Nineteen of 42 Church of the Brethren Churches Leave Southeastern District Over Homosexuality Dispute

A regional body of the Church of the Brethren, the Southeastern District Conference, split in late July 2020 over the question of homosexuality. Nineteen of the district’s 42 churches withdrew during an annual meeting in Jonesborough, Tennessee, on July 25, according to the denomination’s official news site. The source describes this as the first official rift in a division long expected within the Pietistic-Anabaptist denomination, historically known as “Dunkers.”

The departing congregations want the Brethren to exercise more authority over ministers and congregations that deviate from the church’s official positions on human sexuality. The source reports that the Church of the Brethren does not affirm LGBT ministers unless they are committed to celibacy, and does not allow ministers to perform same-sex wedding ceremonies. It also reports that about 40 of the denomination’s roughly 1,000 congregations belong to the Supportive Communities Network, organized by the Brethren Mennonite Council for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Interests, and that these congregations have not been punished or expelled.

The southeastern district includes Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, and parts of North Carolina and Virginia, and is one of 24 districts in the United States. Most of the churches that chose to leave are in East Tennessee and western North Carolina. Some are expected to join the Covenant Brethren Church, which the source says was formed in 2019 as a “haven” for potentially departing churches, with a statement citing “failure of the denomination to stand strong on biblical authority” and addressing “the homosexual issue.” Before the Tennessee meeting closed, moderator Steven Abe led the remaining churches in a blessing for the withdrawing churches, and the withdrawing churches offered a blessing for the remaining churches, a moment that reflects the unity sought amid division (Psalm 133:1).

The source states that the church’s official position on same-sex marriage dates to 1983, when it said “covenantal relationships between homosexual persons” were not acceptable. That statement also committed the Brethren to “challenging openly the widespread fear, hatred, and harassment of homosexual persons” and to “advocating the right of homosexuals to jobs, housing, and legal justice.” The position was reaffirmed in 2011. In 2017, the annual conference recognized a lesbian couple co-pastoring a congregation in the Pacific Northwest District, which prompted talk of a split and a debate over the national organization’s authority to enforce its doctrinal standard. A faction of church leaders pushed for policies allowing tougher enforcement in 2018.

Atlantic Northeast District representative Jim Myer said at the time, “The problem is that our denomination is being perceived as becoming a pro-homosexual denomination by default.” Annual conference moderator Carol Sheppard told the Mennonite World Review that the same authority debate affects other matters: “If you have a big hammer for same-sex marriage, the same big hammer is for women in ministry. The same big hammer is for church property matters.” The enforcement proposals did not pass. Instead, the church launched a denomination-wide conversation called the “Compelling Vision Process,” which organized small discussion groups around the question, “What compels you to follow Jesus?”

The source reports the most common answers at a national young adult conference, including “Jesus’s love for us,” “community,” and “discipleship,” and the top adult answers at the 2019 annual conference, including “salvation” and “discipleship.” The annual conference intended to produce a vision statement for all churches based on two years of conversations. The articulation of that statement was scheduled for 2020 but was postponed to the 2021 meeting because of the pandemic. Critics, the source says, believe the process does nothing to address the “elephant in the room.”

Brethren general secretary David Steele said the process was never meant to focus on homosexuality, but was intended “to move the conversation above that to matters of faith and vision and where the church ought to be.” He said the church’s response to division should be “continuing conversation and prayer and reading Scripture together.” Grover Duling, temporary head of the Covenant Brethren Church, said, “You can’t do outreach and mission work when your foundation is crumbling with a major issue that’s sitting there. I hope and pray that there’s a miraculous healing … that hasn’t been present in the 40 years we’ve been trying to find our way around this huge divisive issue.”

Source: Read the original report