Presbyterians for Lesbian & Gay Concerns

Associate Dean & Professor
School of Communication, Information, and Library Studies
Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Chairperson, President's Select Committee for Lesbian and Gay Concerns
Rutgers University

With contributions by Chris Glaser, George Link, Rich Horton, Merrill Proudfoot, Louie Crew, Bruce Grimes and Geoffrey Kaiser, Bill Johnson, Jan Griesinger and the United Church Coalition for Lesbian/Gay Concerns, William H. Carey and LaDonna C. Briggs, Kentner Scott, Rob Gascho, Randall B. Palmer and the Gay Lesbian and Affirming Disciples Alliance, Ronald Lawson, Christian Lesbians OUT Together, Other Sheep: Multicultural Ministries with Sexual

Minorities, Open Hands, the Open and Affirming Program, the Reconciled in Christ Program, and the Reconciling Congregation Program.

References

This paper aims to describe the lesbian and gay liberation movement in the Christian Churches of the United States during the 1970s, 1980s, and into the 1990s. The perspective is that of a participant in this movement since the mid-1970s, rather than a scholarly analysis. The principal story will be that of the author's experience as a member and leader of Presbyterians for Lesbian & Gay Concerns and their battle for full and open participation by lesbian and gay Christians in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its predecessor body, the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. The paper concludes with an overview of the struggle across all denominations, contributed by Chris Glaser and including brief mention of groups similar to PLGC in other denominations, as well as non-denominational and ecumenical groups. More extended treatment of some of these groups, contributed by members of the groups, is provided in an appendix.

I have been a life-long Presbyterian, son of a Presbyterian minister (John Lang Anderson of Portland, Oregon) and a Presbyterian elder (Sarah Elizabeth Park Anderson). Of my parents' 4 children, I am the only one who has remained consistently active in the Presbyterian Church, and it is the battle for lesbian and gay liberation in this church that has kept my interest and inspired my commitment and efforts.

I have been married to the same man -- a wonderful man -- for 22 years, a marriage that my church refuses to recognize or honor.

At this conference, we are looking at a variety of voluntary groups in and beyond the institutional church. We are interested in knowing what inspired them to begin and to continue, and how they interact with the institutional establishment.

But we (speaking on behalf of this immense cloud of witnesses who preceded and co-exist with me) have lived our lives in secret for the most part. When Bill Silver became the first openly-gay, happily-homosexual candidate for the ministry in the former United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., that denomination didn't know what to do with him. The issue was not addressed in the Book of Order, the part of our constitution that addresses qualifications for ordained office.

The new policy was aimed as much at discouraging honesty, integrity, and openness as it was at opposing and denigrating homosexuality. Good Presbyterian folk just wanted the problem to go away. "Why do you have to talk about it?" they kept asking.

For the first time since women were finally accepted as full participants and members, this new policy, still in effect, created two classes of members, with very different rules for the two classes -- a kind of ecclesiastical apartheid. "Uncle Tom" gays and lesbians can gain access to the majority rules only if they hide their status (pass) or if they repudiate their status ("repent") and promise life-long celibacy unless they choose to enter into a sanctioned heterosexual relationship. Happy, openly lesbian and gay Presbyterians, especially those in relationships, must abide by a set of separate laws, designed only for them. As in the South African model of political apartheid, this ecclesiastical apartheid has led in recent years, with one court decision after another, to more and more detailed separate and unequal rules: gay and lesbian Presbyterians may not be ordained, but if they are (at least as deacons), their ordinations cannot be annulled; gay and lesbian Presbyterian ministers who were ordained prior to 1978 may keep their ordinations, but they may not receive calls for service; fully qualified candidates for ministry cannot be so certified if they are openly lesbian and gay, unless they promise celibacy; congregations, presbyteries, and synods may make "welcoming" statements advocating full membership and participation for lesbian and gay Presbyterians, but they may not promise to act on them.

The situation leading up to the creation of lesbian and gay liberation groups in the churches was silence and secrecy, with lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender people and other sexual outcasts living in dark closets. But too many lesbian and gay Christians became fed up with closets, with lying, with misinformation and secrecy. Inspired by the civil rights movement, the women's movement, and the liberating themes that flowered in the 1960s, the modern lesbian and gay liberation movement was born, at least figuratively, with the Stonewall rebellion in Greenwich Village, New York City, in 1969. For the first time, queers fought back against police during a routine raid at a gay bar. Secular gay and lesbian liberation groups quickly blossomed. Lesbian and gay liberation groups in the churches followed soon after -- Friends (Quakers) in 1970, the United Church of Christ Coalition in 1972, PLGC and Integrity (Episcopalians) in 1974, the Brethren/Mennonite Council in 1976, Seventh Day Adventist Kinship in 1977, to name only a few. The founding of the Metropolitan Community Church to serve in ministry with the lesbian and gay community preceded the 1969 rebellion by a year.

The "Themes and Topics" paper for this conference refers to "The Gay/Lesbian Caucuses." That term is misleading and I shall not use it, since most, if not all, of the groups I will describe are groups of and for lesbian women, gay men, bisexual and transgender men and women, other sexual minorities, and lots of friends, family members, and supporters. Most have never been limited to, or consisted only of, lesbian and gay people, as the term "caucus" implies. They are not and they never been caucuses of lesbian and gay folk.

Presbyterians for Lesbian & Gay Concerns was begun by the Rev. David Bailey Sindt in 1974. He began writing letters to persons he knew or had heard of, inviting them to join the "Presbyterian Gay Caucus (PGC)." Soon thereafter, the name was changed to "Presbyterians for Gay Concerns," to emphasize the fact that it was not just for gay people, but also for their friends and supporters. Still later, in a similar spirit of inclusiveness, the name was expanded to "Presbyterians for Lesbian & Gay Concerns" (PLGC). Currently, the organization is debating whether to add the term "Bisexual", and possibly "Transgender", or whether, instead, to adopt a symbolic inclusive name like "Illumination", "Lavender People", "Inclusion", "Rainbow", or "Covenant".

At the 1975 General Assembly, the pattern of PLGC's annual witness at these meetings was initiated, called a "ministry of presence." Just being there, visible, was a significant step, and we have been there, visible, and occasionally vocal, at every General Assembly since. We sponsor an annual luncheon featuring prominent advocates for lesbian and gay liberation within the church and rent a hospitality suite where friends, inquirers, and members may meet for relaxation, worship, conversation, and planning. Since 1980 we have rented our own exhibit space in the Assembly exhibit hall. Prior to that time, we were not allowed our own space, since the Assembly refused to receive our annual report, so we "camped out" with the hospitable Witherspoon Society, the Presbyterian Church organization committed to inclusiveness, among many other peace and justice issues.

Also in 1975, the pattern of synod coordinators was begun, and later chapters began to form in many cities across the country. David Sindt published a newsletter for several years, followed by More Light, a bimonthly magazine, edited and published by Chris Glaser. In 1980, the newsletter of PLGC in the Synod of the Northeast was adopted as the national "quick and dirty" monthly "Update." It became the More Light Update, which has been edited and published every month (except for a double issue in the Summer) since 1980 by James D. Anderson. By 1993, 5,000 copies were printed each month, with more than 4,000 going directly to persons and groups, mostly within the Presbyterian Church, and the remainder going in packets to chapters, congregations, and gatherings.

Because of the polity of the Presbyterian Church, including annual General Assemblies, a major focus of PLGC has been to use the political process within the church for educational purposes aimed at eventually changing the policies of the church. Since the current "sin" policy was adopted in 1978, PLGC has succeeded, with lots of help from friends, and occasionally from opponents, in having issues related to lesbian and gay people before ever single General Assembly. In recent years, it has become traditional for every candidate for moderator of the General Assembly to be quizzed on her or his views on homosexuality.

Education across the church has been another focus of PLGC, which it has pursued through sponsorship of its own regional conferences, participation in congregational, presbytery, synod and general assembly events, and publishing educational materials, in addition to the monthly More Light Update. Sometimes, our materials receive a lot more attention than we every expected.

In 1988 and 1989, we reprinted and distributed two excellent informational brochures for young people, "I think I might be a lesbian, now what do I do?" and "I think I might be gay, now what do I do?" They were prepared by members of gay and lesbian youth groups, edited and published by The Campaign to End Homophobia in Cambridge, Massachusetts. These brochures were very useful and well received until they were condemned by The Presbyterian Layman [sic], a widely circulated newspaper put out by folks who want to return the Presbyterian Church to some imagined former golden era completely free of gay, lesbian, bisexual and other distasteful folk. Prompted by The Presbyterian Layman and their allies, some 15 Presbyteries sent overtures to the 202nd General Assembly in Salt Lake City attacking these brochures for youth and PLGC. What really upset them was not only the happy, upbeat portrayal of homosexuality, but that PLGC made the brochures available at the 1989 Presbyterian Youth Triennium. So PLGC and lesbian and gay issues got even more attention at this assembly than usual -- all very educational for those open to learn.

At the same time that the General Assembly was having to deal with controversies around homosexuality and PLGC, it was also having troubles with the Presbyterian Lay Committee, publishers of The Presbyterian Layman. The Lay Committee refused to abide by the rules for the "special organizations" that reported annually to the General Assembly under provisions of chapter 9 in the reunited church's constitution (formerly chapter 28). These controversies may have been instrumental in leading this Assembly to abolish chapter 9, so that henceforth, special organizations like PLGC would have no "official" relationship with Presbyterian governing bodies.

