Painful documentary …

JASON BYASSEE was properly objective in his review of the PBS documentary The Congregation ("Behind church doors," Dec. 28). I had a more subjective reaction.

I felt deeply for both ministers of the congregation as well as for a congregation that seemed capable of working things out if left free to do so.

The associate minister, Beth Stroud, clearly exemplified the "gifts of the spirit" enumerated by St. Paul in Galatians 5. The congregation knew that she had such gifts. So did her senior pastor and her bishop. But I knew that the eloquence of her "coming out" sermon, though cheered by the congregation, could not free her from the dictates of canon law. I know because I've felt similar pain among good Presbyterians who have gotten entangled in the hypocritical use of canon law against them even while General Assemblies have urged congregations be open and welcoming of homosexuals into membership.

I felt for Pastor Fred Day, too, as it turned out that he was unintentionally filling an interim pastor's role. I hope both he and Stroud find places to serve where people can be free to call them "pastor."

Meanwhile, I weep for a church that both angers and sustains me, that uses canon law to set up roadblocks for potential servants who have shown they possess gifts of the spirit. The filmmakers got more than they bargained for or were prepared for, but the story they told left me in deep pain.

Wilbur Patterson

Florence, Ore.

COPYRIGHT 2005 The Christian Century Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning