Category Archives: Rev. Jane Newall
Rev. Jane, one of “The pastors at Planned Parenthood”
from the Yakima Herald-Republic, Friday, January 18, 2008:The pastors at Planned ParenthoodYAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLICWhile some Yakima religious leaders are preparing for this Saturday’s anti-abortion march downtown, others are working quietly to support women’s right to choose abortion.
About a dozen local pastors serve on the clergy committee of Planned Parenthood of Central Washington in Yakima. They meet monthly to talk about issues concerning the reproductive rights organization, which offers birth control, abortion, HIV/AIDS testing and other medical services to women throughout the area.The pastors, who belong to traditional mainline and progressive Christian churches, offer their support to Planned Parenthood staffers. They sometimes are asked to provide pastoral guidance to women considering terminating a pregnancy. They tell women that it’s morally permissible in religious terms to choose to have an abortion.Clergy have been involved with Planned Parenthood since its start more than 90 years ago, so these local pastors are carrying on a long tradition.”Many Planned Parenthood (chapters) started in church basements,” said Anna Franks, president of Planned Parenthood of Central Washington. “Clergy were right there at the beginning of the movement. They had couples coming to them seeking support.”The local pastors’ work is not easy or comfortable, particularly in a community with a heavy representation of Christian conservatives who deplore abortion. The Rev. David Helseth, senior pastor at Yakima’s Englewood Christian Church, acknowledged that not all members of his own congregation approve of his involvement with Planned Parenthood.But “it primarily comes down to supporting women’s rights to make choices,” said Helseth, who was a founding board member of the local Planned Parenthood chapter and its chairman from 1998 to 2000.The existence of the Planned Parenthood clergy committee shows that while conservative Christian and Catholic leaders have taken the lead in denouncing abortion, their view is not shared by all clergy.”Anti-abortion isn’t an accurate representation of how all religious people feel,” said the Rev. Jane Newall, founder and senior pastor of Yakima’s Rainbow Cathedral Metropolitan Community Church, which welcomes people of all sexual orientations. “I think our voices are sometimes overshouted by anti-abortion groups who choose to use religion as one of their whipping posts.”Newall is a member of Planned Parenthood’s national clergy advisory board and a member of the local organization’s board.A local evangelical Christian minister castigates the pastors for their association with Planned Parenthood and their support for abortion rights.”Abortion is a curse on the land; our nation is suffering because of it. Four thousand babies a day are murdered in the womb, and we will have to pay a great price for that,” said the Rev. Ron Thomasson, pastor at Gateway Fellowship in Yakima. “I think (the Planned Parenthood pastors) are deceived. They have a liberal mind-set.”Thomasson believes Helseth and Newall are “in a very small minority” among Christian ministers on the east side of the Cascades. He will be out Saturday participating in the anti-abortion walk, which commemorates the 35th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade that barred states from outlawing abortion.Pastoral guidance on abortionThe local Planned Parenthood clergy committee is part of a small but growing nationwide trend that started in the mid-1990s. The Planned Parenthood Federation of America formed its national Clergy Advisory Board in 1994.Since then, clergy committees have formed at about 15 percent of the 110 Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country, including three of the five in Washington, according to the Rev. Vincent Lachina, a Southern Baptist minister and the state chaplain for the Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Washington.”It’s only since 1994, when the religious right became so powerful, the progressive clergy tried to find a voice and speak out,” said Lachina, who attends most meetings of clergy committees in the state. But “we’re just now finding our voice. It’s very important for us to meet with our peers and talk about these issues and know there are others who are part of the progressive movement.”The Yakima clergy committee has been meeting “quietly and consistently” for about 12 years, Helseth said.”We’ve had (Planned Parenthood) staff members talk about what they do. We’ve talked about homosexuality, HIV and AIDS, the role of clergy, sex education. We don’t necessarily get theological.”But some of the clergy committee members do get political. They participate in legislative lobbying in Olympia on behalf of Planned Parenthood, and write letters to legislators. A major issue for Planned Parenthood in this year’s legislative session is whether local school districts should be required to seek federal funding for sex education. Such funding would require them to teach abstinence only, instead of a more comprehensive approach that includes lessons such as condom use.Clergy committee members also receive referrals from Planned Parenthood staff of patients who are struggling with difficult decisions. In addition, the clergy group has drafted a “Pastoral Letter About Your Abortion Decision” to guide patients.The letter states that “we believe that God loves you, and that you can find strength, understanding and comfort in that love on days when you are in doubt or distress. We support your right and your ability to choose what is best for you. If you have thought about this decision, then you should allow yourself to be at peace and to be confident in your decision.”But Thomasson, at Gateway Fellowship, said he strongly disagrees that it’s religiously permissible to have an abortion.”We believe according to the Bible that God is originator of life, he decides when it begins, and he ends it at his determination,” Thomasson said. “We don’t want to meddle with what God is doing.”Helseth takes a different view.”When women are given power over their own bodies, and especially reproductivity, they will make good decisions that are best for them and their children and family,” he said. “This strengthens families and strengthens communities.”Planned Parenthood’s Franks encouraged pastors to join the clergy committee.”The clergy that have come forward are willing to respect women’s decisions and offer spiritual guidance regardless of their decisions,” she said. “We would love more clergy to join.”* Herald-Republic City Editor Harris Meyer contributed to this report.
