c. 1999 Religion News Service
Jimmy Creech found guilty of officiating at same-sex ceremony
(RNS) The Rev. Jimmy Creech was found guilty Wednesday (Nov. 17) of breaking United Methodist church law by officiating at a gay marriage ceremony.
A 13-member jury made its determination after a 90-minute church trial in Grand Island, Neb.
Creech, who acted as his own lawyer, said he was not shocked by the decision.”I’m not surprised, but I’m really quite disappointed,”Creech said.”I’m mostly disappointed that it was a unanimous decision.” The Methodist minister had refused to take part in jury selection earlier in the day and condemned the law and the church for putting him on trial, the Associated Press reported.”I believe the law that prohibits pastors from celebrating holy unions with gay and lesbian couples is an unjust and immoral law,”he said.”This whole judicial process _ this trial in particular _ has been corrupted, contaminated. The trial is illicit.” He had urged the jury to refuse to render a verdict and argued church law forbidding homosexual marriage is demeaning and sacrilegious.
Creech was charged with officiating at the same-sex union ceremony of Larry Ellis and Jim Raymer on April 24 in Chapel Hill, N.C. On the eve of the trial, he presided at a recommitment ceremony for the two men.
Creech is living in Raleigh, N.C., while on a leave of absence from the Nebraska United Methodist Annual Conference. He remains answerable to Nebraska Bishop Joel Martinez.
He was acquitted in a 1998 church trial on the same issue. After his acquittal, the Judicial Council, the denomination’s highest legislative body, ruled that the prohibition in the church’s Social Principles against clergy performing same-sex union ceremonies had the force of church law.
In March, the first test of the ban _ since the 1998 Judicial Council ruling _ occurred. The Rev. Gregory Dell of Chicago was found guilty of violating church law for blessing the union of two men in that city.
The latest Creech trial, held at Trinity United Methodist Church, attracted both supporters and critics of the Methodist minister.
Seventy-four people supporting him were arrested for trespassing as they sang hymns and locked arms in front of the church. The Rev. Fred Phelps of Topeka, Kan., and a handful of protesters held up signs across the street, criticizing Creech and his supporters.
Georgia Baptists oust two gay-supporting churches
(RNS) Delegates to the Georgia Baptist Convention dismissed two churches Tuesday (Nov. 16) because they have homosexual leaders.
The actions mark the first time in the state convention’s 177-year history it has expelled congregations.
Delegates to the convention of Southern Baptists in Georgia voted overwhelmingly to dismiss Virginia-Highland Baptist Church of Atlanta and Oakhurst Baptist Church of Decatur. Both congregations have gay deacons and Oakhurst has a gay assistant pastor.
The decisions came a year after the convention changed its constitution to bar congregations that”affirm, approve or endorse homosexual behavior.””It’s kind of like sending a child away from the house when they don’t follow the rules,”said Gerald Harris, outgoing president of the convention.”It breaks my heart.” The convention is no longer affiliated with the two churches and will no longer receive their financial contributions. The Rev. Tim Shirley, pastor of Virginia-Highland Baptist, said his Atlanta church has not sent money since 1993, the Associated Press reported.
The Rev. Lanny Peters of Oakhurst Baptist voiced disappointment, but not surprise, about the vote.
His motion to refer the resolutions concerning the churches for additional dialogue was defeated.”There seemed to be a fear about having face-to-face conversations among Christians, among Baptists, and that’s unsettling to me,”Peters said.
Harris, pastor of a Marietta, Ga., church, said the 1.3-million-member convention and the congregations do not agree on what the Bible teaches about homosexuality.”We read the Bible and we come down on different sides of this issue,”said Harris.”I don’t know that the convention can compromise its position on this issue.”
Liberty University now a Southern Baptist school
(RNS) Liberty University, the Virginia school founded by the Rev. Jerry Falwell, has become a Southern Baptist university.
Liberty reached a formal agreement with the executive board of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia on Tuesday (Nov. 16), when the board approved the move unanimously.
