UMC launches project focused on ‘LGBTQ+ United Methodist Heritage’ at Drew University
A commission of The United Methodist Church has launched a resource center at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, that will focus on the lives and views of LGBT-identified Methodists.
The UMC General Commission on Archives & History held a kickoff celebration at Drew University for the Center for LGBTQ+ United Methodist Heritage that is centered on the history of LGBT individuals in the denomination.
The overall historical archives for the UMC and its predecessor denominations have been located at Drew University since 1982 and are overseen by GCAH and The UMC.
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GCAH General Secretary Ashley Boggan told The Christian Post that while the project had been a goal of hers for some time, UMC rules had restricted the extent to which it could be done.
For decades, the UMC Book of Discipline prohibited church bodies from funding “any gay caucus or group, or otherwise use such funds to promote the acceptance of homosexuality.”
The measure was repealed earlier this year at the UMC General Conference, along with other denominational rules banning the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals.
“The reality is that GCAH had already been collecting and preserving the stories of queer United Methodists, but with the lifting of the funding ban, we could finally do some openly,” explained Boggan.
“At General Conference, when it looked like some of the bans, including the funding ban, might be lifted, I drafted a letter to a board member, Rev. Jeremy Smith, who is a highly respected ally.”
According to Boggan, Smith asked the GCAH Executive Committee “to support establishing a Center that would intentionally collect, preserve, promote and protect the stories of LGBTQ+ United Methodists.”
“The Executive Committee unanimously affirmed this action and within 24 hours of the funding ban being lifted we announced the establishment of the Center at a press conference,” she noted.
At present, the Center doesn't have a physical location but is a “record group” within the GCAH facilities at the university. The Center will soon produce online courses and provide additional resources meant to highlight the stories of LGBT-identified UMC members of the past.
Drew University spokesperson Stuart Dezenhall told CP that although the UMC Archives and History Center is located on Drew’s campus, it's “a separate entity run by the GCAH” and “Drew does not have oversight of their centers or exhibits.”
The new center will be chaired by Karen Oliveto, who became the first UMC bishop to be in a same-sex marriage back in 2016, when the denomination still prohibited such appointments.
Although The United Methodist Judicial Council, the UMC’s highest court, ruled 6-3 in 2017 that Oliveto’s election was invalid, the regional body Oliveto led never carried out the process of removing her from office. Oliveto retired from her position in September.
The new center is not without its critics, as Davison Drumm of the Institute for Religion and Democracy recently argued that the new project was biased toward progressive LGBT activism.
“[The] new LGBTQ center clearly approves of homosexual relations with no semblance of neutrality,” wrote Drumm. “Additionally, the GCAH receives its funding, in part, from church apportionments.”
“Even if you and your local church disagree with the LGBTQ celebration and new sexual ethic permitted by the latest General Conference, your apportionments are being used to promote this celebration. Church members and local churches, then, are not given the choice to support gay marriage; their apportionments are being used for its celebration regardless.”
For her part, Boggan told CP that the new center was “not propaganda,” but rather it was “living into the disciplinary mandate that GCAH preserve the history of the denomination.”
“The UMC intentionally silenced the stories of LGBTQ+ United Methodists,” she replied. “The conversations about LGBTQ+ persons had drastic effects on the ministries and mission of the UMC over the last 50 years.”
“I would not be doing my job if I ignored these histories, conversations, and stories. GCAH has other centers such as this one that have a very similar mission of ensuring the silenced voices are protected and preserved — one of them is the African American Methodist Heritage Center.”
Regarding the possibility of including the perspectives of LGBT-identified Methodists who also willingly adhered to traditional sexual ethics, Boggan said it was “my job to preserve stories of whole movements” and that “I cannot faithfully discern one side over another.”
“The LGBTQ+ caucus groups within The UMC have held different strategies, goals and witnesses in the last 50 years,” she explained. “I hope to preserve all of their stories so that persons in 100 years have a full, nuanced picture of what these discussions and this movement was like.”