The More Light Church movement began soon after the close of the 190th General Assembly in 1978. Several congregations began adopting policies explicitly welcoming lesbian and gay members and guaranteeing their full participation, including ordination to offices of deacon and elder if elected by the congregation and found qualified by the session. This movement spawned similar movements in the United Methodist Church (Reconciling Congregations), the United Church of Christ (Open and Affirming Congregations), and the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Reconciled in Christ Congregations). Later, the movement spread to additional denominations, such as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the American Baptist Churches, Brethren and Mennonite churches, and the Unitarian Universalist Association.

But there is a big difference between the More Light Churches in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and their counterparts in other denominations. In none of these other denomination is it illegal, under church law, to permit full participation by lesbian and gay Christians at the congregational level in such roles as member of a governing council or in special ministries to those in need. But it is illegal under Presbyterian law, which prohibits the ordination of any open, self-affirming, "non-repentant" homosexual as deacon or elder by the session of a local congregation. Unlike most other denominations, local leaders in the Presbyterian Church -- our deacons and elders -- are ordained under the same standards (apart from education and training) as our ministers. This makes the apartheid policies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) the most restrictive of any major mainline denomination.

Here I speak of legalities, and the Presbyterian Church is a very "legalistic" church, with a well developed system of law and of courts to handle legal challenges and complaints. No doubt, openly lesbian and gay members would be unwelcome on many congregational or parish councils in other denominations, but in no other mainline denomination is it explicitly illegal -- certainly not among the denominations that have welcoming congregation movements.

So what began as guidance was converted, by a few males and one woman, to church law. When the General Assembly adopted it's anti-gay "definitive guidance" policy in 1978, it was quite clear that the assembly had no intention of violating the rights and responsibilities of sessions and presbyteries to ordain. Just before the vote on the policy, The Rev. Thomas Gillespie, now president of Princeton Theological Seminary and then chairperson of the General Assembly committee that drafted the policy statement, made the following statement to the commissioners who adopted the 1978 policy statement:

From the beginning, PLGC has been a political organization, in the sense that it has worked at every level -- session, presbytery, synod, and general assembly -- to effect change using the polity of the church. Every year, members of PLGC have worked with sessions and presbyteries to draft and get overtures adopted on issues important to lesbian and gay Presbyterians, especially the right and responsibility to assume leadership positions. After 1983, when the southern and northern streams of Presbyterian Church finally reunited following a split over a similar apartheid policy for African Americans, PLGC has made frequent use of commissioner resolutions at general assemblies. (The General Assembly of the former United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. did not allow for new business in the form of commissioner resolutions.) Of course, PLGC does not submit resolutions directly, since it (like all "special organizations") has no official standing in the assembly. Instead, PLGC works with friendly and supportive commissioners. Most, if not all, of these commissioners must be of course heterosexual, or presumed to be heterosexual, since it is probably illegal for open, happy, lesbians or gay men to represent presbyteries at general assembly, since they cannot be ordained and, following the Janie Spahr court decision (discussed below), they may not serve even if they were previously ordained.

Most of the time, "our" commissioner resolutions do not get adopted, but they do serve as educational and consciousness-raising vehicles. And some times they do get adopted. Two successful examples were the 1992 resolution affirming support for the lesbian and gay civil rights law in New Jersey and asking the stated clerk to join in opposing a court challenge to that law by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church as an amicus curiae and the 1993 resolution calling for the complete elimination of the anti-gay/lesbian ban in the U.S. Military.

Presbyterian Act-Up, which planned and orchestrated the Baltimore demonstration, was a new, informal organization fighting for lesbian, gay, and bisexual rights in the church. Founded by the Rev. Howard Warren, its leaders are members of PLGC, but there is a distinction. PLGC is the "decency and order" organization (to quote an ancient Presbyterian slogan), while Presbyterian Act-Up is the "Holy Spirit" organization, and in indecent times, the Holy Sprit may not always have the time or patience for orderly procedures.

Suddenly, following the controversy that greeted the human sexuality report, ecclesiastical court cases attacking individuals, More Light congregations, and supportive presbyteries began popping up all over the church. Up to this time, the only court case to reach the national level and to receive national attention was the 1984-85 challenge to Westminster Presbyterian Church, the More Light congregation in Buffalo, New York. Now, in quick succession, there were challenges against St. Luke Presbyterian Church in the Twin Cities Area Presbytery and Mt. Auburn Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati Presbytery simply for declaring themselves "More Light." St. Luke was barred from ordaining a gay elder who had been elected and certified eligible, so the position was kept vacant and he served on the session as a "non"-elder. St. Auburn not only declared "More Light," but preceded to ordain a gay elder.

The impact of these rulings was immediate and wide-spread. The Spahr ruling was especially devastating, because up to this time, most people had assumed that gay and lesbian ministers, elders, and deacons ordained prior to 1978 were "safe." After all, paragraph 14 (the "grandparent clause") guaranteed not just ordination, but "ordination rights," and surely the right to serve was an "ordination right". But now, in the words of one such minister, "none of us ordained prior to 1978 can accept any new call, though for the time being we can remain in the ones we have. Once adjudicated further, however, this decision could mean that we cannot retain our present positions either. But then the PJC doesn't put a high value on consistency, as the Oregon case shows."

The outrage from the Larges and Spahr rulings generated overtures from many presbyteries to the 1993 General Assembly demanding that the responsibility and authority for ordination be returned to sessions and presbyteries, where Presbyterian polity has traditional placed it. This was the big issue for the 1993 General Assembly, along with down-sizing, restructuring, and budget-slashing. Financial problems and streamlining denominational headquarters operations seemed easy compared to homosexuality. The assembly committee assigned to consider lesbian and gay issues was at a loss on how to reconcile sharply opposing views on the one hand and widespread confusion and disagreement over the status of the 1978 "definitive guidance" on the other, so it asked the assembly to solidify the "definitive guidance" into an "authoritative interpretation." The assembly went along with this recommendation, as well as its companion, which asked every congregation and presbytery and synod to study homosexuality and to dialogue with lesbian and gay people for another three years, hoping by then some resolution might be possible. It also asked each presbytery to make arrangements to protect the status and reputation of gay and lesbian Presbyterians who participate in dialogue, but it gave up trying to create the "safe space" itself.

The decision of the high court rejecting annulment of the "irregular" ordinations of the lesbian and gay deacons in Oregon indicates that the catch-22 for lesbian and gay Presbyterians is becoming more and more narrowly defined. Ordinations are "safe" but no call to serve in a position requiring ordination is permitted. This fine-tuning of apartheid policies is reminiscent of similar fine-tuning of apartheid laws in South Africa, with their careful delineations of what it meant to be "white", "black", or "colored."

Some members of PLGC are sick and tired of study, but others point out that this might be the first time that the "rank and file" or "members in the pew" actually participate on a broad-scale basis, since past studies were, for the most part, "dominated by expert task forces." Others remind us that the mandate of the 1976-78 Task Force to Study Homosexuality included leading the entire church in study and that it circulated educational materials, encouraged local "homosexuality information days," and held hearing all over the country.

We have presented a story of PLGC as an example of a support and advocacy organization of and for lesbian, gay and bisexual people in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Similar groups exist in most other denominations. In addition, several broad-based interdenominational, nondenominational, and ecumenical groups have evolved, and even some new denominations whose principal ministry is with lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, their families and friends. The most important of these denominations is the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches (UFMCC, or, for short, MCC).

The Gay and Lesbian Religious Movement in America, by Chris Glaser.

Edited and abridged by Chris and JDA.

From this conversation, an outcast Pentecostal preacher "heard the call" to organize a church of and for lesbians and gay men.

The church that began in the heart and living room of the Rev. Troy Perry has become arguably the most successful ecumenical church movement in the United States, bringing together Pentecostals and Presbyterians, Catholics and Quakers, Lutherans and Later Day Saints. At its annual conference held in Phoenix in July 1993, the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches drew representatives from 17 nations; on October 6, 1993 UFMCC celebrated a quarter-century of ministry within the gay and lesbian community.

The National Council of Churches, held hostage by a threatened withdrawal of Orthodox and African-American denominations, has declined to give membership or even observer status to the largely gay church. [Muslim and Jewish groups are invited to be observers, but not gay Christians! -- JDA.] Nonetheless, the decade long dialogue between the denomination and the Council, the nation's largest ecumenical organization, has indelibly impressed the broader church. The Rev. Nancy Wilson, pastor of the Los Angeles MCC, who initiated the quest on behalf of the fellowship's nearly 300 churches, said, "We finally got them to face that this was their issue [by persuading them] to talk to their own gay and lesbian people."

During UFMCC's infancy, the Council on Religion and the Homosexual fostered understanding among the Bay Area's churches; in 1972 the city was the site of the ordination of the first openly gay man in a mainstream denomination, the Rev. William Johnson of the United Church of Christ. Johnson termed the decision choosing between "a position of fear or a position of faith."

That event, along with the establishment of Metropolitan Community Churches throughout the country, brought the gay religious movement out in the media, and lesbians and gay men of most religious traditions began coalescing into support groups and national networks, developing ministries, and lobbying for change within their parent groups.

From the late '70s through the '80s, a pattern emerged within most mainstream liberal churches in which an assigned task force or committee would report favorably on homosexuality, only to have a national governing body reject any recommendations for changing church positions, while at the same time supporting gay civil rights. . . .

