Area Clergy Oppose Their Church’s Ban on Gay Unions

Fifteen prominent United Methodist ministers, including two Los Angeles area clergy and the pastor of a Washington church attended by President Clinton and his family, have signed a “statement of conscience” disagreeing with their denomination’s ban against same-sex weddings and gay ordinations.

The 8.6-million-member United Methodist Church, the second-largest U.S. Protestant denomination, has long held that homosexual sex is “incompatible with Christian teaching.” The Methodists’ quadrennial convention last year barred clergy from presiding at services uniting gay and lesbian couples.

Registering dissent, the statement being circulated this month to 2,000 Methodist ministers around the country says: “To withhold rituals of support for committed relationships is unconscionable.”

One of the 15 original signers, the Rev. Ignacio Castuera, pastor of North Glendale United Methodist Church, said that he had permitted, presided over or participated in about a dozen such wedding-like rites for same-sex couples when he was previously pastor of the relatively liberal Hollywood United Methodist Church.

Castuera said he would do so again “when those who request it are actively involved in religious life.” However, “that is unlikely to happen at North Glendale,” where he has been since mid-1996, said Castuera.

Castuera said the statement of conscience was designed primarily to provoke more dialogue on the issues. “In this era of AIDS, do we not want to encourage permanent relationships in the gay community?” he asked.

As for his present congregation, he said, “Obviously, it will provoke some discussion; I hope everyone will have an open mind.”

Two other signers, a Westwood pastor and Clinton’s pastor, said that although they disagree with the ban, they have no plans to defy the denomination’s “discipline,” or rules of conduct.

The Rev. J. Philip Wogaman, senior pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, told one newspaper that he signed the statement because “a lot of good people have been injured by the church, and it’s time we call attention to that.”

The Rev. Sharon Rhodes-Wickett, pastor of Westwood United Methodist Church, said she signed with mixed feelings after receiving the mailed statement from ministers in Chicago and Omaha, Neb.

“Some members of this congregation will be upset and angry with me for signing,” said Rhodes-Wickett.

She cited two reasons for signing the statement--that her understanding of her ministry involves reaching out to people on the margins of society, and that “there were people who stepped out in faith to lobby for women to be ordained in the Methodist Church” before the first women were ordained in 1956.

Rhodes-Wickett said she is loyal to the denomination’s discipline. “But if I am asked to do a [gay union ceremony], I will have to face that decision when it happens,” she said.

Rhodes-Wickett and Castuera are both former district superintendents, regional authorities second only to the local bishop in the United Methodist Church.

If they were to openly preside over the union of a gay or lesbian couple now, Castuera said, they would technically be subject to charges of violating church rules.

But given the liberal views on the issue held by Methodist Bishop Roy I. Sano, who heads the Southern California-Hawaii Conference, Castuera speculated that an offending pastor “would probably get a rap on the knuckles at most.”

Asked to comment, Sano said each case might involve different circumstances. But, he added: “As bishop, I am committed to upholding the discipline and to follow the decisions of the Judicial Council, which interprets church law.”

*

Sano, who is based in Pasadena, was one of 15 active and retired United Methodist bishops who last year collectively stated their own personal pain over church restrictions against gay and lesbian Christians.

Their statement, “breaking the silence” on the controversial issue, was issued just before the start of the denomination’s convention last year in Denver. Many delegates were upset by the publicity, noting that the official Methodist stance has withstood many challenges. Later, delegates in Denver rejected any change by a 577-378 vote.

The latest statement, circulated by dissenting clergy, said, “We believe that public dissent from a teaching of the church must be done only prayerfully and with humility. However, we also believe when we have been confronted with an injustice we must not remain silent.”