On the broader religious front in 1992, The UMC displayed a more flexible stance when the denomination sided with the Metropolitan Community Church, founded for gay Christians by Troy Perry , when the National Council of Churches of Christ (NCC) voted not to act on MCC's application for observer status. In the debate over the MCC’s status, some NCC member groups (orthodox groups and predominantly African American denominations) indicated that they would leave the NCC if MCC’s request was approved. Along with the UMC, the United Church of Christ and the Swedenborgian Church also took a stance in support of the MCC (GLINN).
In 1992, the Wesley Foundation at UCLA became the first Reconciling Campus Ministry (RMN, select 1992, para. 8).
Also in 1992, a statewide, antigay referendum was adopted in Colorado. The measure would have amended the state constitution and repealed laws in Denver, Boulder, and Aspen protecting against discrimination based on sexual orientation (UMNS, 1996; RMN, select 1992, para. 9). (This amendment was not put into practice because there were immediate legal challenges to it.) Colorado’s approval of this referendum, however, provided the stimulus for the founding of "United Methodists Against Discrimination" and the subsequent effort by that group and other UMs to protest the UMC’s plan to hold its 1996 General Conference in Colorado. The denomination, however, did not move the gathering but instead held a two-hour service of prayer during the first week of the April 1996 General Conference (UMNS, 1992). The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in May, 1996, that the amendment was unconstitutional and stated that it violated the equal protection guarantee in the U.S. Constitution (UMNS, 1996).
A UMNS (1996) news story about the Supreme Court’s ruling quotes the Rev. James V. Heidinger, president and editor of Good News Magazine, as saying that "Persons practicing homosexuality are not an ‘oppressed’ minority" and that the decision was "a defeat for both the freedom of conscience as well as one for the democratic process." In expressing her pleasure that the Amendment had been overturned, UM Bishop of the Denver area Mary Ann Swensen pointed out that the Social Principles included a paragraph that affirmed the "rights of homosexual persons" (UMNS, 1996).
In his book, Where The Spirit Leads (2000), author James Rutland Wood reports that in someUM jurisdictions, a number of UM clergy were performing union ceremonies (Wood, 2000, p. 22), and they had probably been doing so quietly for some time. As word of these actions spread throughout the denomination, the clergy faced increasing pressures from opponents. They were challenged to stop conducting union ceremonies because, as their opponents claimed, such ceremonies were in violation of the Discipline. In two instances (see next paragraph) in 1993, cases were filed and heard by the Judicial Council, the "supreme court" of the UMC.
In Minnesota, the conference’s Legislative Committee voted to give "reconciling congregations the right to offer services of blessing and celebration of committed relationships of couples of the same gender," but the bishop ruled that this violated the Discipline (Wood, 2000, p. 22). The Troy Annual Conference, which includes Vermont, southeastern New York State, and a portion of northern Pennsylvania, approved a resolution in which distinctions were made between covenant services and marriage services. In this resolution, it was stated that "that clergy who wish to may participate in a ‘Covenant Service,’ which is the celebration of a relationship in which God’s love is affirmed (Wood, 2000, p. 23).
After hearing these cases, the Judicial Council ruled in 1993 that GC is the only body that has authority to designate rites and rituals in the UMC (Wood, p. 23; JC Decision 694).
In 1993, the Judicial Council also ruled that any definition of the word status or the phrase self-avowed practicing homosexual had to come from General Conference or annual conferences (Williams, 1994b, p. 9; JC Decision 702).
In 1995, the "Confessing Movement" was formed by 102 United Methodists who said they reaffirm "the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed in scripture and asserted in the classic Christian tradition and historic ecumenical creeds" (UMNS, 1997b). Their first national gathering was held in Atlanta, where 900 signed The Confessional Statement. The statement signers say they "repudiate teachings and practices that MISUSE [sic] principles of inclusiveness and tolerance to distort the doctrine and discipline of the Church. We deny the claim that the individual is free to decide what is true and what is false" (CM, third para. under heading, ‘The Lord’). For text of the Confessional Statement, see Appendix N. Note: various sources say the Confessing movement was formed in 1993 and in 1995 (Good News, 1994), and that its leaders were responsible for the Houston Declaration in 1987 and the Memphis Declaration in 1992 (UMNS, 1997b; CM; Heidinger, 1997).
And at the RCP Convocation in 1995, the Rev. Jeanne Audrey Powers delivered a sermon in which she "came out" as a lesbian (RMN, select 1995, para. 3; Powers, 1995; Sample and Delong, 2000, pp. 109-121). Powers, now a retired clergy member of the Minnesota Annual Conference, was Associate General Secretary of the General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns from 1972-1996 (MNAC, 2000). In her sermon, Powers said that she was "going public . . . ‘as an act of resistance to false teachings that have contributed to heresy and homophobia within the church itself’." (Early, 1996; Powers, 1995, p. 109).
This event resulted in denominational controversy that continued for months. Conservatives in the denomination called for sanctions against the Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns (Commission) "on the grounds that the United Methodist Discipline
The General Council on Finance and Administration and the president and general secretary of my own commission believe it is now difficult to separate my personal statements from those I may make as associate general secretary of the commission. (Early, 1996)
In the statement, Powers stated that she would limit her speaking to "other issues on the ecumenical and interreligious agenda" (Early, 1996). Noting that she was due to retire in September 1996, Powers said she considered retiring earlier "to ensure my personal freedom to encourage a change in the Book of Discipline." However, she stated that she would continue her appointment and service until her upcoming retirement date because of her concerns about other issues to be considered by the General Conference (Early, 1996).
And in response to an appeal, the UM Judicial Council upheld the decision of the Wisconsin Conference to become a Reconciling Conference (JC Decision 794).
1992-1996