The Rev. Eileen Lindner, who holds a doctorate in American church history and serves as associate general secretary of the National Council of Churches, recently asked me, "Why is this issue different than all others? Why does this issue threaten schism in churches in a way that abortion does not?"

The answer may lie in the intimacy of any matter related to spirituality and sex, from personal doubts about scriptural infallibility to anxieties over one's own sexuality. That intimacy may account for the passion of the resistance, and it significantly affects the major areas of tension between gays and American religion:

Scripture. Prejudice loves to cloak itself in the camouflage of scripture. A direct teaching of Jesus against divorce may be ignored, but a handful of possible references to homosexuality from lesser authorities -- including a book otherwise hardly ever quoted, Leviticus -- are requisitioned for the arsenal of those who oppose gay acceptance. The "authority of scripture" is evoked in religion and society, both of which question biblical authority daily and have revised scriptural views on everything from polygamy to pork.

Sexuality. Sexuality and pleasure have fallen suspect within religious circles, particularly within Christianity. Though the Puritans get the blame, they championed companionship, not children, as the pre-eminent reason for marriage. The roots of the supposed conflict between sexuality/sensuality and spirituality were actually grounded in the church's uncritical acceptance of Hellenistic dualism of spirit and body, contrary to the Jewish and early Christian concept of the soul as an indivisible unit of spirit and body. According to the dualistic notion, the spirit's superiority (read: control) had to be exerted over the body in order for the spirit to ascend to heaven. From this comes the notion of denying or subjugating one's sexuality to affirm one's spirituality. Much current theology is focused on reclaiming bodily and earthly experience . . . .

Inertia. Inertia is the primary governing force of almost any institution, religion included. To change its course requires a mammoth expenditure of energy over time. Individuals within religious organizations fear change, and many look to the church or synagogue as an anchor in the metamorphic storm sweeping the world. A recent survey of United Methodists revealed that courage and imagination were among the least desired traits of clergy, indicating, analysts say, a desire for an institution that maintains rather than advances -- a sure prescription for decline.

Nostalgia. So-called "traditional family values" have more to do with maintaining the status quo or returning to a nostalgic past than religious values. The "traditional family", or more correctly, household, of the Old Testament would have been polygamous and, in the New Testament, would have been superseded by the claims of God and the family of faith. The "traditional value" of patriarchy and its counterpart of sexism is directly linked to homophobia, as Suzanne Pharr argues in Homophobia, A Weapon of Sexism: "Misogyny gets transferred to gay men with a vengeance and is increased by the fear that their sexual identity and behavior will bring down the entire system of male dominance and compulsory heterosexuality." As women, lesbians are even more vulnerable within American religion than gay men, which is why Christian Lesbians Out Together has been formed in recent years across denominational lines.

Xenophobia. Gay Christian poet W.H. Auden once wrote, "Remember the gift, the one from the manger; it means only this, you can dance with a stranger." But most Christians have forgotten that their central spiritual figure constantly reached out to those the culture considered expendable, and many Jews do not heed their prophets' calls to protect the rights of the alien. Religious institutions are afraid of the stranger, within or without, and the religious right capitalizes on this fear of difference.

Holy Wars. Within American mainstream religion today, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), the Unitarian Universalist Association and the United Church of Christ permit gay clergy. Of these, the UAHC and the UCC have both accepted the membership of gay congregations. The Episcopal Church, while not yet affirming gay clergy, has a form of government that permits local bishops to make the choice. The Rev. Ellen Barrett was the first open lesbian ordained by a major denomination in 1977 at the hands of Bishop Paul Moore of New York City. Bishop John Spong of Newark, New Jersey, author of two gay-positive books, received the attention of the media in recent years when he ordained an openly gay man, the late Robert Williams (and subsequently fired him for suggesting publicly that Mother Teresa could benefit from "a good lay").

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), at least those branches that do not have professional clergy, generally embraces lesbian and gay members. The Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints, the more liberal of the Mormon institutions, has quietly ordained gays to lay ministries. New Thought churches, such as Unity Church and the Church of Religious Science, welcome gay leaders; Christian Science, however, tends to be more conservative.

The Roman Catholic, Pentecostal (Assembly of God, et al.), Baptist and Mormon (Latter Day Saints) churches, and Orthodox Judaism generally condemn lesbians and gay men. . . .

Baptists dissent as well. In 1993 one prestigious Southern Baptist church authorized and witnessed the marriage of a gay couple and another licensed a gay preacher, suffering repercussions from the Southern Baptist Convention. President Clinton's own Baptist pastor has met with hostility for not ousting the nation's chief executive from his church for holding liberal views on homosexuality and abortion.

Many liberal Protestant churches, such as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the American Baptist Churches in the USA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the United Methodist Church, fall somewhere in the middle, officially welcoming gays and lesbians as members, but withholding ordination. In terms of those already serving in ministry, these denominations practice a form of the new U.S. military policy: Don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue. The irregular ordination of a gay man and a lesbian two years ago brought the Lutheran Church's discipline of two San Francisco congregations, and the call of a lesbian pastor to a Rochester, N.Y., congregation was set aside last year by a Presbyterian church court. United Methodists are studying the issue again, as are Presbyterians. It is believed that conservative Judaism, also caught in the middle, may eventually follow the lead of the reform movement's UAHC.

Localized ministries have sprung up for the gay community regardless of official church policy. New Ways Ministry (Roman Catholic) in Mount Rainier, Md., the Lazarus Project (Presbyterian) in Los Angeles, the Ministry of Light (Presbyterian; now called "Spectrum") in the San Francisco area, Evangelicals Together (interdenominational) in Southern California, and Wingspan Ministry (Lutheran) in St. Paul, Minn., were among the earliest. During the pontiff's visit to Colorado in August, the New Ways Ministry presented Pope John Paul II with a petition signed by more than 8,000 Roman Catholics, including four bishops, urging him to speak out against attacks on gay rights. The pope, whose officers have issued letters condoning discrimination and violence against gay people, did not respond to the petition.

Cutting across denominational and state lines is Evangelicals Concerned, founded by therapist Ralph Blair, which holds local Bible studies and regional conferences. . . .

As religious bodies come to recognize that change in sexual orientation is not possible and celibacy requirements for one sexual orientation are unjust, the shift in the debate will focus on covenantal ceremonies celebrating gay commitment, a conversation already underway. Religious institutions that accept sexual expression only within the confines of marriage may discover it within their best interests to find ways to celebrate and affirm the coupling already present in the gay community.

They will not be without historic precedent: John Boswell's long awaited new book, tentatively titled "Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe," to be published by Villiard Books next spring (May 1994), will document same-gender covenant ceremonies in the church that predated and coexisted with heterosexual marriage ceremonies. These services lift as models of faithfulness and love a pair of martyred male lovers, Sergius and Bacchus, whose feast day in the church calendar is Oct. 7 -- one day after UFMCC's anniversary.

The prayers from the ancient rite of spiritual friendship that Boswell has uncovered asks that the couple may be granted "a faith unconfounded, and a love without pretense." America's religions may pray to be blessed with a faith unconfounded by homophobia so that they can celebrate our love without pretense.

1. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. President's Select Committee for Lesbian and Gay Concerns. In Every Classroom: The Report of the President's Select Committee for Lesbian and Gay Concerns. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University (Office of Student Life Policy and Services, 301 Van Nest Hall, New Brunswick, NJ 08903), 1989. 107 p. $10.00.

2. "Renegotiating Boundaries: Voluntary Organizations and the Churches: Themes and Topics." Paper distributed by Eugene TeSelle, Vanderbilt University, The Divinity School, April 1993. Unpaged.

3. Boswell, John. Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980. 424 p.

4. United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. 190th General Assembly (1978). Blue Book I: Report on the Work of the Task Force to Study Homosexuality. San Diego, CA, May 16-24, 1978. 201 p.

5. United Presbyterian Church in the Unites States of America. Office of the General Assembly. The Church and Homosexuality. New York, NY: 1978. 62 p. Includes "the Background Paper of the Task Force to Study Homosexuality, which was received by the 190th General Assembly (1978) as a study document, and the Policy Statement and Recommendations, which were adopted by the 190th General Assembly (1978)."

6. Sindt, David B. "Presbyterians for Lesbian/Gay Concerns: A Brief History, 1974-1982." In Questions???, Make Contact!, cover verso and p. 9, 8. A special insert in More Light Update 4(1 & 2); 1983 August.

7. United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., Office of the General Assembly. Sexuality and the Human Community. Philadelphia; August 1970. 56 p.

8. United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., Office of the General Assembly. Report of the Special Committee to Study Chapter XXVIII of the Form of Government. Adopted by the 191st General Assembly (1979). New York: 1979. 19 p.

9. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Synod of the Northeast, Permanent Judicial Commission. The Session of Union Presbyterian Church of Blasdell, New York, et al., Complainants, vs. The Presbytery of Western New York, Respondent. June 18, 1984. Reprinted in More Light Update 5(3): 1-3; 1984 November.

10. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), General Assembly, Permanent Judicial Commission. Union Presbyterian Church of Blasdell, New York, et al., Complainants-Appellants, vs. The Presbytery of Western New York, Respondent-Appellee, Remedial Case No. 197-9. February 17, 1985. Reprinted in More Light Update. 5(10): 1-11; 1985 April; "Dissenting Opinion." Reprinted in More Light Update 5(10): 15; 1985 April.