The Lynchburg school will continue to be governed by its board of trustees, which currently has 32 members, but has invited the conservative group to nominate two additional board members from within its organization.”We look forward to providing quality Christian education to the students of 47,000 Southern Baptist churches across the U.S., while we continue serving thousands of others from many different evangelical backgrounds,”Liberty University President John M. Borek Jr. said in a statement.
The agreement was welcomed by Southern Baptist Convention President Paige Patterson.”For the great Liberty University to be a part of our Southern Baptist Zion … is an answer to prayer for us all,”Patterson wrote in a letter to Falwell, who is the school’s chancellor.
The new relationship will encourage Southern Baptist students to attend Liberty _ which currently has 9,400 students _ and provide the possibility of financial support of the school by Southern Baptist churches.
Falwell’s ties to the Southern Baptist Convention began three years ago when his church made a contribution to the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia shortly after it formed by splitting from the moderate-dominated Baptist General Association of Virginia. Since that time, he has attended annual meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention.
ACLU sues Calif. school district over Ten Commandments use
(RNS) The American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit against a California school district that plans to post the Ten Commandments in school offices.
The federal lawsuit, filed Tuesday (Nov. 16), seeks an order blocking the Val Verde Unified School District from displaying the commandments on its campuses. The district oversees about 10,000 students who live about 75 miles from Los Angeles.
The lawsuit claims the district is violating a 1980 Supreme Court ruling that prohibits displaying the Ten Commandments at schools, the Associated Press reported.
School officials did not immediately return a call for comment.”This is about the government playing favorites and saying Judaism and Christianity are the appropriate religions and everyone else is wrong,”said Peter Eliasberg, an ACLU lawyer.”That’s not moral guidance. It’s dividing the people on the basis of religion.” Across the country, school officials, politicians and clergy have been urging that the Ten Commandments be posted in schools to provide moral guidance. Critics say the presence of the commandments in public schools violates the constitutional separation of church and state, but supporters say the commandments are a historical display and thus, do not violate the law.
The school board in Harrisburg, Ill., voted Tuesday (Nov. 16) to stick with a decision to order the reluctant superintendent to post the Ten Commandments in schools. About 800 people at the meeting responded with thunderous applause to the 4-3 vote.
The ACLU also has threatened to take legal action in Harrisburg.
Pope reviews the accomplishments of his trip to India and Georgia
(RNS) Pope John Paul II said today he hoped his trip to New Delhi and the Georgian capital of Tbilisi earlier this month would serve to improve interfaith relations and further the cause of Christian unity.
Looking tired and apparently suffering from a cold, the 79-year-old pontiff addressed some 16,000 pilgrims who attended his weekly general audience, which was held outdoors in St. Peter’s Square in cool and windy weather that threatened rain.
It was the pope’s first audience since his return Nov. 9 from the five-day trip during which he faced the hostility of Hindu extremists in New Delhi and the refusal of the Orthodox Church in Georgia to allow its members to worship with Catholics.”India is the cradle of ancient cultures, religions and spiritual traditions, which continue to shape the lives of millions of persons in a social context characterized for centuries by a notable degree of reciprocal tolerance,”he said.”Today that spirit of reciprocal respect is in some ways in difficulty and it was thus important to reaffirm the lively desire of the church for a fruitful dialogue between the followers of all religions,”the pope said.
While Catholics must respect the faiths and cultures of non-Christians, these societies must respect the fundamental right to”freedom of conscience and free exercise of religion,”John Paul said.
The pope praised Georgia, the first former Soviet republic he has visited, for its efforts to meet post-communist economic and social challenges and its determination”to become a reliable member of a united Europe.””I pray that the Catholics of Georgia will always be able to offer their specific contribution to the construction of their country,”he said.
Describing his meeting with the Orthodox Patriarch of Georgia Illia II as”cordial,”John Paul said the encounter”held out the promise of a new phase of ecumenical relations.”
Church of England can’t agree on new language for Nicene Creed
(RNS) The Church of England’s general synod has failed to reach a consensus on what should be the modern language form of the Nicene Creed _ one of the earliest and most important creedal summaries of Christian faith _ to be used in Holy Communion prayers included in its new book of Common Worship to be published in the year 2000.
