NIC VOICE
News Update
05-05-2005 #2 Reconciling Ministries Coverage & Commentary
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View previously released
NIC
VOICE
news updates on the Beth
Stroud Case here:
http://www.faithfulchristianlaity.org/discussion/viewtopic.php?t=191.
NIC VOICE
news updates published
during the trial week and after have been posted on the
NIC VOICE
web site:
http://www.nicvoice.org/beth_stroud_trial_updates.htm
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Reconciling Ministries Network
Reconciling Ministries
Network is a national grassroots organization that exists to enable full
participation of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities
in the life of the United Methodist Church, both in policy and practice.
-RMN Mission Statement
Click here to read the complete articles posted at this link:
http://www.rmnetwork.org/index.php
STROUD PENALTY OVERTURNED ON APPEAL! (POSTED--APRIL 29)
Rev. Beth Stroud responded, "This gives me hope that the UMC, divided as
it is, has within itself the resources to do justice." She also
expressed thankfulness that the next decision is not up to her!
LUNCH REPORT FROM STROUD TRIAL (POSTED--APRIL 28)
After further questions about the trial process she said, “Ironically,
this process has made me feel even more United Methodist.” An “AMEN”
went up from the audience. Friends and family gathered for communion
ending with singing What Does The Lord Require of You?
MORNING REPORT FROM STROUD APPEAL (POSTED--APRIL 28)
Rev. Tim Hall said he concurs with the assessment of the wonderful gifts
for ministry that Beth Stroud has but that this was a case of a good
person who stepped over the boundaries. He asked, “At this time, at this
place, do we need to look at the rules?” “Sure, but the fact is those
boundaries are in place. We cannot extend or overlook our covenantal
lines.”
APRIL 27 PRE-APPEAL VIGIL AT FOUNDRY UMC, WASHINGTON, DC
Bishop Schol ended the evening with a benediction: "I'm here because of
my sister, my colleague, my friend, Beth. I love her deeply and
appreciate her ministry, all God has done and continues to do in her
ministry. I'm here to minister and to be ministered to. If Jesus were in
town tonight, this is where he would be. I'm here because I needed to be
in the midst of Jesus. . . God's not done with any of us, and God is not
done with this great struggling UMC--this body of Christ--this broken
body of Christ."
BETH STROUD APPEAL SET FOR APRIL 28
“I have requested that the appeal hearing be open because I believe it
can be an important educational moment for The United Methodist Church.
However, I do not need or want a large presence of supporters there in
person. What would feel most supportive to me personally would be for
concerned people to be in prayer wherever you are -- and perhaps even to
gather with others at your church or in your community to pray for me,
for everyone involved in the hearing, and for the whole denomination.”
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Reconciling UM Press Release on the Beth Stroud Case
Reconciling United Methodists: Stroud Appeal Victory Spotlights ...
Common Dreams (press release) - Portland,ME,USA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 5,
2005
CONTACT: Reconciling Ministries
Network
Rev. Troy Plummer, 773-736-5526
troy@rmnetwork.org
CorNet Posting:
Reconciling United Methodists: Stroud Appeal Victory Spotlights Unfair
Treatment
WASHINGTON -- May 5 -- The United Methodist Church continues to
discriminate against sexual minorities despite the recent decision
overturning the removal of a lesbian Philadelphia minister’s clergy
status.
“We
celebrate with Beth Stroud and her family, but the reason for the
reversal is on legal grounds that do little to overturn decades of
discrimination in The United Methodist Church,” said the Rev. Troy
Plummer, executive director of the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN).
In
response to the Stroud appeal, the Council of Bishops urged patience
while also reaffirming the discriminatory practices of the General
Conference of The United Methodist Church.
“We know
the bishops are not of one mind on this issue, just as the church is not
of one mind,” Plummer said. “Our prayer is that the church follows in
the reconciling ministry of Jesus Christ, and lives out its commitment
to ‘open hearts, open minds and open doors.’”
“Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are powerfully and
permanently part of the United Methodist family through the sacrament of
baptism and through their faithful participation in the life of the
church,” Plummer said. “Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people
are called to be clergy through the power of the Holy Spirit. Judged
worthy by the board of ordained ministry, Beth Stroud has been affirmed
to have the gifts and graces of an effective pastor--even by the church
prosecutors. When will the church stop acting against these signs of the
Spirit?”
“While
disappointed that the committee’s narrow legal decision did not address
the substantive issues of Beth Stroud’s direct challenge to the church’s
prejudice, we are pleased that the committee seeks to hold the church
accountable to its own rules of fair process. The committee on appeals’
decision unmasks a history of circumventing the rules in haste to harm
lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons.”
Reconciling Ministries Network is a national grassroots organization
that exists to enable full participation of people of all sexual
orientations and gender identities in the life of the United Methodist
Church, both in policy and practice.
###
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Reconciling Kansas – Commentary
<snip>
I expect some eager,
legalistic folks to use the Stroud ruling as a roadmap to purity, as if
the only goal is to "close the loopholes." I expect some buzz at
some annual conferences meeting this May and June to define "status" and
"practicing homosexual." That could be a tricky dance by itself.
When some people quote the word "practicing," they seem to mean
"reported genital activity;" others seem to mean "being gay." Is it
behavioral or ontological? Reaching agreement may be problematic,
especially when the intent seems chiefly to excommunicate Christians.
It's a puritanical impulse -- obsessing over separating the pure from
the impure, the black from the white. It's one thing when you're
doing the laundry. It's different with people. And most
people can detect when somebody's real motive is an exercise in moral
self-superiority.
It's not some legal technicality at play here. It's genuinely
tricky to craft workable, operational definitions of "practicing"
sexuality of any sort -- lesbian, gay, bisexual, heterosexual. The
Stroud news reminds me of a film some twenty years ago that eloquently
parodied the Hollywood Western genre by making obvious the constant plot
element: every Western was fundamentally about proving that the hero was
a Real Man. In this movie, the hero didn't merely have to defeat
the male villain and win the girl; he had to prove his heterosexual
masculinity to some omniscient narrator. You could instantly see the
incredulity and befuddlement on the hero's face, for no matter how
dashing and handsome and stereotypical he was as another iconic American
cowboy, he reminded American culture that nobody can prove
heterosexuality. I know some married folks who wish there'd been some
foolproof test they could have engaged before saying "I do," but there
is no test ... only the futile human desire to know some things with
certainty. Just as the nervous Munchkins fervently needed to know
that the Wicked Witch was "morally, ethically, spiritually, physically,
positively, absolutely, undeniably and reliably dead," today's church
fervently wants to know everybody's sexuality. That's only ironic when
the clamor comes from people who claim to be orthodox Christians,
presumably believers that we're all sinners in the same boat, all
beneficiaries of God's grace, and all united in Christ and God's love.
And that God-talk leads to another tricky dance-step. When
reviewing the Stroud case, the appeals court decided that using
sexuality to decide whose Divine Calling to honor amounts to creating a
new doctrine, but illegally. The trial court, they said, wrongly
stretched one particular anti-gay idea into "the realm of doctrine."
Finally, an official church body has said not only that decisions on
sexuality have theological and doctrinal implications, but that they
encroach wrongly on doctrine.
Here in Kansas, we've read the Bible, and we've read the Articles of
Faith on Jesus, scripture, justification, and grace instead of human
works. (We rather like the entire epistle to the church at Rome, and
the handy Cliff's Notes version to the church at Galatia.) But as
we've listened to discussions at General Conferences and Annual
Conferences, a trendy new doctrine seems to have gripped the church
and we're left with a question: "Is heterosexuality essential to
salvation, meriting our justification before God?"
<snip>
Read More
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News Updates Previously Released by
NIC VOICE
Regarding Beth Stroud Trial:
Pre-Trial Updates (posted at the NIC VOICE Forum at Faithful
Christian Laity)
Collection of Trial and Appeal Press Reports at Beth Stroud’s Web Site
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