11. Church & Society at Eighty, a special edition of Church and Society, 80(1): 106-107; 1989 September/October.

12. "Thompson Interprets G.A. Decision." More Light Newsletter 31: 1; 1978 July-August.

13. "Sexuality Study." More Light Update 8(1): 3-4; 1987 August.

14. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), General Assembly Special Committee on Human Sexuality. Keeping Body and Soul Together: Sexuality, Spirituality, and Social Justice. A Document Prepared for the 203rd General Assembly (1991). Louisville, KY: PC(USA), 1991. 195 p.

15. Anderson, James D. "An Assembly We Will Never Forget." More Light Update 12(1): 1-2; 1991 August.

16. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Synod of the Pacific, Permanent Judicial Commission. "Hope Presbyterian Church, Complainant/Appellant, v. Central Presbyterian Church, Respondent/Appellee: Remedial Case 93-01." Reprinted in More Light Update 14(3): 1-4; 1993 October.

17. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), General Assembly, Permanent Judicial Commission. "Hope Presbyterian Church, Complainant/Appellant, v. Central Presbyterian Church, Respondent/Appellee: Remedial Case 206-3." Reprinted in More Light Update 14(7): 1-6; 1994 February.

18. United Presbyterian Church in the Unites States of America. Office of the General Assembly. "Policy Statement and Recommendations," in The Church and Homosexuality. New York, NY; 1978: p. 62.

19. Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), General Assembly, Permanent Judicial Commission. "The Rev. Ronald P. Sallade, et al., Complainant/Appellant, v. The Presbytery of Genesee Valley, Respondent/Appellee: Remedial Case 205-5." Reprinted in More Light Update 13(7): 8-12; 1993 February.

20. "Prominent Presbyterian Church Outlaws Support for Gays and Lesbians; Internationally known organist forced to resign; What kind of dialogue is this?" More Light Update 14(7): 7; 1994 February.

21. "Janie Spahr Attacked Again: She Faces Another Ecclesiastical Trial. What Kind of Dialogue Is This?" More Light Update 13[i.e. 14](5): 1-3; 1993 December.

22. Glaser, Chris. "The Gay and Lesbian Religious Movement in America." Frontiers. 1993 September 10, p. 43-44.

We present here brief histories of a sampling of other groups, some independent and some related in various ways with Christian denominations. These brief looks are based on materials provided by representatives of these organizations. This is a very selective sampling, meant more to show variety and to represent several "non-main-stream" groups (Friends, Pentecostals, Brethren and Mennonites, Christian Scientists, Seventh Day Adventists) than to include all the major "main-stream" groups. Thus, for example, our friends in some of the largest organizations, such as Lutherans Concerned, Affirmation (United Methodists), and Dignity (Roman Catholics) are not included in this survey. We begin with a look at the larger context by Dr. Louie Crew, founder of Integrity and professor of English at Rutgers University.

Lesbigays have organized in every Christian denomination. So has the reaction of the Rabid Right, beginning with Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority in the 1970's, augmented and continued by the PTL Club, Pat Robertson, Patrick Buchanan, Ron Wilder, and others. Most credit The Religious Right with gaining a strangle-hold on the Republican Party.

In at least one denomination, Southern Baptists, right-wing reactionaries managed to get such a stranglehold that it now controls all seminaries and universities. When Pullen Memorial Church blessed the relationship of a gay couple in 1993, the Southern Baptist Convention ousted them, and changed its fundamental principle of the autonomy of individual congregations: lesbigay sexuality is now the only issue whatsoever that individual congregations are not free to decide for themselves. Presbyterians have also played around with their constitution on the matters of autonomy to thwart support for lesbigay ordinands. That is real power, albeit negative, so to frighten people that they violate their own most basic principles.

The organized opposition is novel. In 1969, the year of the Stonewall Rebellion that marked the beginning of the current phase of the lesbigay movement, no one was paying a dime to "heal" homosexuals. The notion that homosexuality was a sickness lacked compassion and lacked commitment. Individual "healers" may actually be responding to their notions of how to respond to hurting homosexuals, but their funders are responding mainly to the political need to give some evidence of their fake spiritual claims to "love" the sinner but not the sin. These ministries, often embarrassing even to their stingy funders, mirror a similar effort in the 1950s on the part of Southerners to invest in black schools to give a bit more credence to their claims of "separate but equal" -- separate, but equal only by dime-store cosmetics.

The scapegoating factor is crucial, I think. It is much more a motivation than is theology in the minds of many of those organized against us. People seek power, and they use hetero-ignorance to unite people. We're the only group around now that it is safe to fear openly. The hatred often masks other political agendas.

During these same two decades the nation has feasted, even glutted, on a never-ending stream of talk shows, which far more comprehensively than any church-mandated "study," have orchestrated the public discourse on lesbian and gay issues. In my view, these have fallen on hard times in the last 10 years, with a predilection to present most guests as freaks. In the early days of Phil Donohue and Opra Winfrey, lesbians and gays and our friends were presented as far less bizarre and in a context of eavesdropping that was far less prurient.

A sleeper through all of this has been the issue of Blessing of Lesbigay Relationships. In Episcopal discussions, ordination has received first billing chronologically and substantively. Many who now introduce resolutions to bless relationships (including some conservatives), argue that blessing gay relations should come first. It certainly would make more sense to argue for clergy to be married if we had first set up a way for lesbigay clergy to be married. The Diocese of Rochester has been blessing lesbigay relationships officially for at least 10 years. In most other dioceses they have occurred "underground," sometimes without the knowledge of the bishop, sometimes with the knowledge of the bishop but under the condition that they do not make the press. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has O.K.ed the blessing of lesbigay unions by Presbyterian ministers in Presbyterian churches as long as they are not considered the same as Christian marriage.

From the early 1980s AIDS has had a dramatic effect in awakening persons to the need for blessing alternatives to promiscuity.

AIDS has also dramatically influenced our command to the church's attention. Many congregations have moved much more readily to love us in our deaths than to treat us with justice while alive. AIDS has taken some of our important champions. AIDS ministries have called us into much greater spiritual depth, into much more comprehensive awareness of lesbigay "community." In the Episcopal Church, AIDS ministries have made important use of some of our most talented lesbigay priests, including Elizabeth Kaeton, Ted Karpf and Rand Frew.

I first glimpsed how huge are the forces which conspire to violate my wholeness in a strange epiphany back in 1974. In February of that year another man and I had united our lives. Never before had anyone loved me who did not, at least in some measure, have to. All at once Ernest showed me how Jesus' similar claim could be true. I could begin to become whole.

Newly baptized in God's and Ernest's love, I arrived in Berkeley as an NEH fellow for the summer. I called Grace Cathedral in San Francisco to inquire, "Where can my gay spouse and I meet other gay Episcopalians while here?"

For a moment the full switchboard seemed to short-circuit. Giving one inane excuse after another, each secretary transferred the call to another, so that every one could relish the occasion.

I expected such silly run-arounds in rural Georgia where we had lived openly as a gay and racially integrated couple, but not in the city most famous for its large gay population, and not in the most liberal of all Anglican houses, and not five years after the purported beginning of gay liberation, and not . . . .

Thus I ran head-on into the real world, where, unlike the world of comic books, evil and righteousness maintain no specific address, except yours and mine.

The Holy Spirit used their highly placed tittering to prompt me into taking responsibility. I knew that God promiscuously loves everybody! All lucky enough to know that share an obligation to tell the good news. When I returned to rural Georgia, I took out ads in church and gay papers announcing a new publication, called Integrity.

Others have taken that small beginning and have built a ministry that has acted within and beyond the Episcopal Church over the past decade, influencing every General Convention. Over [65] chapters now worship and function as healing communities. Thousands have entered or re-entered the Church, many into priestly vocation. -- Reprinted from The Voice of Integrity 3(4): 23; 1993 Fall. This article first appeared in Christianity and Crisis, March 17, 1986, under the title "Compulsions & Affirmations."

The Episcopal Church has grappled simultaneously with lesbian and gay issues and with the priesthood of women over the last 20 years.

The Episcopal Church is governed principally at the diocesan level, with bishops ordaining priests. National leadership is exercised by The General Convention, a bicameral group, comprised of the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies. General Convention meets triennially, and during the interim, the Presiding Bishop and Executive Council provide oversight.

The Presiding Bishop oversees the Episcopal Church Center and presides in the House of Bishops. In addition to the triennial meeting of General Convention, The House of Bishops meets at irregular intervals as needed, at least once a year.

General Convention governs the church through its Constitution and Canons, and it advises the church through resolutions. The church has never addressed lesbian and gay issues through its canons, and hence it may be said that the church has never officially proscribed lesbian and gay behavior on the part of priests or laity, though in fact, it has long manifested the prejudices of any age.

1974. Louie Crew founded Integrity, out of Fort Valley, Georgia, in October. The first chapter met in December, in Chicago.

The House of Bishops rushed to create a Task Force on Homophiles and the Ministry, when a bishop from Florida had asked what to do with "queer priests."

Ordination of "The Philadelphia Eleven," the first women priests in the Episcopal Church. These ordinations were declared "irregular" since the General Convention had frequently considered but not yet voted to approve the ordination of women.

1975. Integrity held its first national convention at the Cathedral of St. James in Chicago, with theologian Norman Pittenger as the central speaker. Ellen Barrett and James Wickliff served as Integrity's first co-presidents.

