"Dance the Dream of Freedom"
                    The Rev. Daniel E. Smith
           Pastor, West Hollywood Presbyterian Church

           More Light Churches Network Keynote Address
                       Rochester, New York
                           May 3, 1996

Sisters and Brothers of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender 
community, I welcome you to this gathering of concerned and 
caring Presbyterians.  For some of you this may be the first time 
you have set foot in a Christian Church in years, and so on 
behalf of this marvelous group gathered, I want to first welcome 
you into the household of God, and assure you of a  safe and 
loving place within this gathered community of Christians.

To my friends of many years who have gathered here this weekend, 
I cannot adequately find the words to express how honored and 
proud I am to once again be among you.  

To those of you who have been put on a plane by your local church 
and are uncertain about what the heck you're "in for" this 
weekend, I want to joyously welcome you into this fabulous 
journey towards loving-justice that began so many years ago and 
just keeps growing stronger and stronger.

And, it is my ultimate joy to introduce to you one who has 
supported me longer than any of you here, the only one who has 
given me life in ways that none of you could, and one who has 
adored and loved me since conception, my mother, Renee Smith.  

The other half of this fabulous Creation-team, my father, became 
my personal guardian angel a few years ago, and he with all the 
other angels who have gone on before us,  watches over me and 
with the strength of his love, supports me in my journey of 
justice and truth telling.  

I do want to take just a second to share with you that I had this 
beautiful stole commissioned in memory of my dear friend and 
colleague, The Rev. Warren Zeh, a Presbyterian minister who died 
of AIDS January 31 of this year.  I wear this stole in 
remembrance of Warren, and all those who have died of HIV/AIDS 
knowing that their love continues to wrap itself around you and 
me.

Now, you may have noticed, and if you've heard me speak publicly 
before you know that whenever I am invited to speak on behalf of 
the Christian Church, I always begin by welcoming my lesbian, 
gay, bisexual, transgender sisters and brothers into the 
community of Christ's love.  I do this intentionally, because the 
Christian Church today is so very unwelcoming of so many of our 
brothers and sisters who are gay or lesbian.  

Last year at the Annual Christopher St. West Lesbian/Gay Pride 
Parade in Los Angeles, which is by the way, the second largest 
parade in the State of California -- the only larger Parade in 
the state is the Rose Bowl Parade broadcast live each New Year's 
Day -- last year at our lesbian/gay pride parade the Bishop of 
the Episcopal Diocese marched, as he has the past four years,  
with an ever growing number of his congregants.  While the 
Bishop's lavender clerical dress usually sets him apart in 
public gatherings, in this parade it's the people that stand out.   
On this occasion, 400 congregants marched along with the Bishop. 
Each was wearing a white T-shirt with bright purple letters 
proclaiming the national slogan of the Episcopal Church:  "THE 
EPISCOPAL CHURCH WELCOMES YOU!"  

These were not frivolous words.  With over 400 lesbian and gay 
people carrying signs naming more than 1/3 of the churches within 
the Diocese as welcoming of lesbian and gay people, it was 
unmistakably clear to the 250,000 people lining the streets of 
the parade route,  that the Episcopal Church does in fact 
"WELCOME YOU!"  

Upon seeing this, I was deeply saddened by my own denomination.  
What does the Presbyterian Church have to say to lesbian and gay 
people?  "The Presbyterian Church HATES YOU," the Presbyterian 
Church can "Straight You" or simply  "The Presbyterian Church 
DEBATES YOU."  

Friends, what ever happens at this year's General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church let us keep in mind that first and foremost, 
our movement is about Inviting and Welcoming God's Gay and 
Lesbian People into our Churches as equal and respected members 
of the Household of God.  Maybe The Presbyterian Church won't 
welcome gay and lesbian people; but our Presbyterian Churches 
will.  Until our corporate Bishops, The Presbyteries of the 
General Assembly, can stand up and proudly march forward with the 
message of the loving Christ, we must assume that role!

Eleven years ago, Chris Glaser and I were sitting together in a 
staff meeting wondering what in the world we and the other More 
Light Churches were going to do if the General Assembly's 
Permanent Judicial Commission ruled against Westminster 
Presbyterian Church in Buffalo, NY  thereby prohibiting it from 
becoming a More Light Church.  Even worse we wondered, "what 
would we do if the Presbyterian Church tried to stop the More 
Light Churches movement?"  After discussing endless 
possibilities, Chris and I went to the Session of  West Hollywood 
Presbyterian Church and suggested that we hold a conference and 
invite representatives from the More Light Churches to come and 
discuss where we stood.  So eleven years ago over the week end of 
May 21-22, 1985, twenty-five (25) of us from 12 More Light 
Churches representing 8 states and 10 presbyteries gathered 
together.  Within the first 15 minutes it was absolutely clear 
that not one of our churches had any intention of "setting aside" 
our More Light status, nor were we going to stop ordaining gay 
and lesbian persons who were elected and approved for ordination 
by the Sessions of our Church.  

