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 | Elder "Doug's" trial |
| The "Shower of Stoles" project |
| Women of Faith award |
| Jane Spahr's trial |
Elder "Doug's" Trial:
| 1989-1996: "Doug" has remained anonymous out of fear for his physical
safety. He became a Presbyterian while a student at Ohio State University. He found the
church there "a community that welcomed openness. You were free to think. You
could ask questions, have doubts.'' He joined the Knox Presbyterian Church
in Hyde Park, OH in 1989. There, he served as an usher, deacon, and committee chairperson.
In 1995, he was elected by the congregation and ordained as an elder. 1,2 His reason for
accepting the elder position was simple. He believes that "...when the church
asks you to serve, you should try to say yes.'' A fellow church member allegedly found proof that Doug was gay, and filed a complaint. Testimony before the Judicial Commission of the Cincinnati Presbytery concentrated on whether the church had been sufficiently vigorous in searching out gays and lesbians who had been elected to the post of elder. There were allegations that he had admitted being gay, when in small groups, and in private conversations. In addition, his name appeared in the church's pictorial directory with another man at the same street address. In 1996-JUN, by a vote of 4 to 3 Doug was stripped of his ordination. For the first time in US history, a Presbyterian judicial body overruled a local church on the sexual orientation issue. In taking this action, they apparently violated the denomination's "Book of Order" which requires that a disciplinary decision is necessary before an ordination can be canceled. |
| 1997: The Synod of the Covenant Permanent Judicial Commission
held hearings on 1997-OCT-22 in Findlay, OH. The Synod overruled the local Commission on
1997-OCT-24 and reinstated the Elder's ordination. 3 An important factor is that the
session had not asked the elder candidate directly about his sexual orientation. As a
result, he did not formally tell his session that he was gay. The Synod upheld 8 of the 10
points made by Knox Church in its submission in favor of "Doug." Commenting on his fellow church members, he said ''I don't know that Knox has been changed by this, 'but what it has always been, has been made visible to us. I'm not sure that the people at Knox ever really had to be brave before. I'm not sure they knew how brave they were...The people of Knox may not be of one mind on whether homosexuality is a sin, but they are of one mind that it is God's job to make judgments, not ours.'' |
| 1998: This decision was appealed to the Permanent Judicial Commission (PJC) of the Synod of the Covenant. This is the church's highest church. |
"Shower of Stoles" Project
In 1995, Martha Juillerat was a Presbyterian minister who had concealed her lesbian sexual orientation. She resigned her ordination at a meeting of her fellow pastors in Kansas City, MO. Before resigning, she made a request of other gay or lesbian ministers and ministerial candidates who have been denied ordination, been forced to leave the church, or been required to keep their sexual orientation secret as they remained ministers. She asked them to send her their stole. (A stole is a band of cloth that ministers wear around their neck). She expected perhaps a dozen. She initially received 80 stoles. She hang them around the room where she gave her farewell speech. "It moved people to tears. It made it obvious that we weren't just talking about me. We were talking about hundreds of folks who are denied the opportunity to openly serve their church." 4
Her collection has since grown to a "Shower of Stoles", totaling almost 800 stoles from 13 different denominations. She displays them at annual and regional meetings of various faith groups, to promote discussion of the ban on lesbian/gay ordination. She commented: "Seeing the stoles is like seeing the Vietnam Memorial or the AIDS quilt. It helps take this issue out of people's heads and into their hearts. It makes it very real and very human and, to a certain extent, de-politicizes the issue."
Ms. Juillerat felt the call to ministry as a teen. "The church meant the world to me. I made a decision to follow the party line and be single and celibate. I guess what I never anticipated was the terrible oppression of living a double life and of never having anyone to share it." She met a woman who would become her partner in 1986 at a support group for women clergy. They dated in secret. They invited only four friends to their ceremony of holy union. For security, they had to cover the windows of the church. Her partner had a serious bicycle accident in 1993 which nearly killed her. The next day, Ms. Juillerat had to conduct a service without being able to tell anyone about the incident. "After that, we decided we just could not stay hidden anymore. We decided this was a sick way to live...Leaving the ministry was the hardest decision I ever made in my life. I love to preach and I miss it terribly. But it was like the weight of the world was being lifted off our shoulders. For my own sanity and peace of mind, I needed to leave."
She took 340 stoles to a national convention of More Light churches; she took over 300 to the 1996 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA); almost 400 were on hand at the 1997 Assembly. There was no place to hang the display so she asked volunteers to wear them. "It became a way for people to find a voice. I offered the option of people sending them to me anonymously. For those people especially, it was the one opportunity they had of letting the church know that, 'Hey I'm out here.'" Rev. Bill Chadwick, co-pastor of St. Luke Presbyterian Church in St. Paul said: "It was so moving to see all of them. I went around looking at them by myself and just sobbed at the heartbreak of those who had received the same sort of call from God that I did, but were unable to fulfill it."
The Shower of Stoles is now a nonprofit organization with a board of directors.
