Affirmation AN INDEPENDENT VOICE FOR: UNITED METHODISTS FOR LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER CONCERNS PO BOX 1021, EVANSTON, IL 60204•1021 * [email protected] * WWW.UMAFFIRM.ORG Volume 30 Issue 3 September 2005 Reflections on 30 Years of Affirmation By Ben Roe How did it get to be nearly 30 years copy of "Blair's Blurbs," the of Affirmation for me?! I don't feel Affirmation newsletter from 1976, that old, though I'm approaching 60. where I first read about Mr. Blair, But it is true: my first contact with the imprisoned homosexual man Affirmation was in 1978 with a who John Wesley visited against the contact person in Kansas who sent urging of the Holy Club. me some things from the 1976 My, how naive I was! As some of General Conference, and invited me you may remember, I've written Inside this issue: to come to the Dayton meeting in about how I once bought into the the spring of 1978. I treasure a (Continued on page 5) Reflections on 30 1 Years of Affirmation Affirmation 30th Affirmation 30th Anniversary Celebration and Reconciling Anniversary Celebratio Ministries Convocation A Huge Success! and Reconciling Ministries Convocation By Rev. Nancy Giese A Huge Success Over 600 participants gathered at joined us for worship, plenary Lake Junaluska, North Carolina this sessions, and an interactive dialogue. past Labor Day Weekend for the There was a special concert by Left on the Side of the 2 Jason and deMarco on Sunday night. Road 2005 Reconciling Ministries Convocation. Beginning with the Special offerings were taken for the opening worship that invited God’s victims of Hurricane Katrina. Piece by Piece 3 Spirit and light into this place Over the weekend, Affirmation through music, dance, song and Council Committee 6 sponsored a workshop led by Rev. Vision Statements prayer, to the closing communion Shelly Webb called, “Thriving in a worship service, God was Hostile World” that was well Book Review of What 7 wondrously and actively present. received. Affirmation hosted a God Has Joined Together We heard dynamic sermons, and forum that provided an LGBT•only experienced life•affirming Bible talking space hosted by Rev. David Beth Stroud’s Appeal 8 studies. Saturday was unofficially Meredith. One special event was but correctly named Bishop’s Day. Affirmation’s 30th Anniversary party Bishops Send Greetings 9 Over 40 Bishops sent greetings and held on Saturday night, where about and Encouragement To seven United Methodist Bishops Hearts On Fire (Continued on page 4) Page 2 Affirmation Left on the Side of the Road Affirmation On the side of the road Newsletter Rejected by the church because I was a lesbian This Affirmation newsletter is a quarterly And yet dared to claim God’s acceptance and love publication. The church’s oppressive theology, injustice, fear and Only Affirmation’s elected spokespersons discrimination left me may represent the official positions of this organization. Opinions here, signed or on the side of the road injured and bleeding unsigned, are those of the writers, and do Yet hanging on to the church by a bare thread not necessarily represent the opinions of Unwilling to let the oppressors have the last word. Affirmation. Articles for consideration for publication may be submitted to: I was called [email protected]. I couldn't ignore it or deny it All articles in this publication remain the As tempted as those choices might be property of Affirmation, and may be used only with written permission of It was a calling for those left on the side of the road Affirmation. For those injured and bleeding by the church’s hands Co•Editors: Watching as the church walked on by Jan DeLap & Diane DeLap Crossing to the other side of the road © 2005 Affirmation: United But accepted and healed by Samaritans •• others who have Methodists for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Concerns; been rejected and left out PO Box 1021 I was called on the side of that road to awake justice Evanston, IL 60204. From here on the side and from who I was www.umaffirm.org I am called to both stay and transform the church. E•mail: [email protected] Mission Statement Can the church embrace those who they have rejected and abused? I am a part of the Church of today As an independent voice of Baptized Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, I am not the first to be on the side of the road Transgender, and Queer out yet in people, Affirmation radically A part of the corporate church although officially rejected. reclaims the compassionate and transforming gospel of Jesus Christ by relentlessly I claim my place for God says I belong pursuing full inclusion in the I affirm my calling and faith from the side of the road Church as we journey with the I can