For 70 years, gay couples have been prohibited from getting married in the Chapel. And if the Chapel's policy continues to follow that of the United Methodist Church, the ban will be in effect for at least four more.
Last month, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church once again reiterated, by a two-thirds majority, its opposition to same-sex unions.
"Our church ought to have a more nuanced position on this subject," said Dean of the Chapel Will Willimon. "I was part of a group that was seeking a compromise on this, basically saying.... 'Let's have this decided at the local conference level.'"
Although the Chapel serves multiple denominations, Willimon cited Duke's close ties with the Methodist church as one roadblock to allowing same-sex unions.
"We have a relationship with the Methodist church that we don't have with other Christian traditions," he said. He added, though, that Chapel officials are in ongoing discussions about the subject.
Currently, Methodist policy on homosexuality is dictated by the Book of Discipline, the church's book of laws, which can only be amended by the General Conference, a quadrennial gathering that brings together Methodist leaders from around the world. Therefore, the policy cannot be revised until 2004.
Debate over same-sex unions at the University has risen again this year after the governing body of Reform Judaism's rabbis voted to allow each rabbi to decide whether to perform them.
Willimon said that if the conference had reversed its stance, he would have asked Duke officials to reconsider the Chapel's prohibition of same-sex marriages. "[But] we've still got a fracture running down the middle of the church, which ought to be a concern," Willimon said. He added that while state conferences such as North Carolina's are adamantly opposed to legalizing same-sex unions, others, such as those of Nevada and California, feel the opposite way.
Officials at the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church did not see the issue as gravely divisive. Director of Communications Bill Norton likened the issue to an argument within a family. "It doesn't mean everyone in your family agrees with something," he said. "[But] we certainly can debate, can discuss, can talk about the issues."
Two Methodist pastors and Duke Divinity School graduates, Jimmy Creech and Greg Dell, have been charged and found guilty of performing same-sex unions by the church.
"The [conference] was the legislative version of... my trial," said Creech, Divinity '70, who was at the May 2 to May 12 meeting in Lake Erie. "I experienced the same thing there-the church using its resources, overwhelmingly crushing the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people."
Following his conviction last November, he was stripped of his license to practice and has since been traveling around the country speaking.
Dell, also Divinity '70, said his experience at the University greatly influenced his beliefs on the subject of same-sex unions.
"The context for Divinity School education was one where we were encouraged to see the connection between the Christian faith and the world of the 20th century... [and that Christianity] was a living faith." he said. At his trial last March, Dell was suspended until July.
The debate over homosexuality within the Methodist Church began in 1972, when the General Conference declared the practice "incompatible" with Christian teaching. Similar phrasing was approved this year in a 628 to 337 vote. By a similar margin, the 2000 delegates also restated their opposition to ordaining homosexuals.
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