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A UMNS Report
By Heather Hahn*
7:00 A.M. EST February 2, 2011
Supporters of full inclusion for gays and lesbians in The United
Methodist Church share a time of witness at the 2008 General Conference.
A UMNS file photo by Mike DuBose.
View in Photo Gallery
Thirty-three retired United Methodist bishops have released a
statement calling on The United Methodist Church to remove its ban on
homosexual clergy.
The bishops noted that the church has lifted other restrictions on clergy before.
“Our United Methodist Church, ashamed and repentant in the past,
ended official and unofficial restrictions on candidacy, ordination and
appointment for reason of race, gender and ethnicity,” says the “Statement of Counsel to the Church – 2011”.
“We believe the God we know in Jesus is leading us to issue this
counsel and call — a call to transform our church life and our world.”
Nearly 40 percent of the denomination’s 85 retired bishops have
signed the statement, released Jan. 31. Most signers live and serve in
the United States. But they also include two retired leaders from the
denomination’s central conferences — Bishops Joseph C. Humper of Sierra
Leone and Franz W. Schäfer of Switzerland.
Retired Bishops Sharon Z. Rader and Donald A. Ott said they felt led
to circulate the statement to their fellow retirees after studying
Advent texts that emphasized the need of people not to be afraid.
The statement is the result of a prayerful consideration of the
Bible, the church’s Wesleyan heritage and the bishops’ experience and
“conviction of God’s intention for a world transformed,” the document
says.
The Book of Discipline,
the denomination’s law book, for 39 years has stated that “the
practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.
Therefore self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as
candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United
Methodist Church.”
The subject of homosexuality has surfaced every four years at the
gathering of The United Methodist Church’s General Conference, the
denomination’s top lawmaking body. Only General Conference can change
the Book of Discipline, and delegates consistently have voted to keep
the restriction.
“This statement tells of a widespread concern that episcopal
leaders have,” Ott said, “and I hope that the church and the world see
this as an opportunity to once again (look at this) and maybe this time
take the step of removing this. Once upon a time, it wasn’t there, and
it doesn’t have to be there.”
However, the denomination’s current policy on ordination has many supporters in both church and lay leadership.
Florida Area Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker said he supports the denomination’s basic position.
“It’s in agreement with Scripture and ecumenical Christian tradition
in the broadest sense,” he said. “We have the Church — with a capital C
— in many different cultural settings, and in those different cultural
settings, there are different understandings of human sexuality. I
think in making its decisions, the Church must be mindful of its
responsibility to its members in all its cultural settings and not just
select ones.”
Significant statement
Retired Bishop Neil L. Irons, the executive secretary of the Council of Bishops, said this is the first time in his memory when this many retired bishops have released a public statement such as this.
“The significance of this is that these are all bishops who have
abided by the law of the church since it was instituted in this
particular matter,” Irons said.
At the 1996 General Conference in Denver, 15 bishops signed a
statement that advocated gays and lesbians be welcomed into ordained
ministry. Irons said that, unlike the 2011 document, not every bishop
who signed the 1996 statement was aware it would be made public.
At this point, neither the Council of Bishops nor the council’s
executive committee has discussed the statement. Irons said he does not
know what the response will be.
Bishop Larry M. Goodpaster, the president of the Council of Bishops,
is in the Holy Land and could not immediately respond to phone calls
or e-mails.
Based on experience
Rader and Ott both stressed that the statement is based on their experience as church leaders.
For more than five years after her retirement, Rader was the bishop
in residence at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston,
Ill. In that capacity, she said, she met with many seminary students
who had the gifts and calling for ministry but were gay or lesbian.
“Those conversations were very convicting for me,” Rader said.
The statement said that “laity and clergy, gay and straight, (are)
withdrawing membership” and bishops are “being drained of energy”
because of a stance that contradicts their convictions.
“I believe our mission to make disciples is in jeopardy by the
current stance we have, and that’s a driving force for me,” Ott said.
“When the church has a position that many people do not hold, and those
people are in leadership or desire to be in leadership, they have to
make compromises with their own integrity.”
Bishop Whitaker said he might change the Book of Discipline’s
current wording to take less a tone of condemnation and emphasize the
need for all clergy’s celibacy in singleness.
But, he said, the change urged in the retired bishops’ statement “would create a lot of problems in the life of the church.”
Neither supporters nor opponents expect the debate on ordination or same-sex unions to end any time soon.
*Hahn is a multimedia news reporter for United Methodist News Service.
News media contact: Heather Hahn, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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