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Reconciling Ministries Network Photo
Thomas Ogletree
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UMNS Photo
Bishop Martin D. McLee
Bishop Martin D. McLee
(c) United Methodist Insight 2014
Updated 2:30 p.m. March 10
Clergy trials over performing same-sex marriages have been put on hold in the New York Annual Conference by Bishop Martin D. McLee as part of a "just resolution" agreement in the complaint against the Rev. Thomas W. Ogletree for having officiated at his gay son's wedding startled United Methodists.
Dr. Ogletree will not face a church trial, but the charge against him was not "dismissed" as claimed in some news reports. According to the United Methodist Book of Discipline, the "just resolution" agreement is considered the conclusion of the investigation of the complaint, not its dismissal. By his action Dr. Ogletree violated the prohibition against United Methodist clergy performing same-sex weddings, a fact that Dr. Ogletree has always acknowledged as his response to a higher pastoral calling.
Instead of punishment by removing Dr. Ogletree's clergy credentials, as happened in December 2013 to the Rev. Frank Schaefer in Eastern Pennsylvania Conference for also presiding at his gay son's wedding, the just resolution attempts a radically different approach. The agreement provides that Bishop McLee will convene a theological discussion on the subject of human sexuality in which Dr. Ogletree, chaplain emeritus of Yale University and a noted theologian, has agreed to participate as his compliance with the conference's decision on the complaint. The full agreement on the resolution is posted on the New York Conference website.
Contacted by email, the Rev. Randall Paige, who brought the complaint against Dr. Ogletree along with the Rev. Roy E. Jacobsen, sent an email response at UM Insight's invitation. A link to his full statement accompanies this article.
"As one of the complainants in the case of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Ogletree, I am dismayed by the settlement announced today in averting a trial for Dr. Ogletree’s violation of the Book of Discipline in performing a same-sex ceremony for his son," Rev. Paige stated.
"The settlement agreed to is not, in our minds, a “just resolution” of our complaint. It makes no acknowledgement of the breaking of our clergy covenant, the clear teaching of Scripture, and our agreed upon way of discipleship expressed in our Book of Discipline. There are no consequences for such violation. It fails to recognize the harm done to our church members, who are seeking to live faithfully by teachings of the church for the last 2,000 years. And it fails to prevent further breaking of our covenant by other clergy in our annual conference."
However, Bishop McLee appeared to deem church trials over same-sex marriage to be more of a threat to United Methodist unity than breaking the clergy covenant. Calling The United Methodist Church's current conflict over same-sex marriage "a time of theological challenge," Bishop McLee stated in the resolution agreement:
"As the Bishop of the New York Annual Conference, in consideration of my responsibility to provide spiritual, pastoral and temporal oversight for those committed to my care, I call for and commit to a cessation of church trials for conducting ceremonies which celebrate homosexual unions or performing same-gender wedding ceremonies and instead offer a process of theological, spiritual and ecclesiastical conversation. I understand that nothing in this agreement deprives any clergyperson of his or her constitutionally guaranteed right to a trial."
Both Bishop McLee and the Rev. Timothy Riss, counsel for the church in the complaint, called church trials of clergy who perform legal same-sex marriages "divisive" and harmful to the New York Conference and to the entire United Methodist Church.
For his part, Dr. Ogletree agreed to participate in the theological conversations that will be organized by Bishop McLee. No other restorative or punitive action was taken against Dr. Ogletree for having violated the Book of Discipline section that bans United Methodist clergy from performing same-sex marriages.
According to the preface of the just resolution agreement, Dr. Ogletree presided over the wedding of his son, Thomas Rimbey Ogletree, to Nicholas Haddad on Oct. 20, 2012. The service took place at the Yale Club in New York City. After the Ogletree-Haddad wedding announcement appeared in the Oct. 21, 2012, New York Times, the Rev. Randall C. Paige, pastor of Christ Church in Port Jefferson Station, N.Y., and the Rev. Roy E. Jacobsen, a retired pastor in the New York Annual Conference, filed a complaint against Dr. Ogletree. After talks among the Revs. Paige and Jacobsen and Dr. Ogletree failed, Bishop McLee send the complaint on for further investigation, appointing the Rev. Timothy Riss as counsel for the church.
The two United Methodist regions in New York State, where same-sex marriages are legal, are the New York Conference and the Upper New York Conference. Both conferences have received complaints about clergy who have conducted weddings for gay and lesbian couples in accordance with state law, but in defiance of United Methodist rules. Bishop McLee's action sets a precedent that his New York colleague, Bishop Mark J. Webb, and other active bishops could follow about whether to hold a church trial over United Methodist clergy who perform same-sex weddings in states where such unions are legal. According to members of Associates in Advocacy, a volunteer group that serves as defense counsel for accused clergy, a United Methodist church trial frequently costs upwards of $100,000 to conduct.
The decision was announced at a public session March 10 at which listen-only telephone conferencing was provided. The teleconference portion of the gathering drew more than 60 listeners, but noise on the call made hearing the speakers extremely difficult. Consequently United Methodist Insight chose to quote minimally from the speakers at the public gathering.
Cynthia B. Astle is project coordinator for United Methodist Insight.