Rev. Jane in today’s paper — “Local clery share a common ground”
Hi, folks. Deb just called me and let me know that Rev. Jane was in the paper today. What an encouraging story! Very cool. Laura
|
Published on Saturday, November 10, 2007 |
Local clergy share a common ground
By ADRIANA JANOVICH
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
|
ANDY SAWYER/Yakima Herald-Republic |
They appear to have little in common.
He’s in his 70s; she’s in her 30s. He took a vow of chastity; she has a partner and they have four children.
Monsignor John A. Ecker is a Catholic priest, the senior pastor at St. Paul Cathedral, a Yakima parish that’s more than 90 years old. The Rev. Jane Newall is the founding and senior pastor at a 13-year-old Christian church that’s open to people of all sexual orientations.
The two pastors from different backgrounds have worked together in the past on community projects and committees. And they’re working together again.
Newall and Ecker are the co-leaders of the 2007-08 Yakima Association of Churches and Faith Communities.
The association’s members — lay and religious leaders of local churches and faith communities — strive to put their theological differences aside in order to focus on what they have in common, and identify and meet the needs of the community.
“We certainly have different liturgical backgrounds, but we can work together,” the 38-year-old Newall says.
“The more secure you are in your own faith, the less you worry about other people’s,” she says. “I’m secure in what I believe. If someone else believes differently than me, I’m not threatened by that.”
Other members don’t seem to be either. They elected Newall to lead the Yakima association before they broke for their annual summer-long hiatus. Due to time constraints, she wanted to share the leadership role and responsibilities with Ecker.
“I said I would do it if John helps me,” Newall says.
“Our home lives are different. Our faith lives are different,” she says. But, “the variety of skills we have to offer coordinates well in terms of leadership. I have a lot of respect for the man.”
Ecker echoes that sentiment: “We have definite differences in church discipline and the way we worship,” the 74-year-old says. “We don’t talk about dogmatic differences very much; we talk about what we have in common.”
And that’s “a love of people and a love of the community,” Newall says. “Our common goals are altruistic. That’s where we share passion.”
So do other members of the interfaith association, which works to serve the community, Newall says, “without strings attached.”
“We’re not trying to convert anyone,” Ecker says. “We stress our similarities and what we can work on together to take care of the poor and homeless and the gangs in this city.”
The pair have known each other about as long as Newall has been in Yakima. She came here from the East Coast in the fall of 1993. By the following spring, she had started Rainbow Cathedral Metropolitan Community Church.
The association, traditionally made up largely of representatives of mainline churches — a group which includes United Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians — was already here.
But 59-year-old David Helseth, senior pastor of Yakima’s Englewood Christian Church and the out-going leader of the association, says it has evolved over the years and become more inclusive.
A particular emphasis to reach out to other denominations and religions was made after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Helseth says. Around that time, the group broadened its scope even further, loosening by-laws and including “Faith Communities” in its title.
Today, “All of these people are at this table,” Helseth says. “We are a very broad group, and that’s part of our strength and part of our challenge.”
The idea — and the group itself — isn’t new. In fact, the association has been around since the 1960s. Ecker helped start it following the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
“There was an opening of doors and windows to work ecumenically,” he says. “That was pretty much the impetus.”
These days, the group meets for lunch and discussion once a month at Yakima’s Central Lutheran Church. About 20 pastors and lay leaders usually attend.
Members pledge to work together in mutual support, respecting each other’s convictions and distinctions and pooling their resources. The latest season of collaboration and cooperation — without compromising beliefs —
began in September.
Many attendees represented local mainline churches. Also at the table: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormon church, and the current president of Yakima’s Temple Shalom. And on the rolls: representatives of the Bahá’í Faith.
Deciding priorities for the coming year was one of the first orders of business. And Newall emphasized the need for more outreach.
“We are such a diverse group it can be challenging to approach issues, especially ones that have any kind of controversy around them,” she says. “We might not agree on the how, but we probably agree on the problem.”
Issues up for discussion included gangs and prevention, family enrichment programs, health and wellness, immigration, and environmental concerns. After the tally, top priorities for this year were homelessness, race relations and cooperation with Yakima schools.
Says Newall, “I really think we can be more pro-active than we have been in years past.”
Traditionally, the Yakima association has been involved with the Yakima CROP Walk, an annual 5-kilometer walk to support the work of Church World Service. One-fourth of what is raised in Yakima stays here. This year, the monies went to Yakima Interfaith Coalition/La Casa Hogar, a faith-based organization that provides emergency services and helps Hispanic immigrant women and children.
Yakima Interfaith Coalition/La Casa Hogar is an outgrowth of the association, which continues to support the nonprofit through donations and offerings collected at interfaith worship services.
