Subject: IWG Chicago Greg Dell letter
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 23:44:05 -0400 (EDT)

April 3, 1999

Chicago Tribune
435 N. Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60611

Dear Editors:

Your editorial about Rev. Greg Dell and United
Methodist Church policy missed the point: the
prohibition against same-sex unions puts many clergy
and congregations in an untenable position.   It is
not just a question of one member of the clergy
putting his own beliefs above those of the
denomination; it is about the ability of clergy and
congregations to carry out their missions.  While you
take the view that Rev. Dell's sentence was
"compassionate" because it allowed him to recant, it
is also evident that there is a continued severe
underestimation of both the conviction and number of
clergy who perform same-sex unions, as well as the
support that they enjoy from congregations.  

Rev. Dell is the first to be convicted, but there are
sixty-nine clergy in California and Nevada and another
in Iowa facing the same charge.  Rev. Dell may be in
the minority, but there is no question that it is a
rapidly growing minority, both in his denomination and
the nation as a whole.  By the year 2000, United
Methodists may have suffered through seventy more
trials, witnessed similar disagreements about
ordination and marriage of sexual minorities in other
religious bodies, and heard strong statements in favor
of inclusion from other faiths and denominations. Any
prediction of how the United Methodist Church will
vote on this issue is extremely premature.  

Sincerely,
Barbara Purdom     Christopher Purdom
Interfaith Working Group Coordinators

The above letter went out on IWG letterhead listing 17 congregations and
organizations and 61 clergy from 15 religious traditions. If you are in 
the general Philadelphia area and represent a congregation or religious 
organization or are clergy, let us know if you want to be added - all faiths 
are welcome. We will also be happy to help start similar organizations in 
other areas.

-- 

Interfaith Working Group                Religious organizations, congregations
http://www.libertynet.org/iwg           and clergy supporting gay rights,
[email-masked]                      reproductive freedom, and the 
voice: 215-235-3050  fax: 232-0829      separation of church and state.

Sunday May 16, 1999 5pm. Marching In the Light: IWG Benefit Concert. Old
First Reformed Church. 4th and Race, Philadelphia, PA.  See the web page.