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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1999)
■ h h m h h m m m Ju s t o u t |15 h h i^ iu ;i i : i v i S i n e w s 111M 1M U 4 W U J' R ealizing a D ream j m ....... MW uw 'W Î. *''■*&$ •x* A longtime activist - I * *v| ¡ y finds her calling by Bonita Bielski ' ’** he Rev. Susan Leo says she “gave in to God and to popular demand.” In July, the Portland resident and longtime human rights advo cate was ordained in the United Church of Christ, one of the few Protestant churches to ordain out gay men and lesbians. At the urging of friends and supporters, Leo founded Bridgeport Community Church a year or st) ago. W hat began as a monthly service has since grown into a full-time church with a week ly service. Leo, 48, was raised in a small Ohio town, and the values she learned growing up in a political ly liberal household have long been integrated into her adult life and work. She came to feminism before she awoke to her lesbianism, and in the 70s Leo helped pro duce the first Northwest W omens Music Festi val. While participating in Oregon Health Sci ences University’s paramedic program, Leo introduced anti-racism and cross-cultural train ing to the curriculum. In 1988, Leo spent six weeks in Nicaragua with the Linder Construction Brigade, con tributing her handy-dyke and paramedic skills to a country ravaged by civil war. During a ^candlelight service she attended there, Leo says, she witnessed a people who were galvanized and liberated by a deeply profound Christian faith, hope and love. The experience prompted her to come face to face again with her own Christianity. (Leo had given up going to church years earlier.) Deeply moved, she pon dered what it meant to he a Christian in her own country. After returning to the United States, Leo made the decision to attend seminary. Sponsored by Portland’s First Presbyterian Church, Leo entered the San Francisco Theo logical Seminary— knowing that, as a lesbian, she wasn’t likely to he ordained by the faith in which she was raised. Uncertain about the nature of her calling, she considered the other options she knew were available without being ordained. In her second year of seminary, however, she became certain of her calling to he a minister of the faith when she was awarded an Urban Min- Brid gep o rt roirtmunity Church .30 Welcome The Rev. Susan Leo (wearing alb and stole) with members of the Bridgeport Community Church congregation istry Fellowship and served for one year as asso ciate pastor at a church in San Francisco’s Ten derloin district. As associate pastor, Leo managed church budgets, preached, wrote liturgy and taught classes. She ministered to physical cuts and bruises and counseled individuals in crisis. It was while working there that Leo came to realize everything she had done in her life up to that point was in preparation for her vocation as an ordained minister. After graduating from seminary in May 1994, First Presbyterian Church supported Leo’s candidacy for ordination even after she told the committee about her female partner. The committee’s decision to support Leo divided the local church, and some were offend ed to the point of withdrawing their member ship and financial support. Leo was ultimately denied her calling, and that fall accepted a position with the Portland- based chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union as its education resource coordinator. She was also active in the Portland community, serving from 1996 to ’97 as chairwoman of Pride nation of a dream that had been years in the Northwest Inc., which orchestrates Portland I making. pride festivities. By the spring of 1998, Leo had formed her Leo says her ministry is about creating an own community of worship, which became environment for spiritual sustenance that is available to all people: women and men, chil Bridgeport Community Church. dren and grandparents, sexual minorities and Dozens showed up for the first service, which began as part of Portland State University’s heterosexuals. Like the larger organization to which it campus ministry. It became clear that the group belongs, Leo says, Bridgeport Community desired a full-time church with a weekly service, Church embraces the diversity of its member adult education and a childrens program. In January, Bridgeport was adopted and fund ship and accepts the challenges of finding unity in a common purpose. ed as a new church development of the United Keeping the spirit nourished, Leo adds, is Church of Christ, a Christian church that is vital to prevent burnout as people make their committed to working for social justice and way through the “marathon of life.” peace. This summer Leo was ordained at the Cedar Hills Community Church UCC. Among those who attended the ceremony ■ B ridgeport C om m unity C hurch services are held. Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on the second floor of was Elizabeth Linder, mother of Ben Linder, the the Portland Opera Building, located at 1515 S.W. young man whose work in Nicaragua had inspired Leo to go to that country more than a Morrison St. Call (503) 235-4245 for more infor mation. decade ago. During her ordination, Leo wore a chasuble BONITA B ielski is a Portland-area artist who that was designed and created by some of her church members. 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