Ordination of gays and lesbians proves divisive, painful for Tacoma-area churches

They are both Christians. They are both lay leaders, people of influence in the pews of their Tacoma churches. And they stand on opposite sides of an issue that has led more churches in the South Sound to break from their denominational roots than perhaps anywhere in the country.

John West says letting noncelibate gay men and lesbians be ordained as ministers clashes with the teachings of the Bible and most Christian groups worldwide: “that the purpose of sexuality is to be found in a monogamous relationship between a man and a woman within marriage.”

Janet Grant says opening the clergy to gay men and lesbians meshes with “Jesus’ example of being inclusive and welcoming of the outsider and the stranger.” She says any person should be able to follow the call to ministry, regardless of sexuality.

West, 47, is a member at First Presbyterian Church of Tacoma. Grant, 59, belongs to St. Mark’s Lutheran Church by the Narrows.

Their respective congregations have been swept up by a cultural shift that’s changing the size and shape of mainline Protestant denominations in the South Sound and beyond.

First Presbyterian of Tacoma voted to leave the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) after the denomination decided in May to allow noncelibate gay ministers. St. Mark’s by the Narrows, by contrast, has remained part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America since the ELCA approved ordaining people in committed same-sex relationships as clergy in August 2009.

The decades-long conflict plays out against a backdrop of growing acceptance of gay relationships in America and some resistance to it. That’s the case in Washington, where state legislators and the governor recently approved same-sex marriage and where opponents are launching a referendum campaign.

The Presbyterians are the latest to go through it. Congregations in Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Sumner and

Graham have voted to leave the 2.3-million-member Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) since last spring, when the denomination changed its constitution to permit ordaining gays. Two other churches in the region are weighing whether to leave.

The four local congregations – including the largest in the region, 1,660-member Chapel Hill church in Gig Harbor – are negotiating terms for splitting with their regional body, the Presbytery of Olympia. The divorce could be finalized in the next few months.

Nationally, fewer than 25 congregations have voted to cut ties with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) during this time, said the Rev. Jerry Van Marter of Presbyterian News Service in Louisville, Ky.

That means 16 percent or more of all church splits have come in the Tacoma area.

The defections come at a time when many churches are already dealing with membership losses. Presbyterians, Lutherans and other mainline Protestant denominations have suffered heavy declines for several decades since their heyday in the 1950s.

Churchgoers of all kinds are more loyal to their individual local congregations, said Patricia O’Connell Killen, who has researched and written on religion in the Northwest. And because of low church attendance in this region, there is even less social reinforcement tied to a denomination, said Killen, academic vice president at Gonzaga University in Spokane.

“It’s not surprising that congregations would feel free to leave a denomination they think is no longer teaching what they believe and consider to be authentic teaching,” said Killen, a religious studies professor who until 2010 taught at Pacific Lutheran University.

The conflict over ordaining gay men and lesbians, she said, reflects “strains that existed in these denominations over how to read and interpret Scripture for a long time.”

‘CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE’

The ordination of gays ignites deep feelings about homosexuality and the sacredness of traditional marriage. It divides people in the pews and the pulpit over a core question of their faith: How do we interpret and apply the Bible for today’s world?

At Pilgrim Lutheran Church on South Hill, conflicting answers to that question caused the congregation to split in 2009.

The Rev. Gary Jepsen, then Pilgrim’s pastor, told the congregation a week after the Lutheran denomination’s decision that he could no longer remain with the ELCA.

Six weeks later, the congregation voted to stay with the denomination.

Jepsen left, along with about 150 members.

“A lot of people want to put it in terms that we were anti-homosexual,” Jepsen said. “That wasn’t it.”

“We are pro the authority of Scripture,” he said. “They put us in a crisis of conscience. I couldn’t stay.”

He described the change to ordaining gay men and lesbians as “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” The overarching factor was maintaining the authority of Scripture in regard to homosexuality and other issues, he said.

“Scripture’s clear that homosexuality is a forbidden behavior,” Jepsen said.

He and the others who left formed Living Word Lutheran Church, which meets in rented space at the Meridian Habitat & Community Center on South Hill. The congregation, which now has about 170 members, joined a smaller denomination called Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ.

Jepsen remembers the breakup as painful but necessary.

“I don’t think anybody who is a conscientious pastor would want to bring a congregation to the point of division and leave,” said Jepsen, 62. “No pastor wants to divide a congregation. There comes a point in time (where) you have to take a stand on what you believe and what is foundational.”

“Am I happy that it happened? No,” Jepsen said. “Am I happy where I am now? Yes.”

“I’ve got a great group of people,” he added. “They care for one another, and they welcome newcomers.”

‘CONSTANT BATTLES’

Some Presbyterian congregations are in the process of leaving, too.

West, of First Presbyterian in Tacoma, and other Presbyterian leaders stress that gay ordination is just one of several reasons for the move.

Their point about gay ordination being part of a larger set of issues is so important – and the approval of gay ordination so raw and recent – that few local Presbyterians will talk openly about their opposition to it. Several lay people declined to be interviewed for this story. The pastors of the four separating churches were reticent, too. Only two of the four would be interviewed for this story, and then only in a group setting.

West, an ordained lay leader, agreed to be interviewed. But he said the top issue for him is not ordaining gays but maintaining the belief that Jesus is the unique way to salvation.

“Some theology professors and pastors have repudiated whether Jesus is the only way to salvation and whether Jesus is fully God, and have not been called on it,” said West, a former college professor.

