"FOR I AM FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE"

 “FOR I AM FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE”

Today is the 48th anniversary of my being ordained as a pastor in the Presbyterian Church.  I was ordained in 1975 by what was then Norfolk Presbytery on a hot Sunday afternoon (no ac – I seem to be drawn to those types of churches) to be co-pastor of St. Columba Presbyterian Church in Norfolk. My co-pastor was my spouse the Reverend Caroline Leach.  She was already ordained in 1973, so she is the senior pastor in our family, and the 50th anniversary of her ordination is June 26, of which I will write in a few weeks. We were the first clergy couple to serve in a local church in the former Southern Presbyterian Church (PCUS).

While at St. Columba, I was converted on the LGBTQ+ issue.  Thanks to Caroline and others, I had already changed my mind on whether gay and lesbian people were human beings like me, and on whether they could be members of the church.  I still was feeling uncomfortable on what I thought were the Biblical issues related to those attracted to people of the same gender.  That would change pretty quickly one autumn afternoon, when I was converted.  St. Columba was a small church (12 members when we arrived) with a big mission to 5,000 low income residents of the complex in which the church building was located.  As we found throughout our ministry over 5 decades, we tended to attract people on the margins of life and of the church.  One of those people was a woman member, who demonstrated time and again in the life of St. Columba, that she simply was one of the finest Christians and human beings that I have ever met.

When it came time to nominate church members to be elders on the Session, her name came up quickly.  I called her to ask her about agreeing to be nominated, but she said that she wanted to come in to talk with me about it.  When she came in that afternoon, she said that she wanted me to know that she was lesbian, that she was attracted to women, and she wondered if that would disqualify her from serving as an elder.  Internally, I was shocked – she did not fit into any of my stereotypes of who lesbians were.  Internally, I also thought that I could not imagine God telling her that while she was a great Christian, she was not welcome because she was attracted to someone of the same gender – if she wasn’t welcome, no one else could be.  I replied that nothing she had told me disqualified her from being an elder, and she was ordained as a leader in 1978.  We have been ordaining people as deacons and elders ever since, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

In this Pride Month, I’m also remembering and giving thanks for my friend and colleague, the Reverend Reginald (Reggie) Avant.  He is now pastor at Madrona Grace Presbyterian Church in Seattle, but prior to that, he was a chaplain at Grady Hospital here in Atlanta.  I got to know him after he visited Oakhurst.  We met for coffee after his visit, and we have been good friends ever since.  Reggie shared many of his struggles about growing up gay as a young Black man, and he tried many ways to change the fact that he was attracted to men.  Finally, God got through to him to let him know that Reggie was a child of God, no matter what the world told him or what he told himself.  He shared that it was such a relief to hear and to know that he was  “fearfully and wonderfully made, “ as the Psalmist put it in Psalm 139, with the phrasing from the King James Version.  My life has been deeply enriched by my friendship with Reggie, and I give thanks to God for him.

Reggie was ordained as a Presbyterian pastor in California before he had revealed his sexual orientation, and once he decided to reveal it, he resigned from his church position to try to figure out his next steps.  He moved to the Atlanta area and was called as a chaplain to Grady Memorial Hospital.  After he had been there for a while, he decided to try to transfer his pastoral membership to Atlanta Presbytery.  If he were approved, he would be the first openly gay pastor in the Presbytery. Such a transfer is usually just a pro forma event, but because of his desire to be welcomed as a gay man, it became a fight at the meeting.  The Commission on the Ministry approved his application, but some members at the Presbytery meeting voiced strong concerns. 

     Reggie handled it all graciously, and he made a powerful presentation about himself, ending with the great news that he was so grateful to God that God had made him as he was, that he was “fearfully and wonderfully made.”  Many of us spoke in his behalf at that meeting, but Caroline made an especially forceful statement.  She reminded people that the same arguments being made against gay and lesbian people had been made about her and other women as ministers, and she especially singled out the women who had spoken from the floor against accepting Reggie as a member.  “Remember this,” she said, “if some of us like Reggie had not fought for the humanity of women, none of you would have been able to speak at this meeting.  It’s time for all of us to hear and to live out those powerful words from Psalm 139:  “We are all wonderfully and fearfully made.”  

    Reggie was approved to become a member of the Presbytery by a strong vote, and we give thanks to God for that.  Though I’m hoping that this horse has already left the barn, I also know that strong forces, including those on the Supreme Court, want to claw back this hard won right of the humanity of all people.  We are in a time when the power of white male supremacy is trying to reassert itself, and in this month when we celebrate the gifts and the humanity and ministry of Reggie Avant and so many others, let us re-dedicate ourselves to the idea that in God’s eyes, we are all fearfully and wonderfully made.