More "irregular" ordinations of women took place in Washington, DC.

1976. General Convention passed a resolution saying "Homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church." Integrity members had proposed this wording a year earlier when they with The Standing Commission on Human Affairs, which presented the resolution. Integrity had its first booth at General Convention and has been at every General Convention sent.

General Convention changed the canons to permit the ordination of women, and it "regularized" the earlier ordinations in Philadelphia and Washington.

General Convention passed (and reaffirmed in 1979 and 1983) resolutions supporting the civil rights of lesbians and gays.

1977. Rt. Rev. Paul Moore, Jr., Bishop of New York, ordained Ellen Marie Barrett to the priesthood in January.

The House of Bishops meeting in Port St. Lucie said ordinations of lesbians and gays should not happen. They passed a strong resolution condemning homosexuality as unbiblical. They asserted the church "is right to confine its nuptial blessing exclusively to heterosexual marriage." They tabled a measure to censure Bishop Moore.

They adopted a "conscience clause" permitting bishops to refuse to ordain women.

1979. General Convention passed a resolution milder than that of the House of Bishops at Port St. Lucie. In a compromise they said it was inappropriate to ordain anyone sexually active outside the bonds of heterosexual marriage. Over three dozen bishops have signed a dissent document stating that as an act of conscience they can not abide by that resolution. One of the dissenters was Rt. Rev. Edmond Browning while he was still Bishop of Hawaii. He is now the Presiding Bishop.

At about this time The Rev. Carter Heyward, one of the Philadelphia Eleven, a theologian serving as professor at the Episcopal Divinity School, came out as lesbian, as have dozens of others.

Throughout the period from 1979 onward, many bishops have more actively ordained lesbians and gays who are open throughout the ordination process -- to their sponsoring congregations, to diocesan commissions on ministry, to the diocesan standing committee, and to their ordaining bishops. Few of these ordinations come to the attention of the press, nor do those in the process seek to publicize them as such. Those which have come to the attention of the Integrity leaders now number over 100, with dozens of these as members of Integrity.

The Diocese of California began the Parsonage, a jubilee ministry in the Castro, a lesbian and gay neighborhood.

1982. The Bishop of Louisiana denied Integrity permission to use any Episcopal Church during General Convention in New Orleans.

1985. A group of conservative bishops met in January to pursue ways to "revitalize" the Episcopal Church. One of the key players was Rt. Rev. William Frey, Bishop of Colorado, and a candidate for the office of Presiding Bishop. A year later, this group became Episcopalians United for Revelation, Renewal, and Reformation (EURRR).

General Convention elected the Most Rev. Edmond L. Browning as Presiding Bishop. At his installation he promised "There will be no outcasts in this church of ours." General Convention called for three years of dialog on the homosexual issue.

1986. EURRR was officially founded. From the beginning, the group aggressively led the opposition to the ordination of lesbians and gays and to the blessing of our relationships. They have attacked Integrity in every issue of their publication.

1988. No dialog occurred between between 1985 and 1988, but as a compromise, to sweep everything under the rug, General Convention again called for three years of dialog. For the first time Integrity was credited by friends and foes alike as having the best political network at the convention. The AIDS quilt was on display in the same convention center directly under the huge hall used by the House of Deputies, and the quilt replaced the official convention chapel as the venue of choice for private mediations of most of the deputies.

The Diocese of Massachusetts elected as suffragan the first female bishop in Anglican history, The Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris. Harris, among other things, had directed the Consultation, an umbrella progressive group of which Integrity is a member with the Union of Black Episcopalians, the Episcopal Peace Fellowship, and the Episcopal Women's Caucus.

1989. The Rev. Todd Wetzel became the director of EURRR and launched an even more strident attack on any bishops supportive of lesbians and gays.

Rt. Rev. John Spong, Bishop of Newark, in a highly publicized event, ordained the Rev. Robert Williams and commissioned him as the chief missioner for the Oasis, a diocesan ministry with lesbians and gays. The Oasis Board later called for Williams' resignation because of his his maverick style and his refusal to work with his bishop. They chose as his successor The Rev. David Norgard, who had been ordained as an openly gay man, in the diocese of Minnesota, in 1984.

1991. General Convention faced up to the fact that the church had not actually had dialog for the last three years and called for a structure to ensure dialog for the next three, with a mechanism to report the results from parish to diocese to national church. It stressed that it wanted dialogue, not argumentation. Those opposed to ordaining lesbians and gays presented a resolution "All members of the clergy of this church . . . shall be under the obligation to abstain from sexual relations outside holy matrimony." The resolution failed! Although the resolution did not name lesbians and gays, members of both the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies identified the Catch 22 and voted accordingly. Instead, the Convention passed a resolution reaffirming heterosexual marriage as the tradition of the Episcopal Church but acknowledged that many faithful Episcopalians are living in discontinuity with this tradition. Opponents of lesbians and gays left the convention howling that they had lost and that the Episcopal Church was moving towards heresy. The House of Deputies elected its first woman ever to serve as its president. For the first time openly gay and lesbian Integrity members served as deputies in the House of Deputies.

At General Convention about 3,000 people attended an evening hearing. To speak on behalf of gay and lesbian issues, Integrity selected the Bishop of Los Angeles, an openly gay priest, and an openly lesbian priest. On departure from the hearing, several hundred joined in a circle to sing "We are a gentle, angry people."

1992. Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning spoke at the Integrity national convention in Houston, spurned by the Bishop of Texas and scorned by Episcopalians United.

1993. President Pamela Chinnis of the House of Deputies spoke at the Integrity national convention in San Diego, spurned by the Bishop of San Diego, came out as the mother of a gay son, and pledged to use her appointment powers to put lesbian and gay deputies on committees of General Convention. The opposition vigorously attacked her, accusing her of threatening to stack committees. They failed to notice that Mrs. Chinnis could hardly stack committees with the small number of Integrity members elected for the 1994 General Convention. What she was actually pledging was to reverse the blatantly discriminatory practice of her predecessor as President of the House, Dean David Collins, who had openly refused to appoint to commissions and committees any deputy he knew to be lesbian or gay.

1994. The 70th General Convention of the Episcopal Church will meet in Indianapolis in August.

EURRR will come to General Convention with an annual budget of $1,040,000. They have waged steady war on the Presiding Bishop and President Chinnis for their inclusive policies, and they are widely credited with gutting support for the national church in many dioceses, with a short-fall announced this year of $5 million dollars. The Church Center has had to close most of its foreign missions, its AIDS desk, and many other major projects of inclusion.

One bishop has proposed a canon that would deny anyone permission to bless commitments of lesbians and gays. Three dioceses have passed resolutions asking General Convention to begin the process of drafting liturgies for such blessings.

Twelve Integrity members will be going as deputies to General Convention in Indianapolis, including Dr. Louie Crew, Integrity's founder, who won the most votes of any deputy, lay or clergy, in the Diocese of Newark. Crew will co-chair the Newark deputation, on which Edgar K. Byham, Esq., Integrity's past president and current chief information officer, serves as an alternate.

At General Convention, women will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the ordination of women and lesbians and gays will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Integrity. The Rt. Rev. Mary Adelia McLeod, Bishop of Vermont and the first female diocesan bishop in the Episcopal Church, will be one of the con-celebrants of the Integrity Eucharist, at which the chief celebrant will be Rt. Rev. Bennett Sims, retired Bishop of Atlanta and prime adversary who summoned Crew for discipline shortly after he founded Integrity. Sims, a chief architect of the 1979 resolution inhibiting the ordination of lesbians and gays, has since repented of his homophobia. Crew will be the preacher.

1963. This outline begins with the publication of Toward a Quaker View of Sex in 1963. At the time, this pamphlet was quite controversial and received an unusual amount of press coverage due to its candor in dealing with sexuality, its call for a "new morality," and its straight-forward (for its time) chapter on homosexuality. It was published by the Friends Home Service Committee of London Yearly Meeting for an unofficial group of Quakers with nonetheless impressive credentials. It effectively opened the subject of sex for discussion throughout the Society of Friends.

1960s. The early 60s were also the years of the civil rights movement here in the United Sates. Many Quakers and many homosexuals were deeply involved in the movement and were persuaded by Martin Luther King's thinking on the subjects of justice, equality and civil rights. The effect of the civil rights, the feminist, and the anti-Vietnam war movements on the gay/lesbian rights movement cannot be underestimated. Much of our leadership was trained by those times, as is evident in the philosophy, tactics and organization of many gay rights organizations.

Discriminatory laws based primarily on anti-homosexual theology made life for homosexuals difficult and often dangerous. Societal attitudes worked against the formation of stable relationships especially among homosexuals. Heterosexual marriage was often used by gay men as a way to hide the truth and thus protect their careers. It was also often touted as a "cure". With the facade of respectability in place, many homosexuals went to gay bars to meet other homosexuals for sex on the side. As patrons usually could not afford to have their names discovered, they were particularly vulnerable to police abuse. Bars were often raided by police when a politician or police chief wanted some news coverage at election time. Patrons, no matter how badly mishandled, were usually unwilling to make any protest.

1969. In 1969 the New York City police raided a bar called the Stonewall. Instead of the usual acquiescing patrons, they were confronted with a group of drag-queens who threw bricks and fought back. Stonewall thus became a rallying cry for the movement. Inspired by this insurrection, more and more homosexuals were motivated to come out; gay pride parades were held and the media gave more attention to homosexuals.

