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Letter of Solidarity from Young Clergy Women International

Letter of Solidarity in Regard to the Involuntary Leave of Rev. Elizabeth Davidson and Rev. Paige Swaim-Presley
This open letter from Young Clergy Women International responds to the injustice in the Mississippi Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. Learn more at http://bit.ly/justice-in-mississippi

Our calling as clergy women leads us to work for the liberation of people of all genders and sexual orientations. The United Methodist Young Clergy Women’s Collective mourns the decision in the Mississippi Annual Conference to place two United Methodist clergywomen on involuntary leave for officiating the wedding of two nonbinary people. We fear a public trial and all of the harm that will bring to LGBTQIA+ people in and out of our denomination.

The public ministry of the United Methodist Young Clergy Women’s Collective has grown out of the United Methodist denominational subgroup of Young Clergy Women International (YCWI). All of the previous open letters on this website have been by and for United Methodists.

Today the YCWI board issued a Letter of Solidarity in Regard to the Involuntary Leave of Rev. Elizabeth Davidson and Rev. Paige Swaim-Presley.

As an ecumenical organization, YCWI’s letter details how the harm extends beyond United Methodism:

Your actions against the LGBTQIA+ community have negative repercussions across denominational lines. It harms the witness of the Christian church when you fail to align with Methodism’s first general rule: “Do no harm.”

– Young Clergy Women International

We endorse and support this letter written on behalf of all 2,500 members and alumni of YCWI.

We are not in this struggle alone.

Please read and share the full letter here.

You can also show your support by making a donation to RMN’s Clergy Defense Fund and helping the newlyweds with their registry.

Young Clergy Women International Letter of Solidarity (white letters on green background)
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Open Letter to the Florida Annual Conference

This open letter is written and signed by over 115 United Methodist Clergywomen under age 40. We invited all concerned United Methodists to sign this letter and received an additional 967 signatures. You can sign here and read the letter below.

An Open Letter To the Bishop, Cabinet, the Board of Ordained Ministry, and the Clergy Session of the Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church:

We write to you to express the deep grief we share at the harm done by the 2022 Florida Annual Conference Clergy Session on June 9th in denying commissioning to 16 qualified candidates for elders’ and deacons’ orders based on the sexual orientation and gender identity of certain candidates. The evil, injustice, and oppression perpetrated by the Clergy Session stands in direct conflict with our baptismal vows to resist such forces “in whatever forms they present themselves.” We lament the trauma inflicted on those directly affected as well as the secondary trauma to all those present and those who witness from afar. We deplore the hostility demonstrated by a minority of voting members to the millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer persons around the world. These actions have wounded not just a few, but the entire body of Christ, and irreparably damaged our work and witness in the wider world.

The institutional power of clergy in The United Methodist Church must be used to come alongside those with less institutional power; among them, inquiring and certified candidates, and candidates for commissioning and ordination. Women remember well that it was only in 1956 when our God-given call to proclaim the Word was formally recognized, despite the witness of lives given in service to God such as Jarena Lee, Helenor Davison, Anna Howard Shaw, Anna Oliver, Lydia Sexton, and Eugenia St. John. As we remember centuries of institutional prejudice against women, we recognize similar injustice occurring today. By denying God’s gifts and graces for ministry in the lives of these sixteen candidates, the church once again shows the effect of ongoing discrimination against LGBTQIA+ people. We are clearly a long way away from learning what it means to embody Wesley’s first General Rule: “Do no harm.”

In this painful place, we do wish to take a moment to particularly affirm the work of God in the lives of the candidates who submitted themselves for examination and voting before the Board of Ordained Ministry and the Clergy Session in good conscience, only to meet hearts already hardened against them. We also affirm with gratitude the work of the BoOM and the majority of the Clergy Session in their decision to examine and affirm queer candidates for commissioning in the Florida Annual Conference. We affirm and give thanks for the local churches that have lifted up queer candidates for ministry, the district committees that certified them, and the ministry settings that have prepared to receive them as commissioned deacons and elders. We bear witness to the pain of many other queer people who have been quietly pushed out of the ordination process at the local church, district, and conference board of ordained ministry levels. This public rejection amplifies the everyday discrimination experienced by queer United Methodists called into licensed or ordained ministry.