It also sponsors interfaith Good Friday and Thanksgiving services and participates in the local Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration.
Association dues are $50 a year. The money is used to cover administrative costs. It’s also given to other organizations — like Yakima Interfaith Coalition/La Casa Hogar — to help address community needs
Alleluia! Christ has risen! The coffin is empty! (some pics of our Easter worship)
Orion celebrating Jesus’ resurrection. Allelulia!!
Rev. Jane and Orion
Rev. Jane and Orion outside church (with the empty coffin in view inside).
Rev. Jane’s interview on Woman-Stirred Radio now scheduled for April 5th
Rev. Jane’s interview on Woman-Stirred Radio is now scheduled for April 5th at 1:30pm Pacific Time. We can listen to it live at www.wgdr.org by clicking on their “Listen Live” link.
Woman-Stirred Radio (WGDR 91.1 FM, Goddard College) features “interviews with GLBTQ writers, poets, musicians and artists from Vermont… and the rest of the world.”
Rev. Jane featured in Yakima Herald-Republic article: “Connecting with Jesus”
Hello, all. Check out today’s Yakima Herald-Republic. Rev. Jane was featured in an article called Connecting with Jesus. It’s the third part of a series called “Faces of Jesus” and features ten local people’s views of Jesus, including Rev Jane’s. I’ve excerpted her part below. Click on the title to read the entire article.
Photos by SARA GETTYS
Story by ADRIANA JANOVICH
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Today, a range of community members — from City Hall, church, jail, Starbucks, the Union Gospel Mission — share their personal beliefs about Jesus.Some are wrestling with hardships or their pasts. Some are in need. A few are progressive. A couple don’t believe. Most pray.
With a few exceptions, they are people who by and large aren’t usually in the pages of the newspaper. In it today, they describe their relationship — or lack thereof — with Jesus. They discuss their struggles, convictions, hopes.
[…]
The Pastor
Jane Newall
|
Jane Newall does not put Jesus in a box.“There is no box,” says the 37-year-old founding pastor of Yakima’s Rainbow Cathedral Metropolitan Community Church. “Jesus is not stagnant.”
Newall doesn’t have a static view of Jesus. Instead, she believes he is present in each person.
“Whenever we help someone else, we’re helping Jesus directly,” she says.
Likewise, she doesn’t have a visual image of Jesus: “I think that helps me to expand who Jesus is. Jesus has many faces, not just one.”
“I know, for some people, a tangible image is what they need to meditate on to relate to God,” she says. “I don’t need that as much. If I can see or experience Jesus in everyone, as opposed to one particular type of person, that is closer, I think, to what he wants for us to do.”
“It’s a living process. We can help Jesus come into people’s lives and participate in that process.”
While Newall believes Jesus is present in each person, she also believes the Son of God will return to Earth in the flesh — as a woman, the Daughter of God.
“I believe God is male and female and a whole lot more,” she says. “God created us — female and male — in God’s image. There’s a prototype of God we haven’t seen.”
She points to Genesis 1:27, which reads: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
Then, God blessed them. Both.
[…]
Is Jesus’s family not good enough for James Dobson?
Recently Time magazine published an article written by James Dobson, leader of the group Focus on the Family. The title of the article was Two Mommies Is One Mommy Too Many.
In response, Rev. Jane wrote the following letter to Time Magazine:
Is Jesus’s family not good enough for James Dobson?
Jesus’s great (times 27) grandmothers, Naomi and Ruth, raised Obed. Boaz was a sperm donor.
David’s love for the man Jonathan surpassed his love for a woman.
Biblical scholar Virginia Ramey Mollenkott counted 39 different families and living arrangements in the Bible, of which heterosexual marriage is only one.
We do not know if Jesus had a sexual orientation. He spent time with men and women. The disciple whom Jesus loved lay his head on Jesus’s lap during the last supper.
The prophet John the Baptist came with a message to turn the hearts of parents towards their children. James Dobson’s heart is not turned towards children. He advocates in his books physical violence as a way to discipline a child.
Why would Time magazine publish an article about what is best for children written by such a man?
Rev. Jane’s guest editorial on eighth anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death
from Yakimaherald.com
Published on Saturday, October 14, 2006
Politics still tower over tolerance
BY THE REV. JANE EMMA NEWALL
Some thoughts from a pastor on the eighth anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death:
* Marvin died on Maundy Thursday 2003 in Toppenish.
The first report was natural causes, but someone had messed up his trailer and run his Ford truck into a ditch at another location. Police also suggested Marvin had died of autoerotic asphyxiation, but ultimately, authorities concluded a few weeks later that the gay man had been strangled.
The crime remains unsolved.
* The couple wore smart outfits and had colorful flowers at their Holy Union. Their families sat in the church as they exchanged their vows and rings.
At a later date at Grant’s, the couple ate dinner with co-workers. But they took off their rings that night so no one would notice that they matched one another as they wrapped their hands around their beers. Read the rest of this entry
Rainbow Cathedral 