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Steven Koehler, L.M.T.
L ic e n se d M assage T h e r a p is t
“Spirit Expressing,” a unique new ministry
created to support and celebrate the spiritual
energy of Portland’s arts community, lesbian and
gay community, and recovering community,
holds Sunday evening “celebrations” at 7 p.m. at
the Noithwest Service Center, 1819 NW Everett
in Portland. Ed Townley, an ordained Unity
minister, is leading the new group, which is af
filiated with the international Unity School o f
Christianity. David York, a well-known Portland
area conductor and musician, is music director
for the new ministry.
“ Spirit Expressing intends to explore and
celebrate the crea
tive power o f God
as it becomes
manifest through
our own minds and
creative expres
sion,” Townley ex-
I H t >tV. MATTHEW NELSON
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all types are among those on the cutting edge of
spiritual transformation, because they are con
sciously working with the creative process on a
daily hourly basis.”
Spirit Expressing will roam far from tradi
tional worship services, emphasizing and cele
brating creative expression o f all types. Each
week’s celebration will be different, featuring
music, dance, drama, readings and visual arts in
new and surprising ways. Each celebration,
however, will emphasize the presence and power
of God in all creative expression, and its poten
tial for transforming the world.
Unity is a New Thought spiritual movement,
founded in 1889, based in a belief that all the
power o f God is present in potential within each
person, and that it is by allowing that power to
work through our own minds that the state o f
wholeness, joy, abundance and peace with Jesus
called the “kingdom o f heaven” can be realized
in our lives. Because it recognizes the presence
o f Truth in all forms of spiritual expression,
U nity’s approach is distinctly nondenom ina-
tional. Spirit Expressing welcomes all to share
and celebrate together. For further information,
phone 281-5441.
Reform head
urges President
to pursue justice
Invoking the call o f the Hebrew prophets to
“pursue justice," Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler,
president o f the Union o f A m erican Hebrew
Congregations, has urged President Bush to
overturn the Defense Department’s official pol
icy of discrimination on the basis of sexual ori
entation. The department’s policy prevents ac
knowledged homosexuals, men and women,
from enlisting in the armed forces and provides
for the immediate discharge if they are discov
ered.
Writing in behalf o f the UAHC’s 850 mem
ber congregations. Rabbi Schindler urged the
President to issue an executive order “to end the
Department of Defense’s official policy of dis
crimination against people on the basis of sexual
orientation.” Rabbi Schindler decried this policy
which, he said “continues even though many
objective studies, including thdse commissioned
by the Pentagon, have shown that gay and les
bian people can and do serve as well as their
heterosexual brothers and sisters.” He continued,
“As you know, President Truman issued an his
toric order in 1948 that integrated the armed
forces. Subsequently, all fears that integration
would disrupt the efficient and harmonious op
eration of the armed forces proved to be u n
founded. The Hebrew prophets. Mr. President,
demand that we pursue justice. Please act in
their spirit. Bring justice to these, our sons and
daughters, our brothers and sisters, our friends
and ourselves, who have been denied it for so
long.”
Integrity moves
Episcopal
Convention
Integrity, Inc., the lesbian and gay justice
ministry of the Episcopal Church, received many
congratulations from various conservative Epis
copalians for its success at the triennial General
Convention o f the Church this past summer.
A proposed canon submitted by Bishop W il
liam Fray would have required that all clergy
abstain from sexual relations outside o f Holy
Matrimony. The canon was soundly defeated in
both houses o f the bicameral convention: the
House of Deputies (over 800 deputies evenly
divided between clergy and laity) and the House
of Bishops (200 active and retired bishops). In
stead, the convention adopted a compromised
and generally gay-friendly resolution on human
sexuality, which calls for continuing dialogue on
lesbian and gay issues and m andates another
report to be presented to the next General Con
vention. Unlike past reports, however, lesbian
and gay members are officially slated to be in
cluded in the m em bership o f the com m ittee.
Also adopted was a proposal that clergy and la
ity be educated about lesbian and gay issues».
A high point of the Convention was the intro
duction in the House o f Bishops o f the Rev.
Elder Troy Perry, m oderator o f the Universal
Fellowship o f M etropolitan Com m unity
Churches. This introduction, which was ar
ranged by Integrity, marked the first time that the
Rev. Elder Perry had been introduced at a con
vention of a mainline denomination.
Religious
organizations
join ACLU
Seeking to rebut Kentucky’s argument that its
anti-consensual sodomy statute is justified by Ju-
deo-Christian tradition and “public morals,” the
A m erican Civil Liberties Union has filed a
friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of 15 religious
organizations in a case of challenging the statute.
The brief, prepared by the A C LU ’s national
Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, was filed in the
case of “Commonwealth o f Kentucky v. Jeffrey
Wasson.” This case began in 1986 when W as
son allegedly invited an undercover officer in
Lexington, Kentucky to his home to have sex.
Wasson was arrested and charged with criminal
solicitation.
Ruth E. Harlow, staff counsel for the ACLU’s
Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, said the case is
“at the forefront o f national efforts to win rights
for lesbians and gay men. In the past few years,
courts in several states have overturned state
anti-sodomy statutes, but too many of these laws
are still in force. Lesbian and gay men cannot
fully win their rights until their sexual lives are
decriminalized. These religious groups are mak
ing a powerful statement that destroys the moral
ity-based justification for such invidious laws.”
Among the ten local congregations and five
national organizations joining the brief were the
A m erican Friends Service C om m ittee, the
American Jew ish Com m ittee, the O ffice o f
Church in Society o f the United C hurch of
Christ, the Union of American Hebrew Congre
gations, the Unitarian Universalist Association
and the Central Presbyterian Church of Louis
ville.
The brief emphasizes that religious organiza
tions are no longer united in their thinking about
homosexuality. The brief shows that the state's
religion-based justification for its anti-sodomy
statute “crumbles upon analysis of gay men and
lesbians. If any moral consensus exists today, it
is that government should not intrude upon the
consensual, private sexual conduct of adults.”
Compiled by Matthew Nelson, an ordained
minister o f the United Church o f Christ.