In the Presbyterian Church, lay people with a more traditional view of the Bible have battled with theologically liberal pastors and denominational staff for decades, he said.

“So there’s this big divide between the congregations and the leadership,” West said. “That has just led to constant battles without end. I would prefer to spend more time in positive ministry.”

He described the Presbyterian Church as “a broken denomination.”

While he doesn’t support ordaining gays, West added, “I think God loves everyone regardless of their sexual orientation. I think all people should be treated with respect.”

West was baptized in the Presbyterian Church. He and his wife, Sonja, are raising their children in the denomination.

West expressed sadness that First Presbyterian is leaving.

“I wish it didn’t have to be,” he said. “I’m sad for the rest of the denomination.”

SEPARATING WITH GOOD WILL

The Rev. Eric Jacobsen, senior pastor of First Presbyterian, and the Rev. Mark Toone, senior pastor of Chapel Hill in Gig Harbor, both describe the approval of gay ordination as a tipping point for their congregations voting to leave the denomination.

Toone said that every time homosexual behavior is mentioned in the Bible, it is prohibited.

But they stress there are other issues that have made their congregations uncomfortable with the denomination over the years. Toone described the trend as a “significant drift.”

In June, both First Presbyterian and Chapel Hill started a long process of study and discernment set up by the Presbytery of Olympia before taking initial votes to leave. The process stipulates that property should remain with departing congregations, lawsuits should be avoided and congregations will negotiate a settlement payment to the presbytery.

Both congregations voted overwhelmingly to leave: 89 percent of those casting ballots at First Presbyterian in September, 92 percent at Chapel Hill in November.

Toone said four people have requested to be removed from Chapel Hill’s rolls since the vote. Attendance has increased this year over last.

“We have also had people express that they wish to join now,” Toone said. “It’s a little hard to pin down what the cumulative effect has been.”

Jacobsen said the vote to leave hasn’t had an impact on the total number of members at First Presbyterian. That number has remained constant at 459.

Despite the congregations’ votes, Jacobsen said there’s a “tremendous amount of good will” with the Presbytery of Olympia.

“We have felt tremendous support and care for us as congregation,” Jacobsen said. “It’s not a battle.”

Once negotiated agreements are reached, they must be approved by the congregations. The presbytery must then vote for final approval, a step that could take place as early as mid-March.

CONSERVATIVE FACTOR

First Presbyterian and Chapel Hill are the largest of the four congregations that have voted to leave the 9,600-member Presbytery of Olympia. The other two are 365-member Sumner Presbyterian and the smaller Evergreen Presbyterian in Graham.

The four represent 8 percent of the 49 congregations in the presbytery, a region covering southwest Washington.

That percentage of departures ranks on the high side nationally, said Van Marter, coordinator for the denomination’s Presbyterian News Service.

Van Marter, who grew up in Tacoma and was ordained by the local presbytery, said more churches have voted to leave the Olympia Presbytery than in any of the state’s other four presbyteries.

“Southwest Washington tends to be one of the more conservative areas of the state,” Van Marter said. “When people are politically conservative, they tend to be theologically conservative.”

By contrast, the larger, 18,500-member Presbytery of Seattle hasn’t had any of its 50 congregations vote to leave. It extends from Shoreline to Auburn and Bremerton to Sammamish.

“There aren’t any congregations that are contemplating leaving at the moment,” said the Rev. Scott Lumsden, executive presbyter. He said some congregations are informally looking at their options.

A majority of presbyteries nationwide voted last year to permit the ordination of noncelibate gay men and lesbians as pastors, elders and deacons. The Olympia Presbytery opposed that constitutional change, called Amendment 10-A, which removed the ordination requirement of “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.”

Meanwhile, in the 4.3-million-member ELCA, five congregations in the Southwestern Washington Synod left the Lutheran denomination since the national body made its 2009 decision to permit gay and lesbian clergy. The synod has 86 congregations with 33,650 baptized members.

In the ELCA, 603 congregations have left the denomination.

The ELCA and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) each has more than 10,000 congregations.

Because of the denominations’ changes, presbyteries and local Lutheran bishops have the option of ordaining gay men and lesbians. So far in the South Sound area, neither denomination has an openly gay pastor.

But Grant, a lay leader at St. Mark’s by the Narrows, said she feels more at home at church since the ELCA changed its stance.

“I’m glad that it did,” said Grant, who lives in Tacoma and is single. She is troubled by the number of congregations that have left.

“That bothers me,” she said. “I acknowledge it is a deeply emotional and theological issue.”

Grant is president of the church council for her parish. She is not ordained but works as a hospital chaplain in the South Sound area.

Grant said she’s supported gay ordination since her college years when gay men and lesbians confided in her as a straight person about the pain they felt in their struggles to acknowledge their homosexuality.

Back in the early ’80s, one man told her he felt called to go into the ministry. His Lutheran bishop said he could pursue ordination as long as he remained celibate.

The man went into restaurant work instead.

“He wasn’t being true to himself, true to who God made him to be,” Grant said.

She called it “a very exclusionary act to deny that welcome to ministry” to gay men and lesbians. And she doesn’t believe homosexuality is sinful.

“God made us the way we are,” she said. “Our sexuality, no matter what it is, is a gift to us.”

Steve Maynard: 253-597-8647

steve.maynard@thenewstribune.com