Anti-gay judicial attacks continue...

Jensen files complaint against More Light church pastor Jim Rigby of St. Andrew's, Austin TX
From the Austin American-Statesman:

A University of Texas student has asked Presbyterian Church officials to investigate an Austin pastor for conducting same-sex union ceremonies, a move that could lead to a church trial and the loss of the minister's job. [...] Brown told his pastor in Carrollton and then began working with Paul Rolf Jensen, a Virginia lawyer who has filed accusations against Presbyterian clergy across the country for defying church law on homosexuality...

[Web editor's note: same-sex holy union services are allowed under Presbyterian rules. See our online copy of the Benton decision of 2000.]

[9/15/04 update: an earlier version of the American-Statesman article incorrectly stated that holy union services aren't allowed in the PCUSA. The paper removed the incorrect statement after MLP co-moderator Donna Riley wrote a letter to the reporter. Polite feedback works!]

Pastor accused of defying church law on gays

By Eileen E. Flynn, American-Statesman staff
[Link to full article on American-Statesman site]

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

A University of Texas student has asked Presbyterian Church officials to investigate an Austin pastor for conducting same-sex union ceremonies, a move that could lead to a church trial and the loss of the minister's job.

Robert Brown, a UT freshman from Carrollton, said he learned in a Daily Texan article that the Rev. Jim Rigby, pastor of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in North Austin, presided over a marriage blessing in April for two male students, a violation of the denomination's rules.

Brown told his pastor in Carrollton and then began working with Paul Rolf Jensen, a Virginia lawyer who has filed accusations against Presbyterian clergy across the country for defying church law on homosexuality.

Working on Brown's behalf, Jensen, who threatened to report Rigby last year for ordaining a gay church elder, filed the accusation Monday with Mission Presbytery, a regional church governing body in San Antonio.

[...]

Rigby said he wants the presbytery to try him on general charges of ordaining and marrying gays because that will force officials to confront the issue of homosexuality in the church.

"Either they have to strip me of my ordination, or the church has to change," Rigby said.

[...]

Rigby has for years preached the acceptance and full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church. In addition to conducting same-sex union ceremonies, which he sees as marriages, Rigby admits that he ordained an openly lesbian elder at St. Andrew's.

The denominational rules spelled out in the Book of Order, the church's constitution, state that those eligible for ordination must meet the "requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness."

[...]

Rigby maintains that he is trying to help the church, not destroy it.

"This is what the church needs," he said, "this conversation."

Rigby added that he does not want people to focus on the risk he's taking. "There are people who are being oppressed by the church, judged and rejected by the church," he said. "In order for me to be in good conscience and stay in the church, I have to lay my ordination on the line."