Plea to Gays Caused Ouster: Pastor : Memorial: San Pedro minister used service for AIDS victim to call on homosexuals to repent.

An outspoken San Pedro pastor who has rankled the Presbyterian Church in the past says he has been removed from his temporary post because he used a memorial service for an AIDS victim to call on homosexuals to repent.

The Rev. Roland Hughes, 64, who has headed First Presbyterian Church of San Pedro for two years, said he made the comments only after friends of the deceased man referred to his gay activism in their testimonials. Hughes, a pastor for 37 years and a strong critic of homosexuality, said he felt compelled to respond.

Hughes would not identify the AIDS victim, but acknowledged that at the Oct. 5 memorial service he called for both homosexuals and heterosexuals to repent of their sexual sins. He said he never cast judgment on whether the man was going to heaven or hell and has faith that the man repented of his lifestyle before he died.

After the church received letters criticizing Hughes’ comments, officials in the Los Angeles-based Presbytery of the Pacific, which covers 50 churches in Southern California and Hawaii, voted not to extend Hughes’ temporary contract for a third year.

Presbytery officials, however, said it was a general lack of leadership and not Hughes’ comments that prompted them to decide against extending his contract.

“It was his inability to provide pastoral leadership,” said the Rev. Art French, chairman of the committee on ministry. French said the relationship between Hughes and the church leadership “has not always been smooth.”

The Rev. Charles Doak, stated clerk of the presbytery, said that some parishioners were offended by Hughes’ comments but that there were other reasons why his contract was not renewed.

Hughes confirmed that he has not always gotten along with church leadership, but he maintained that he believes his controversial comments were the reason for his ouster.

The decision has been fiercely contested by some of the 450 members of the San Pedro congregation, including 200 who signed a petition in support of Hughes.

“It’s very unsettling,” said Shirley Snow, who has been the church’s secretary for the past 15 years. “We want him to remain the pastor until a permanent pastor is chosen or until he retires.”

Another longtime church member, a Hughes supporter who did not want to be identified, said: “Everybody knows how Rev. Hughes feels about homosexuality. . . . He’s very, very strongly against homosexuality. I can’t tell you why the presbytery is down on him. I think the presbytery is getting liberal and he’s not.”

The Presbyterian Church, in a position that is still a subject of debate, supports gay parishioners and anti-discrimination laws to protect them but bars practicing homosexuals from holding ordained offices within the church.

Gay rights activists strongly condemned Hughes and applauded his ouster.

Chris Fowler, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation in Los Angeles, said his reaction to Hughes’ comments was one of “outrage and disgust.”

“It’s an incredibly insensitive thing to say,” Fowler said, “especially considering the number of gay men who have died of AIDS and the place he decided to say it.”

One fellow minister who has publicly clashed with Hughes is the Rev. Peg Bysert, who ministers to gays and lesbians as director of the West Hollywood-based Lazarus Project.

“We are poles apart on our biblical interpretations,” she said. “He has been extremely outspoken against gays and lesbian people. I can understand difference of opinion. I can’t understand trying to castigate and denigrate people.”

Hughes said he regrets any pain he may have caused the deceased man’s family. He said that the AIDS victim’s mother had requested that he preside over the funeral, and that he did so despite his reservations about gays.

“The cure for sin is to repent,” Hughes said in an interview Friday. “That is the cure for eternal death. Not saying that would be like not telling a driver of a car that the bridge was out or not sharing a cure for AIDS.”

He said the only way he would participate in another funeral service for a person who was openly gay would be if the family agreed to have him read a statement saying that they loved the deceased but did not approve of the homosexuality.

“I believe you should love the homosexual people,” he said. “I have a lot of sympathy for homosexuals who have been abused sexually. I think that’s a terrible crime.”

Before coming to San Pedro two years ago, Hughes had been a pastor in both Redondo Beach and Newbury Park. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and the Princeton Seminary.