1970. These changes were reflected within the Society of Friends. In 1970 a gay Friend in Chicago told his story in the Friends Journal of what it was like to be gay and Quaker; he published under a pseudonym -- Jim Bradford. This story impressed and motivated other Quakers to begin to come out. One of these was Ron Mattson, a "ministering secretary" of Minneapolis Friends Meeting, who was active in Friends World Committee and thus was well traveled. He contacted other Friends he suspected were gay and with them formed the Committee of Concern.

1972. The Committee began meeting in conjunction with Friends General Conference (FGC) beginning in 1972. Mutual contact inspired Friends to go home to their Yearly Meetings [regional associations] and ask for minutes [resolutions] affirming civil rights for homosexuals; thus in 1972-74 a number of yearly meetings passed such minutes: New York, Pacific, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Illinois, and Australia.

About this time also, gay Friends in New York began meeting regularly for worship and socials. They invited gay Friends to the first Midwinter Gathering, which then alternated for a number of years, hosted one year in New York and the next in Philadelphia.

1973. Meanwhile in 1973 English gay Friends came out with another publication -- Homosexuality from the Inside by David Blamires. Written by a homosexual, its purpose was to fill in the gaps in the chapter on homosexuality in Toward a Quaker View of Sex, which many homosexuals felt was inadequate because its authors were not homosexual and did not know first hand what they were talking about.

1975. In 1975 gay Friends decided "Committee of Concern" was too closeted a name so they changed the name to "Friends Committee for Gay Concerns."

In the fall of 1975 a small group of gay Friends within the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) circulated an open letter declaring themselves gay and inviting others to come out. This led to the AFSC including gays in their affirmative action statement in 1978, a rather advanced thing for a corporation at that time.

1977. 1977 was the year of the All Friends Gathering in Wichita, Kansas, the first attempt in 150 years since the great division of 1827 to gather Friends of all persuasions in one spot. Gay Friends wondered if they would be welcome at the conference in the same way they had come to feel at home at Friends General Conference. The leadership of FGC assured gay Friends that they should go. When Evangelical Friends learned that the gays would be coming just weeks before the conference was to happen, they threatened to pull out. Intense negotiating averted a collapse of the gathering. This was the year of Anita Bryant, and Wichita was scheduled to have a referendum on gay rights a week after the Quaker conference. The local press was very interested to know how the Quakers would respond to the gay activists in their midst.

Evangelical Friends went home after the conference and issued what gay friends considered negative minutes. These declared that homosexuality was a sin, but that the sinner who repented would be forgiven if they come to Jesus. Their Yearly Meetings were Northwestern, Kansas (Mid America), Iowa (Friends United Meeting), California, and Friends Evangelical Church Eastern Region.

1977-1978. Meanwhile lesbian Friends held their first annual gathering on the East Coast. In the following year the first Quaker Lesbian Gathering was held in the San Francisco Bay Area at the Ben Lomond Friends Center near Santa Cruz. This too has become an annual gathering.

In order to be inclusive of lesbian Friends, the Friends Committee on Gay Concerns changed its name again to Friends for Lesbian and Gay Concerns or FLGC. In the following year, the organization took on more structure, organizing a business meeting in the manner of Friends and appointed co-clerks -- a man and a woman.

1980. In 1980 FLGC was part of the program at Friends General Conference, having been asked to lead the gathering in a program of Songs of Liberation. The program featured songs from the German peasant movement, abolition movement, union movement, feminist movement, Black civil rights movement, and included Holly Near's "Land of Many Colors." It was a very moving program.

1981. We began to hear the first mentioning of AIDS, which by 1983 would be a major concern.

Also in 1981, the first same-sex marriage or "celebration of commitment" as it was called under the care of meeting, occurred at University Friends Meeting in Seattle, Washington. The two women requested a marriage; the process was going forward smoothly until one of the members admitted having a problem calling it a "marriage." The two women were hurt, put their request on the shelf for a few months and then later agreed to go forward calling it a "Celebration of Commitment." Montclair Meeting in New Jersey (New York Yearly Meeting) also had a request in 1981 from two men; the request was later withdrawn for personal reasons.

Previous to this, in the early 1970s, two women had approached Hayward Meeting (in the San Francisco Bay area) about a marriage. The meeting was going to go forward, but the women later withdrew their request for reasons of their own. Cambridge Meeting had a request in the mid-1970s which was complicated and never occurred. In New York in 1980, Brooklyn Meeting turned down the request of two women who then secured the used of Fifteenth Street Meeting house for a ceremony -- not under the care of the meeting.

1982. In 1982 the second celebration of commitment under the care of meeting occurred at Kickapoo Valley Meeting in Wisconsin. This was between two women, and was handled rather routinely by the meeting.

The English Homosexual Friends Fellowship came out with a third publication in 1982, Meeting Gay Friends. This was a collection of autobiographical stories by gay/lesbian Friends. One American was included -- Tom Bodine, former clerk of the Friends United Meeting (FUM).

1984. The co-clerks of FLGC attended the FUM Triennial in California to make a low-key but visible gay presence.

In the autumn of 1984, Elizabeth Watson was un-invited to speak at a Friends Ministers Conference. Evangelical Friends had taken exception to her having suggested, in a speech she had given at the FUM Triennial that year, that gays might go to Heaven.

1985. Three more celebrations of commitment under the care of meeting occurred in 1985 -- one female couple and two male couples. A request by two men at Westtown Meeting (Philadelphia Yearly Meeting) was turned down after a protracted and painful process.

In the late 1980s, the focus of the struggle for equality in the Religious Society of Friends shifted from general civil rights to marriage. Meetings all over North America (as well as London Yearly Meeting) considered the topic and some made minutes.

1987. The first ceremony by a same-sex couple to be called a marriage occurred May 30, 1987, in New York City under the care of Morningside Meeting. Four more same-sex marriages occurred later that year, all under the care of meeting -- in California, Kansas City, Indianapolis, and Minneapolis.

Gay and lesbian Friends were present once again at the 1987 Friends United Meeting Triennial in North Carolina, where an FLGC-sponsored meeting for worship was even announced.

1988. Friends United Meeting began to give serious consideration to the topic of homosexuality, a topic they long wished to avoid. In January, the Family Life Committee of the Meeting Ministers Commission asked for statements from all FUM yearly meetings and other sources on the subject. The committee planned to consider the material at their meeting in October during the FUM Board meetings.

Meanwhile, a FUM program (Quaker Volunteer Witness) denied employment to a gay man because of his sexual orientation; this proved to be somewhat controversial and was also a major agenda item at the FUM board meeting.

In the summer of 1988, North Meadow Meeting, which had a same-sex marriage the previous year, had no choice but to withdraw from Western Yearly Meeting (FUM), which was going to take severe punitive action if they did not either retract their action or withdraw. The meeting had dual affiliation with both Western and Ohio Valley Yearly Meetings, and remains affiliated with Ohio Valley (Friends General Conference).

by Bill Johnson. Edited and abridged by JDA.

1972. The Coalition was founded in December 1972 by the Rev. Bill Johnson as the UCC Gay Caucus. From its inception membership has included lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual United Church of Christ lay people and clergy.

1973. Ninth General Synod, St. Louis, MO. The caucus attained Special Interest Group status. During that Synod the mailing list grew from its original 35 to about 100 members, many who came to serve later as leaders for the Coalition.

1975. Tenth General Synod, Minneapolis, MN. Coalition membership had grown again and numerous people assisted in shepherding a pronouncement on civil liberties for persons of same gender orientation to a successful adoption at Synod (546 yes, 135 no), with strong support from then president of the UCC, Robert Moss. At this Synod the Caucus hosted a hospitality suite ("Suite Liberty") and maintained a booth. The support of members of the Unitarian Universalist Gay Caucus and staffing of the booth by members of the Friends Gay Caucus made it possible for UCC Caucus members to resource the hearings on the pronouncement and do pastoral care with lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals and/or their families.

Also passed at this Synod was a resolution directing the Executive Council to commission a study of human sexuality and the theological basis for a Christian ethic concerning human sexuality. From 1975-1977 the Caucus leadership kept in communication with and met once in face-to-face dialog with the study committee. The caucus responded to requests for information, but it is fair to say that their learnings and conclusion came from within the study committee itself.

1977. Eleventh General Synod, Washington, D.C. Due to the well publicized and successful campaign led by Anita Bryant to overturn the civil rights ordinance in Dade County, Florida, the caucus introduced a resolution deploring the use of scripture to generate hatred of gays and lesbians, and reaffirming the 1975 pronouncement on civil liberties (passed with greater than 90% majority). The Human Sexuality Study Committee submitted their report, "Human Sexuality: A Preliminary Report." It and seventeen other recommendations were made and accepted at General Synod Eleven (66% yes, 34% no).

1979. Twelfth General Synod, Indianapolis, IN. The caucus was in the midst of reorganization. A new name was adopted: United Church Coalition for Gay Concerns. The focus of activity at Synod consisted of public rap sessions with members and leaders of the Coalition, visibility with the display booth and buttons, and pastoral care and crisis intervention among delegates and visitors.

