Open and affirming
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Open and Affirming (ONA) is an official designation churches and other bodies within the United Church of Christ denomination may choose to adopt to declare gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered persons (LGBT) full inclusion in life and ministry of that UCC body.
The Open and Affirming Program is a program of the Coalition for LGBT Concerns that maintains the listings of ONA settings and encourages UCC churches, campus ministries, seminaries, etc., to engage members in an intentional study process on issues of sexual orientation and gender identity, and then to declare publicly their full welcome and inclusion of LGBT people. The ONA program is one of several LGBT-welcoming church movements to emerge in American Christianity (mostly Protestantism) in the 1980s.
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[edit] History
In 1985 the United Church of Christ's General Synod adopted the Open and Affirming (ONA) resolution, encouraging all UCC congregations to welcome (or consider welcoming) gay, lesbian, and bisexual members into their life and programs. Due to congregationalist polity, this statement had no legislative authority over local congregations, but individual governing bodies may choose to make representative statements of welcome, on their own initiative.
The ONA program was started in 1987 by UCC lay members Ann B. Day and Donna Enberg. [1] It was later adopted as an official program by the UCC Coalition for LGBT concerns (the unofficial advocacy group for this cause).[2]
New York City's Riverside Church, under the pastoral leadership of the late Rev. William Sloan Coffin, was the first in the UCC to be listed as ONA. [3]
According to the UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns, as of November 2006, an estimated 625 UCC congregations, 14 of the 38 conferences, eight church starts in application to join the UCC, and six UCC-supported campus ministry organizations have each crafted their own official ONA statements.
It is important to note that the UCC Coalition numbers churches sequentially and does not eliminate those numbers from its list when churches leave or fold, thus the number 625 is the number of churches who have ever declared themselves ONA and not the current number of active UCC congregations that are ONA.
[edit] Opposition
The website of the United Church of Christ has stated, "The United Church of Christ seeks to be Multiracial Multicultural, Open and Affirming, and Accessible to All - A Church where everyone is welcome!"
In reaction against the perceived promotion of the ONA movement by denominational officials, fifty-nine congregations have identified themselves as "faithful and welcoming" and affirming the Lexington Confession (named for the North Carolina town where it was drafted), which affirms marriage as an institutiuon between a man and woman. [4]. The FWC website states "For more than twenty years, the United Church of Christ on a national Church level has encouraged its churches to become identified as “Open and Affirming” (ONA) churches in support of the UCC’s non-critical acceptance of homosexual practice. Currently about ten percent of the UCC’s 5700 congregations have declared themselves ONA. In the past, these issues have largely been ignored on the local church level." and "This perspective on human sexuality has been affirmed by General Synod's in “non-binding” resolutions summarized by the 'Open and Affirming' movement. Only ten percent of UCC churches have officially adopted the ONA perspective, but the entire denomination is being marketed as ONA through the Still Speaking campaign." [5]
Thompson is also active in the Southern Conference of the United Church of Christ, where the newpsaper of another conservative UCC caucus, the Biblical Witness Fellowship, reports, "In June, the Conference denied space for the Committee for Renewal in the Association to hold a luncheon for interested delegates during the Southern Conference Annual Meeting. The networking event was held off campus in a local non-UCC church and attracted 86 people from around the Conference. Thompson addressed the group outlining his concerns about 'a bold attempt to establish firmly the identity of the UCC as primarily that of an ‘Open and Affirming’ denomination.' ONA translated means acceptance of homosexual practice and advocacy for the ordination of avowed practicing homosexuals and other related issues such as same sex marriage. Says Thompson, “the clear message is that UCC members have three options – adopt this position, accept it passively, or leave." Thompson urged the group to not do any of the three, but rather to stay, oppose the ONA stance and network for spiritual renewal within the conference. [6] The FWC movement claims that over 200 congregations (including the entire Puerto Rico Conference) have left the UCC since the 2005 General Synod's adoption of a resolution in support of same-sex marriage.