From that moment on the Dance began!  Today and beyond, our goal 
continues to be to "Dance the Dream of Freedom."  

People keep asking me what I think will come out of this year's 
General Assembly in Albuquerque.  My answer is uniformly the same: 
"I have no idea, but I have come not to expect much from our 
church."

Our church is in a state of absolute chaos.  That chaos takes 
many forms.

It is about form and structure, it is about power and privilege, 
it is about decreasing adherents of the faith, it is about 
downsizing, and restricted giving, it is about human sexuality 
and homosexuality, but most important, it is about finding and 
naming  "Where the heart and soul" of the Presbyterian Church is 
as we approach the dawn of the third millennium of Christianity.

I don't think any of us knows who we are any more.  This church 
that once stood for such clear cut issues as equal rights and 
justice, certainly does not have any Eugene Carson Blake's left 
in its national leadership.  This church that once took pride in 
offering one of the finest life-long educational curriculums now 
seems to have no genuine commitment to education or Christian 
Faith and Action.  This church that once took such pride in 
having an educated clergy seems to laugh in the face and even 
scoff at serious Biblical Study and theological reflection.  This 
church that once seemed so open hearted and open minded to me, 
now seems so closed-minded and filled with hatred.

Over the years I have kept the volumes of the Minutes of the 
General Assembly on my bookshelf in my study.  Each year the 
volumes get thicker and thicker.  More and more reports are 
generated and published, and yet the life and witness of the 
Presbyterian Church seems less and less meaningful and relevant 
each year. It is like being afraid that if we ever stop producing 
studies, we might have to recognize that our existence is really 
meaningless.

Years ago a friend sent me a quote by Thomas Merton.   I believe 
it is from his book *20th Century American*.  For me it perfectly 
describes the contemporary crisis in Presbyterian identity.  
Merton writes:  "A Spirituality that preaches resignation under 
official brutalities, servile acquiescence in frustration and 
sterility, and total submission to organized injustice is one 
which has lost interest in holiness and remains concerned only 
with a spurious notion of order."  Add "decency and order" to 
these words and it fits us to the "T."

Clearly, something has got to change soon in the Presbyterian 
Church.  We have got to find our heart and soul.  We have got to 
name who we are as God's people in this time and place.  We have 
got to name who it is that is welcome in this household of faith, 
and who is not.  We have got to stop pretending that we are a 
church for all people, if in fact we only want white married 
heterosexual people.  

In the last two decades, we of the Christian gay and lesbian 
community have endured more religious abuse than any human being 
should ever be subjected to.  Two decades ago, we of the 
lesbian/gay community were willing to enter into processes of 
dialog and study.  But then a decade ago gay men and lesbian 
women came back to our churches looking for the church's pastoral 
care and love in the midst of the most horrific health epidemic 
ever to besiege the modern world.  And what did our people get?  
More condemnation, more exclusion, more patronization and out and 
out rejection.  I have seen gay and lesbian people treated worse 
in this church than one would treat a dog.  

My friend, Dorothy Christensen, who is a member of our Lazarus 
Project Board of Directors at West Hollywood Church, tells her 
story about the horror she experienced at her son's Memorial 
service.  Dorothy, like so many parents, did not know her son was 
gay let alone that he was critically ill from complication 
related to AIDS, until shortly before his death.  When her son 
died, she went to the Pastor of her home Presbyterian Church and 
asked him to officiate at her son's Memorial service.  After a 
few friends had spoken of the beauty of Dorothy's son's life, the 
Pastor -- who was actually an Interim Pastor -- proceeded to rant 
and rave about the evils of homosexuality and how horrible and 
sinful her son's "lifestyle" was.  To this day Dorothy is still 
in counseling trying to work through the abuse that was laid on 
her at her own son's funeral.  

Those of us who are lesbian or gay and are still in the Church 
have had it.  We are no longer willing to be studied or debated 
to death.  Now is the time to move on.  The abuse must stop.  