1981. Thirteenth General Synod, Rochester, NY. The first National Gathering was held prior to this Synod, an event which now occurs yearly. Gatherings held prior to Synods focus largely on preparation for issues to be addressed and organizing a network for the Synod itself; in alternate years the Gatherings focus more on personal support, renewal, community building and setting of direction. At the 13th Synod the Coalition concentrated on developing a broader-based network in the Conferences, doing continuing education and interpretive tasks through rap groups and a display table, and doing the ever-needed pastoral care. A name change occurred once more: United Church Coalition for Lesbian/Gay Concerns.

1983. Fourteenth General Synod, Pittsburgh, PA (and Third National Gathering). Focus at this Synod was centered on numerous resolutions. Four of these were passed with strong majorities (97% and up) on the floor of Synod. The others were recommended on to the Executive Council. The four adopted resolutions concerned: (a) inclusiveness on Church & Ministry Committees of members who are openly gay, lesbian or bisexual, (b) support and organizing in response to the AIDS epidemic, (c) reaffirmation of the Family Life Priority commitment to minister creatively with all persons regardless of their family patterns -- supporting the health of all families in our congregations, utilizing the Coalition as one of their consultants in their continuing work, and (d) that the UCC recognize and address institutional homophobia.

In addition, the Coalition sponsored the showing of the film "Pink Triangles," following the film with introduction of the Coalition Council and Coordinators, and then facilitating small group discussions. The film showings were exceptionally well attended. "Pink Triangle" buttons were distributed at the booth and after the film, encouraging people of all sexual orientations to stand together in discouraging discrimination and homophobia.

William H. Carey was a 22-year-old man studying for the ministry in a United Pentecostal church in Schenectady, NY. In the fall of 1979, he was forced to leave the church when it became known that he was homosexual. A woman from the same church, Judy M. Schwarz, chose to leave at the same time. Together, the two began to search for a church that would allow them to worship in the Pentecostal manner without making judgments based on sexual orientation. Finding none, and feeling the hand of God in the situation, they formed their own.

On July 28th, 1980, Brother Carey and Sister Schwarz signed papers creating the Gay Pentecostal Alliance as a church where all people, regardless of sexual orientation, might worship in Spirit and Truth. The following spring, a second congregation, Family of Pentecost Church in Omaha, Nebraska, was founded and joined the Gay Pentecostal Alliance. The word "National" was added to the name, and the U.S. Government formally recognized NGPA as a denomination. The first ordination service was held in August of 1981 in Omaha.

One major difference between us and other Pentecostal bodies is that we do not believe that homosexuality is sinful. We base this upon our use of the scriptures in Hebrew and Greek, where we fail to find any condemnation of homosexuality.

In the United States, NGPA operates churches in New York, Vermont, and Arizona, and has a covenant relationship with two churches in southern California and two churches in Michigan. The two Michigan churches are expected to become NGPA congregations in 1994. Other members, ministers and student ministers reside in many parts of the U.S.A. A NGPA missionary works in Ghana, and there are also members and student ministers around the world.

NGPA is not a "gay church." We are, and always have been, open to all people. The word "gay" is included in our name for one reason: So that those who are not welcome in the other Pentecostal churches will know that they are welcome here. Since our founding, heterosexual members have always been an integral part of the work.

The Rev. William H. Carey writes (May 20, 1993): Given the intense homophobic nature of most Pentecostal denominations, setting up any type of organization within any of those bodies, or even comprised of members of any of those bodies, was not possible. Open homosexuals are not tolerated in Pentecostal churches. Some are excommunicated. Those are the lucky ones. Prior to being forced to leave the United Pentecostal Church, I was subjected to two exorcisms in an effort to change my sexual orientation. (Of course, nothing happened, but I was traumatized enough that I nearly gave up on God.) A UPC minister tried to convince me that I would (should) take my own life, and then tried to blackmail me. There are even worse horror stories concerning the treatment of openly gay/lesbian people in Pentecostal churches, but I think you get the idea. Creating an independent Pentecostal denomination was our only option at the time.

EMERGENCE International is a community of gay and non-gay Christian Scientists. Our outreach is to individual Christian Scientists, to provide them with spiritual and educational support in dealing with the church's and society's homophobia and heterosexism. Increased participation of gay people in our churches in not our goal.

By the late 1970s groups of lesbian and gay Christian Scientists were meeting in at least six cities in the United States and Great Britain. A first-ever conference for representatives from these groups met in Chicago in 1983. Following a second get-together in 1985 EMERGENCE International was born, with the idea of being an umbrella organization for these groups. For a while EI had several chapters, but in 1990, after a bottom-to-top restructuring, members decided that EI should get out of the chapter business and local groups should operate autonomously. Today, our two principal activities are our bimonthly journal Emerge! and our annual conferences in various American cities. Our 10th conference convened in Atlanta in October 1993; the 11th will be held in Scottsdale, Arizona, in October 1994.

Through Emerge! and our annual conferences, EI tries to help Christian Scientists educate and inspire themselves to find their answers in the Bible (intelligently read, of course), together with the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and other material based on her teachings. Focusing on these sources, the thrust of EI and Emerge! is to suggest a practical and scientific basis for thinking and acting.

The 1969 Stonewall riots in New York marked the beginning of a new, public gay consciousness in North America, and as the 1970s progressed the lesbian and gay community saw the proliferation of organizations dedicated to everything from bowling to politics. Among these new emerging groups were religious denominational caucuses, and in the Brethren and Mennonite denominations BMC was to become the vehicle through which lesbian and gay Mennonites and Brethren shared their journeys.

Martin Rock, a gay Church of the Brethren member, worked for eleven years for Mennonite Central Committee in Akron, Pennsylvania, and in Viet-Nam. Rock began organizing BMC in 1976, prompted by the discrimination which he had witnessed within the church as well as by discussions with other Brethren and Mennonites who wanted a gay caucus group. In 1977, upon their discovery of his sexual orientation, MCC [the Mennonite Central Committee, not the Metropolitan Community Church!] refused to renew Rock's contract.

Following his firing from MCC, Rock moved to Washington, D.C. and operated BMC out of a room in his home. The first two years of BMC's existence were largely a time for publicity, and as various publications mentioned the organization, more and more gay Mennonites and Brethren began to make contact. In 1978 BMC began publishing a newsletter, Dialogue. Martin Rock addressed the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference in his capacity as BMC coordinator. The first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights took place in 1979, and a BMC delegation participated. Some BMCers also attended the Mennonite Church's biennial assembly in Waterloo, Ontario, that year and tried to open discussion there.

Since its inception, BMC had wanted to involve lesbian Mennonites and Brethren, but there had been little response. When Martin Rock was put in touch with a group of ten such women in Ohio, the involvement of women in BMC began in earnest. The continuing and increasing involvement of women in BMC has been an on-going priority for the organization.

The 1980s was a period of both advances and setbacks for BMC. There were workshops and seminars at church conferences; there were invitations and dis-invitations to speak at colleges. Seminaries and ministerial groups held workshops on homosexuality, and a Mennonite conference expelled a congregation for supporting gay and lesbian people. Listening committees on homosexuality were established, reported, disbanded, and reappointed; there were struggles over booth space and "dialogue" rooms at conferences. There were blacklistings, and behind-the-scenes support, and sexuality study guides and worship services. After eight years of hard work, Martin Rock, in 1984, turned the position of coordinator over to Christian Yoder.

Over time the Board had adopted a more structured approach, had gained tax-exempt status in the United States, and had divided its functions among standing committees to more efficiently carry out its programs. Better regional representation became possible, and the Board expanded beyond Washington, D.C., to include members from places as varied as California and Eastern Canada. Local BMC groups were meeting across the continent. In 1984 BMC organized the first meeting of gay and lesbian European Mennonites at Mennonite World Conference in Strasbourg, France, and two people from the Netherlands attended the 1988 BMC Convention in Toronto. The BMC Women's Community emerged as a more cohesive group within the larger BMC constituency.

Perhaps the most galvanizing events in BMC's history have been the conventions. October 1986 marked ten years of BMC work, and the first international convention brought over a hundred BMCers together in Chicago. The experience of being together and seeing the community work, play, learn, worship, and talk has been a powerful force for healing and equipping the community for working at its common goals. The growing numbers of attendees at the succeeding conferences in Toronto (1988), Philadelphia (1990), and Denver (1992) bear out the importance the BMC constituency places on walking together on our common journey.

In 1990 BMC hired Jim Sauder as its first (half-time) staff person. The decision to do so was based on the positive response of the community and its commitment to the financial responsibility of such a move. The year before, Sauder had replaced Christian Yoder as volunteer coordinator.

As BMC moves into the 1990s, we are joined by parallel organizations. A network of supportive congregations is beginning to work at helping lesbian and gay people in the church. BMC parents have begun to form their own network and to sponsor retreats that bring together families with gay and lesbian members. Dialogue itself has become a more significant means for promoting the discussion of homosexuality and the Christian faith.

From the beginning, BMC has had a twofold purpose: to support and empower lesbian and gay Mennonites and Brethren, and to promote dialogue and greater understanding of lesbian and gay people in the churches. We have come a long way on both these tasks in fifteen years; there is a long way yet to travel. But as the hymn says:

We are not lost, though wandering,

for by your light we come,

and we are still God's people,

the journey is our home.

-- Text by Ruth Dyck, from "Lead on, O cloud of Presence," The Hymnal Sampler, Mennonite Publishing House, 1989.

Generally, the experience of GLAD Alliance has been one of unofficial inclusion rather than official exclusion from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The 1977 General Assembly in Kansas City was fraught with controversy over the denomination's stand on gays and lesbians in the church and gay and lesbian clergy. Two years later, at the next General Assembly, a small group of gay, lesbian and affirming Disciples met for the first time. The group continued to meet at subsequent assemblies but remained an informal, networking, "by word of mouth" type of organization.

