Across seven years in the early 2000s, I served on the staff of Strength for the Journey San Diego, a one-week camping retreat for people living with HIV/AIDS. Launched in the 1980s by Burt All, a United Methodist pastor who was himself living with AIDS, the camp evolved across its many decades -- from a camp about how to die from a disease that didn't have a name, to a camp about how to live with AIDS, to a camp about how to live while managing what is now, for most, a chronic disease called HIV. It is a remarkable chapter in the life of the United Methodist Church, and one in which I am proud to have participated. For the better part of a quarter century, my church was ahead of the curve.
Sadly, my church is now officially "behind the curve." Our Book of Discipline still contains language that would prevent the church from ordaining as pastors people who live honestly and openly as lesbian-gay-bisexual-trans
The way I read the gospels, one of Jesus' core teachings is that his disciples should not pass judgment on others, especially those whose lives and life-circumstances they had not taken the time and care to know and understand. As if to demonstrate the importance of this teaching, Jesus included among his disciples all kinds of people who many others at the time would have considered unfit and unworthy to serve in positions of leadership.
Anyone who has taken the time and care, as I have, to understand people who God has gifted with sexual orientations other than heterosexual, will understand that sexual orientation should neither qualify nor disqualify people from service in the church. In my years at Strength for the Journey, I saw people of different sexual orientations serve selflessly and honorably as cooks and nurses and cabin captains and small group leaders and chaplains and treasurers and campfire leaders. I know many people of different sexual orientations who have served, and are serving now, honorably and with distinction as pastors of local churches in my own denomination and many others.
I also know - if only a little bit - one woman, Karen Oliveto, who is now serving honorably and with distinction as a Bishop in the United Methodist Church, while living openly as a lesbian. The validity of her consecration as Bishop is being reviewed this week by the Judicial Council, which some people call the "supreme court of the United Methodist Church."
I wish I were confident that my church will leap back ahead of the curve. I wish we would start ordaining people based on their callings, their gifts and graces, and their conduct, without regard for their sexual orientations. I wish we would start celebrating the marriages of all who went to enter into covenantal relationships with their loved ones through the grace of Jesus Christ.
But whatever rulings the official bodies of my denomination may render, I will not lose faith in Jesus, who said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)
When Strength for the Journey was created in the late 1980s, it offered a full, church-camp experience to people battling a disease that was then still poorly understood. Pictured here are those who gathered at the San Diego camp in 1988. A friend of mine who survives from that era says he doesn't know that any of the people in this photo are still alive. Among them, however, were many faithful followers of Jesus. And some among them were called by God to be pastors. Who knows, perhaps one of them would have made a great bishop.
Sadly, my church is now officially "behind the curve." Our Book of Discipline still contains language that would prevent the church from ordaining as pastors people who live honestly and openly as lesbian-gay-bisexual-trans
The way I read the gospels, one of Jesus' core teachings is that his disciples should not pass judgment on others, especially those whose lives and life-circumstances they had not taken the time and care to know and understand. As if to demonstrate the importance of this teaching, Jesus included among his disciples all kinds of people who many others at the time would have considered unfit and unworthy to serve in positions of leadership.
Anyone who has taken the time and care, as I have, to understand people who God has gifted with sexual orientations other than heterosexual, will understand that sexual orientation should neither qualify nor disqualify people from service in the church. In my years at Strength for the Journey, I saw people of different sexual orientations serve selflessly and honorably as cooks and nurses and cabin captains and small group leaders and chaplains and treasurers and campfire leaders. I know many people of different sexual orientations who have served, and are serving now, honorably and with distinction as pastors of local churches in my own denomination and many others.
I also know - if only a little bit - one woman, Karen Oliveto, who is now serving honorably and with distinction as a Bishop in the United Methodist Church, while living openly as a lesbian. The validity of her consecration as Bishop is being reviewed this week by the Judicial Council, which some people call the "supreme court of the United Methodist Church."
I wish I were confident that my church will leap back ahead of the curve. I wish we would start ordaining people based on their callings, their gifts and graces, and their conduct, without regard for their sexual orientations. I wish we would start celebrating the marriages of all who went to enter into covenantal relationships with their loved ones through the grace of Jesus Christ.
But whatever rulings the official bodies of my denomination may render, I will not lose faith in Jesus, who said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)
When Strength for the Journey was created in the late 1980s, it offered a full, church-camp experience to people battling a disease that was then still poorly understood. Pictured here are those who gathered at the San Diego camp in 1988. A friend of mine who survives from that era says he doesn't know that any of the people in this photo are still alive. Among them, however, were many faithful followers of Jesus. And some among them were called by God to be pastors. Who knows, perhaps one of them would have made a great bishop.
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