In the last four years I have seen an unbelievable rise in the 
"out and out" hatred of the Christian Church by gay and lesbian 
people.  The young adult gay and lesbian Christian community is 
almost exclusively post-Christian and extremely proud of it.  As 
I meet with these young people and invite them into the community 
of faith, they portray a horrible picture of the Christian 
Church, which unfortunately is an absolute mirror image of who we 
are.  And yet in these young peoples' lives, I see the gifts of 
the Spirit.  They are magnificently spiritual people; people 
filled with love, patience, forbearance, genuineness, gentleness, 
human kindness.  And they are also filled with LIFE and JOY!  
They have found a rich spirituality outside of Christianity.  
Friends, the reality is across all lines, thinking, caring people 
are no longer willing to put up with religious abuse.  There is a 
post-Christian spirituality outside of the Christian Church which 
is more life-affirming than the spirituality offered within the 
Christian Church.  We Presbyterians better wake up to this 
reality before we become extinct.  

As I read through the Overtures for this year's General Assembly,  
I keep asking myself "What is going on in the name of Jesus in 
this Church? " "How can there be so much hatred, anger, mistrust 
and institutional chaos happening all at once?  And why in the 
world are we, who are gay and lesbian, being blamed for all this 
craziness?"  ...  And friends, craziness is the only word to 
describe it!

For example, four years ago at General Assembly, I remember them 
bringing Jim Brown to the stage as the nominee for the Executive 
Director of the General Assembly Council.  Jim was a colleague of 
mine in the Presbytery of the Pacific.  Four years ago, the 
Church was gushing all over the place that at last we found some 
one from the grass roots.  We had a local church pastor who 
understood the people and knew that the local congregation was 
the place where real ministry happens.  

Now four years later the General Assembly's Review Committee is 
recommending that the Executive Director of the General Assembly 
Council have experience commensurate with a corporate executive 
of a Fortune 500 corporation!  Hello? Hello? Is anybody 
there?  Are we still on the same planet???  Is this the 
Presbyterian Church (USA)?   Just checking!

What will be the outcome of this year's General Assembly?  I 
don't know.  But I do believe too many people, including too many 
people in this room, are putting too much stock into the outcome 
of this Assembly.  "The Issue" as people like to refer to those 
of us who are gay or lesbian Christians in the Presbyterian 
Church, "the issue" isn't going away no matter what the Assembly 
does.  And to the best of my recollection we've been at this 
point of decision at least six times in the last two decades.  
Count them with me: 1978 in San Diego,  1981 in Hartford, 1985 
with a Permanent Judicial Decision prohibiting Westminster church 
in Buffalo, NY from becoming a More Light Church, 1987 when the 
Task Force to Study Human Sexuality was commissioned, 1991 in 
Baltimore when the Task Force Reported, 1993 in Orlando when we 
voted to "study us 'unprotected' subjects" for yet another three 
years; and here we are again in 1996.  The Overtures this time 
are just as horrific and just as wonderful as in every other 
year.  Are we going to come to a place of justice in our decision 
making or are we going to just keep dancing around "the issue?"  

I keep hearing and reading that this "issue," the ordination of 
non-celibate gay and lesbian people embodies the epitome of the 
struggle for the church's heart and soul because it is 
intricately related to the problem of Biblical Authority and 
Scriptural Interpretation in the church today.  Friends, let's be 
real.  The answer to the question of Biblical Authority and 
Scriptural Interpretation, especially around complex matters of 
social change and justice,  is answered in the Confessions of our 
Church, not in this debate.

This particular issue was beautifully addressed in the Confession 
of 1967 which states:

        "The Bible is to be interpreted in the light of its 
    witness to God's work of reconciliation in Christ.  The 
    Scriptures, given under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, are 
    nevertheless the words of men [sic], conditioned by the  
    language, thought forms, and literary fashions of the places 
    and times at which they were written.  They reflect views of 
    life, history, and the cosmos which were then current.  The 
    Church, therefore, has an obligation to approach the 
    Scriptures with literary and historical understanding.  As 
    God has spoken [God's] word in diverse cultural situations, 
    the church is confident that [God] will continue to speak 
    through the Scriptures in a changing world and in every form 
    of human culture."  [C-67, 9.29] 

As we reflect on the profound significance of these words, I want 
to share with you an equally profound and significant word.  A 
few months ago some of our gay and lesbian leaders met with the 
Moderator of our General Assembly, Marj Carpenter.  During those 
conversations, Marj said that she just guessed that she learned 
that homosexuality was wrong from her grandmother whom she dearly 
loved and was very close to.  The Rev. Lisa Bove, an openly 
lesbian clergywoman responded to her, "Marj, you can still love 
and honor your grandmother while at the same time being able to 
enter into new places and change."  

