcoming Congregations
Opportunities
Services
Images
Organization
Corporate
Projects
Supporters
Donors
Contact Us
|
|
The Newsletter of the Interfaith Working Group
December 2002/January 2003
|
Roman Catholics Denied Eucharist by Bishops, Jailed
During the annual
United States Conference of
Catholic Bishops,
three life-long Roman Catholics were arrested as they knelt in the lobby of
the Hyatt Regency in Washington, D.C. asking for one of the bishops to serve
them the Eucharist. Kara Speltz of Oakland, CA, Ken Einhaus of
Arlington, VA, and Mike Perez of Seattle, WA had attended the Bishops' Mass
the previous evening at the National Shrine, where they were denied the
Eucharist without explanation. Prior to her arrest, Speltz stated, "It is so
ironic that Monday began with a speech by Bishop Gregory calling the Bishops
to comfort their people and on Monday night, I was refused the Sacraments.
So today, I am holding the Bishops accountable by kneeling in the lobby of
their hotel and risking arrest in hopes that they will 'see' their mistake."
The three, who were in Washington to participate in the silent
Soulforce
vigil outside the hotel, were held in a DC jail for thirty hours before being
released. Speltz, a Eucharistic minister described by Soulforce as a
sixty-five year old grandmother who has been arrested over a dozen times for
civil disobedience-related charges said, "There were no mattresses, no
blankets, no pillows, and very little to eat. It was the hardest jail time
I ever served."
A press release from
DignityUSA
quoted their executive director Marianne
Duddy: "What happened to these three people is symbolic of what gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender Catholics have experienced for decades. Church
leaders have banned us from Catholic churches and ordered priests not to say
Mass for us. Bishops have used the Sacraments as a weapon to intimidate us
into staying in the closet. They don't want us to speak out about the fact
that we find our sexuality to be a blessing and a gift, and our relationships
to be holy. We support our sisters and brothers of Soulforce, and are
deeply sorry for the pain that they feel due to our Church leaders' callous
refusal of Communion to them. We believe that Jesus invites all to the table,
and this is our practice whenever Dignity meets to celebrate Eucharist."
The arrests received a great deal of media attention, though most stories left
out the denial of the Eucharist at the Bishops' Mass. The story received
good coverage in the Philadelphia Inquirer,
which has previously not covered protests at national religious conventions.
There were long and thorough reports covering both the denials and the arrests
in the National Catholic Reporter and the
Detroit Free Press. According to the
Free Press article, the priest who had refused the Eucharist thought
they were members of
Rainbow Sash,
though none of them were wearing sashes, and only two of them had small
rainbow crosses. Both Bishop Gumbleton of Detroit and the communications
director of the Paterson, NJ Diocese told the Free Press
that the denial was wrong, but there has been no official apology from the
Conference of Bishops.
Presbyterian Church (USA)
The Baltimore Presbytery
announced an official policy of non-enforcement of G-10106B (the sexual
ordination restriction), and then voted down a motion from several churches to
rescind that policy; the Presbytery's Permanent Judicial Commission voted to
agree with the recommendation of the investigating committee not to bring
charges against the Rev. Don Stroud of
TAMFS (That All May Freely Serve)
resulting from the complaint of heresy filed by Paul Rolf Jensen, (who has
filed complaints against more than twenty ordained Presbyterians across the
country). The
Synod of the Mid-Atlantic
has formed a panel to review the dismissal of charges against Rev. Stroud. The
head of the
Presbyterian Forum
(one of several national anti-GLBT Presbyterian organizations) says that the
Baltimore Presbytery is in schism. In response to claims from anti-GLBT
organizations that an announcement of non-compliance with the Constitution was
equivalent to an announcement of renunciation of the authority of the
denomination (i.e. resignation), the denomination published a clarification of
the process required to remove people from office. The California elder who
has been pushing to reconvene the General Assembly to deal with clergy,
congregations and presbyteries that have publicly announced non-discriminatory
communion, ordination, and marriage policies announced that he has more than
the required number of signatures to force a special meeting.
