UFMCC Officer Decries Violence Against Gay and Lesbian People, Calls for Reconciliation and Renewal
CHICAGO, Nov. 12, 1998 ---- Only a few weeks after the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard, the National Ecumenical Officer of The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Churches brought greetings to the National Council of Churches’ (NCC’s) annual General Assembly, decrying violence against gay and lesbian people and calling for a time of reconciliation and renewal.
"The mandate is clear: as a Christian people, as people of faith, we must get Matthew Shepard and all the potential Matthew Shepards off the fence," said the Rev. Dr. Gwynne M. Guibord, UFMCC National Ecumenical Officer for the United States. "We must do that together. We must get the potential kids off the fence."
Open to all, the UFMCC has an outreach primarily to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community, their families and friends.
"It must be said that we are hearing from Gwynne Guibord in the aftermath of the incomprehensibly shocking and tragic death of Matthew Shepard, on which we have spoken out as a Council," said the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, NCC General Secretary. "Among the many issues that the UFMCC brings to us," she said, certainly people’s safety "is high on all our agendas. NCC member communions are united in support of the civil rights of all regardless of their sexual orientation."
Dr. Guibord focused on issues facing gay and lesbian youth. "All across this country, every singe day, thousands of children are being taunted and teased, bloodied and battered, condemned and coerced and murdered in their hearts and souls and bodies – and it is allowed, and it is often encouraged, in the name of Christianity," she challenged the delegates, who represent 35 Protestant and Orthodox communions. She spoke of children who "get the brunt of society’s homophobia" and come to the UFMCC "frightened, confused, and too often suicidal."
Dr. Guibord praised the NCC for helping "to break the silence earlier this year by speaking out swiftly and unequivocally in a press release to condemn the bomb threats against our churches both in the United States and in England" and for "the NCC’s swift and powerful condemnation of the brutal torture and lynching of young Matthew Shepard."
But Dr. Guibord also pointed to the continued conflict and controversy around these issues in the churches. She chose "to begin with the acknowledgment that denominations are being torn apart from within and without by issues of ‘homosexuality.’ Leadership and membership alike are sick to death of that struggle, a struggle that has sincere and devout men and women grappling painfully with one another."
"Homosexuality will not just disappear from the church," Dr. Guibord said. "We have filled the Christian church throughout its history and we always will. We have always been its priests and ministers and deacons, its choir directors, faithful workers, and Sunday school teachers. The difference now is that, despite it all, we’ve gotten healthier. We’ve come out of the closet into the light. I know that makes a lot of people uncomfortable, and that many would prefer us to go away. The truth is we cannot. People can hate us, people can hurt us, people can forsake us, and even murder us, but they cannot separate us from the love of Jesus Christ."
"There are over 13 million gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people living in the United States today," she said. "Thirteen million. We will not simply go away. The ‘transforming’ or ‘change’ or ‘ex-gay’ movement will not ‘change’ or ‘cure’ us."
"We have been here at the NCC General Assembly meeting year after year," Dr. Guibord said. "It would be easier for us to disappear. But we cannot because God created us to live in community. It is in community lies the salvation of the world. We are here with you because we have much to teach and much to learn from each other."
The NCC and UFMCC have a history of more than 15 years of dialogue. Along the way, the UFMCC’s application for NCC membership and later for observer status were turned aside. But lines of conversation have stayed open, formally and informally. The UFMCC and gay/lesbian caucuses of the NCC’s member denominations meet alongside the NCC General Assembly, and invite Assembly members to join them for worship.
"Next year is the anniversary of the NCC and the year of Jubilee," Dr. Guibord said. "Jubilee is a time of forgiveness of debt, a time of reconciliation and renewal. It is time for us as one community of faith with all our genuine differences to covenant with one another that we will not abandon each other around the tough issues of homosexuality and Christian community."
Dr. Guibord described the history of the UFMCC, which began "almost exactly 30 years ago" and its many ministries. "While there are many stereotypes and projections as to what our communities do, what UFMCC does, in fact, is similar to what most Christian churches seek to do," Dr. Guibord explained, and listed worship services, pastoral care, Bible study, grief groups, global outreach ministries and mission and ecumenical and inter-religious work.
The UFMCC "has well over 300 congregations in more than a dozen countries around the world with a membership of over 45,000 people and the participation of thousands many times over that," she reported.
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