Back in the Pulpit After Losing His Church, and Still Supporting Gay Marriage

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/11/us/back-in-the-pulpit-after-losing-his-church-over-his-support-of-gay-marriage.html?_r=0

JAN. 10, 2014


The Rev. Oliver White and the Rev. Lisa Bodenheim at Clark Memorial United Church of Christ in South St. Paul, Minn. Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

On Religion
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN

SOUTH ST. PAUL, Minn. — Three below zero on a Minnesota morning, and the Rev. Oliver White stomps the snow off his boots as he enters the stucco edifice of Clark Memorial United Church of Christ to lead worship. He peels off an overcoat to reveal the kente-cloth vestments his wife made for him, which match the kufi hat he wears.

On this Sunday midway between Christmas and New Year’s Day, he sees a congregation thinned by both vacation and weather. Perhaps 50 people fill the pews, yet in their modest number resides a startling range: a lesbian couple with their son; a 98-year-old man who still shovels his own sidewalk; the black and white relatives of a biracial baby about to be baptized.

“Good morning, and let’s have the church say, ‘Amen,’ “ Mr. White, 71, begins, standing in the aisle rather than at the pulpit. Hearing the desultory response, he chides: “That was only half the church. Again?” The voices now rise, and he adds his own emphatic “Amen!”

Such are the sights and sounds of redemption. In this unassuming sanctuary in a middle-class neighborhood, in this congregation stitched together from two struggling flocks, Mr. White is doing something that he had just about given up hope of ever doing again. He is pastoring.

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