For several weeks, people have been sending us
stories from the newspapers and the Internet about a pastor asked to
leave a church in Owensboro, Kentucky. The headlines of those stories
included these: "More Light. Church will consider gays for leadership."
And "Struggles with change divide; pastor fired suddenly."
And "Church reverses course on ‘More Light' movement; Central Presbyterian
council seeks to remove pastor." And then, "Erwin to Leave
Church." Then, "After ouster, pastor may form church."
And "Erwin hoping to start new local church." And "Kentucky
congregation ousts pastor after he opened church to gays, multiracial
families."
On any given day, there is at least one Committee
on Ministry somewhere in a presbytery in this synod that is dealing
with a congregation asking for help in dissolving a relationship with
a pastor. It is usually not a unanimous request by the session. There
are almost always a few session members who are defending the pastor.
The Committee on Ministry may not be of one mind either. These things
take time. These disputes and the mediation of them are almost never
talked about outside the committee and the session and congregation,
much less reported to the press. (If the VOICE reported all of these
stories, we might end up selling our newspapers in the grocery store
check-out line with all the sensational tabloids that are found there.)
There are sometimes sex-related reasons behind the disputes. It might
make exciting reading for some. Or it might make a good script for a
soap opera. Another reason we don't publish these stories in the VOICE
is that we don't have enough space here to write a book. These things
are not simple.
An exception to our rule is being made here with
the following story. Why? There has been so much publicity in the secular
press about this matter, with the point of view of the session being
noticeably absent, that we have finally decided (after consulting with
presbytery and synod advisors) to give an equal opportunity to members
of the Owensboro Central session to air their views if they chose to
do so. They had been asked before for interviews, and declined, but
then they agreed to an interview with the VOICE "so that Presbyterians,
at least, could know both sides of the story."
With the mention of gays and lesbians, this becomes
a story with church-related political implications. It's a hot topic
these days, with debates and votes scheduled in presbyteries form now
until next spring. During the recent General Assembly meeting in Louisville,
we heard just about everything that could possibly be said on both sides
of the issue and now in Owensboro, the matter had become local and real,
something that must be dealt with.
The points of view of the Owensboro Central pastor,
Michael Erwin, and his supporters have been thoroughly reported and
are still available on the Internet. The situation as it is being dealt
with by Western Kentucky Presbytery is the business of the presbytery
and will not be reported in this story. Information about More Light
churches is readily available on the Internet and from other sources.
The only story we are telling here is the previously untold story we
heard from members of the session of Central Presbyterian Church in
Owensboro.
As we traveled from Nashville to Owensboro for
the interview, we wondered what the session would be like. Could we
expect a bunch of homophobic tough guys who would turn out to be real
jerks? In reality, there were four gentle, soft-spoken retired women.
One of them seemed frail from a recent fall and long period of recuperation.
One of them is blind.
Their Story
"It's difficult to remember what happened
when, but we know darn well that it did," said Gladys Combs, who
chaired the Pulpit Nominating Committee that called Michael Erwin to
be Central's pastor.
"Michael had been moderating our session for
5 months when he approached our search committee," Gladys continued.
"We were desperate. Everybody was a thousand years old and not
many of us were left. We didn't expect to get a young man to come here."
Violet Jackson, clerk of the session, known to
friends as "Doodle," said, "We were determined to make
it work, to turn our church around."
Charlie Jackson, Doodle's husband and member of
the session until he rotated off when she went on, told us that Central
had always been a mission minded church. "Since 1953," he
said, "AA and NA have had daily meetings in our fellowship hall.
Our church started the Help Office that is now in all the churches in
Owensboro. We support and helped to start the Center for the Homeless.
We have an extra room that was used for a ministry to the deaf and is
still used for an HIV/AIDS task force."
Charlie added that the congregation had nurtured,
accepted and loved a bi-racial family for the past fourteen years although
news stories have made it appear that it was Michael who welcomed them.
That reminded Gladys that the newspaper said they
rejected Hispanics, but as a former high school Spanish teacher, she
had written to a prospective member in Spanish and the congregation
had studied conversational Spanish in order to communicate with them.
"Now they have just disappeared," she says. Charlie adds that
he doesn't think the Hispanics really understand about the gay and lesbian
issue or what has really been going on at Central.
The first time the congregation heard about More
Light churches was when Michael told the session he wanted Central to
become one. "The More Light proposal was just a mystery to us,"
said Doodle. She said she didn't want them to do anything to divide
the congregation since it was so small anyway, and so they began to
find out what More Light meant.
They had a series of six meetings, one with More
Light representatives and five giving homosexual points of view. One
month later, they had become a More Light church. Gladys Combs says,
"I told Doodle we didn't have to do it, but we had just been beat
to death with it. We would do anything to stay out of a fight, but now
we've been in one for a year. We thought maybe we could be More Light
and just go on, but there was a lot more to it than that."
After the vote, five members (a fairly large percentage
of the total membership) left to join other churches in Owensboro.
Turning Points
Doodle said, "We welcomed the new people.
It sounded good to be open and affirming but now we wonder how we could
have been so dumb."
Elder Marian Turner said, "I think they wanted
all the old members to die or leave." Before retirement, Marian
worked for a bank and said she believes Central's money made them more
attractive. (There is an endowment and a recent legacy.)
Even before the More Light vote, the legacy had
been a subject for discussion.
It appears that an ad hoc committee, some of whom
were not members of Central, were discussing the future of the church
and how the legacy would be used. Although Doodle was then and is now
treasurer of the church, a new member was named financial secretary,
an office that had not been filled in recent years. "He was never
elected by the session," she says, "and there is nothing in
the session minutes to indicate that he was."
"I think we would have continued to go along
with Michael," says Doodle, "if he had just played by the
rules."
After being told she was wrong to question the
way things were going, Doodle thought about leaving Central. Then a
turning point came when she heard these words from a friend: "I
would never let anybody drive me out of my church."
A turning point for Gladys came when she was told
by Michael that she didn't belong in the Presbyterian Church anymore.
She had been a member of Central since 1953.
Mary Lacefield goes to the church every Saturday
to get the building ready for Sunday services. The big turning point
for her came one Saturday when she discovered erotic homosexual art
in the church, left there by an outside group after a meeting. She called
Gladys, who called a member of the group to object to this kind of art
being in the church.
The congregation grew weary, "hearing sermon
after sermon on sexuality, no matter what the text," said Gladys.
"We even had one whole sermon on triangulation as the answer to
our request for explanations."
Finally the session voted to call a congregational
meeting to ask Michael to leave Central. He was subsequently placed
on administrative leave until August 31 and is now receiving six months
of full salary and benefits from Central. He has begun a ministry in
a new location without a denominational affiliation. The next chapter
in the story is still being written. Decisions and directions will be
determined by Western Kentucky Presbytery to preserve "the peace,
purity and unity of the church."
As for Gladys and Doodle and Charlie and Mary and
Marian, they agree that they "have grown through this struggle."
The clerk of the session said, "Although I was formerly for peace
at any price, I can now say I believe certain things and I will stand
up for them."
