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'Coming Out Day' service held at Columbia Seminary Paula R. Kincaid The Presbyterian Layman Tuesday, November 3, 1998  A
"National Coming Out Day" service was held Oct. 9 in the
chapel of Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Ga., one of 10
theological institutions related to the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Following the service, a coffee hour was held in the refectory, where
special "Happy Coming Out Day" cookies were served. The service has prompted complaints, said Jim Hudnut-Beumler, Columbia's dean of faculty and executive vice president. He said that Douglas Oldenburg, the seminary's president and current General Assembly moderator, had been informed about the service and the complaints. He also noted that the seminary will schedule a forum to discuss "the limits and purposes of worship." 'I've always been gay' Columbia student Karla Fleshman organized the service and preached the sermon, in which she declared, "I didn't magically turn queer on my 21st birthday, I've always been gay." Fleshman is a non-PCUSA student who, while living in seminary housing, had her same-sex partner's name inserted in the 1996-97 directory where students' spouses are listed. Fleshman told her hearers "The church has been silent about the needs of gay youth … not only silent but often complacent and a perpetrator of violence against gay youth and gay adults." She offered no specifics to substantiate her charge. Her sermon was based on Mark 10:13-16, "Let the little children come to me." "What kind of disciples are you going to be? Will you dare break with that church tradition and reach out to the gay children in your churches as Jesus would reach out and touch them, letting them know that they are loved, that they are home?" she asked. Litany and communion Following the sermon came "A Litany for National Coming Out Day." Participants declared "Coming out means … telling the truth about the terrible violence systematically heaped upon many in our society - lesbian, gay, and bisexual people … Father and Mother and Friend of all, we believe in you, we love you, and we expect you to be with us. …" Fleshman invited Rev. Glenna Shepherd, pastor of Christ Covenant Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in Decatur, to celebrate communion as part of the chapel service. According to its website, the MCC services "are specially - but not exclusively - geared to people in the gay, bisexual, lesbian and transsexual community." The Christ Covenant website features a photo of Shepherd and "Glenna's partner Linda." "Because of your grace and your justice," said Shepherd in her invitation to the table, "we are no longer a people separated by fear, self-hatred and silencing isolation. By your grace and your justice found in the presence of your Holy Spirit we are indeed able to be your people of the rainbow." Attached to the worship bulletin was a two-page flier entitled "Helping Queer Youth." Suggestions included "Have something gay-related visible in your office or church," "DO NOT advise youth to come out to parents, family, and friends as they need to come out at their own safe pace," and "Combat heterosexism in your church." Evangelicals protest Several evangelical students, who went to the chapel expecting what the bulletin called the "Worship of Word and Sacrament," left when they realized that what was taking place was a National Coming Out Day celebration. They were unwilling to speak on the record to The Layman, citing fear of reprisals from seminary professors and the presbyteries in which they are under care. One PCUSA student commented that "since we are a PCUSA seminary, we should support what I consider polity." He added that the seminary might not have violated any Book of Order provisions, but "we certainly violated the spirit of it." Dean Hudnut-Beumler, acting president of the seminary while Douglas Oldenburg serves as General Assembly moderator, said he had received complaints about the service. The seminary, he said, is now planning a community-wide forum on worship where faculty and students can have an open discussion on "the limits and purposes of worship." He said the school planned to "teach around the issue" of worship. Oversight Chapel services at Columbia are held Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, with communion served on Fridays. "Ultimately, it is the faculty that has oversight of the chapel. They have a worship and convocation committee," said Hudnut-Beumler. "We don't set scripture and what is supposed to be preached any more than a session does over a preacher. We try to recognize the freedom of the pulpit and the need of the community to hear the word of God." Rebecca Parker, director of continuing education and chair of the worship and convocation committee, said the committee did not know that the Oct. 9 communion service would be billed as a National Coming Out Day service. She said that at the beginning of the year, a calendar is passed around and students and faculty sign up to lead the chapel services. The Oct. 9 service "was not sanctioned by Columbia Seminary," Parker told The Layman. "It never came through the committee structure and the structure is loose enough that it could happen." That is because the committee "has oversight but doesn't plan the services. Mostly what the committee does is plan large convocations. We do not work with individual chapel services." 'An ecumenical seminary' Hudnut-Beumler said that if a student has a Friday service, it is his or her responsibility to find an ordained minister to preside over communion. He said a Lutheran minister or Southern Baptist minister could be invited since, "that was what being an ecumenical seminary is about. … We recognize the ordination of preachers outside the PCUSA to administer the Lord's Supper." Hudnut-Beumler also told The Layman that the worship committee thought it would improve worship life if it did not announce in advance who would be in charge of chapel services. That way, he said, people wouldn't go just to hear a friend. Students had to "show up and find out" who was preaching. "In a funny way that let the whole community show up" on Oct. 9. "It might be a blessing," he added, "Now the community can talk about what worship life is like." "What a seminary has to do is create space where everybody who calls on Jesus Christ can testify to their experience," Hudnut-Beumler said. Students learn from mistakes "At a seminary, we want to tolerate some experimentation and some mistakes so future leaders of the church can learn what builds up the body of Christ and what doesn't," said Hudnut-Beumler. So, rather than have a "100 percent Book of Order service every time," students, "be they Presbyterian or other students doing Christian worship," can discuss and learn from their mistakes. Asked by The Layman if it would be possible, under current guidelines, for a student to arrange for the worship of Sophia or Gaia at a Columbia Seminary chapel service, Hudnut-Beumler replied, "At a school anything can happen, but at a good school it won't go unremarked." "I have no doubt the faculty committee will give what happened and what ought to happen very careful attention," he added. When asked if there would be any changes in the oversight of the chapel, Hudnut-Beumler said, "Yes, but not from a punitive standpoint. Any time worship divides rather than unifies you need to begin asking questions about what happens next week. … Oversight issues have been pushed to the front by our recent experiences." Douglas Oldenburg, General Assembly moderator and president of Columbia Theological Seminary, has been invited to respond to The Layman Online's article on the "National Coming Out Day" service held in the seminary's chapel on Oct. 9. The article was posted on The Layman Online Oct. 29. An invitation was faxed to Oldenburg's office the following day. No reply has been received. |
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| The Presbyterian Layman Nov/Dec 1998 | |
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