PHEWA continues to protest constitutional standards
An analysis by Terry SchlossbergLayman Correspondent, The Presbyterian Layman, February 22, 1999
A stole from
the “Stoles Project”
Entering the worship area created under a tent at a Sheraton Hotel in San Diego on January 28-31, participants at the 1999 biennial conference of The Presbyterian Health, Education, and Welfare Association (PHEWA) found themselves surrounded by stoles from the “Stoles Project” sponsored by More Light Presbyterians (formerly Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns and the More Light Churches network). The worship leader’s podium was draped with stoles. Others hung from the poles and posts that encircled and supported the tent in which each morning worship service took place.
In case anyone missed the significance of the colorful strips, Helen Locklear, Louisville staff member, pointed them out the first evening, saying that they hung there representing gay, lesbian, and bisexual people.
PCUSA funding for the homosexual agenda
PHEWA has brought attention to itself repeatedly in recent years as a group, financed by denomination funds, that promotes the homosexual agenda. General Assemblies have called for investigations of the organization on several occasions, including a special Moderator-appointed task force. Appointees to the investigating groups have come largely from PHEWA supporters and members.
PHEWA has a “Covenant of Agreement” with the National Ministries Division (NMD) of the PCUSA. The division is thus vested with the responsibility of holding the organization accountable. However, since many staff and committee members in that division are PHEWA supporters, their oversight has often been characterized by inaction.
Emily Wigger
GAC member
For example, during their last committee meeting, PHEWA representative Lois Rifner, told the committee, as required by their “Covenant of Agreement,” of their plans to use the “Stoles Project” to decorate the worship space at the biennial. The committee debated the plan, some defending PHEWA, some expressing objections. But the discussion ended without a vote being taken, and PHEWA proceded to hang the stoles. Later, elected GAC member Emily Wigger, who was assigned as a representative of NMD to the biennial, declared it a “wonderful” conference.
In spite of the clear message from presbyteries and General Assemblies that have affirmed the denomination’s constitutional opposition to homosexual behavior and placed the ordination requirement of “fidelity and chastity” in the Book of Order, PHEWA continues its advocacy. The organization went on record supporting the homosexual agenda during denominational debates, and it protested the outcome when Presybterians placed biblical standards for sexual behavior in the denomination’s constitution. While other self-supporting organizations of Presbyterians hold a similar position, PHEWA seeks to undermine Presbyterian policy with denominational funding.
“Welcoming Angels”
The theme of the 1999 conference was “Welcoming Angels in our Midst.” Glaucia Vasconcelos Wilkey, the first worship leader, equated angels with anyone “different:” she used not only the biblical story of the angels visiting Abraham and Sarah, but also the Samaritan woman at the well (“the wrong side of the tracks woman, the Samaritan of ill repute woman”).
Later, in her workshop on the subject of building an inclusive church, a participant complained that Wilkey had not specifically mentioned sexual orientation as an example of those perceived to be “different.” She responded by saying that she chose not to single out homosexuals but to include them in a much broader understanding of inclusivity. When the participant was not satisfied, she asked, “Didn’t you hear me? At the [baptismal] font I said, ‘You are all called beloved.'”
One workshop leader seemed to sum up the PHEWA philosophy: “Biblical values to me means: Treat all people equally; gays and lesbians equally; women equally. Historically, we can see that a literal interpretation of the Bible keeps the oppressed oppressed.”
PHEWA held a “Service of Remembrance” following the Friday plenary session. It included the “hymn” “We Are a Gentle, Angry People,” which was sung by supporters of the homosexual agenda during their General Assembly demonstration in 1993 (“…We are gay and straight together, and we are singing for our lives.”)
The service closed with a benediction in which all were led to pray: “Hear our groans, Holy Spirit, particularly, to make a home in all churches that call themselves the Body of Christ: for Bisexuals, Gay Men, Heterosexuals, Lesbian Women, Transgender Persons. …Come Holy Spirit, Come! Free your people! Alleluia. Amen.”
Donald Wilson, retired associate director of the Social Justice Program in the National Ministries Division, and husband of Mary Ann Lundy, received the Rodney T. Martin award during the PHEWA business meeting on Saturday. To emphasize Wilson’s support for PHEWA, incoming President Lois Rifner told the crowd that she thought he was the only “straight person” at the PHEWA Golfing for Justice fundraising event during the Albuquerque G.A.
Christianity’s “male God”
Pro-homosexual activism is not the only way in which PHEWA deviates from confessional teaching and the mainstream of orthodoxy in the PC(USA). During the ReImagining furor in 1993-94, the organization went on record in defense of the ReImagining conference. This year they invited well-known ReImagining figure Rita Nakashima Brock to lead two of their morning worship services.
(ReImagining achieved notoriety at an ecumenical conference in Minneapolis in 1992 because denominational mission money was used to “reimagine God:” the biblical Jesus was rejected and a milk and honey rite substituted for the body and blood of the Lord’s Supper.)
Brock expressed problems with Christianity’s “male God.” People cannot accept heaven as an “all male club,” she said. And, she added, in the face of the world’s suffering, to speak of God’s sovereignty is to consider God abusive. Jesus, too, is in trouble, as one who was self-sacrificing without protest against evil and injustice. After all, she noted, once you see what the Jesus Seminar discovered as the verifiable words of Jesus in the New Testament, you find that Jesus really didn’t say much at all.
Brock used her feminist justice paradigm to transform the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. When she spoke the words of institution, she said, “On the night before he was killed by those who feared his movement for justice, as he took supper with his friends…” And then in reference to the elements, she declared her reimagined words of Jesus which substituted for his death the actions of human beings: “This is the sign of the new covenant which is sealed by my blood. As you take it to your lips you declare what you will do until I come and God’s love, justice, and mercy will reign again in our communities.”
Brock’s religion was found woven through the worship at the conference. When she led worship, Wilkey expressed concern about the non-inclusive language of the Apostles’ Creed. In her workshop, a participant asked why she didn’t just change the words. She said, “I’ll tell you why. Because if you go to Central America and change the words, they will not say it with you. If you go to Europe and change the words, they will not say it with you. I have to be where the Church is. Wilkey explained that the key to moving toward more inclusive understandings of God is a matter of “juxtaposition.” Retain orthodox expressions of faith, but gradually introduce elements of a more inclusive faith. This conference is an example, she said. We used traditional language in worship this morning. Tomorrow we will introduce “Mother God.”
The next morning’s confession of sin was to the “Eternal Mother of all souls.” The evening’s Service of Remembrance used “The New Zealand Lord’s Prayer,” which begins: “Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver, Source of all that is and that shall be, Father and Mother of us all Loving God, in whom is heaven….”
There was something for almost everybody at the PHEWA conference, especially those who reject the Christian orthodoxy and morality of mainstream Presbyterians. Yet the PHEWA conference, the PHEWA statements, the PHEWA newsletters, the PHEWA presence of advocacy at General Assemblies, are paid for largely by those whose faith and morality reflects biblical and constitutional teaching.