It is not beyond the acceptable perimeters of the Reformed 
Tradition to reach the decision to ordain gay and lesbian 
persons, nor is it necessary to require celibacy of gay and 
lesbian persons just because at the present moment lesbian and 
gay marriage is not a legal or liturgical option.  There are ways 
for us to order our life around these issues which are both 
biblically faith and JUST.  We have done it with the issue of 
divorce, we have done it with the issue of the ordination of 
women.  And it is now time to do it around the ordination of 
lesbian and gay Presbyterians!

Time and time again, study after study and paper after paper,  
the study-documents and processes of our church have led us to 
this same conclusion. We Presbyterians have been "studying" the 
issue of homosexuality and human sexuality for 20 years now.  
Twenty years!  By now we should all be awarded Ph. D.'s in 
sexology!   We're either very slow learners or completely 
uneducable when it comes to sexuality.  

Friends, let me return once more to the issue of biblical 
authority before moving on.  I want you to know that we in the 
Presbyterian community are not the only ones who have recognized 
that the problem is NOT biblical authority, but rather cultural 
prejudice.  All of our ecumenical partners in the "main-line" or 
"old-line" Protestant traditions have come to the same 
realization.  

The Rev. Elder Nancy Wilson of the Metropolitan Community Church 
tells a wonderful story about her work with the National Council 
of Churches when the National Council was deciding whether to 
grant The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Churches 
membership.  The National Council decided they needed to focus 
one of their study session on the Bible and Homosexuality.  After 
months of dickering back and forth, the National Council of 
Churches folk said they would have to postpone the study because 
they couldn't find Biblical Scholars who would publicly present 
the opposing point of view.  Nancy Wilson said, "That's no 
problem.  We know who they are.  We not only read their books, we 
debate them face to face."  So she faxed a list of some 30 
nationally known Biblical scholars who could present the opposing 
point of view.  Months later, the National Council of Churches 
folk responded that they could not have the study because none of 
those persons recommended met their criteria of scholastic 
standards!

Unfortunately, even though there is no longer any valid Biblical 
rationale to prohibit the ordination of gay and lesbian persons, 
the right wing of our church has made this the litmus test of 
Biblical authority.  Compounding the problem is the reality that 
the conservative forces in our culture and our churches have 
associated everything that is both changing and wrong in matters 
of human sexuality with homosexuality.  And over the years, 
intentionally or not, the General Assembly has allowed this one 
concern to become so politicized that it has taken on a life of 
its own.

Interestingly enough as we meet just a few miles from the 
Canadian boarder, we might gain some insight from our ecumenical 
partners in the United Church of Canada.  The United Church of 
Canada encountered the same situation as we did.  A fully 
qualified candidate came forward for ordination who was openly 
gay.  They formed their own task force and did their own 
denominational study.   The report came back as did ours, that 
"one's sexual orientation alone should not be the determining 
factor regarding ordination."  Of course the United Church of 
Canada was not ready for that report, and at their national  
Assembly in 1988, the conservatives went ballistic. Their remarks 
we so dehumanizing and degrading, and their action so offensive, 
that the majority of the Church wanted nothing to do with them. 
So they passed an alternative resolution which left the decision 
about ordination to the body immediately responsible for 
Ordination.  In our situation that would be the Session and 
Presbytery.  Consequently two things happened.

One was, that a group of very conservative churches left the 
denomination.  The more important, and unexpected result was that 
"the issue" became a "non-issue." Yes, initially the national 
church lost members and financial support.  But within one year 
the financial support of the church returned to where it was and 
the issue has become de-politicized.  

Now this is not a perfect solution.  Even in the United Church of 
Canada there are not a lot of churches who are ready to call an 
openly gay or lesbian clergyperson.  But some of them are.  Some 
of them are small churches who would never have the quality of 
pastoral ministry they receive were it not that they are some of 
the few churches who are open to calling gay and lesbian clergy.  
Others are larger churches who intentionally want diverse staffs 
to reflect the diversity of the people they serve and a third 
group tends to be urban churches who are engaged in ministry in 
neighborhoods where gay and lesbian people reside.

At this point in our journey as Presbyterians, I think this model 
from the United Church of Canada may be helpful to us as we de-
politicize the issue, and then experience what the Holy Spirit 
may do with that.  The present course we've charted during the 
last two decades reminds of an e-mail that by partner David 
retrieved off the internet.  This is the transcript of an actual 
radio conversation of a U.S. naval ship with Canadian authorities 
off the coast of Newfoundland in October of 1995.
It was released by the Chief of Naval Operations.

#1.  Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a 
collision.

#2.  Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the North to 
avoid a collision.

#1. This is the Captain of a U.S. Navy Ship.  I say again, divert 
YOUR course.

#2.  No, I say again, you divert your course.

