The mercury peaked at 96 degrees on Saturday, but that did not keep 40 MIND members from turning out for the annual picnic, which this year was held at Park Slope UMC in Brooklyn. The burgers and kabobs sizzled on the grill and we baked in the sun, but the food and the company were good. And so was the cause: In the wake of the attack on Rev. Josh Noblitt, MIND dedicated its picnic to the fight for safe space and the work of building the beloved community. It was one of five solidarity picnics around the country, in addition to the picnic held in Atlanta, which was attended by 150 people.

Rev. Josh Noblitt and his partner were attacked in Atlanta’s Piedmont Park on July 2. According to news reports, the attack started when they were accosted by three young men, who said “Are y’all gay? Two men laying on a blanket. We ought to beat y’all for that.” They later returned with a large stick. Noblitt and his partner defended themselves and called 911, but one of the assailants also made a call. The two men, who were in the park simply enjoying a picnic, found themselves surrounded by eight to 10 men, one of whom put a gun to Noblitt’s head and demanded money. They took Noblitt’s wallet, phone, keys and his partner’s phone. Noblitt sustained a bruised back and ribs and a bruised forehead.

In church two days later, Noblitt said “The church can be the source of a lot of hate toward LGBT people. This makes me feel good about the work Saint Mark does and other affirming churches to try to change that climate.”

In an open letter “to the Beloved Community” a week later, Noblitt reflected on the experience, the “permanent relationship” he now finds himself in with his attackers, the “spiritual starvation” at play, and Martin Luther King’s vision and hope for a beloved community that embraces all, transcends boundaries and promises justice to all. He wrote of how easy it would be to take “the path of fear” and how instead he is committed to taking “the path of love.”

Noblitt has invited people to join him this Sunday, July 18 at Piedmont Park, in the same place he and his partner were attacked, for another picnic – to reclaim the space and forge the path of love.

In solidarity, members of the Baltimore-Washington Area Reconciling Methodists (B-WARM) are also holding a picnic on July 18 at 3pm in Washington’s Lincoln Park. “Together we can make every park a safer place and promote healing and understanding,” their invitation says.

There is also a solidarity picnic on July 18 at 3pm in Chicago's Grant Park (just south of the Spirit of Music Dance Floor on Michigan Ave.).

MIND is dedicating its annual picnic, which will be July 24, to Josh Noblitt, the fight for safe space -- in our parks, in our churches and everywhere -- and the work of building the "Beloved Community."

[UPDATE: The solidarity picnic response is growing. Additional picnics (that we know of) are being held in Topiary Park in Columbus, OH and in Houston, TX.]

The rulings can be read here:

Gill v. Office of Personnel Management

 The concluding paragraph in Gill:

“In the wake of DOMA, it is only sexual orientation that differentiates a married couple entitled to federal marriage-based benefits from one not so entitled. And this court can conceive of no way in which such a difference might be relevant to the provision of the benefits at issue. By premising eligibility for these benefits on marital status in the first instance, the federal government signals to this court that the relevant distinction to be drawn is between married individuals and unmarried individuals. To further divide the class of married individuals into those with spouses of the same sex and those with spouses of the opposite sex is to create a distinction without meaning. And where, as here, “there is no reason to believe that the disadvantaged class is different, in relevant respects” from a similarly situated class, this court may conclude that it is only irrational prejudice that motivates the challenged classification.149 As irrational prejudice plainly never constitutes a legitimate government interest, this court must hold that Section 3 of DOMA as applied to Plaintiffs violates the equal protection principles embodied in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Health and Human Services

The concluding paragraph in the Massachusetts case:

“This court has determined that it is clearly within the authority of the Commonwealth to recognize same-sex marriages among its residents, and to afford those individuals in same-sex marriages any benefits, rights, and privileges to which they are entitled by virtue of their marital status. The federal government, by enacting and enforcing DOMA, plainly encroaches upon the firmly entrenched province of the state, and, in doing so, offends the Tenth Amendment. For that reason, the statute is invalid.”

[UPDATE: New York Times coverage here.]

Presbyterians move towards blessing same-sex marriages

In addition to  the civil rulings in the DOMA case, today also saw a step towards marriage equality in church law. The Presbyterian General Assembly will consider recommendations from committees for the denomination to allow and celebrate same-sex marriages. A vote by the Assembly is expected today or tomorrow. If passed, the Presbyterian Church would become the largest denomination in the U.S. to allow gay marriage.

Additional coverage of the Presbyterian General Assembly is on the More Light  Presbyterian blog.

[UPDATE: The Presbyterian General Assembly voted down the marriage equality proposal, opting instead to "study" the issue for the next two years. More here.]

“It’s not what goes into the mouth that defiles you, but what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” --Matthew 15:11

Once a year in the summer MIND members and supporters gather without an agenda to not have a meeting. The goal is fellowship and fun, and of course, food! It’s a chance to restore our souls, get to know each other a little better and rejuvenate for the work we all do bring about the day that the UMC finally welcomes and embraces God’s LGBT children as equal to heterosexuals.

