Gay Minister Resigns From Presbyterians

A popular clergyman recently found guilty of homosexual misconduct by a church court resigned Thursday from the Presbyterian Church, a denomination sharply divided over how to deal with gay ministers.

Associate Pastor Joseph M. McGowan, in a letter this week to St. Stephen Presbyterian Church members, said he was quitting the ministry after “the most difficult year in my life” since March, when a charge “relating to my being gay was brought against me.”

McGowan said he had been “outed,” but did not say by whom.

Only two months earlier, about 300 of St. Stephen’s 400 members had surprised McGowan with a $4,000 gift at a party to thank him for creative leadership during a two-year period when the church was without a senior pastor. McGowan, 39, joined the St. Stephen’s staff in 1989.

“He was one of the best pastors I’ve met in some time,” said the Rev. Dan Clark, pastor of North Hollywood Presbyterian Church. “My word to the fundamentalists is that ‘you got what you wanted.’ ”

Clark is a vocal opponent of what he called “homophobic” churchwide measures now close to shutting the door on gay and lesbian clergy in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the 3.6-million-member denomination based in Louisville, Ky.

A “fidelity and chastity” amendment to the denomination’s constitution, adopted early last year, permitted charges to be brought against any unmarried minister not living a celibate life. But delegates to the Presbyterian General Assembly in June proposed a modified, alternate amendment that would seem to allow for monogamous, gay unions.

However, the Presbytery of San Fernando, based in Panorama City, on Tuesday voted 76 to 29 against the alternate amendment. And, as of Thursday, nationwide voting by more than 170 presbyteries, or regional units, stood at 44 against, 27 for--a trend that observers said is likely to make permanent the stricter “fidelity and chastity” requirements.

St. Stephen’s Senior Pastor John F. Payne, in his own letter to congregants, wrote that he disagreed with the local verdict against “our beloved Joe” and with current Presbyterian law pertaining to gay and lesbian clergy, but that he was helpless to protect McGowan. To allay rumors, Payne also wrote that “Joe was brought up on charges of sexual misconduct with a consenting adult who has no connection to either our congregation or our Presbytery,” the regional body of San Fernando Valley-area Presbyterian churches.

McGowan did not answer telephone calls requesting comment. “Out of consideration to the congregation,” Payne said Thursday, he would not comment further. Copies of Payne’s and McGowan’s letters were obtained by The Times from another source.

The Rev. Gary Dennis, senior pastor of the large La Canada Presbyterian Church, said he has supported measures to tighten rules on clergy sex.

“I don’t see how you can ask members of congregations to be moral, if you don’t require pastors, elders and deacons to meet the same standards,” said Dennis, adding that he believes most Presbyterians want to put an end to the decades-long debates over sexuality issues.

Jan Sperry, a ranking official at the 31-church Presbytery of San Fernando, said it would be inappropriate for her to comment because “no action has been reported to the presbytery.”

In the intricate, closed-door process of dealing with allegations against Presbyterian ministers, always identified in documents and at hearings as “Clergy X” for privacy reasons, an investigating committee turns over any “chargeable offenses” to the presbytery’s Permanent Judicial Commission.

The local commission ruled against McGowan last month. Under existing Presbyterian law, “it is impossible for Joe to remain” an ordained minister in the denomination, Payne wrote. Two congregants, Vincent and Jan Dyer of Chatsworth, said they were “stunned beyond rational comprehension that the Permanent Judicial Commission continues to exist and promote beliefs that have their basis in medieval thought.”

In his letter to church members, McGowan said, “I have been challenged all my adult life to live with the fact that God created me with a sexual orientation that is different from most of yours.”

He noted that he never acted as an advocate for gay rights.

“Being ‘outed’ and having this information about me come to light has been both a horrible experience and yet a very freeing experience,” he said.

Rather than wait for the church court to announce its judgment, he said he decided to remove himself from the Presbyterian ministry on Thursday. Formal presbytery action may not come until a March 24 meeting.

“I will be exploring other denominations where I can use my gifts in ministry,” McGowan wrote. One denomination that has accepted gay and lesbian clergy trained in other denominations is the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, a worldwide gay-oriented denomination based in West Hollywood.

Clark, the North Hollywood pastor, contended that two major issues are involved: First, the suspicion surrounding unmarried ministers--heterosexual or gay, widowed or divorced; and second, the possibility for sexually straying married ministers to undergo therapy during suspension, then return to active ministry--an option he said was impossible for clergy found guilty of homosexual conduct.

“The [Presbyterian] church is so rabidly homophobic that it sees anything associated with homosexual behavior as completely evil and immoral,” Clark said.