'Open and Affirming'

They get hate mail.

They never know if the voice on their answering machine will be amicable or antagonistic.

A woman stopped by after a story ran in the Missoula Independent, says the Rev. Amy Carter, one of two pastors at University Congregationalist United Church of Christ on the corner of Hilda and University avenues.

“After she read that story she assumed that I was a lesbian, and she came by to convert me,” she adds, laughing and using her long legs to swivel in a chair.

Friday will mark 15 years since her church became Open and Affirming, the official designation in the UCC for churches that accept gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. The University Congregationalist is one of very few church organizations in Missoula with ties to the University of Montana that embrace the LGBTQQI community.

The church affirms the basic Christian orthodoxies, says the Rev. Peter Shober, but it is not their tradition to tell people how to believe.

“We give people a lot of latitude,” he says, using his hands for emphasis. Shober sits across from Carter and leans back comfortably on a couch. His hair is white and curly. The glasses he slides on and off his nose occasionally hide his kind, expressive eyes.

Carter is initially more reserved, but her warmth builds when she laughs, and a wide smile takes over her face.

She says the church does not test its members on whether or not they believe “the right thing.”

“There’s a wonderful saying, ‘In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, diversity; in all things, charity,’” Carter says.

The themes of unity and freedom of religious expression are deeply rooted in church history.

University Congregationalist materialized in 1922 a “free fellowship of seekers for truth and life,” as preached in the very first sermon, according to the church Web site.

In 1966, it merged with the United Church of Christ, and now hosts a congregation of more than 600 members.

While the church does not impose a hierarchical tradition on its members like other Christian denominations, they do adhere to the essential tenets of Christianity — namely a belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

“That story of Jesus, that guides us,” says Carter, dressed in a fleece pullover and jeans.

The two pastors sit casually in a basement room under the narthex of the church. Outside, the sound of volunteers floats in from the open door. At one point, a fluffy white poodle named Rosie runs in and rests her nose on Shober’s khaki-covered leg.

The informality and solace of this weekday meeting is similar to the atmosphere of the services at University Congregationalist. Some come clad in dresses; others sport their favorite team’s jersey on Super Bowl Sunday.

Still, Shober and Carter lead services in robes and stoles, and their services follow a somewhat traditional Sunday Order of Worship that includes scripture, hymns, responsive readings, a sermon and prayer.

The sanctuary is not unlike many small churches in Montana – wooden vaulted ceilings, rows of pews, steps leading to a raised platform at the front.

But on closer look, the lectern is not raised above the congregation. It sits surrounded by rows of pews below the steps.

Despite the church’s differences with mainstream Protestant denominations, the two sacraments of baptism and communion remain the same, Shober says.

The difference is that University Congregationalist does not exclude anyone in the sacrament of communion, as do some denominations.

“All those who desire or possess a belief in Christ are welcome at the open table,” Shober says.

The church doesn’t necessarily believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible, he says, but they do embrace the text as guiding narrative for faith.

However, the hate mail and phone calls don’t come in response to the church’s doctrine, say Carter and Shober.

They come because of its unapologetic acceptance of and activities supporting members of the LGBTQQI community in Missoula.

“I would bet that our congregation is a reflection of the general population with maybe a few more gay and lesbian folk because we are overtly open to and affirming of people of all kinds of sexual orientation,” Shober says.

Carter says they provide meeting space for a dinner group for people with HIV, their families and friends, as well as a monthly gay and lesbian potluck, and they perform what she and Shober call Holy Unions, unions between gay or lesbian couples.

“Since it’s not legal, we do what we call a spiritual, a worship service,” Carter says. She says these services are similar to marriage services between heterosexual couples, sans the legal license.

Carter and Shober both received a master’s of divinity from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif., which they say has emerged into being a “very, very welcoming seminary for gay and lesbian people.”

The Rev. John Lund, an ordained ELCA Lutheran pastor and peer minister for the University of Montana’s Lutheran Campus Ministries, also attended Pacific.

His group partners with University Congregationalist, where he preaches on occasion, and they periodically hold their Wednesday worship service at the church. 

Lund, a thin man in his early 40s with a goatee and brownish salt-and-pepper curls, tosses a small red apple into the air. He explains that 95 percent of the funding for his group comes from the Lutheran church but that it is a conglomeration of denominations.

“Twice in the last two weeks somebody said they heard somebody referring to our group as the group that’s not really Christian,” he says. “Which I think is actually pretty funny, but on the other end I wonder what that’s exactly about.”

At LCM on a Sunday night in March, members slowly drift into Emmaus House, just down the street from Carter and Shober’s church, for the group’s weekly dinner and fellowship.

The smell of corn, black bean and zucchini enchiladas welcomes students from the chilly air outside.

UM senior Tracy Louk, who prepared the meal, walks the length of the kitchen in her UM sweatpants and fuzzy slippers.

