Posted on 06/03/2002 9:01:11 AM PDT by anniegetyourgun
The readerboard in front of the church said it was time to begin anew. The woman hanging two rainbow flags at the entrance to the worship hall agreed. And when he stood up to speak, the embattled minister sounded a similar note.
"We all need a fresh start," the Rev. Mark Williams told his congregation yesterday as he delivered a sermon expressing thanks that an investigation into his sexuality, sponsored by the United Methodist Church, is over.
Last week, an investigative committee announced it could find no evidence that Williams is violating a United Methodist ban on homosexual leaders — even though Williams is openly gay.
"It has been a long year for all of us," Williams said yesterday to congregants at the Woodland Park United Methodist Church, who were clearly relieved by the news that the inquiry into their pastor's sexual preference has been closed. "I feel like I know the relief Noah must have felt when he set foot on dry land again."
Worshippers, some wearing the type of rainbow ribbons associated with gay pride, applauded Williams' victory and after the service cast an official vote making their church ministry open to homosexuals — a vote that puts them at odds with official United Methodist doctrine.
The long ordeal for Williams and the Seattle church began a year ago, when Williams announced his sexuality at a gathering of United Methodist clergy. United Methodist dogma states that homosexuality is incompatible with Christianity and prohibits gays from holding church-leadership positions — unless they do not reveal they are gay.
None of this has changed, but in a unanimous decision last week an investigative committee of the denomination's Pacific Northwest Annual Conference said it could not find any evidence that Williams violated the church's dictate to exclude "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" from the ministry. Williams said he had refused to answer intimate questions from the committee.
The reprieve for Williams says more about attitudes in this part of the country than about the attitude of the larger United Methodist community, said Dr. Robert Hoshibata, Seattle district superintendent for the United Methodist Church.
Speaking to the congregation yesterday, Hoshibata recounted how during a recent conference call with church leaders from other regions he had spoken joyfully of the decision on Williams and was met with "stony silence."
"The joy that you feel is not the joy that others in our denomination feel," he told the congregants.
That didn't seem to matter to them.
"It's right and it's just," lay leader Cindy Rattray of the Woodland Park church said of the decision.
And Carol Wymack, chairwoman of the Seattle church's Inclusive Church Taskforce, said she was proud of how her congregation had responded to Williams' situation by growing more knowledgeable about gay issues.
"In the process of working on it I think our church has grown — not in terms of numbers, but in terms of understanding," she said.
But Wymack also said she is looking forward to having more time to focus on other issues now that this explosive issue seems to have been laid to rest.
After the service, Hoshibata presided over a meeting in which the Woodland Park congregants voted unanimously to adopt a statement of inclusion that is seemingly in contradiction with official United Methodist doctrine.
"We pledge ourselves to engage in the radical hospitality Jesus taught," the statement says, in part. "We include people of all races, ethnicities, nationalities, ages, genders, gender identities, sexual orientations, family structures, economic situations, political affiliations, mental or physical conditions, or biblical interpretations. We welcome all into full participation in the ministry and mission of Woodland Park United Methodist Church."
"I am thrilled," Williams said after the vote and the service concluded. "I feel like this chapter is definitely closed."
So what happens to those members of the congregation who ACCEPT the official UM doctrine? I guess they'll just have to leave. I'd be curious to see how many do so in the following weeks.
Aside from everything else, this says it all. They're not Methodists, or Baptists, or Presbyterians, or Catholics, or anything else. They're Unitarians in sheep's clothing. Why don't they drop the whole "church" pretense, and admit that they're just a womyn's study group now?
ROTFLMAO. Thanks, I needed that!
Suppose I interpret the Bible as saying that Aryans are the chosen people and that Africans are sub-human.
Am I to be welcomed into their fellowship with equal warmth? If they say "yes", then surely they wouldn't mind if I be given equal access to the teaching ministry of the church, so I could organize and publicize a bible study based on my views? If not, why not? On what specific exegetical principles would my "biblical interpretation" be unacceptable?
I'll bet he loves feeling fresh. ;^)
We pledge ourselves to engage in the radical hospitality Jesus taught," the statement says, in part.
Jesus' 'radical hospitality' was not unconditional: I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Luke 5:32)
Given that we're all sinners, He's calling on all of us to repent. I can't shake the feeling that these people are among "the righteous" of this statement, who are by their own actions excluding themselves from salvation.
Don't know about the "Unitarians", but this particular "flock" is not U.M....they should secede and start their own denomination, the "Inclusive Church", pastored by Ms. Wymack based on her experience as chairperson of the "Inclusive Church Taskforce"...
In fact, I wish everyone who is in such disagreement with their chosen faith would stop trying to re-make it in their own image and just go elsewhere!!!! It's not like there's any shortage of "dogmas" and "doctrines" out there, (including everyone's favorite, "the church of no rules"...plenty of room there for those who want a tailor-made "religious experience" to feel virtuous about!)...
To sum up: "to each his own", go away if you must, but leave me and mine alone!!!
Pure undiluted blasphemy. Thanks for the ping.
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