Denied right to install one lesbian pastor in 1990, Rochester church hires another one By John H. Adams The Layman Online Tuesday, June 1, 2004 Lesbian activist Pat Youngdahl has been named interim co-pastor of Downtown Presbyterian Church in Rochester, N.Y., a congregation that unsucessfully tried in 1990 to install another lesbian minister, Janie Spahr. Pat Youngdahl spoke at More Light celebration at Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester in May 2002. In Spahr's case, her installation as co-pastor was held up for three years while the courts in the Presbyterian Church (USA) considered whether she was eligible to serve as a minister of Word and Sacrament in light of her self-disclosure that she was a practicing homosexual. Finally, in 1993, the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, the highest court in the denomination, prohibited Spahr's installation, holding "that a self-affirmed practicing homosexual may not be invited to serve in a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) position that presumes ordination." Since that decision, the ordination policy of the denomination has become even more explicit in the Constitution of the PCUSA as G-6.0106b, which prohibits the ordination of practicing homosexuals and adulterers. Downtown United A 2002 ruling by the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission in Londonderry, et al v. the Presbytery of Northern New England upheld the constitutional standard and said no governing body had the right to intentionally violate it: "This commission finds that there are no constitutional grounds for a governing body to fail to comply with an express provision of the Constitution, however inartfully stated. Assertions of inconsistency, confusion, or ambiguity may justify the right to protest. They do not create a right to disregard any part of the Constitution." Today, Spahr describes herself as a lesbian evangelist for That All May Fully Serve, one of a number of independent Presbyterian organizations working to repeal the PCUSA's constitutional "fidelity/chastity" ordination standard and to convince the denomination to allow its ministers to perform marriage services for homosexual couples. She is listed as a member of the staff of Downtown Presbyterian, which pays part of her salary with That All May Freely Serve. Barred from installation at Downtown Presbyterian in 1990, Janie Spahr is now a "lesbian evangelist" for That All May Freely Serve. Nine sessions and a number of ministers and elders signed the complaint that led to the prohibition against Spahr's installation at Downtown United. No action was taken to prevent Youngdahl's call to serve at Downtown United. In the process of naming her interim co-pastor at the church, the presbytery also accepted her as a member of the presbytery. Youngdahl, a divorcee who was ordained in 1981 but kept her homosexual behavior secret until years later, says her long-term lesbian partner is Michal McKenzie, who served as vice moderator of the General Assembly in 1986. McKenzie was named vice moderator by former Moderator Ben Weir. Weir became famous as one of the 17 North Americans held hostage in Iran for 495 days until they were released in 1985. He later served as a member of the board of advisors of the Covenant Network. The Committee of Ministry of the Presbytery of Genessee Valley in Rochester, N.Y., approved Youngdahl's appointment at Downtown Presbyterian, a declining congregation that has lived largely off its $6-million endowment. A report on the committee's action was later presented to the full presbytery. The commissioners to presbytery were not informed that Youngdahl is a practicing lesbian. But the Rev. John Wilkinson, one of the members of the Committee on Ministry, knew that Youngdahl was a practicing homosexual. Wilkinson is the pastor of Third Presbyterian Church in Rochester, which, in May of 2002, had a celebration to mark the 21st anniversary of the congregation's "More Light journey." Youngdahl, a former member of the staff at Third Presbyterian, was the emcee for the event. The Rev. John Wilkinson, a member of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity, knew about Pat Youngdahl's sexual behavior but voted with the Committee on Ministry to approve her call to Downtown Presbyterian Church. More Light Presbyterians, who are allied with the Covenant Network and That All May Freely Serve in seeking the repeal of the denomination's ordination law, posted a description of Youngdahl's role in the Third Presbyterian celebration. Excerpts from that description included: "Youngdahl's tenure at Third (1981-87) coincided with crucial early years of the congregation's emergence in the More Light Movement. The project that got the journey started was the idea of having a gay and lesbian support group at Third. Pat was the one who presented the proposal at the weekly staff meeting. Session eventually timorously agreed that the group could meet at Third for three months. The group still meets biweekly 21 years later and serves both members of Third and non [-members]. Several people spoke during the weekend of how much the Support Group and Third's hospitality had meant in their development and self-acceptance." "Pat's own spiritual journey paralleled Third's, and maybe even spurred it on. About the time she arrived in Rochester in 1981, she came out to herself, and then to her husband. They divorced, and by the time she moved in 1987 to Green Bay WI, she was with her life partner, Michal McKenzie. Pat was still not out to Third's congregation. Looking back at it, people today may find this strange, but 'Times were different then,' Pat said on Saturday. 'Third hadn't yet voted to become an inclusive, More Light Church. We didn't have Janie Spahr [as a national role model] yet. We forget how different it was 15 years ago.' Besides, she said she had been hired to be the pastor, and she felt it was very important for her to not be the cause of division in Third. She couldn't come out to some and then burden them with secrecy." According to That All May Freely Serve, Youngdahl also declared at the celebration, "I do not want to hide. I want to be seen and heard for who I am, for who I am, for who I am!" Youngdahl served on the staff at Third Presbyterian from 1981-87 before she became a writing instructor at the University of Arizona. Wilkinson is a member of the General Assembly Task Force on Peace, Purity and Unity, the panel established by the 213th General Assembly to reach "discernment" and submit recommendations to the 217th General Assembly in 2006 on the ordination issue and other matters. Asked by The Layman Online why the committee selected Youngdahl in an apparent violation of church law, Wilkinson said, "I don't speak for the committee." During the three years the task force has been meeting, Wilkinson has presented to its members a number of vignettes from Presbyterian history challenging the idea that Presbyterian ministers should be required to subscribe to essential doctrines or regulation of sexual behavior. Besides speaking to More Light and other gay activist groups, Youngdahl has publicly acknowledged her lesbianism in a book titled Subversive Devotions: A Journey into Divine Pleasure and Power.

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