November 27, 2007

ELGIN, IL – A committee of the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference is requesting help in moving the church toward a clarification of its position on homosexuality.

The Program and Arrangements Committee has made the request. It is a committee of three at-large members and the Annual Conference officers, and holds responsibility for organizing and planning events at the conference. The committee is sending its request for help to the denomination's Standing Committee of district delegates, representing the 23 districts of the Church of the Brethren.

In an annual fall meeting held in Richmond, Va., on Nov. 16-17, the Program and Arrangements Committee drafted a query to go to the Standing Committee in July 2008, asking, "Is it possible for the Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren to review the section of the 1983 Statement on Human Sexuality that deals with ‘homosexual persons and sexuality' and engage the denomination in a study and dialogue in order to clarify the church's response to homosexual persons?"

The Program and Arrangements Committee has perennially received an application to have an exhibit at the Annual Conference from the Brethren and Mennonite Council for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Interests (BMC). The applications from BMC have been consistently denied by the committee for a variety of reasons, including the 1983 Annual Conference statement that covenantal relationships between homosexual persons are "unacceptable."

The query that is being sent to Standing Committee also notes that "many in the church believe it is an issue of justice that the ministries of BMC be granted exhibit space alongside their sisters and brothers in the church, while many others believe it contradicts scriptural teaching to grant that space." It also states that the Program and Arrangements Committee "believes it is inappropriate and irresponsible for (the committee) to make a decision that should be made by the church as a whole."

In its response to BMC regarding its decision about this year's exhibit application, the Program and Arrangements Committee said, "We appreciate your efforts to plan an exhibit that honors the 1983 Annual Conference Statement on Human Sexuality. The concerns you wish to help the church address regarding treating lgbt (lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender) people with respect and protecting them from violence are extremely important. At the same time, we are deeply concerned, as we have said in previous communications, that the exhibit hall is not the venue that can help our denomination enter into conversation about the issues of homosexuality, an issue which causes such passionate divisiveness in our denomination.

"We wish to move forward in seeking to bring before the denomination the need for dialogue about the church's response to homosexual persons," the response continued. "We strongly believe that the church as a whole must work on these issues and that it is inappropriate and irresponsible for our committee to make a decision which will be interpreted by each side in this debate as either favoring or opposing its partisan interests. Therefore, we have decided to put BMC's application for exhibit space on hold, while we ask Standing Committee to consider the...query."

The query will come to the Standing Committee prior to the 2008 Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren, which will be held in Richmond, Va., on July 12-16, 2008.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts almost 130,000 members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.

Church of the Brethren News Service