LIONEL KETOLA: Gay married man is now certified for call, Rev. Dawn Hutchings said.
Newmarket
May 15, 2008 10:07 PM
Openly gay man to be ordained
By: Sean Pearce
A local Lutheran church is braving the consequences to ordain an openly gay man as one of its own.
Holy
Cross Lutheran Church in Newmarket has announced it will disobey the
wishes of its order and go ahead with the ceremony to ordain Lionel
Ketola, an openly gay married man, even though the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Canada’s policies forbid the ordination of “self-declared and
practicing homosexuals.”
Holy Cross pastor Rev. Dawn
Hutchings said she isn’t concerned about the consequences of ordaining
Mr. Ketola as her associate pastor, because it’s just the right thing
to do.
“This started in 2005 when our congregation offered a
statement of welcome to gays and lesbians,” Ms Hutchings said. “The
following year, Lionel came to us and asked about ordination and the
internship to become ordained, which he did, and is now certified for
call.”
In addition to serving as an associ ate pastor for Holy
Cross, Mr. Ketola will also become an ambassador of reconciliation, Ms
Hutchings said.
In essence, he’ll travel to other like-minded
congregations to provide resources and assistance on how to better
welcome gays and lesbians into the fold.
Still, that’s not a popular notion with everyone in the hierarchy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada denomination.
This
ordination is a first in Canada, Ms Hutchings said, but congregations
belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America have been
subject to disciplinary actions for ordaining openly gay individuals.
As
it stands, the church’s stance doesn’t entirely forbid the ordination
of gay and lesbian individuals as clergy, provided they remain
celibate.
“As a married gay man since 2003 and an active
member of the queer community, this is a great opportunity for the
church to reach out to queer people,” Mr. Ketola said.
“I am very proud of Holy Cross Lutheran Church for this.”
For
its actions, the church could be subject to suspension, censure,
admonission or exclusion from the denomination, Ms Hutchings said.
Furthermore, Ms Hutchings said she, herself, could face being removed from the church’s roster.
“Our Eastern Synod meets in July and we’ll be asking for them to urge our bishop not to apply disciplinary action,” she said.
“At the moment the bishop has sent some letters detailing some of the possibilities for us.”
Even so, Ms Hutchings said she does hold out some hope that she and the church will go unpunished for ordaining Mr. Ketola.
“The
policy is that if you are practicing and open about your sexuality you
can’t be ordained,” Mr. Ketola said. “It forces people to be silent
about it.”
The bishop seems to approve of the church’s ends, but simply disagrees on the means, Ms Hutchings said.
“The
bishop has expressed hope at changing some of the policies we’re going
against, but he just doesn’t approve of our methods,” she said. “We’re
faithfully disobeying the church.”
The Eastern Synod’s Bishop,
Rev. Michael Pryse, said Holy Cross’ decision to go ahead and ordain
Mr. Ketola represented a serious breach of the church’s accepted
policies and practices.
The whole church, he said, is meant to decide who becomes ordained, not individual congregations.
“Our church doesn’t allow individual units in isolation to determine who gets ordained and who doesn’t,” he said.
“The whole church decides who represents us.”
As
things are, Mr. Pryse said individuals such as Mr. Ketola are not
eligible to become pastors in the church. It’s a simple matter of
policy.
“The church has a policy that excludes self-proclaimed practicing homosexuals,” Mr. Pryse said.
“As a result Mr. Ketola cannot be eligible for ordination by the church.”
‘At
the end of the day, I want to see homosexuals have the same rights in
the church as heterosexuals, but I don’t think one single act will get
us to that day any sooner; it might even put that day off.’
Ms
Hutchings is quite correct in saying that the church may be subject to
discipline, Mr. Pryse said. If the ordination goes ahead, the ELCIC
would likely put together an investigations committee and then, based
on that investigation, a disciplinary committee.
From there, the
church could face anything from strongly worded objections, to a
suspension or even being removed from the church entirely.
Mr. Pryse said such matters would not be up to him, but he hoped the most severe punishment would not be necessary.
“There would be no great urgency in doing this,” Mr. Pryse said.
“A lot of people are very passionate about this, so right away might not be the best time to make those kinds of decisions.”
Mr
Pryse went on to state he sympathizes with the goals of Holy Cross and
could understand their frustrations, however, he warned hasty actions
may end up hindering, rather than helping, the cause in the long run.
“My
great concern is about people in the moderate middle who are moving to
positive effect towards progressive views on this matter and might not
be very happy about a small group doing this on their own,” he said.
“At
the end of the day, I want to see homosexuals have the same rights in
the church as heterosexuals, but I don’t think one single act will get
us to that day any sooner; it might even put that day off.”
Either
way, Ms Hutchings said she’s not concerned about the ramifications that
may come about. She knows, if nothing else, she has the support of her
congregation.
“The congregation has been overwhelmingly
supportive on this issue,” she said. “They voted for this and they knew
the risks involved going in.”
Mr. Ketola lives in the area with his partner, Steve Loweth.
Tomorrow
night’s ceremony will mark the end of a long road for Mr. Ketola, which
began in Saskatoon in 1986 when the church first removed him as a
candidate for ordination, after he informed his bishop that he was a
homosexual and sexually active.
Since that time, Mr. Ketola has
remained committed to his goal of being ordained into the church and
has received support and assistance on his journey by organizations
such as the Extraordinary Candidacy Project, the Extraordinary Lutheran
Ministries and, of course, Holy Cross, which is also a member of
Lutherans Concerned in Canada an organization committed to fostering a
more welcoming attitude towards gays and lesbians within the structure
of the church.
Whatever happens, Ms Hutchings said the
ordination ceremony will go on as planned on at the Trinity United
Church located at 461 Park Ave. in Newmarket tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.
Ms
Hutchings said she, along with colleagues from the Anglican Church, the
United Church and from other congregations from across North America
will then perform the ordination ceremony and let the consequences be,
well, damned.
“In a Lutheran church, the power rests with the
congregation, but they cede certain powers, in our denomination, to the
gathered assembly of bishops who run the church in the interim,” she
said.
“As a gay man who has waited 20 years for this, it feels like a dream come true,” Mr. Ketola said.
“There were times I thought it would never happen ... It’s a great gift to be at this point today.”