Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference | March 27, 2025
There was the Oregon-Idaho Conference before Rev. Jeanne Knepper, and there’s the Oregon-Idaho Conference after.
Knepper, the first openly gay woman to be ordained and appointed within the Conference, spent decades lobbying, debating and campaigning for the full inclusion of herself and other members of the LGBTQIA+ community in the ministry and life of The United Methodist Church. She died on March 7.
Her wife, retired pastor Rev. Marcia Hauer, said it was Knepper’s dedicated advocacy, and resolve to be seen as a capable and compassionate clergyperson, that paved the pathway for the Conference becoming the inclusive-leaning entity it now is.
“I want her to be remembered for what she did for the Conference,” Hauer said. “This was a very homophobic Annual Conference. We became a reconciling Annual Conference in 1996 thanks in large part to Jeanne.”
It wasn’t just at the local level, either. Hauer said she first read about Jeanne Knepper when she was in seminary and saw a Washington Post article that talked about the fight Knepper was in to earn an appointment in the Oregon-Idaho Conference and the legal battle that it entailed.
The Rev. Jeanne Knepper
(Photo Courtesy of Oregon-Idaho Conference)
Knepper became involved in the national UMC LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Affirmation and became the co-spokesperson of the group while she was a probationary clergy member of OR-ID (now called provisional member).
Hauer said her wife started attending General Conferences beginning in 1988 and was championing full inclusion every four years after, until she retired from ministry in 2012.
“She was good at calling people out, but she wanted to build bridges,” Hauer said.“ ‘I’m not going to back down.’ That was her whole attitude toward life.”
Rev. Daryl Blanksma, retired clergy and member of the Conference’s Queer Clergy Caucus, remembers watching the struggle Knepper, still a probationary member in 1987, endured to be recognized and appointed as a clergyperson in the Oregon-Idaho Conference. He said Knepper was widely known to be a lesbian, but she had never publicly declared herself to be a “self-avowed practicing homosexual” as the Book of Discipline defined it for 40 years.
He remembers the attitudes of clergy in 1992 when the Board of Ordained Ministry brought forward a recommendation to the Oregon-Idaho Conference Clergy Session that Knepper come off Voluntary Leave of Absence to receive an appointment, but that recommendation was defeated. Bishop William Dew did not appoint her, but Blanksma remembers the legal challenge that followed. Knepper appealed to the Judicial Council of The UMC, which ruled In October of 1993 that she was entitled to an appointment, because the Book of Discipline had yet to define what it meant to be a “self-avowed practicing homosexual.” Knepper was appointed the following year.
Blanksma noted this was the start of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” era for queer clergy serving in appointments. “We were a very different Conference back then,” he said. “Up until 2016, we (queer clergy) were mostly in the closet and it was mostly just Jeanne out there.”
There have long been queer clergy serving in the Oregon-Idaho Conference, but none were as public about it as Knepper was willing to be, Blanksma said. The change came during the 2016 General Conference in Portland, when queer clergy across the Conference signed onto a letter publicly declaring themselves to be the self-avowed people they are.
Blanksma himself was one of those who had stayed closeted and feared being ostracized the way Knepper was for owning her truth.
“She faced a lot of adversity for coming out when she did, but never gave up or backed down,” Blanksma said. “She never let us drop the issue and she forced the Oregon-Idaho Conference to figure out where it was on this.”
Rev. Ardie Letey said, as an ally, she always admired how inclusive Knepper was of everyone. When she later identified herself as part of the LGBTQIA+ community, Knepper was of course in her corner, too.
“She did push (our Conference) and she irritated people with her push,” Letey said. “Thank God she did.”
Letey, a visual artist, recalled Knepper commissioning a statue from her. When Letey showed up to deliver the artwork to Knepper’s home she looked around and saw so much art on the walls. Knepper explained to her that outside of the church, she tithed her resources to artists, too.
“She was determined to live the gospel, that was sort of her core,” Letey said.
After retiring from active ministry in 2012, Knepper began attending Montavilla UMC. While there, she got to know DJ Antlitz, a lay member of the annual conference who runs the audio/visual equipment at the church, and has also been hosting a dinner for queer young adults the last couple of years.
Knepper offered Antlitz a listening ear and supportive presence, and in turn Antlitz has spent the last year with Knepper helping her catalog and archive all of the papers, resources and documents associated with her life and ministry.
“I think having that type of connection with our queer elders, and the opportunity to learn the history that is not taught in schools, is rare and important to preserve and pass on,” Antlitz said. “We need to keep the stories alive for future generations.”
During General Conference 2024, when measures passed to remove the LGBTQIA+ restrictions from the Book of Discipline, Rev. Heather Riggs, pastor at Montavilla UMC, headed straight to the home of Knepper and Hauer to celebrate the news, while also mourning those who were no longer alive or in ministry to see this day.
“It’s like you’ve lived watching black and white TV for your whole life and suddenly we are in living color and it’s wonderful,” Knepper said in an interview on May 1, 2024. “Oh, it’s a glorious day, but it cannot be spoken without that underlay of so much dedication and determination through pain.”
At the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference gathering in June 2024 in Tigard, Oregon, Riggs hung banners donated by LGBTQIA+ advocates honoring the long struggle for inclusion. Among the banners was a large one labeled “The Stones Will Cry Out” from Luke 19:40. It belonged to Knepper and was used as a symbol of protest during one General Conference gathering.
When the time came to debate the issue of human sexuality, presenters came to the microphone to speak out against inclusion. Their statements were unkind, to say the least, to the LGBTQIA+ community. Yet when those hateful comments arose, Knepper and her friends raised the banner up and stomped their feet to distract delegates from the hateful remarks.
Riggs is happy to say, especially after the work Antlitz has put in this last year, Knepper’s historic collection will be turned over to Iliff School of Theology in Denver – her alma mater.
Hauer said while her wife’s legacy will be one of inclusion, she wouldn’t be honoring Knepper without saying that the journey isn’t over for the church. There are still LGBTQIA+ people unwelcome in church pews, there are still churches that don’t want a female pastor or a person of color preaching to them on Sunday mornings and so much more.
“We’re not done yet,” she said.
Kristen Caldwell
Kristen Caldwell, communications associate, Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference.
Kristen Caldwell is director of communications for the Oregon-Idaho Conference of The United Methodist Church. This article is republished from the conference website.