Episcopal Press and News

Leading Church Officer Decides to Resign in Sexual Orientation Debate

Episcopal News Service. September 26, 1997 [97-1964I]

(ENI) A prominent Australian church minister, Dr. Dorothy McRae-McMahon, who revealed in July that she is a lesbian, recently resigned as national director for mission for the Uniting Church in Australia after strong criticism from conservative parishes and church groups. McRae-McMahon said she was resigning because her presence in the senior position might distract the church from its real work. "As a marginalized person, I'm not prepared to jeopardize work for other marginalized people by holding to my position," she said. In an open letter released after the church's National Standing Committee accepted her resignation on September 1, she said that she would never resign her ordination, because "it is of God... I also cannot fall from my genuine conviction that I am standing on the prophetic ground of the Gospel of Jesus Christ," she added. The controversy over ordination of homosexuals in the Uniting Church intensified with the withdrawal of funds by the church's biggest parish. A group of evangelical and charismatic members of the church has also called for the resignation of homosexual clergy and for the redirection of financial support away from the church's ruling body. The conservative Wesley Mission, the Sydney parish that has withdrawn funding from the church, said in a statement that the call for resignations also was directed at people who did not adhere to the biblical principles of celibacy for single people and fidelity in marriage. The Uniting Church is Australia's second-largest Protestant church.