Click below to visit one of our sponsors:
Women of faith award:
In 1999-APR, three women were unanimously selected from a field of 59 nominees to receive the 13th annual prestigious "Women of Faith" award. These awards honor "the gifts of clergywomen, educators, songwriters, poets, campus ministers, theologians, lay pastors and authors who have witnessed as reformers through the Word." The 1999 recipients are Elder Jane Dempsey Douglas, a retired professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, Elder Letty Russell, a professor at Yale Divinity School in Connecticut and Rev. Jane Spahr Spahr, a minister at the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Rochester NY. Spahr leads the "That All May Freely Serve" ministry within the Presbyterian Church; it seeks equality for gays, bisexuals and transgendered people - in her words: "people who have been hurt and violated."Although the names of past award recipients had never been submitted for approval to the National Ministries Division (NMD) of the General Assembly Council, that committee decided to veto the selection of Jane Spahr. The committee stated: "...The action was taken because the committee felt presenting the award to Dr. Spahr would make it appear that an entity of the General Assembly was endorsing a position that runs counter to existing General Assembly policy. Entities of the General Assembly are obligated to uphold the policies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and should not be put in the position of appearing to compromise them in any way. The determination of the Steering Committee was that presenting this award to Dr. Spahr placed the division in conflict with that obligation." There was talk of canceling the traditional annual award breakfast.
The Rev. Cathy Chisholm, chair of the General Assembly Council defended the vetoing of
the selection committee's decision. In a communication to the church-at-large dated
1999-APR-21, she wrote: "... the choice of a woman who is closely
associated with advocacy for the ordination of gay and lesbian persons was likely to
be interpreted by some as endorsement of that position. To simply proceed with the public
announcement of the awards without consideration of the potential impact would have
been an abuse of the goodwill and trust of the church at large."
On APR-26, the Executive Committee of the General Assembly Council of the church
voted 9 to 2 to overturn the NMD's veto and allow Rev. Spahr's selection to proceed
unhindered. They also voted to "establish a task force to review all policies and
procedures regarding the full range of awards currently within the scope of the work of
the General Assembly Council." 5 This decision was
confirmed by the General Assembly Council itself on 1999-JUN, by the narrowest of
votes: 41 to 40 with 6 abstentions. In their pastoral letter, the Council commented:
"We know that many will not agree with our decision, will be hurt and angered by
our action. We acknowledge the disagreement, hurt and anger and regret it. But we also
thank God that we are able to disagree, strongly and vigorously, and still hold on to one
another in Christ. We even dare to believe the Holy Spirit is leading us and
teaching us how to be one body in spite of our differences and conflicts."
6
Author's personal note: There appears to be a logical dilemma here. On one hand, the award is given to those women "...who have witnessed as reformers..." and are promoting change within the church. On the other hand, the Rev. Chisholm and the NMD are implying that some church reformers should not be considered for the award because their selection might be interpreted as promoting change in the church and giving approval to the reformers' activities.
I wonder if the program should have been terminated after the 1999 awards are given. Its selection process is fundamentally sexist. Every male reformers within the church is automatically excluded from receiving the award. Should the church be promoting an award that gives special privileges to one gender?
Rev. Jane Spahr's trial:
A minister from Belleville, WA lodged a complain after Rev. Jane Spahr, 63, had married two couples in 2004 and 2005. One couple was from Rochester NY; the other was from Guerneville, CA. The denomination's highest court had ruled in 2000 that its ministers may bless same-sex unions as long as they are not considered marriages and as long as the ceremonies are not too similar to marriage ceremonies. But Rev. Spahr has been calling these unions marriages when that is the preference of the couples involved.
Spahr has been a minister for over three decades. She came out as a lesbian in 1978. Although the denomination does not allow gays or lesbians to serve as ministers, she was allowed to keep her position. However, has been prohibited from leading a church since 1991. Since then, she has worked for two churches as a "lesbian evangelist" and as a director of a gay-positive advocacy group of Presbyterians called That All May Freely Serve.
She had been charged with violating the church's policy on same-sex marriage. On 2006-MAR-03, she was found not guilty with a vote of 6 to 1 by the tribunal of the Presbytery of the Redwoods. The presbytery extends from a point north of San Francisco to the Oregon border.
The church's constitution does restrict marriage to one man and one woman. However, the tribunal said that this is "a definition, not a directive." Thus she was "acting within her right of conscience in performing marriage ceremonies for same-sex couples." After the ruling was announced, Spahr said: "The church said God loved everyone, and for years I believed it. Today, for just one moment, to hear this is remarkable." The sole dissenter issued a minority opinion saying that it was logical that ministers should be disciplined for going against the denomination's position on marriage even if the constitution does not spell that out explicitly.
Many members of the Presbytery -- both conservative and liberal -- complained about the cost of the trial. It is unclear whether the ruling will be appealed.
Internet and media references:
- Krista Ramsey, "Doug is calm at center of church storm", Cincinnati Enquirer, 1997-NOV-1
- Julie Irwin, "Church watches trial on gay elder; Local case may be watershed," Cincinnati Enquirer, 1997-OCT-21
- J. L. Van Marter & John Sniffen, "Complainant Appeals Synod Commission's Decision", PC(USA) News mailing list, Item #97479, 1997-DEC-17
- Maja Beckstrom, "Stolen Identities", St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1997-JUL-12
- J. Filiatreau & J. Van Marter, "GAC Executive Committee Allows Women of Faith Award to the Rev. Jane Spahr to Go Forward", PCUSA NEWS, 1999-APR-27
- PCUSA News release, 1999-JUN-20 #5372.
- Lisa Leff, "Minister found not guilty of misconduct," ReligionNewsBlog, 2006-MAR-04, at: http://www.religionnewsblog.com/
Copyright © 1996 to 2006 by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance.
Latest update 2006-MAR-06
Author: B.A. Robinson
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