We hold this picnic in a different district every year and this year it’s Long Island West, so we especially encourage those of you in Nassau, Queens and Brooklyn to join us. But this being a MIND event, we invite everyone to come!

The picnic is Saturday, July 24, from 1 to 5pm at Park Slope UMC in Brooklyn. PSUMC is at 410 6^th Ave, easily accessible by subway and car. Go here for directions.

[UPDATE: we are dedicating the picnic to Josh Noblitt, the fight for safe space -- in our parks, in our churches and everywhere -- and the work of building the Beloved Community. This comes after Noblitt and his partner were attacked for being gay while having a picnic in Atlanta's Piedmont Park. Picnics to reclaim public space are being held July 18 in Atlanta, Washington DC, Chicago, Columbus and Houston. More on the story here >>]

SPSA youth group members brought a truly creative take on the God's embrace of diverse families.

Morning worship at five churches, afternoon march in NYC

Gay Pride Sunday – the last Sunday in June, commemorating the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in 1969 that sparked the modern gay rights movement – is celebrated every year the world over by LGBT people. It is our chance to take pride in who we are, in what we have accomplished in our fight for equal rights, and to rejuvenate and rededicate ourselves to the struggle to end prejudice and discrimination against queer people.

The day will be begin with special Gay Pride services at each of five congregations: PSUMC in Brooklyn, Church of the Village in Manhattan, SPSA in Manhattan, Asbury UMC in Yonkers and Memorial UMC in White Plains. In the afternoon we will all march together in the annual Gay Pride March in New York City.

Our official march time is 12pm. We're in section 8, 38th St. between 5th and 6th Aves. While we wait to march, we'll make signs and celebrate communion.

As United Methodists, we have a special obligation to show the world on Pride Sunday that our denomination’s bigoted doctrine and policy do not speak for us.

At the march we will be part of a religious contingent of over 1,000 people joining the half million-strong annual Gay Pride March. We will share communion, and we will share the Good News with the crowds that the Kingdom of God welcomes all and that sexuality is indeed God’s good gift to everyone.

Bring food and water and sunscreen and wear comfortable clothes and walking shoes. We will have a support vehicle for those unable to walk the entire route.

With cookies, conversation and a comfy couch, the MIND space at the Momentum of Ministries festival embodied the theme “Welcome Home.”

MIND participated in the “Momentum of Ministries” festival that was the highlight of the last day of the 2010 annual conference. The event, housed in three big circus tents outside the arena where the conference plenary sessions were held, drew thousands of new church members from throughout the New York Annual Conference. MIND’s theme for its space at the festival was “Welcome Home,” to celebrate that there is safe, welcoming space within the UMC through its Reconciling congregations and the work of MIND.

The MIND space was set up like a studio apartment to embody the home theme—with chairs, a table and a couch in the living room and a fridge and table in the kitchen. There were placemats with photos from Reconciling churches that said “You have a place at the table,” and there was MIND literature on the living room table. There were photos on the “walls,” some house plants, rugs and other homey touches.

There was also a basket of prayer ribbons and pens for people to write payers of hope on ribbons, which then got hung up around the space. And there were 1,500 rainbow M&M cookies to make it an especially inviting home.

The MIND space was packed all day as hundreds of people stopped by to ask what MIND is and does and learn more about the work of building a welcoming church. Dozens of people joined MIND, and hundreds walked away with flyers for upcoming events and other literature.

It was a great way to end annual conference, connecting with members of local congregations who took the message of welcome back to their home pews.

The third day of annual conference had everything, from moving testimony to parliamentary wrangling, legislative victories and defeat and more. Our witness and challenge to the conference took many forms – t-shirts, armbands, speaking and singing.

The highlight of the day was Mark Miller’s address to a packed room at the MIND lunch. “My God-given gayness is not up for a vote by some misguided Methodist,” said Miller, who is not only the best known worship leader and music director in the United Methodist Church but also the son, grandson, brother and cousin of United Methodist clergy. With humor, passion and extraordinary grace, Miller talked about how the church needs LGBT people and how the power of God’s love is stronger than fear. It is God’s love, he testified, that makes it possible to continue to love and serve the United Methodist Church even amidst the bitterness and pain we experience because of the church’s continued prejudice and discrimination against LGBT people.

Miller also brought his gifts of music to the MIND lunch, as did Nehemiah Luckett, who taught the group two songs that they later performed on the mezzanine of the annual conference floor.

Challenge to the bishop: “Will you stand with us?”

Bishop Park came to the lunch as well. In introducing him, MIND Chair Dorothee Benz noted that MIND leaders have met with him numerous times and have seen him moved by the injustice suffered by LGBT people at the hands of the church. Then she issued a direct challenge to him:

At the same time, what gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender Methodists need to hear from you is a public acknowledgement of that injustice. We long to hear you say that you believe the church’s exclusion of us from ministry, from marriage and even sometimes from membership is wrong. We ache to hear you say that the church must change those rules if it is to be true to its calling.

This conference has affirmed dozens of times over several decades its opposition to our denomination’s exclusionary rules. We ache to hear you say the same. The silence from the stage of our annual conference has been deafening.