On Tuesday (Nov. 16), the synod debated a translation that expressed belief in the incarnation of Jesus in the words:”… was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,”an accurate translation of the original Greek, though the preposition”ek”(of) could also be translated by”from”.
This version, recommended by the English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC), the inter-church body coordinating liturgical translation, is strongly opposed by evangelicals, who see it as placing the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary on the same footing.
Despite a vote last July that indicated the wording was unlikely to get the two-thirds majority in the synod’s House of Laity, which it needs to be given final approval as a liturgical text, the House of Bishops brought the text back to the synod with some alternatives in the hope of finding a wording that would meet with general approval.
However, both”by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary”and”from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary”were voted down when put as amendments.
The original text, though it gained the almost unanimous support of the bishops (38-1) and strong support among the clergy (179-22), was approved by the laity by a vote of only 131-76, confirming it would fail to gain the two-thirds majority needed if it is brought back in February for final approval.
The evangelical minority in the Anglican denomination who say they would not in conscience be able to say the creed in this form hope the bishops will now think again and return to the synod with a different form of words, probably”from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.” Other linguistic issues raised at the Tuesday meeting included authorizing a modern language version of the Lord’s Prayer that keeps the phrase”Lead us not into temptation,”although the ELLC preferred version _”Save us from the time of trial”_ can be used as an alternative.
The synod also approved the use of vernacular languages other than English in the Church of England’s worship, an issue that has become pastorally desirable for congregations composed of church members who have migrated to England from India and Pakistan.
Moderate, conservative Baptist power-sharing plan fails in North Carolina
(RNS) An innovative proposal before the North Carolina State Convention of Southern Baptists to share power among moderates and conservatives failed to win a needed two-thirds majority Tuesday (Nov. 16), leaving open the question of whether the two groups will be able to work together.
The proposal, dubbed the”shared leadership plan,”did receive a majority vote _ 2,042-1,676 or 55 percent to 45 percent _ but not the two-thirds required.
State leaders immediately interpreted the vote as a hopeful sign that North Carolina Baptists are eager to work together even if they can’t legislate a method by the two-thirds needed to change the convention’s constitution.”This vote cannot be construed as being a failure or a collapse of cooperation among us,”said the Rev. Larry Harper of Raleigh, the president of the convention’s General Board.”My intention is to continue to work even more intently with the other convention officers to de-politicize the convention.” But conservatives within the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina have won the presidency three times in the past four years and many would like to see them consolidate their hold on power. Moderates, who still control the influential 100-member General Board, appear to have lost the will to recapture their former strength.
The scenario is almost identical to that of the Southern Baptist Convention 20 years ago, when conservatives took over, insisting they were wresting the Bible from the hands of moderates and liberals who no longer believed it was literally true and without error.”It’s going to be difficult to persuade moderates to get involved,”said the Rev. David Crocker, the first vice president of the convention and a moderate.”There will be those who find it easy to pull back.” The shared leadership plan called for delegates, known as”messengers,”to elect a president of the 1.2-million-member state convention from among two rivals: a moderate and a conservative. The winner would be declared president and the loser would become president-elect. A year later, the president-elect would become president and the outcoming president would hold the title past president.
The president of the General Board would be elected in a similar way.
Messengers said they liked cooperation but felt the plan thwarted democratic principles of majority rule. Baptists have long cherished democratic elections. They elect their pastors and decide both practical and theological issues at monthly church conferences.
Quote of the day: Pastor Stephen Fusilier of Yuma, Ariz.
(RNS)”We have a lot of people in this state that have been hurt financially, a lot of churches and a lot of people … We need to realize that we as individuals, we as a state convention and we as a national convention need to come together and see what we can do … to help those individuals that are … destitute because of what happened.” _ Pastor Stephen Fusilier of Yuma, Ariz., expressing concerns at the annual meeting of the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention, about fellow Southern Baptists who have been affected by the financial troubles of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, which filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition Tuesday (Nov. 9). He was quoted by Baptist Press, the news service of the Southern Baptist Convention.
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