The session of
Christ Church, Burlington, VT,
which had set aside its statement of dissent just before last summer's General
Assembly, has now issued a 1,702 word "statement of compliance with G-60106b,"
which concludes: "With full confidence that we are abiding with the
Constitution, including the provisions of G-6.0106b, the Session of
Christ Church, Presbyterian vows to continue welcoming persons living singly
or in committed relationships, regardless of sexual orientation, into the
life, membership and leadership of this congregation on an equal basis,
including eligibility for election and ordination as a ruling elder or deacon."
Marriage Equality New Jersey
A
New Jersey chapter of
Marriage Equality
has been formed, and organizers say they'd like to hear from supportive people
of faith. They've already had a nice article in the
East Brunswick Home News Tribune, and have announced a three-week mall
tour culminating Feb. 12 (Freedom to Marry Day). To explore ways you can help
educate the public about equal marriage rights, send email to
marriageequalitynj2002@yahoo.com
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
In a long article headlined "Lutherans Express Concerns About Sexuality
Issues," the ELCA
News Service reported on the anti-gay "Conference on Christian Sexuality" in
Kansas City sponsored by the American
Lutheran Publicity Bureau, which has a
five point statement on their
website which was produced at the conference. The article highlighted the
statement's conclusion, which said that the denomination is becoming
"schismatic and sectarian." The article also summarized the presentations of
the speakers, which included a comparison of sexual behavior outside
mixed-gender marriage to "faceless parts coupling and uncoupling like so many
boxcars;" a comparison of "same-sex relationship blessings to ritualizing
death;" and a claim that national mental health organizations, academic
institutions, the media, the courts, and public schools are "limiting
information to a single point of view."
Kentucky Gay Straight Alliance
An attempt by thirty students to form a Gay Straight Alliance at a
990-student high school in Boyd County, KY, has led to a walkout by 400
students and a protest by 2,300 people organized by Rev. Tim York, pastor of
the Heritage Temple Free Will Baptist Church
in Cannonsburg, KY, and president of the
Boyd County Ministerial Association.
The Lexington Herald Leader
quoted Scott Lively of
Abiding Faith Ministries in Sacramento, CA,
who addressed the rally, suggesting that the school have a class that would
teach tolerance while "helping to understand why homosexuality and related
alternative lifestyles are wrong and harmful" and a free speech club with
T-shirts that say, "free to speak against homosexuality, against abortion,
against evolution."
Bayard Rustin
Controversy in West Chester over Bayard Rustin and the West Chester Area
School District decision to name a new High School after the gay Quaker civil
rights leader have spawned an AP story and articles, letters and
commentaries in Philadelphia-area newspapers. Most of the articles do not even
begin to cover the extent of his public service in the United States, India,
and South Africa with such organizations as the
American Friends Service Committee, the
Fellowship of Reconciliation,
and the
Congress of Racial Equality.
A biography
is available online at
www.rustin.org,
which is mostly dedicated to the film Brother Outsider,
scheduled for broadcast on PBS on January 20 (check local listings).
Germantown Mennonite
On Saturday, November 2,
Germantown Mennonite Church,
a congregation that accepts and affirms sexual minorities, was removed from
membership in the
Eastern District
by a vote of 85-30, and is no longer a member congregation in the
Mennonite Church USA.
Conservative Rabbi at Beth Simchat Torah
On November 19, The North Bergen Times (NJ) published an article about
Rabbi Ayalet Cohen, a heterosexual
Conservative
rabbi who was installed in September at
Congregation Beth Simchat Torah,
the world's largest GLBT synagogue in New York City. The article focuses on
controversies over sexual orientation within the Conservative movement, and
the decision by the movement to allow Rabbi Cohen to work at
Beth Simchat Torah even though the congregation is not part of the movement.