#1.  THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER U.S. MISSOURI;  WE ARE A LARGE 
WARSHIP OF THE US NAVY.  DIVERT YOUR COURSE NOW!

#2.  This is a lighthouse.  Your Call.

Friends, we've got to help our Church change course.  We need to 
avoid any further collisions so that we can all move forward.    
We can't keep dancing around the issues of justice and inclusion 
in the Presbyterian Church.   We've got to start dancing towards 
the direction of freedom. So many have already paved the way for 
us.  We have two decades of education and advocacy in our Church, 
we have ever so many gay and lesbian people who have come out of 
the closets of fear to drink deeply from the well of life and 
liberation.  We have Act-Up prophets and lesbian evangelists who 
have been out there now for years.  We are well on the way to the 
fulfillment of the dream of freedom, the dream of full inclusion.  
At this time its only a matter of when the dream becomes reality.

In closing let me share with you a word of hope about where the 
dance may end -- what dancing the dream of freedom might look and 
feel like.  Ironically, as is often the way the Holy Spirit 
works, this word of hope came to me in the midst of the pain of 
the Orlando Assembly in 1993.  I was an elected Commissioner that 
year so I was on the floor as a voting delegate.  

As you probably know, each day of the Assembly begins with a time 
of worship.  As I arrived for worship on the day when the 
Assembly was to vote on what to do with Gay and Lesbian people in 
our church, I came into the building and started walking down the 
entry hallway.  As I walked down the long hallway towards the 
Assembly Hall entry doors, I could hear a voice which kept 
getting louder and louder the closer I got to the doors.

When I got to the door, I met our dear friend, The Most Rev. 
Howard Warren.  Our beloved Moderator, Marj Carpenter, has dubbed 
Howard "a loose cannon."  There are many adjectives I might use 
to describe Howard, but "loose" isn't one of them.  Anyway, I'm 
so honored by her insight, that I think we should recommend that 
the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship begin awarding the annual 
Howard B. Warren, Jr. "Cannon Ball Award" for those who 
continually hit the target by telling the truth like it really 
is!

Well back to my story -- and this by the way is a true story.  On 
this particular day of the Assembly, "God's glorious loose 
cannon," The Rev. Howard Warren, was standing in the hallway, 
dressed in casual clothes, and wearing his white clerical stole.  
He had a sandwich board around his neck with one of his famous 
messages of inclusion for gays and lesbian in the church.  As 
always, he was holding in one hand, his ten gallon brown ceramic 
coffee mug and his other hand was flying in the air.  As each 
person entered the Assembly Hall for worship, they met Howard 
crying at the top of his lungs, and since I don't have quite the 
resonance chamber that is Howard's body (!) you'll just have to 
imagine his booming voice crying out:

      "God cries for justice in  the Presbyterian Church!"

All during the worship service you could hear Howard's voice 
resounding from the entry way into the Assembly Hall: "God cries 
for justice in the Presbyterian Church!"  The staff of the 
General Assembly thought this was too disruptive, so they decided 
to close the entry doors to block out  Howard's voice.  But as 
only God in her justice-loving ways can intercede, the Fire 
Marshals immediately insisted that at least one of those doors 
remain open.  So all during worship and the beginning of that 
day's work, above the spoken word from the platform you could 
hear "the Word of the Prophet:  God cries for justice in the 
Presbyterian Church."  I  have known from that day on, why the 
Bible describes so thoroughly the clothing John the Baptist wore, 
as well as the words that he spoke.  When you truly  experience a 
prophet it leaves an indelible picture in your mind.  But even 
more, through that experience,  I've heard and felt John the 
Baptist's message of Hope proclaimed to the Church.  

The following day, which was one day after the General Assembly 
voted not to welcome openly lesbian and gay people as ordained 
leaders in our church, a dear friend of ours, Margie Wentz came 
over to Howard.  Margie was one of the candidates for Moderator 
of the General Assembly that year.  She had publicly stated in 
her Nomination Speech that she supported the full inclusion of 
everyone in our Church, and on the second ballot, she lost the 
election as Moderator by only 10 votes.

She came up to Howard and she brought along her five year old 
grandson, Douglas.  She bent down and put her arm around Douglas 
and said to him, "I want you to meet Howard.  Right now you won't 
understand what he's doing, but he's like John the Baptist, and 
one day the Church will recognize that."

Friends, Dance the Dream of Freedom -- and as we do, let us 
remember these words which took on profound meaning in Jewish 
theology after the Holocaust:  "THE ONLY THING NECESSARY FOR THE 
TRIUMPH OF EVIL IS FOR GOOD PEOPLE TO SAY AND DO NOTHING."  

Thank you, and may God continue to bless us.  AMEN.