Walnut Creek Church Welcomes Its Gay Members But Won't Be Ordaining Them Anytime Soon

Kalene Gomez loves the Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church. A five-year member, the Pleasant Hill mother of two sons especially loves the children's programs and sense of community she has found.  

It's not likely she is going to change churches, even if she disagrees with her church leaders' opposition to a recent decision by the national Presbyterian Church (USA) to allow gays and lesbians to be ordained as pastors, deacons and other church leaders. 

Gomez was one of the few members at a special congregation gathering held Sunday to ask questions or state a view on the issue.  Senior Pastor Morgan Murray has said that the 750-member Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church, which he identifies as evangelical, opposes gays and lesbians in church leadership on theological grounds.

 The Presbyterian Church endorsed Amendment 10-A to the national church's constitution on May 10. The amendment basically removes any reference to sexual orientation or behavior from the rules on who can be ordained.

So, any Presbyterian Church in the United States can start ordaining gay or lesbian pastors. Although supported by a majority of the 173 presbyteries (church regions) that make up the main church, the move came after decades of discussion and battles, and caused mixed reactions from Presbyterian leaders across the country, including Walnut Creek’s Murray. 

The Walnut Creek church won't go along with the amendment and is not required to do so. Murray and Mary Holder Naegeli, who represents the evangelical caucus for churches in the four-county area that makes up the San Francisco Presbytery, said strict observance of New Testament Scriptures means believing that the only healthy sexual relationships are those between a married man and a woman.  They note that the Presbyterian church ordains women in leadership roles because the Scriptures allow for that. 

As Murray and to his congregation on Sunday, the Walnut Creek church is looking to strengthen its theologically conservative congregation core values that he says have defined the Presbyterian Church for more than 100 years.

He said the church will seek out collaboration with like-minded congregations locally and across the United States. The option of leaving the national church never arose at Sunday's meeting, which took place after regular Sunday morning services.  Murray said in a previous interview that this option would occur only if the Presbyterian Church (USA) continues to move in opposition to the Walnut Creek church's theological values and if congregants voted to take such a major step. 

"You can never agree 100 percent with your church," Gomez said after the meeting. During it, she stood up and said. "I love this church but fully support the passage of 10-A."

"I'm really glad someone stood up to stay that," Murray said. "I don't want anyone to get the idea that we're all in the same place over this."

He added that "nothing has changed" at the Walnut Creek church and that it welcomes members who are gays and lesbians. "If this is a place that you feel love and you feel you've received acceptance, nothing has changed, even if you are celebrating 10-A."

One congregant asked Murray and other church leaders why they were bothering to take an active role in opposition to 10-A by seeking to collaborate with other churches. 

"If 10-A does not compel us to change whom we ordain, it seems like we could just do nothing," said one member. 

Murray described the passage of 10-A as a clarifying moment in the church after years of uncertainty and debate over the issue. Now that the national church has made its move, local denominations have the chance to clarify their positions.

This would not be the first time that the Walnut Creek church’s stance on gay and lesbian rights has brought media attention. The church came under scrutiny following the 1983 suicide of Bobby Griffith, a 20-year-old from Walnut Creek who had grown up in the church and felt rejected by his mother and his church because he was homosexual. His mother, Mary Griffith, blamed herself for her son’s death, as well as her church’s view that homosexuality is “a sin and an abomination.”

Some people who said they were supportive of the Walnut Creek church commented on the message boards for Friday's Patch story that the Bobby Griffith incident is more than 20 years old and much has changed in the church. 

While still highly visible because of its downtown location, the Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church is not the powerhouse it once was in terms of membership.  At the service before the congregants' meeting, Murray referred to how longtime members talk about the "good old days" when the three Sunday services and church classrooms were packed. 

Sunday's parking lot and services seemed pretty crowded, but apparently were not as full as in the past.

But as the congregation has become smaller, it has become more cohesive in its values, Murry said during the service. "We aren't the church we used to be but we are becoming the church that Jesus wants us to be."