We call on Bishop Carter and the appointive cabinet of the Florida Annual Conference to honor projected appointments, with full pay, benefits and pension, for this class of candidates for the coming year. Though this will not erase the injuries inflicted on the candidates, it will ensure that they will not suffer financial harm as a result of this unfaithful act that denies the calling of sixteen of God’s children. We also call upon the Florida Annual Conference to proactively reimburse counseling and spiritual direction and other mental health expenses incurred by clergy and candidates alike due to this traumatic experience.

We call upon clergy across the Connection to “take thou authority” by dismantling the evils of homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in every place and resisting the injustice and oppression that stems from these. As annual conferences meet throughout this year and in those to come, we implore them to uphold the dignity and calling of their candidates for commissioning and ordination. We encourage Boards of Ordained Ministry to recommend candidates for commissioning and ordination based solely on their divine calling and readiness for ministry regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Likewise, we pray that ordained clergy would affirm the work of their Conference Board and vote to receive them. Human-made divisions must not be a barrier to affirming God-given gifts of ministry or calls to ordained life.

We reaffirm our own commitment to LGBTQIA+ justice and inclusion and will work for a church where all people can grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. As part of that commitment, we invite all queer certified candidates – those who are #CalledOut or #HiddenFaithful – to join the United Methodist Queer Clergy group at https://www.umqcc.org. We also invite both queer clergywomen under 40, and candidates under 40 whose commissioning or ordination has been denied or delayed due to homophobia and transphobia, to join Young Clergy Women International at https://youngclergywomen.org/about/membership-ycwi/application-for-membership-ycwi/. Simply let us know you are applying for exceptional membership from the UMC in the “Documentation of Clergy Status” section, and we will welcome you into our worldwide community.

We call upon all United Methodists to reject the tactics of the separatists fighting to impoverish the leadership and financial viability of The United Methodist Church. If you have the financial means, we invite you to embrace and further the work of the Holy Spirit by supporting queer clergy development with financial gifts. Your gifts of time, talent, and treasure to reconciling ministries nationally and locally are deeply appreciated. We also encourage the establishment of funds with local foundations and seminaries specifically for queer seminarians, and/or direct aid as appropriate.  

We join our voices with Mary of Nazareth and women throughout history who have sung, prayed, and lived the Magnificat. We have dedicated our lives to announcing good news. We believe in a time when the mighty are cast down and the humble lifted up, but the sword of injustice keeps piercing our hearts. We stand at the cross witnessing the breaking body of Christ. Will the church tend to the wounds it inflicts? Will we stop the harm, make amends, and follow the Spirit into a resurrected church?

Your siblings in Christ, the divine source of peace and justice,

The United Methodist Clergywomen Listed Below and other Concerned United Methodists across the Connection

For the full list of signatures, visit https://forms.gle/jVRBAs6FecSedE3P8

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Open Letter Concerning Rev. Donald “Bud” Heckman

This open letter is written by a group of Young United Methodist Clergywomen (under 40). We invited all United Methodists to sign this letter and received 760 signatures. We composed this letter because we are outraged by the lack of justice reached in the matter of repeated abuse of women by Rev. Bud Heckman of the West Ohio Annual Conference. If you are unfamiliar with this case of clergy misconduct and the resolution reached, we invite you to read these articles.

An Open Letter To the Cabinet, the Board of Ordained Ministry and the Clergy Session of the West Ohio Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church:

We are writing this letter because we are outraged by the resolution reached by the West Ohio Conference, its bishop, and the Rev. Bud Heckman. We are writing this letter because we believe the many women who have come forward disclosing that they were harassed, preyed on, abused and harmed by Mr. Heckman. We are writing this letter because the survivors of Heckman’s abuse have asked for our support, and we give it unreservedly.

