Scott Anderson is ordained anew – this time as an openly gay man

About 325 people attended the ordination service
at Covenant Presbyterian Church.
Anderson, 56, was originally ordained in the
1980s, but he set aside his ordination in 1990
when his homosexuality was made public by
members of his congregation.
Since then, he has served as executive director
of the California Council of Churches and, for the
past eight and half years, as executive director of
the Wisconsin Council of Churches. During all
that time, he has continued to press the denomination
to open its doors to the ordination of samesex
partnered persons.
While Anderson was being ordained inside the
church in Madison, representatives of Westboro
Baptist Church stood across the street, holding
signs in protest.
Westboro, an independent Baptist congregation
in Topeka, Kan., is known for the extreme
measures it has taken to express its condemnation
of homosexuality, including picketing the funerals
of slain U.S. service members.
Four police officers were stationed outside
Covenant Presbyterian Church and two inside
during Anderson’s ordination. Members of a
Unitarian congregation in Madison formed a barrier
between the church and the protestors from
Westboro.
The Rev. Mark Achtemeier, member-at-large of
John Knox Presbytery and a former professor at
the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary,
offered the sermon at the ordination service.
Referring to Jesus’ teaching that wise interpretation
of Scripture adds new treasure to old understanding
(Matthew 13:52), Achtemeier cautioned
that the new treasure represented by Anderson’s
ordination was not obvious to all.
Achtemeier did not refer to Anderson’s sexual
orientation, but he spoke of an essay by Chely
Wright about her experience as an LGBT child in
a place of worship. He said he hoped God would
use Anderson’s ministry to revive weary exiles and
bring healing hope to those who, like Wright, have
experienced alienation.
“God has not forgotten these alienated children,”
Achtemeier said. “May God make your
ministry a life-giving spring of water.”
Following the constitutional questions, the
Rev. Dale Chapin invited all present teaching and
ruling elders to come forward for a laying on of
hands. Almost three-quarters of those in attendance
accepted the invitation.
Following the prayer, the congregation stood
and applauded, and some of its members cheered.
Anderson was then re-presented with the pulpit
robe he had been given at his original ordination
more than 20 years ago. David Lohman
of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in
Minneapolis then presented Anderson with a stole
from the “Shower of Stoles Project.” Lohman said
the project’s collection of stoles reflected the loss
of leadership the church has suffered because of its
unjust policies.
Lisa Larges, minister coordinator for That
All May Freely Serve, an open lesbian, and candidate
for the ministry of teaching elder, and the
Rev. Tricia Dykers Koenig, national organizer of
the Covenant Network of Presbyterians, offered
prayers giving thanks for Anderson’s pastor’s
heart and asking that the power of love be greater
than the power of hate.
Larges hopes to become the first openly lesbian
woman to be ordained as a minister in
the PC(USA). In August, the denomination’s
highest court, the General Assembly Permanent
Judicial Commission (GAPJC), gave its approval
to Anderson’s pending ordination, but Larges’ bid
for ordination remains on hold.
In the charge to the receiving congregation,
the Rev. Peg Chemberlin, executive director of the
Minnesota Council of Churches and president of
the National Council of Churches of Christ in the
USA, asked that churches not lapse in “leading the
movement forward.”