only watch some walk to the other side in their Spirit in creating God’s beloved narrowness and prejudice community. But I am here to stay Adopted January 2005 I am the one on the side of the road. How will you respond? By Rev. Nancy Giese Director, Servant Leadership School of Central Ohio Broad Street UMC Columbus, Ohio Volume 30 Issue 3 Page 3 Affirmation Piece by Piece National Council by Vivian Ruth Waltz John R. Calhoun My heart was on fire. Not the “strangely warm” kind that changed South Central Jurisdiction John Wesley’s life. No••it was burning hot and pounding in my Oklahoma City, OK chest! I could feel its pulse in every cell of my body. God was urging [email protected] me to return Jonah’s pottery shard of the broken communion Diane DeLap chalice...right now! At•Large The Word had come ominously through the preacher: “There is Wilmington, MA death in this pot!” Like Elisha’s stew served up to the prophets in 2 [email protected] Kings 4:38•41, those of us gathered for the final worship service at Rev. Peggy R. Gaylord, “Hearts on Fire” knew Brother James Preston was talking about the Co•Spokesperson bitter ingredient of exclusion and hatred being served to us by the At•Large United Methodist Church. Binghamton, NY James told the story of how we tasted something deadly at General 607•723•4091 [email protected] Conference in Pittsburgh last year when the votes on lgbt inclusion went against us. Choking on sobs of suffering, we gathered for the Rev. Nancy Giese communion service afterward, seeking an antidote for the poison Columbus, OH we’d been forced to swallow by the numerical majority of delegates. Rev. David Meredith We were fighting for survival in a toxic community that had At•Large rejected us once again. Columbus, OH 614•237•3052 In his “Hearts on Fire” sermon, James expressed our yearning for [email protected] just a crumb of recognition from presiding Bishop D. Max Whitfield as we stood weeping around the table. When none was given, and Kathryn Mitchem, the Lord’s Supper continued as if we weren’t suffocating in our grief Co•Convener Southeast Jurisdiction right in front of him, the bishop offered the cup of “the new covenant.” It was in that moment that God commanded James to Jim Palmquist drop the chalice as a testimony to our brokenness and the broken At•Large covenant of “open hearts, open minds, open doors” in the United Macungie, PA Methodist Church. 610•398•3074 [email protected] James acknowledged that his first reaction to God’s direction was Rev. Kenneth I. Rowe, dread, then resistance, then finally submission as he confirmed Co•Spokesperson God’s word with those standing near him. In the telling of the story, Western Jurisdiction I heard clearly that when God puts fire in our hearts to do San Francisco, CA something, we must obey. [email protected] So the communion chalice had been shattered on the floor of Rev. Vivian Ruth Waltz General Conference. As James continued his prophetic witness, a At•Large slide of the glued and wired•together chalice, with pieces missing, Hamburg, NY was projected for the “Hearts on Fire” congregation. The image 716•648•5729 was haunting and my eyes were transfixed. In that moment I [email protected] realized, incredibly, that I had a fragment of the broken cup in a A gay man purse in a suitcase in the trunk of the rental car parked outside Los Angeles, CA where we were worshipping! It had been handed to my eight•year• (Continued on page 4) Page 4 Affirmation Piece by Piece (Continued from page 3) Reconciling Ministries Convocation A Huge Success! (Continued from page 1) old son Jonah by Bishop Donald Ott, who was kneeling on the floor sweeping the shattered 200 people gathered for great food and pieces into a pile with his arms. It was a sad entertainment. The entertainment led by souvenir of Jonah’s first General Conference. Cassandra Marsh, a classically trained pianist As I stared at the photograph of the pieced• and vocalist, helped create a cabaret together chalice, suddenly I saw where Jonah’s atmosphere as she took song requests from piece fit! My heart ignited and I was compelled participants, and enlisted the audience in the to run to the car to get the shard so that it singing. could be returned. While the media covered the weekend and It was truly a bizarre set of circumstances that the protest from the KKK and others, it was resulted in my having the piece nearby while only a very minor issue for those attending. James was preaching. Upon my return from The security and staff of Lake Junaluska were “Hearts on Fire,” my plan was to make the open and hospitable, and went to great efforts final trip of my move from Pennsylvania to to make sure those of us who attended were New York directly from the airport.