"Former Assistant Dean of Students at Candler & UMC Elder Comes Out to Congregation" Reconciling Ministries Network of Chicago, Illinois, United States for Monday, 4 January 2016

 "Former Assistant Dean of Students at Candler & UMC Elder Comes Out to Congregation" Reconciling Ministries Network of Chicago, Illinois, United States for Monday, 4 January 2016
Biblical Obedience in Edgerton, Kansas


Rev. Cynthia Meyer, pastor of Edgerton United Methodist Church in Edgerton, Kansas and the former Assistant Dean of Students for the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, came out to her congregation yesterday during Sunday worship service. Meyer’s announcement comes after 25 years of leadership in The United Methodist Church and what she refers to as “many years of distress.”
“It’s well past time for the denomination to change, and it’s my time to speak out as a part of that change coming to fruition,” Meyer said. “It’s soul-crushing to speak to my congregation each week about God’s love for them as they are, while being unable to speak of my own God-given identity, my loving relationship, and much of my day-to-day life. I do this not only for myself, but for my partner, for my daughter, for all those who are excluded and for the good of the church.”
Matt Berryman, RMN executive director, responded to Rev. Meyer's act of Biblical Obedience with gratitude saying:
“We are so proud of Cynthia, who has influenced so many of us who studied with her in seminary. Her brave decision to live her truth will reverberate beyond her church and touch many Methodists who have long admired her gifts to The UMC."
Read more about Cynthia's story here.
"Now is my time" by Rev. Cynthia Meyer, Coming Out
I think things over: reflect, ruminate, wrangle, revisit, brood, mull, process, ponder in my heart. I’ve mastered ‘think before you speak.’ I take my time. I’ve thought things over for decades, all my adult life. It’s time – I’m called to leap, not knowing where I’ll land. Now is my time; I’m taking it.
I chose the celebration of Epiphany to speak boldly in faith. “A light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not overcome it.” I’ve chosen, in my quiet (for a preacher) ways, to follow that light, to point it out, to insist that light shines even when it seem eclipsed by storms, suffocated in gloom.
Now I follow that brightest star, to risk offering my best gift to God, to the church, to the world,offering myself.
At the tweening age of twelve, friends dragged unchurched me to United Methodist Youth Fellowship. Church enthralled me: caring community, ladies inviting me to their pew, join the choir, stay for cookies. The pastor’s big smile and country music illustrations, preaching Jesus’ teachings: love, grace, caring for outcast, embracing enemies, striving for justice. At 13 I professed my faith, then entered the nearby United Methodist college at 18, seminary soon after. When I timidly mentioned my youthful call to ministry to that pastor, he picked me up and spun me around! Joy! Ordination followed, then ministry in local churches, a college campus, working with new generations of seminary students.
It’s been forty years since my baptism and confirmation. Forty years of ministry, in hiding – serving our grace-filled God in a rule-bound institution. Forty years exiled in a hostile desert by a denomination claiming to share living water. Forty years hearing, then proclaiming, “All are welcome at this table,” yet knowing that United Methodist policy asserts I’m not welcome to claim authority to speak those words reflecting Jesus’ inclusive, redemptive love. Forty years of the hierarchy repeating: wait, have patience; change takes time. The Scriptures and the Holy Spirit profess: Forty years! Enough desert-wandering! Forty years of exclusion, second-class citizenship, demeaning rhetoric – forty years of manufactured smoke attempting to eclipse the Light of the Gospel. It’s time for challenge, for change, for The UMC to stop justifying discrimination. It’s time for Gospel-followers to stride forth from desert gloom to promised-land, to reclaim full, equal regard in the church and in ministry.
It’s my time to proclaim the Gospel, loud and proud: I am part of God’s good creation; God is well pleased.
I’m a woman of God sharing my life with another Jesus-following woman. We, like you, are made in God’s image. Jesus Loves Me This I Know. I’m lifting my voice. It’s time for the UMC to illumine its brighter heritage and its claim: “Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors.” Make it true! It’s well past time. Some who have been biding our time now proclaim our truth. We’re done being victims of an unfaithful system. Now we’re activists for the redemption of the UMC, for the love of all God’s beloved children, for the love of God. It’s my time now. Forty years I prepared, pondered, prayed and wandered.
Now I take my stand, raise my voice for justice, and risk credentials and career. Silent no more, I keep faith with the Church by challenging it to keep faith with the Gospel. It’s time.
Rev. Cynthia MeyerCynthia Meyer grew up shy but happy in small town Kansas.In the United Methodist church she found grace and voice, committed her heart and presence.She's served local churches and in campus ministry and as assistant dean of students at Candler School of Theology, Emory University.She shares a wonderfully ordinary life with her partner, and welcomes her daughter home from college whenever possible.
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