Atlanta
The DeKalb County School District has suspended and reprimanded Danny Buggs,
their youth motivational speaker, for anti-gay religious remarks to an
audience of 500 male students. There have been extensive reports on the
controversy in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
One opinion piece noted that Mr. Buggs is paid $74,200 a year by the
school district, and that he told the boys at the assembly,
"God made Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve," and that he hoped there were
no gay students in the audience. The Journal-Constitution
also reported on the baseball-bat beating of a student at the all-male
Morehouse College by another student who thought he was looking at him in the
shower. The paper quoted a friend of the student charged in the attack, as
saying that he thought the beating was deserved, but that the use of the bat
was "a little extreme."
Moore Ordered to Remove Commandments
Americans United
reports
that U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson ruled on November 18 that
Judge Roy Moore must remove his two-ton granite sculpture of the
Ten Commandments from the Alabama Judicial Building within thirty days.
The ruling was the result of a suit filed by
Americans United, the
ACLU, and the
Southern Poverty Law Center.
Hate Crime Bill Passes in Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania legislature has passed, and the Governor has signed, a bill
adding ancestry, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender, or
gender identity to the Ethnic Intimidation law. Stacey Sobel, of the
Center for
Lesbian and Gay Civil Rights, said that
the Center "can now better assist victims of anti-LGBT hate crimes. Law
enforcement officials who were unable to fully prosecute or even investigate
many of these incidents in the past will finally have the tools they need to
aggressively prosecute these crimes and assist victims in Pennsylvania."
Religious Right reaction to the passage and signing of the bill was even more
extreme than usual. The
Culture and Family Report
quoted the
Urban Family Council's
Bill Devlin: "We would strongly encourage pastors, churches and church
leadership across Pennsylvania to obtain some very good liability insurance
and contact an attorney if the pastor intends to continue faithfully
preaching the Word." And the Washington Times quoted a Church of the
Brethren pastor who said that passage of the law "brings about what Christ
spoke about how Christians are going to be hauled off and slaughtered
for their beliefs."
Orlando and Exodus
The Orlando City Council passed a non-discrimination ordinance 4-3.
As part of its coverage, the Orlando Sentinel
published a long article about Alan Chambers, the President of the ex-gay
umbrella organization
Exodus International
and a leader in People for a United Orlando, the organization opposing the
ordinance. The article says Chambers "became involved in the City Hall fight
as an individual, not as a representative of Exodus," but a prominent note on
the Exodus web site encouraged people to write to the Sentinel for a copy
of the article.
Miami
According to an editorial in the Miami Herald,
Broward County school district
members have appointed two anti-gay activists to the district's diversity
committee, including one who says she will use her appointment "try to protect
Broward children from harmful pro-homosexual propaganda."
National City Christian Church
The Washington Post reports that the board of elders of
National City Christian Church,
a 600-member
Disciples of Christ
church in Washington, DC, voted unanimously to allow weddings for same-gender
couples in the sanctuary. The Post briefly quoted National City's
Rev. Alvin O. Jackson, who called the vote "a really special moment," but the
bulk of the article was devoted to reactions from other religious leaders,
including the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the
Traditional Values Coalition
who predictably said that the congregation had "left behind
Christianity and the Bible."
Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
The Boston Globe
ran an
opinion piece
and reported on a press conference held by the
Episcopal Bishop, Suffragan Bishop and Bishop-elect of Massachusetts
denouncing anti-gay-priest comments from the Vatican. The article quoted
Bishop Shaw, who noted that
Matthew Shepard
was an Episcopalian, and said,
"I'm really concerned about hate crimes and homophobia that comes from
supposedly responsible people making statements like this." The opinion piece
said in part:
"The
Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
has been enriched by the ministry of
gay and lesbian priests and deacons, some of whom are celibate and some of
whom are committed to faithful relationships. They serve in parishes and in
other capacities. Along with their heterosexual sister and brother clergy,
their commitment and care is visible in extraordinary ways. We affirm the
ministry of all baptized people as well as those lesbian and gay priests and
deacons who faithfully live out their vocation in this diocese."
|
|