And so I ask you, on behalf of the 500 members of MIND and all those gathered here today, will you stand with us? Will you tell us now – and more importantly will you tell the annual conference from that stage this afternoon – that you support our full inclusion in the life of this church that we serve and love?

Bishop Park’s response was disappointing. He chose not to acknowledge the request nor to state his own views on church rules. He did say “Our God is not finished with our church yet….I take this journey with you.”

We can resolve to oppose discrimination, but cannot tell LGBT people

After lunch, in the plenary session debating resolutions before the body, Bishop Park ruled one of our resolutions out of order. “Ministry to the Marginalized: Welcoming LGBT People into NYAC” was amended twice in an effort to change the bishop’s ruling, but he still ruled that it was in violation of the Book of Discipline. That ruling was challenged by Benz, and in accordance with the procedures spelled out in the Discipline, a written request for a ruling of law from the bishop was filed that evening (signed by Benz and MFSA chair Kevin Nelson). This requires the bishop to explain in writing why he ruled the resolution out of order, a decision that will then be appealed to the Judicial Council.

The resolution, which had been written in consultation with counsel from RMN and MFSA to ensure that it did not violate the Discipline, calls on the conference to take out advertisements in LGBT publications that express the conference’s “heartfelt regret for the harm inflicted on LGBT people through the UMC’s homophobia and discrimination, and…share in these advertisements that NYAC has long been opposed to UMC policy on homosexuality and welcome and invite LGBT people to worship in NYAC churches.” The ads are to be paid for by voluntary contributions (because the Discipline prohibits the use of conference funds to “promote homosexuality”).

In challenging the bishop’s ruling on the floor, Benz emphasized that all the resolution seeks to do is to tell other people what our conference has already resolved and stated it believes. How can it be “out of order” to tell the very people affect by our pronouncements what they are? If we can pass resolutions saying we oppose discrimination, but we cannot tell those being discriminated against, what is the point?

Armbands witness now in its sixth year

Despite the shock of the ruling, there was also good news on the conference floor that afternoon. The three other resolutions MIND had submitted were passed, as were reconciling resolutions from Park Slope UMC and Mary Taylor Memorial UMC.

In the evening, while Benz and Nelson worked to finalize the written request for a ruling of law two dozen MIND volunteers handed out 1,000 armbands to the clergy and guests arriving for the ordination service. This witness, now in its sixth year, marks our solidarity with those who are excluded from ordination simply because they are gay.

On Saturday, MIND’s witness continues with a creative display during the conference’s “Momentum of Ministries” festival. Our theme is “welcome home” and we’ve created a space to invite people into that has everything from a fridge to comfy chairs and a kitchen table with placemats that say “you have a place at this table.” We also have 1,500 rainbow M&M cookies to hand out – how can we fail?

"Friday is MIND t-shirt day!" volunteers reminded everyone, and they did a brisk business selling shirts. The MIND table continued to be a place of contant activity and ministry.

The main order of business on the second day of annual conference, Thursday, June 10, was discussion and debate of resolutions in legislative sections, and LGBT issues took center stage for most of the four hours that Section 3 met. The four resolutions that MIND had initiated and drafted were all passed and will come to the plenary floor Friday. Several other resolutions concerning LGBT people, which MIND supported, also passed, as did an important petition co-sponsored by MIND calling the church to action in opposition to the recently passed anti-immigrant law in Arizona. Legislative section members also voted to support the New York City living wage campaign.

There was, as in past years, a minority of opposition to our cause of justice for LGBT people. In one instance, someone took strong offense at the passage in the resolution on hate crimes that names the UMC’s official prejudice and discrimination as factors that contribute to a hostile and dangerous environment for LGBT people. An amendment to strike that language was narrowly defeated and provoked a passionate response from MIND supporters, who emphasized that the church’s words and actions do have an effect in the larger society.

A highlight of the day was the MFSA dinner, which this year honored Rev. Joe Agne and Deaconess Dana Jones for their tireless advocacy for the Social Gospel. In her remarks Jones reflected on her career as a journalist and her call to tell the stories of the voiceless. She shared this realization with the assembled listeners: “God is not objective. God takes sides. And God ask us to take sides.”

For his part, Agne called for a response of ecclesial disobedience to the “abusive and unjust” anti-gay rules of the UMC. He reflected on Martin Luther King’s prophetic insistence that we have an obligation to disobey unjust laws, and on the critical condition of the church resulting from the loss of the gifts of so many LGBT people and allies. He ended by leading us in singing Holly Near’s gay rights anthem “We Are a Gentle, Angry People.”  

Friday’s agenda is a full one for both the conference and MIND. Plenary debate of resolutions will start today, and it is clear from the schedule that conference planners have not allotted sufficient time for meaningful discussion. It’s not clear how that will be addressed. Meanwhile, MIND’s lunch with keynote speaker Mark Milller will be the highlight of our day.

Friday is also MIND t-shirt day, when we ask everyone to wear our distinctive purple shirts as a visible witness for an inclusive church. At the ordination service, we will once again hand out blue armbands to lift up those called by God to ordained ministry but rejected by the church.