At the 1987 assembly in Louisville, the group held its first organized pre-assembly retreat at a More Light Presbyterian Church, adopted the name "Gay, Lesbian and Affirming Disciples Alliance" and appointed a Coordinating Committee. At this point, several officials in the General Office of the denomination had become aware of the group and were quietly supportive, some to the point of participation.

At a 1988 Alliance retreat in Chicago, the Coordinating Committee was charged by the membership with maintaining a "visible presence" at the upcoming 1989 General Assembly in Indianapolis. With the help of supportive General Office officials, our requests for a booth in the exhibition hall, an "AfterSession" and an "interest group" were granted, much to the surprise and dismay of Disciples Renewal, our denomination's unofficially recognized conservative, fundamentalist faction.

Since 1989, the Alliance has received continuing and increasing support from the General Office and from various regional offices as well as congregations. This support has come about in official ways, e.g., continuation of our activities at General Assembly, publication of articles about the Alliance and gay/lesbian issues in The Disciple magazine, as well as unofficially, such as assistance from the Office of Communications on news media relations and advice from church leaders on strategies.

The Alliance has no official standing within the denomination and has no plans to seek official recognition. Our belief is that seeking official recognition would not give us any advantage in carrying out our ministry. Clearly, such recognition would not provide us with any funding since Disciples, like many other mainline Protestant denominations, are experiencing severe budgetary problems already. Furthermore, recognition would mean that we would probably be placed under some existing unit of the denomination, most likely the Division of Homeland Ministries, thereby requiring us to surrender autonomy over our programs and to "play" by the denomination's "rules."

Because of the Disciples' polity of congregational autonomy and regional authority over ordination, the issue of the role of gay, lesbian and bisexual Christians in the life of the church will never be fully resolved unless, of course, all 4,100 congregations and 36 regions become "Open and Affirming" -- the name for congregations and regions that affirm the full participation of lesbian, gay and bisexual Disciples. However, we believe that a major stride towards denominational affirmation was made this past July with the election of Dr. Richard L. Hamm as General Minister and President. Dr. Hamm has openly expressed his affirmation of gay, lesbian and bisexual Christians and supports the ordination of qualified candidates for ordination irrespective of sexual orientation. Although his statements of affirmation are largely symbolic and certainly are not controlling over any manifestations of the church, we believe he will be able to provide leadership and spiritual inspiration for the congregational, regional and general manifestations.

A History of the Gay, Lesbian and Affirming Disciples Alliance (GLAD) and Lesbian and Gay Issues in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ, (GLAD, 1993, 14 p.), excerpted by JDA:

1981. Debra Peevey and Christine Leslie, graduates of the Pacific School of Religion, are ordained as openly lesbian clergywomen by the California North-Nevada Region.

1987. Dale T. Bowman, a graduate of Lancaster Theological Seminary, is ordained as an openly gay clergyman by the Northeast Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ.

Rev. Debra Peevey of Seattle comes out to her congregation. She and her life-partner, Candy Cox, celebrate a covenant of union at Findlay Street Christian Church, with many well-wishers from the Church in attendance.

1989. Rev. Dick Miller is called as an openly gay clergyman by the First Christian Church in San Jose, California.

Rev. Allen Harris is called as an Associate Pastor at Park Avenue Christian Church in New York City by a congregation fully aware that he is gay.

1991. Allen Harris is ordained into the Christian ministry. Craig Hoffman, his life partner, and Sara Harris, his mother from Roswell, New Mexico, participate in the service.

1992. Following a year-long moratorium on the ordination of "known homosexuals", the Northeastern Regional Assembly adopts a resolution refusing ordination to any person who "openly communicates a homosexual lifestyle." Proponents of the resolution were led by a coalition of Hispanic, African-American and Haitian congregations.

Mark Johnston is ordained as an openly-gay man in the Northeastern Region. Rev. Johnston's ordination was allowed because it was approved in October, 1990, prior to the adoption of the moratorium and resolution barring ordination of homosexual clergy.

The Pacific Southwest Regional Assembly soundly defeats a resolution barring the ordination of gay, lesbian and bisexual clergy.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has, in recent years, styled itself as "The Caring Church." One test of the truth of this slogan is how the church treats members who are stigmatized by society. This paper considers the relations between the Adventist church and its homosexual members.

It is no secret that condemnation of homosexuality by Christian churches long fostered discrimination against homosexuals in many countries. This was reflected both in law, where criminal penalties were often harsh, extending to capital punishment in some parts, and in public opinion, where it was invoked to justify ridicule, physical violence, eviction from housing, and loss of employment. However, growing concern for justice and civil rights during the 1960s, beginning with discrimination against blacks and women, extended at length to homosexuals. The new current fostered the emergence of the gay liberation movement in 1969, a call by the American Bar Association for the decriminalization of homosexual behavior between consenting adults in 1973 and a vote by the American Psychiatric Association to remove homosexuality from its official list of mental disorders the same year. The mainstream Protestant churches, realizing that the traditional negative stance had caused suffering and was rooted in uninformed prejudice, began to reverse themselves. However, many conservative Christians clung tenaciously to the traditional position. In their zeal to roll back progress towards liberalized laws and attitudes, they have mounted several political crusades which tapped deep reservoirs of hatred and prejudice within society. For example, when, in 1977, Anita Bryant successfully took the lead in opposing a civil rights ordinance which would have helped protect gays in Dade County, Florida, against discrimination in employment and housing, her campaign spawned bumper stickers urging people to "Kill a gay for Christ." Similarly, publicity released by the Oregon Citizen's Alliance supporting their 1992 referendum measure seeking to ensure that homosexuality and those who practice it cannot be protected by law, urged "God's solutions" to the problem of homosexuality, which it listed as "Execution -- Castration -- Imprisonment" [Kinship Connection, Oct. 1992]. While spokespersons for the Roman Catholic Church have usually avoided such extreme language, the church has also continued to oppose extending the civil rights of homosexuals, and has insisted that homosexual Catholics should practice celibacy.

Where does the Adventist church fit into this religious context?

The Seventh-day Adventist Church largely ignored the topic of homosexuality until the early 1970s. . . . Church leaders assumed that there were no homosexuals among their members: the categories "Adventist" and "homosexual" were regarded as mutually exclusive. Then, occasionally, a homosexual was discovered in pulpit, classroom or pew -- perhaps following an arrest resulting from police entrapment -- he (few lesbians were discovered) was usually dealt with summarily: disfellowshipped from membership, expelled from church schools, fired from church employment. He was regarded as a pariah who had brought disrepute on the church, rather than as a brother who was desperately in need of compassion and support since he had probably lost family, career, church and reputation in one fell swoop. . . .

At the first national "Kampmeeting" organized by gay and lesbian Adventists in 1980, members recalled their personal experiences growing up as gay Adventists. One after another told of the isolation they had felt because almost all had been convinced he or she was the only gay Adventist in the world; of years of unavailing struggle and unanswered prayer for a miracle that would make them heterosexual; of overwhelming guilt and self-rejection, of consequent difficulty in establishing relationships, promiscuous patterns, and more guilt. Since they had been taught that it was impossible to be both Christian and gay but had found themselves irretrievably gay, they had despaired because they assumed that they were eternally lost. Some told how deep depression had led to suicide attempts. Almost everyone had found no one within the church to whom they could turn for help; those who had sought counseling had met platitudes like "go away and pray about it" or bad advice such as "it's only a phase: get married and everything will turn out all right." But the stories of those who had married were especially poignant, with guilt and defeat within the marriage relationship and sorrow over ultimate estrangement from children. About half had dropped out of the church, feeling rejected by both God and their church community; the other half had clung to the church grimly or nervously and were often very active while keeping their sexual orientation secret.

Being raised as an Adventist had significantly exacerbated the trauma of growing up gay both for the persons concerned and also for their families, who frequently rejected their children or found themselves alienated from them and had to live with a belief that their children were eternally lost. . . . [This description applies generally to all Christian denominations, no matter how liberal or conservative, until relatively recently. -- JDA]

1977. A number of gay Adventists in southern California, emboldened by the gay movement to seek out their own for mutual support, formed an organization in 1977 which they ambitiously named Seventh-day Adventist Kinship International. By following networks and placing advertisements in gay and lesbian publications, Kinship began to expand around North America and to reach out overseas.

1979. Dr. James Londis, pastor of Sligo Church in suburban Washington, D.C., spoke to groups of clergy in southern California and around Washington, D.C. about the plight of gay Adventists. His sensitivity to the issue had been raised by the trauma experienced by a gay sibling. Estimating that there must be tens of thousands of gay Adventists in North America, he questioned the two solutions usually offered homosexuals within the church when he suggested that it was not possible for most to live lives of sexual abstinence and stated that he doubted whether cure was possible for all. Reviewing modern biblical scholarship which disputed traditional interpretations of key biblical passages, he urged that scholars study the issues thoroughly and that the church prepare itself to minister to its gay children.

1980. A similar conclusion was reached by Adventist biblical scholars who attended the first national "Kampmeeting" sponsored by SDA Kinship. The biblical scholars concluded, as a result of their study in advance of the kampmeeting, that the Bible was silent about persons with a homosexual orientation and that the little that was said was directed to heter