Photo Courtesy of Reconciling Ministries Network
Talbert at RMN
Bishop Melvin G. Talbert calls for "biblical obedience" during the 2013 convocation of the Reconciling Ministries Network.
In the recently released, “Good News Statement Regarding Bishop Talbert’s Blessing,” the Good News leaders, including Rev. Rob Renfroe, president and publisher, and Rev. Tom Lambrecht, vice-president, refer to what has become a common refrain on their part. According to their assertion, Bishop Talbert’s actions at the RMN Convocation, and the action of all clergy who officiate at ceremonies blessing the relationships and sacred commitments of couples of the same gender, causes some kind of nebulous harm to the “clergy covenant.”
They write, “Good News laments the fact that, once again, leaders in our church are advocating for disobedience to our United Methodist covenant…” Renfroe, commenting on the response he and other clergy received to an earlier letter about Talbert that they wrote to the Council of Bishops, echoes, “The response evidenced little concern about Talbert’s encouragement of disobedience and what it would do to our covenant and our connection.”
Over and over again, I hear about this “violation” of the covenant from leaders on the Right in relation to providing pastoral care on an equal basis to all persons. The point of contention occurs, of course, when pastoral care includes officiating at wedding ceremonies for couples who deeply love each other, but dare to do so when they are of the same gender.
This context led me recently to look up the “clergy covenant” and try to get a better understanding of that covenant and the harm that is being done to it.
In ¶ 303.3 of The 2012 Book of Discipline, clergy are said to exercise their ministry in “covenant with all Christians”; it also says clergy “live in covenant of mutual care and accountability” with all other clergy, particularly United Methodist clergy of the same annual conference. It also adds, “The covenant of ordained ministry is a life-time commitment, and those who enter into it dedicate their whole lives to the personal and spiritual disciplines it requires.” That’s it. That is all the Discipline says about the “clergy covenant.”
Returning to the earlier quotes from Good News, I will assume “accountability” to mean to them, “accountability to upholding the Book of Discipline,” and I will take “upholding the Discipline” to mean specifically upholding ¶ 2702.1 (concerning chargeable offenses).
Personally, I don’t see this particular understanding expressed in ¶ 303.3, but if I did, I understand the Book of Discipline to consist of more than one paragraph, as I recently wrote about here. Focusing on the paragraph itself, it seems to me more reasonable to think of “accountability” in relation to the “personal and spiritual disciplines.”
Turning to the matter of “harm,” I understand harm to clergy, to the clergy covenant, and to the covenant with all Christians in the following ways:
- Harm is done to the clergy covenant of mutual care when complaints are filed against clergy related to their pastoral care efforts.
- Harm is done to that covenant of mutual care when complaints are filed against clergy related to their loving, covenanted relationships.
- Harm is done to the clergy covenant with all Christians when our members are denied pastoral care.
- Harm is done to that covenant when members of The United Methodist Church see their pastor dragged into complaint procedures and put on trial because that pastor dared to marry them.
- Harm is done to the covenant with all Christians when members of The United Methodist Church see their pastor dragged into complaint procedures and put on trial for whose love they bless or whom they love and with whom they form covenanted partnerships.
I argue that all people are harmed by these unjust church laws and policies and the resulting persecution, and our clergy are harmed when such church laws are used to persecute them.
So, the Good News leadership and I disagree as to what “harm” is. Is harm caused by dissenting from church laws, or is harm caused by espousing biblical interpretations and upholding denominational statements that have been used to provide cover for hate and discrimination, that have resulted in broken relationships with God, broken lives, broken homes, and sometimes even broken bodies?
Their response to this “disagreement” has been that General Conference is the body that determines what harms and what (or whom) is harmed.
They are effectively saying that what constitutes “harm” should be put to a vote. This would mean that the majority determines when it is and when it is not committing harm, when it is and when it is not committing injustice and cruelty to the minority.
In the world of the oppressed, that is what is known as tyranny, and history shows us that majorities tyrannize minorities.
To sum up, nebulous harm to a covenant with other clergy pails against the harm that is done to the clergy’s covenant to be in ministry with all Christians, and with the actual physical, emotional and spiritual harm that results from this tyranny and is done to fellow children of God.
Kevin M. Nelson, a Home Missioner through the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM)/United Methodist Women, works with MathPOWER, a Boston-area non-profit organization committed to bring about transformational change in urban youth through mathematics proficiency.