Posted on 07/21/2002 8:46:07 AM PDT by Illbay
Officials in the Church of the Brethren will meet next month to review the case of a gay minister who could be in danger of being removed from the clergy.
Matthew Smucker, 34, was ordained in June in Kalamazoo, Mich. But delegates at the denomination's annual conference voted by a two-thirds margin to reaffirm a 1983 policy against actively homosexual clergy.
Smucker told the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette he is saddened but "I plan to keep walking on this journey as far as I can."
Officials in the denomination's Michigan district, which approved Smucker's ordination, will meet in August to consider the situation. They say the district has some leeway, but nothing like this has ever occurred.
Marie Willoughby, Michigan superintendent, acknowledged that most Brethren congregations in the state "strongly oppose the ordination of practicing homosexuals on biblical grounds."
Revocation of ordination is not expected to affect Smucker's employment as a seminary fund-raiser.
The Church of the Brethren, a pacifist group with offices in Elgin, Ill., has 136,000 members.
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