Reconciling Congregation Program/Open the Doors
3801 N. Keeler Avenue
Chicago, IL 60641
For Immediate Release
April 29, 1996
Contact: Mark Bowman
(312) 736-5526
The United Methodist General Conference, which met in Denver from April 16-26, was the scene of an unprecedented grass roots witness calling on the church to "open its doors" to lesbian, bay and bisexual persons and their families.
The 1,000 delegates to this quadrennial policy-making assembly of The United Methodist church arrived in Denver from around the world to find signs in the windows of businesses near the conference site stating "Welcome United Methodists--Open the Doors to All Persons REgardless of Sexual Orientation!" Volunteers wearing Open the Doors buttons literally opened the doors to the convention center as delegates and visitors entered the building. Delegates received cards with jokes such as "Knock, knock. Who's there? Darren. Darren who? Darin' you to open the doors!" Delegates returned to their hotel rooms in the evening to find welcome mats outside their door which read "Jesus opened doors, won't you?"
The Open the Doors campaign was sponsored by the Reconciling Congregation Program, a national network of 130 United Methodist congregations and campus ministries which publicly welcome all persons, regardless of sexual orientation.
"Open the Doors was an attempt the redirect the church's thinking about homosexuality," noted Mark Bowman, national coordinator of the Reconciling Congregation Program. "For the past two decades the church has pronounced moral judgment upon lesbian, gay and bisexual persons. The result of that judgment has been to drive gay persons and their families away from churches. Open the Doors sought to communicate in indirect and creative ways the message that God wants the church to preach a message of love and hospitality."
A press conference early in the ten-day assembly drew several hundred persons to hear testimonies from United Methodists who have had doors closed upon them: a gay layman from southern California removed from church leadership by a new pastor; a successful coach at a United Methodist college fired for being a lesbian; a lesbian couple whose baby was denied baptism by a United Methodist pastor; and a mother wounded by her lesbian daughter's denial of her vocation to be a pastor. The names of over 10,000 Reconciling United Methodists who are calling on the church to "open the doors" were unveiled on 43 placards at the press conference.
Later that same day 15 United Methodist bishops released an historic statement expressing their dissent from antigay church policies and inviting the church to "open the doors."
Several other Open the Doors events drew the attention of conference delegates and visitors:
A youth and student rally outside the convention center drew dozens of students and seminarians chanting and singing for "open doors" in the church.
An emotional Sunday morning service packed 400 persons into Denver"s only Reconciling Congregation where worshippers heard Dr. Tex Sample, professor at St. Paul Theological Seminary in Kansas City, draw parallels between the religious leaders of Jesus" day and those today who exclude persons from the faith.
Performances of an original musical drama, Caught in the Middle, drew over 1,200 persons who laughed and cried at this dramatic portrayal of the struggles of families and churches dealing with homosexuality and the importance of unconditional love.
The results of the Open the Doors campaign exceeded the planners' expectations. "In coming to Denver we hoped for a visible witness which might begin to shift consciousness in the church," noted RCP coordinator Bowman, "but we did not expect to set the tone for so much of the conference. References to Open the Doors were popping up constantly in informal conversations between delegates and were heard in many speeches. We received widespread media coverage. Persons and groups who oppose more open policies toward lesbians and gays assailed the Open the Doors campaign time and again."
Several policy actions by the General Conference during its final days reaffirmed the denomination's antigay policies. An attempt to replace a current policy statement that reads "we do not condone the practice of homosexuality and consider this practice incompatible with Christian teaching" with a statement that "the church is not of one mind on this subject" was defeated by a 60% to 40% vote. Policies which ban the ordination of "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" as clergy and which ban national church agencies from funding groups which "promote the acceptance of homosexuality" were also retained.
"We knew going into the conference that the votes were not there for a major shift in church policy," Bowman observed. "Still it was deeply disturbing to see the deep pain which these negative votes caused in the lives of lesbian and gay United Methodists and their families and friends. It was also disheartening to hear a prominent antigay spokesperson declare before the conference that homosexuality is the 'continental divide' for the church. Our church needs healing and reconciliation, not division."
"In years to come this General Conference will be seen as a turning point. The Open the Doors campaign has accelerated the growth of support for the Reconciling Congregation movement across the country. With the emergence of a new generation of church leadership, the tide is clearly changing. As the lead character in the musical drama Caught in the Middle sang:
The winds of change are blowing, the winds of change are blowing,Back to Home Page - GC Indexand God is with us in the wind."