It is clear that there is no justice in this resolution. We are shocked that the church would stand by Heckman’s maintaining of clergy credentials. We agree with what Bishop Palmer said, “There is no excuse” for his choice to target women, his choice to act as a predatory abuser, and his ability to hide behind his professional credentials to shield him from accountability. This resolution sends a painful and clear message to other victims of abuse: they will not be heard, seen, or believed in the West Ohio Conference, or The United Methodist Church. It sends a message to people who abuse their power that the West Ohio Conference will aid in helping to minimize, silence, justify, and excuse their abuses. It sends a devaluing message far beyond the borders of West Ohio and to victims of abuse in the entire connection.

The women he harmed, and their advocates, were kept from having their voices heard in this resolution process. This process was done behind doors that closed out the expressions of pain, violation, and loss that the women felt. Heckman was allowed to shape his own consequences, once again using his clergy status and access to power as a shield from true accountability. This process was not just because those who have been hurt were not heard and taken seriously. This is egregiously wrong. The New York Times, which heard from these women even when the church did not, quotes one survivor, Megan Anderson, as saying, “He’s getting a slap on the hand. It leaves victims out of the picture.” Their fury is justified and we share their sense that injustice has happened here.

We who are clergy seek to use any power that comes from our positions alongside those who have less institutional power, including lay women like those whom Heckman harassed. We who are women, clergy or lay, know all too well the sexual harassment and microaggressions all women in the church endure, whatever their age and whatever their clergy or lay status. We cannot stand by when women are harmed by someone who is a part of our clergy covenant and is not held accountable for his actions. The fact that Heckman maintains his clergy credentials means he suffers very little for his abominable and predatory behavior and he will continue to benefit and maintain status in The United Methodist Church. It is not only parishioners in a local church who need to be kept safe from him, it is all women.

We believe that the resolution reached by the West Ohio Conference, Bishop Palmer, Mr. Heckman, and their counsels without the input of the women Heckman has harmed, allows for continued harassment. We are also aware that allegations against Mr. Heckman date back years, including a criminal harassment charge in 2012, of which the bishop was aware at the time. This shows a clear pattern of behavior on Heckman’s part and a clear pattern of excusing that behavior on the part of the church. What assurance do any of us have that this behavior will not continue? What assurance do we have that other instances of abuse, especially in West Ohio, will be taken seriously?  The fact that Mr. Heckman retains his clergy credentials communicates that the United Methodist Church approves of him as a faith leader. This kind of complicity devalues the orders of all fellow United Methodist clergypersons who exercise their God-given authority with integrity.

We write this letter to you because you are Heckman’s closest clergy siblings and his accountability partners. We are seeking justice for the women Heckman has harmed and protection for other women he will come in contact with while retaining his status as an ordained United Methodist clergyperson. We see that you are the groups of people who may be most able to advocate for the survivors of Heckman’s abuse. While we do not believe this resolution brought justice to the women, it was a binding resolution with specific conditions. In continuing to deny the harm he caused, Heckman has violated the resolution. This allows the opportunity for the process to be revisited.

Specifically, we ask

1) that this matter be reopened and Heckman’s clergy credentials revoked, given that he has violated  the terms of the resolution in his statements to the press.

2) that you insist that the survivors of Heckman’s abuse who have come forward will be invited to share their complaints and experiences and be received with empathy. We suggest the cabinet, all persons involved in the resolution, and the West Ohio Committee on the Episcopacy be the proper audience for such stories, especially given that their harm now comes not only through Heckman but also through the church. You can do this through their advocates, Cassandra Lawerence and Kevin Nelson. They will be able to help you listen to these brave women in a format they are seeking.

3) That this letter be included in the official report of the Board of Ordained Ministry to this year’s West Ohio Annual Conference.

We echo the statement Laura Heckman, Mr. Heckman’s ex-wife, gave to The New York Times, “What I hoped was that the church would take a stand and be an advocate for women, to demonstrate that they are honored and protected.” We, too, hope that these women, who are but a small part of the women who are harassed in our churches every day, will be honored and protected.

Sincerely,

The Concerned United Methodist Clergywomen Listed Below
And Other Concerned United Methodists Across the Connection

Continue reading “Open Letter Concerning Rev. Donald “Bud” Heckman”