What we are doing and why it matters--Part I

At our October Church Council meeting one of the council members entered the motion that we open a conversation to discern whether the Mt Vernon United Church of Christ should seek to be designated as an "Open and Affirming" congregation within the larger UCC denomination.  Mark Landmark was appointed as the Council liaison with the committee that would be formed to do this and he was charged with calling for volunteers to serve on that committee.

In this series of letters I want to explain to you what this means; that is to say, to tell you what this committee is doing and why it matters--both to us as a congregation and to our community.

In 1985, at the 15th General Synod of the United Church of Christ meeting in Ames, Iowa, a resolution encouraging UCC congregations to declare themselves "Open and Affirming" was entered and passed with 98 % of delegates voting in favor.  According to information on the UCC web site, "to say that a setting of the UCC (a local church, campus ministry etc.) is “Open and Affirming” means that it has publicly and specifically declared that those of all sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions (or “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender” people) are welcome in its full life and ministry (e.g. membership, leadership, employment, etc.) It bespeaks a spirit of hospitality and a willingness to live out this hospitality and welcome in meaningful ways."

In other words, an Open and Affirming (ONA) congregation welcomes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in worship and (and this is a sometimes difficult "and") affirms these folks as brothers and sisters to us, as members of the Body of Christ with us and, like us, as beloved children of God redeemed by God's grace, endowed with God's Spirit and called with us to serve the world God loves.

This 28 year old call from the General Synod has now been heard in our congregation and your Church Council has decided to seek an answer. 

This raises a series of important and complicated questions for your ONA committee to consider:

Is the United Church of Christ in Mt Vernon "open and affirming" in the sense of the above statement?  That is to say, are we, in our practice and in our culture and in our heart, both welcoming and affirming of LGBT people?

If we are not, could we become so through conversation and study and prayer?  Should we?

If we are, is this the right time to stand publicly in support of our LGBT brothers and sisters and to welcome them into our family and fellowship?

And finally, how do we conduct this conversation in a way that guarantees everyone a chance to speak and grants a hearing to every opinion?

Different churches go about this discernment process in different ways.  Your ONA committee has chosen to take its time, to ask a lot of questions, to seek out the variety of opinions that are no doubt held by our members, to educate ourselves and the congregation through Bible study prayer and conversation and, in humility and openness to the direction of God's Spirit, to seek to discern and to follow God's will.

So that's what we are doing. 

These are the members of the ONA committee:  Pat Leavenworth, chair, Claire Jenkins, Mary Dowling and Mark Landmark.  I am on the committee as an ex-officio member--(which means I get to say whatever I want and no one has to listen and I don't get to vote anyway).  There is room for others to join in our work and the committee has expressed a desire for this to happen.  The current committee is, quite frankly, in favor of leading the congregation to declare itself "Open and Affirming" and so we are in need of participants who might have and want to express a contrary opinion. 

The date, time and place for all of our meetings will be announced in advance and are, of course, open to anyone who wants to come and contribute constructively to the conversation.  We will be hosting a variety of events--most of which have not been determined as of yet, but will likely include discussions, Q & A sessions, movies, "expert" panels from outside our congregation and maybe even a sermon or two.

The process will take a while; we honestly don't know how long.  A lot will depend on the response we get from all of you and on our own sense of how our efforts are received and understood.  The point is, we are not in a hurry; no one is driving a bulldozer through the congregation.  We have time to do this right.  We recognize that you can't legislate the heart of a church.  You can't make something so just by declaring it to be so.

That said, however, we should also say we are not expecting or waiting for a unanimous decision in favor of positioning our church as an Open and Affirming congregation.  As much as we would like that to be the case, this is not the way this congregation has ever made its important decisions.  Eventually, we believe, a proposal will be brought to a duly called congregational meeting and together, by a majority vote, we will decide together the course we will take.

There is one other thing I need to say, and then I'll be done with Part I of this letter.  This is important to me and I think important as well to the congregation and to the process we have undertaken.

I need you to know this was not my idea.  While it has never been a secret that I am completely supportive of our LGBT brothers and sisters, I have been careful (I hope) not to push for this action to be taken.  It is essential, I believe, that a movement as important as this one be birthed by the Holy Spirit within the congregation itself, and not arise from the pastor's personal agenda. 

It is possible that this process will bring us into some difficult, if not contentious, conversations.  I will, in fact, be surprised (but not disappointed) if it doesn't.  But we have done difficult things in the past; we have handled divisive issues in the past, and with God's help we will do so again.   Please be assured that I will do my best in all this to be the pastor to the whole church.

That's enough for Part I.  Now you know what we are doing.  Stay tuned.  Part II will follow shortly in which I will tell you (with fewer words, I hope) why what we are doing is so very important.

Yours in hope,

Brad Brookins