Ruling Keeps Debate Alive on Gay Rites

The verdict by a panel of Methodist ministers clearing a colleague of charges of disobeying church rules has stirred debate over homosexual marriages within the church.

Challenged for conducting a lesbian unity ceremony, the Rev. Jimmy Creech called the panel’s decision “courageous.”

He could have lost his ministerial credentials for disobeying the denomination’s ban on gay rites. Instead, Creech returned to the pulpit as senior pastor of Omaha’s largest Methodist church.

He was greeted by a standing ovation inside while protesters carried signs outside. Some church members simply refused to attend Sunday services.

Opponents see the ruling as isolated; supporters see a major change in church policy.

“I don’t know the implications of their decision,” Creech said from the pulpit. “But I believe it’s the beginning of a reversal of growing hostility and exclusion of gays and lesbians in the United Methodist Church.”

Before last week’s decision, activists on both sides agreed that the panel’s finding could shape how 9.5 million Protestants interpret policy affecting gays and lesbians.

Creech presented the first challenge to the denomination’s 1996 decision to prohibit “ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions.”

According to church procedure, nine of 13 panelists had to agree to sanction Creech. The effort failed by one vote.

“Eight jurors, a majority, thought in this case that conducting a homosexual ceremony was wrong, and we agree that it is sinful,” said the Rev. Bob Kuiper of Bakersfield. But he added: “I just hope this kind of decision will at least keep us away from witch hunts to find those who have conducted these ceremonies.”

Kuiper is a spokesman for Transforming Congregations, a group of churches, primarily Methodist, that identifies homosexuality as an illness.

They are opposed by Reconciling Congregations, a program led by gay Methodists to encourage churches to welcome homosexuals. Some 140 of the denomination’s 37,000 congregations throughout the world have adopted the program, but not Creech’s church.

Mark Bowman, executive director of Reconciling Congregations, called the decision “some measure of welcome from the church” and reassuring to homosexual members “that not all of the church’s doors are closed to them.”

During the inquiry, Creech said he would continue to officiate at unity ceremonies, if asked.

The Rev. Bill Lawrence, a Duke University professor who studies the Methodist church, does not believe that gay rites will become policy any time soon.