The Rev. Duane Clinker, pastor of the Open Table of Christ United Methodist Church, stands by his decision to allow an openly gay man to participate in church services.

The Providence Journal / Kathy Borchers

PROVIDENCE –– It initially seemed to be a perfect fit. They were, after all, two United Methodist congregations dedicated to sharing the Gospel and working for social justice, so sharing the same church building seemed to make sense. And so when members of the primarily Spanish-speaking Via Abundante — or Abundant Life — United Methodist Church moved from their old church building on Cranston Street three years ago, joining with the newly formed Open Table of Christ United Methodist Church in having services at the former Washington Park Methodist Church on 1520 Broad St., both had reason to rejoice: it was a visible symbol of churches working together. The Open Table, itself a product of a merger of two other Methodist churches — Washington Park in Providence and Hillsgrove in Warwick — saw the Hispanic congregation as fellow laborers in the vineyard, people who would join them in trying to help the poor and supporting the cause of immigrants. Neither had realized it at the time, but their shared fellowship was about to be tested. In much the same way a number of mainline denominations across the United States have had to wrestle with divisions in their ranks over issues involving homosexuality, the two congregations were about to discover that what was perfectly acceptable to most members of one was not acceptable to the other. The stage began to be set when members of Open Table voted unanimously in January to have their church join the Reconciling Ministries network, a national organization working for full participation of people of “all sexual orientations and gender identities” in the life of the church, and for removal from the United Methodist Book of Discipline a rule declaring homosexual practice to be “incompatible” with Christian teaching. The Rev. Santos Escobar, the pastor of Abundant Life, says his church members knew about the January vote, but became concerned only after Open Table members held a Mother’s Day service in the spring at which they invited a gay Episcopalian to speak from the pulpit about his experiences as a Christian gay man. The speaker — Patrick Campbell, music director at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Pawtucket — did more than speak. He was also invited to join Open Table’s pastor, the Rev. Duane Clinker, at the altar and distribute Communion. Campbell said recently that it was never his intent to get involved in a policy debate. All he did, he said, was tell the people about his own faith journey as a gay man, starting with the pain he felt years ago when the Right Rev. Andrew Wissemann, then bishop of Western Massachusetts, rejected his request for sponsorship as a candidate for seminary because he had announced that he was gay. Campbell said that, hurt as he was by the refusal, he went on to the seminary anyway, to study as a layman. Eventually, he became a church musician. He said the hurt has been assuaged by other notable events in the Episcopal Church, including the 2003 ordination of an openly gay man, the Right Rev. V. Eugene Robinson, as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, and an apparent new willingness on the part of some Episcopal leaders to permit blessings of same-sex couples. Karen Jones, a member of Open Table who had been asked to help the congregation extend its outreach to people of all orientations, said in a recent interview that there was so much enthusiasm among so many of the 150 black, white and Hispanic congregants attending the Mother’s Day service, she didn’t notice there were some who did not go to Communion. “So many people came up to me afterwards to say it was a wonderful service,” she said in a later interview. “A very elderly traditional Methodist woman said it was the most beautiful service she had been to.” It was only after Jones got home that afternoon and saw some of the e-mails on her computer that she realized not everyone was happy. At least three very large families, Haitian and Liberian, including one headed by one of the church’s lay leaders, wrote that they did not think the service was appropriate. Nehemy Theodore and his wife, Rosemith, who have lived in the United States since moving from Haiti in 1992, told Jones and the pastor that they and their four children would no longer be attending the church, even though Nehemy had been one of the three top lay leaders. Rosemith Theodore said in a recent interview that she was shocked that an openly gay man had been allowed to speak from the pulpit, especially since she had always been taught to believe that the Bible condemns the practice of homosexuality as a sin. To suggest that God would accept the practice is disturbing, she said. “We don’t want our kids listening to that. Who knows what they will pick up? “We don’t want those ideas to get into their heads.” Mrs. Theodore estimated that “25 to 30” people left the church after the incident, including the family of her sister, Medith Bergiste, who used to travel to services from Woonsocket with her husband, Raymond, and their four children. Since the incident, the Theodores have been attending First Haitian Baptist Church, which has weekly services just over the Cranston line. It didn’t take much time, either, for members of Abundant Life to react. By June, the primarily Hispanic congregation moved back to its old building and sent a letter to the superintendent of the United Methodist Church for the Rhode Island-Southeastern District. It complained that in allowing a gay man to the pulpit, the Open Table of Christ had violated the denomination’s Book of Discipline. The superintendent replied that while it is true that the Discipline declares homosexual practice to be incompatible with Christian teaching, it also says that homosexual people have “sacred worth.” Mr. Clinker, for his part, says his Open Table members are still grieving, even now, about the loss of the families. But, he adds, “I have to say that since this happened, we feel even more strongly that the path we’ve taken is the right one, and that we’re following a call from God.” He said he became more convinced of this after seeing the anger on the faces of some of those opposed to his church’s stance, an anger that he says reminded him of the anger against blacks during the civil rights era. “I always felt that the treatment of gays and lesbians was unjust but there were always other issues — poverty and peace — that I felt more in touch with. Until this, I never realized how deep this issue goes.” Jones, who is 35, married with a 2½-year-old daughter, and works in media services for Roger Williams University, said she believes her volunteer work helping the church in its efforts to become a “reconciling” church has been one of the most important things she’s done. “I think it’s important that we walk the walk, and that we as a church openly accept and include everyone as a full member, because that’s the message of Jesus, the God I believe in,” she said. “At Open Table, we talk about being a movement of radical love, and this is an example of that.” The Rev. Federico Carmona, Open Table’s co-pastor and a former Guatemalan military officer, said he was once part of a conservative church, and probably would have been a part of the group that walked out were it not been for a turning point several years ago when his son informed him on his 18th birthday that he was gay. “I knew then that God is bigger than any theology.” For their part, the members of Abundant Life say in a statement and through their pastor that they still “love our sister church Open Table of Christ and we do not want to enter into any contentious situation with them.” But while Mr. Escobar said he still hopes the churches will have opportunities to work together, he thinks it’s clear they have different philosophies as to what it means to be a follower of Christ. At his church, he said, everyone is welcomed, whether one is a practicing homosexual, a drug addict or a drunk. But it is also understood that they must be “restored” to a new life by renouncing their old selves. “Our sister church, according to their understanding and interpretation of the Bible, believes there is no problem with a person who practices homosexuality,” Escobar said. “We believe those people need to give their life more to God to be able to do these ministries.”

rdujardi@projo.com