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A UMNS Report
By Jackie Campbell*

3:00 P.M. ET Dec. 7, 2011

This stained-glass window of Christ adorns St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in State College, Pa. A web-only photo courtesy of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church.

To the Rev. Ed Zeiders, “It is a gift to be a Christian in a time like this.”

Zeiders is the senior pastor of the 1,800-member St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in State College, Pa., where the entire community has been rocked by scandal involving charges of child sexual abuse filed against longtime church member and former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

God’s grace is offered to all through the cross of Jesus Christ, who bore the sins of the world, Zeiders told his congregation on Nov. 20, a few weeks after formal charges were filed.

“Now, you understand what it means in your own hearts filled with disappointment and sadness, when the tears are running down your face, when your heart aches with the lack of understanding or disorientation,” he said. “When your dreams are dashed, broken and our whole community of learners and seekers living together … when it is all affected like this, Christians know what it means to bear one another’s burdens and to carry the wounds of Jesus Christ in our very hearts.”

Formal charges were filed Nov. 5 against Sandusky, who maintains his innocence. Two university administrators face charges of lying to the grand jury; Penn State Coach Joe Paterno has been fired, and the university president, Graham Spanier, has been replaced. The grand jury investigation is ongoing and charges against Sandusky involving two additional youth were filed Dec. 7. 2011.

Amid the turmoil, Zeiders and his staff have to address the kind of questions every United Methodist pastor dreads: How does a Christian faith community respond when a prominent member faces such devastating charges? How can clergy, staff and church members care for all involved in a widening crisis?

“For something so deeply personal and so heartbreaking for everybody, pastoral care has to be pretty clearly focused,” Zeiders told United Methodist News Service. “The senior pastor has to take the lead and define the nature of the Christian community so that the congregation understands.”

Dealing with allegations

In the church and in State College, news reports and rumors of the allegations circulated periodically during the two years that the Pennsylvania attorney general called witnesses to testify before a grand jury. The church provided support and care during that time for Sandusky and his wife, who are part of one of the church’s 43 active small groups, and others affected.

That care has been ongoing, Zeiders said.

Prayer also has been part of the church’s ministry. The first Sunday after the charges were filed, the church ushers passed out papers on which congregation members wrote messages of support for abuse survivors. 

“The congregation has been very gracious to people who have found themselves in difficult circumstances,” Zeiders said.

“Because the church is so large and made up of so many people connected to the university and the business community, anything that hits any of those groups is going to affect the congregation,” he explained. “(Church members) have learned how to care for others in crisis; they have established a pattern of responsible caregiving and have done that very well.”

Crisis-management plan in place

St. Paul’s has had a Safe Sanctuaries policy in place for several years, and, Zeiders says, the congregation strictly adheres to it — especially the “two-person rule” in their preschool and other activities.

The Rev. Ed Zeiders
A web-only photo by Beth Irvin.

The church also already had a crisis-management plan in place when the allegations came to light.

Zeiders, heading into his fifth year as senior pastor after serving eight years as president of United Theological Seminary in Ohio, likened the intervention/crisis-management plan to an archery target. “In the center are people in immediate crisis,” he said. “Each circle expands the caregiving.” 

The situation directly affected several hundred people including church members, university students and many area residents. In situations where charges of sexual abuse are involved in the news, Zeiders said, people who had been abused in the past often relive their experience and need care.

“It’s a lot to manage at one time,” said Zeiders, who chairs the United Methodist Susquehanna Annual (regional) Conference's Commission on Child Advocacy.

“An intervention team from the annual conference was here almost immediately,” Zeiders said. Not only does the team of trained staff provide care for the pastors and leaders, but the team also is available to members of the congregation.

In addition, St. Paul’s has a safety net of services as part of its congregational care and health ministries, including links with county agencies and local providers, and those are also a part of the response plan.

Dealing with the media

Zeiders and his congregation not only have faced a crisis of care but also a crisis of media attention.

Camera crews camped on the church’s front lawn, and reporters relentlessly sought out members for comments, but Zeiders refused countless requests for interviews. “I have been trying to be as invisible as I can,” he said.

“Congregational life is very sacred,” he added. “Some pastors might want the media coverage, but we deliberately kept cameras out. We did not want them intruding in worship.”

Reporters, however, came in to worship services. “We had no control over that,” he said. 

While resisting attempts to probe and pry into members’ private lives, Zeiders said it is not a time for the church to remain silent.

He told his congregation that the heartbreaking situation presented an opportunity for them to “give witness to the authenticity of faith ... to seize the God-given moment even in the face of grave darkness, horrible circumstances that have affected people all around the world.

“What have we to say to those who inquire of the faith, and of our life except that God loves us all? And that steadfast love never ceases. It is a mercy that knows no end,” he said in his Nov. 20 sermon.

St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in State College, Pa.
A UMNS web-only photo by Andy Mishock.

An act of compassion

Zeiders also talked about forgiveness, which he described as an act of compassion toward those who are broken in every condition. It restores the bridge between people and sets up the possibility for new beginnings.

God calls Christians to love and forgive, but forgiveness is not without consequences and never involves forgetting sins, he said.

“God gives us the memory of our sinfulness so that there are corrective measures we can take to assist each other on the path to new life and to recovery,” Zeiders told the congregation. “What makes the body of Christ magnificent is that it affirms the forgiving love of Jesus that is meant to heal the heartbreaking wounds in all of our people, including myself, including you.”

Forgiveness has a uniquely Methodist aspect when seen in the light of John Wesley’s view that we are all called to go on to perfection, Zeiders said.

“There’s a lot of misunderstanding about perfection,” he said. “Mr. Wesley never meant flawlessness. Mr. Wesley meant we should draw ever closer to the perfect love of God, and the perfect, the holy love and healing of one another.”

Methodists, he said, “are called to be accountable for each other…To love one another, to care for each other, to stand with one another. …What makes us very, very different in western forms of Christianity that are so individualized, is that we are also accountable to each other.”

Wesley’s small groups were accountable on two fronts, he explained. Not only were members to give an account of the gospel of Christ so those who heard it could be redeemed of sinfulness and restored to a right relationship with God and one another, but they also were to hold people accountable for their behavior.

“Card-carrying United Methodist Christians,” Zeiders said, “are mandated to live in the power of Christ…to live as agents of Christ, and … to hold each other accountable for the way in which we behave.

“When I fail, your job is to restore me, and when you fail, my job is to restore you,” he said. “That’s a very different proposition than just living in isolation and carrying around our unfinished business.”

Although broken and fractured, those in the community of faith are not alone, Zeiders said. “As God’s people, we must and we will live together as agents of God’s amazing grace (from) now to the end. “

*Campbell is a news and information specialist for the Western Pennsylvania Annual (regional) Conference.

News media contact, Maggie Hillery, Nashville, Tenn. (615)-742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org