The Methodist church in Washington D.C. that Bill and Hillary
Clinton famously attended during Bill’s presidency has returned to
the limelight with its new plans to “honor” same-sex couples with
special worship services. The 7.9 million member United Methodist
denomination officially prohibits its congregations from hosting
same-sex rites. Not very persuasively, Foundry claims its policy
will not violate the letter of church law because the same-sex
couples will have conducted their initial “wedding” outside the
church.
“Starting February 1 [2008], gay and lesbian couples in a
committed relationship can have their relationships and their love
recognized and honored at Foundry,” the congregation’s “Foundry
Forge” newsletter declared earlier this year. Only same sex couples
who have gone through Foundry’s “Pre-Cana” marriage preparation
weekend will be able to participate.
The church’s senior pastor, Dean Snyder, first announced the new
policy in November. He argued that this “ministry” to homosexuals
was necessary because, “[o]ur failure to recognize and honor the
committed relationships of our lesbian and gay members does harm to
them and to the larger society by failing to provide spiritual and
communal support for commitment and stability within gay and
lesbian relationships.”
Foundry’s estrangement from its denomination’s stance on
homosexuality first strongly arose under the previous minister, J.
Philip Wogaman, who was pastor and counselor to Bill and Hillary
Clinton. In January, 2001, Bill Clinton gave a farewell speech to
the congregation, thanking the church for its “kindness and courage
[toward] gay and lesbian Christians, people who should not feel
outside the family of God.”
Foundry has had a long and circuitous history in the nation’s
capital. Abraham Lincoln once attended, and Rutherford Hayes was a
member. Franklin Roosevelt took Winston Churchill there to sing
Methodist hymns on Christmas Day 1941. Harry Truman once dropped
by, but he didn’t like the pastor’s effusive attentions.
A lifelong United Methodist, Hillary took her Baptist husband
there for eight years, no doubt because they appreciated the
church’s increasingly liberal theology under Dr. Wogaman. Bob and
Elizabeth Dole had been Foundry regulars but stopped attending in
1995. Bob Dole later explained that Foundry had become “quite
liberal.” Senator George McGovern has been another long-time
member.
LIKE OTHER URBAN churches, Foundry’s demographic started changing
during the 1960s, when many middle class whites left the city for
the suburbs. It has fared better than many other urban mainline
congregations, many of which are left with little more than
beautiful shrines with few actual congregants. Once the older
congregants got too old to keep commuting from the suburbs, these
churches often declined into dwindling social societies, sustained
by the endowments.
Ethnic populations rarely are attracted to traditional, liberal
Mainline Protestantism. So, many of the old churches are commonly
populated by a few gray heads and growing numbers of homosexuals,
who appreciate the beautiful architecture and liturgy of
traditional churches, not to mention the liberal theology.
Foundry’s membership and attendance have declined since Dr.
Wogaman first persuaded the church, by a narrow margin of its
administrative board, officially to adopt a “reconciling” stance
towards homosexuality at odds with the United Methodist Church.
Even the regular worship of the President and First Lady did not
enhance the numbers.
Unlike many similarly urban Mainline Protestant churches,
Foundry continues to attract hundreds of congregants. However,
theological traditionalists seem to have left Foundry, because Rev.
Snyder got unanimous backing early this year for his new policy of
“honoring” same sex couples.
Dr. Wogaman had never openly violated the United Methodist
official stance, which prohibits “ceremonies that celebrate
homosexual unions” from being “conducted by our ministers and… in
our churches,” but the retired pastor praised the church’s new
policy as “courageous and insightful.”
IT MAY ALSO be against church law. The denomination declares that
“conducting ceremonies which celebrate homosexual unions” are a
chargeable offense for which United Methodist clergy may be tried
before a church court and defrocked.
Foundry’s newsletter explained that the proposal “is designed to
stay within rules outlined in the UMC Book of Discipline
while at the same time allowing him [Snyder] to minister to Foundry
members.” Although Snyder will not “conduct vows at same-sex
ceremonies,” he “may provide worship leadership.”
The newsletter admitted: “There is some chance that charges
could be brought against Snyder by those who object to
Foundry’s program.” It is not clear whether
Foundry expected its new policy to become widely reported, but
that’s what happened. But both the Washington Post and the
Washington Times announced it, followed by United
Methodist denominational press.
Forced to react, the local United Methodist Bishop asserted that
Foundry’s policy did not violate church law but largely avoided
substantive comment. “I have recognized that they face a difficult
question of how in the name of Jesus Christ to minister to all of
their members given our denominational policies about
homosexuality,” Bishop John Schol said.
But reportedly Foundry’s new policy to honor same sex couple
will be on the agenda of the denomination’s biannual meeting
Council of Bishops next month. Late in April, the quadrennial
governing General Conference also will meet. Thanks to the growing
numbers of delegates from Africa, where United Methodism is
growing, and fewer delegates from shrinking liberal regions in the
U.S., the denomination almost certainly will reaffirm its official
disapproval of same-sex rites and perhaps will tighten the rules
even further.
In the now firmly liberal Episcopal Church, conservative
congregations are departing, many of them seeking affiliation with
overseas orthodox Anglicans. The opposite may become true in The
United Methodist Church, 30 percent of whose membership is now
outside the U.S.
Will liberal congregations like Foundry Church want to remain in
an increasingly conservative denomination more and more governed by
traditionalist Nigerians and Congolese and U.S. southerners? Like
conservative Episcopalians, the convictions of liberal United
Methodists eventually may lead them elsewhere.
