Advocates petition bishop not to defrock the Rev. Bill McElvaney for marrying gay couple, church calls out site for going against wishes
A TRYING CAUSE | The Rev. Pamela June Webb, left, talks with Bishop Michael McKee’s assistant after she and others delivered a petition with more than 22,000 signatures urging the bishop not to bring a retired Dallas minister to trial for officiating a gay wedding. (Anna Waugh/Dallas Voice)
Local LGBT leaders are hoping their actions regarding a petition this week will prevent Bishop Michael McKee of the North Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church from charging a retired Dallas minster for performing a same-sex wedding in March.
The petition, started on the website Faithful America, calls on McKee to oppose putting retired United Methodist Pastor Bill McElvaney, who’s 85 and battling cancer, on trial.
It originally called for 15,000 signatures, but as of Tuesday when it was handed to Joell Stanislaus, the bishop’s executive assistant, at the North Texas Conference headquarters in Plano, it’d garnered more than 22,000 signatures. McKee was out of the office in meetings, but Stanislaus said she would make sure he received it.
Stanislaus did not respond to requests for comment to whether McKee would issue a response to the petition, and as of press time, McKee hadn’t responded on his blog.
McElvaney, emeritus pastor at Northaven United Methodist Church, married longtime gay couple Jack Evans and George Harris on March 1 at Midway Hills Christian Church. The celebration took place at Midway to prevent Northaven and its current pastor from coming under attack for allowing the ceremony to take place there. McElvaney announced in January he disagreed with the Methodist Church about same-sex weddings and he’d officiate at them.
A complaint filed by the Rev. Camille Gaston of Richardson came a week later. It requires McElvaney to sit down with Gaston and McKee, bishop of the North Texas Conference. Gaston also is the district superintendent of the North Texas Conference.
AFFIRM | “It’s about much more than this one case. We need Bishop McKee to follow Bishop McLee’s example of New York to not try the case,” Smith said. “We need that vocal leadership from him if we want to promote leadership in the church.”
The parties will meet for a joint resolution to discuss how to replace the issue, ranging from anything from suspending McElvaney to defrocking him if the bishop files charges to take his case to trial. While ministers have been defrocked after a trail before, some bishops have come out publicly that they would not try ministers for wedding same-sex couples. McKee has not.
Shelbi Smith, a junior at Southern Methodist University and co-president of the college’s of LGBT group Spectrum, said as a Methodist she was told growing up that the church is a vehicle to spread love but that homosexuality isn’t compatible with the church’s teachings. But over time, she came to accept her sexuality and realizes the church’s mission is to love everyone, including LGBT people.
“It’s about much more than this one case. We need Bishop McKee to follow Bishop McLee’s example of New York to not try the case,” Smith said. “We need that vocal leadership from him if we want to promote leadership in the church.”
McElvaney has asked that people let the process with the bishop play out, asking for “no other response” to the bishop’s letter informing him of the complaint.
But Northaven’s current pastor, Eric Folkerth, doesn’t seem to agree with the petition. He took to his blog to voice his concerns about Faithful America and condemning the action, which was against McElvaney’s wishes.
“‘Faithful America’ has done this, despite the fact that Bill specifically asked for people to take no action on his behalf,” Folkerth wrote.
He continued to explain that he’d reached out to Faithful America about the petition and his concern that they didn’t contact anyone involved with the situation. Faithful America hasn’t responded to his inquiries.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 2, 2014.