“I started at Campus Crusade for Christ because of a friend,” she says. “It didn’t meld well with me. It felt more welcome here.”

She says the group is generally more open-minded, and that she thinks of Lund as liberal.

“He challenges you to think about things differently,” she says.

As about 10 students sit around the living room after dinner, Lund asks them their plans for the week.

They voice concerns about midterms, talk of plans for the summer and discuss a recent anti-war rally some attended in Caras Park. This leads into a deeper discussion about the use of God in warfare.

“You could name anything, say Darfur,” Lund said earlier that week. “It is so devastating … the pain that is in the world right now, it will put you under.”

You can feel so hopeless, he says, adding that faith and the Christian path offer hope.

“Even in death there’s still hope,” he said. “I think that’s what the church can offer in a healthy way, is that spiritual grounding to be engaged in the realities of the world.”

One reality is the struggle some face with their sexual orientation.

Lund says the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, like the United Church of Christ, has a similar process of naming churches Open and Affirming.

The official title is Reconciled in Christ, and he says LCM is the only Lutheran body in the state of Montana to hold such a title.

Lund said that not everyone may have a liberal sense about him or her, but he says LCM is a safe place, especially for those questioning their sexuality.

“People that have a real hard time with that position usually end up not staying with our group,” he says about the LCM’s acceptance of homosexuals.

Clay Murdock, a senior at UM, is a former member of Lutheran Campus Ministries. He is now a member of Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship, a campus group affiliated with the Assemblies of God.

Murdock grew up on a ranch north of Malta, Mont., a town of about 2,000 people, and says he left LCM in part because of the progressive nature of the group.

He says he plans to become a Lutheran pastor and joined the group because of his roots in the Lutheran church.

Murdock says he disagreed with LCM’s acceptance of homosexuality.

“I used to struggle a lot with my sexuality. And I know that with reading the Bible and sticking to it, God has walked me out of that,” he says.

While he never experimented in homosexuality, Murdock says, he went through a period of questioning whether or not he was gay or straight, and he says emotionally he almost felt pushed toward it.

“I grew up without a dad,” he says. “And I was sexually abused as a child. That sets you up for problems.”

He says he believes the abuse led to the confusion he experienced about his sexuality.

While he says he doesn’t feel questioning one’s sexuality is sinful, he believes living homosexuality is.

“Emotions don’t dictate who you are and who you become,” he says. “There are different counseling options and inner healing. I don’t think it’s a sinful thing to go through.”

While attending LCM, Murdock says he talked to some of the interim peer ministers at the time (according to Murdock, Lund was not a peer minister when he joined the group in Fall 2004), and they did not tell him to suppress homosexual thoughts.

“That really bothered me,” he says. “I’m going to be a Lutheran pastor; I’m going to have to deal with that my whole life. It was eye opening for both of us.”

Although Murdock is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, he considers himself to be more conservative.

The church has engaged in conversation about ordaining homosexuals, but hasn’t gone as far as the UCC.

“They’re more open to homosexuality as not being against the Bible,” he says. “I would disagree with that really strongly.”

Shober says he understands that many would not agree with the University Congregationalist’s set of beliefs, “But we feel deeply that this has come to us as a gift,” he says. “We affirm these beliefs because of the Bible, not in spite of it, because of the remarkable experiences of welcoming people who had historically been excluded.”

Carter says the church also believes that human sexuality is a gift from God, and that sexuality is expressed and experienced in a variety of ways.

When they read the Bible, she says, they tend to look at larger themes.

Shober adds, “Some people look at the Bible as an instruction manual, and other people look at it as a love letter. Imagine how you read an instruction manual, and imagine how you read a love letter.”

Carter says the church’s tradition has always been in the forefront of creating a society inclusive and welcoming of all people.

“So we were at the forefront of the abolitionist movement; we were the first to ordain women; we were the first to ordain gay and lesbian people,” she says. “It’s part of our tradition to continually seek the edges in which God might be calling us.”

She discusses the personal feelings voiced to her from gay and lesbian members of her congregation who have been preached to about homosexuality as a sin.

“And you know how much damage that can do to a person’s spirit and a person’s sense of well-being,” Carter says.

“And how much that kind of understanding of seeing homosexuality as a sin creates an attitude of hate toward people.”

Even Murdock has a hard time disagreeing with that.

“My heart really goes out to people that are struggling with it,” he says. “It’s not an easy or fun thing. You just need to love people — you need to love them into whatever God wants for them.”

Everyone sins just as much as the next person, he adds.

Lund says if students approached him for advice while struggling with their sexualities, he would tell them spiritually, they are created as children of God.

“And this is not, in my opinion, a sinful state of being,” he says.

Carter says she believes the Open and Affirming stance at her church has made a huge difference in helping people understand who they are.

“I know that with our stance we have saved people’s lives,” she says. “And made a huge difference in people and understanding who they are, and that they are welcome and that they are loved by God. And that’s a huge thing.”