Still Processing with Ann Kansfield next Thursday!
Next gathering: Ann Kansfield, Aug 7, 7pm interview (6pm happy hour), Port 393, Holland, MI
Ann and I met for the first time on Wednesday. We talked about Ann’s journey, which has included a lot of pain and a lot of joy. Ann is a wonderfully authentic person. You will like her, and she has so much to teach us. We talked effortlessly for almost three hours, agreeing about a lot, but also disagreeing about some things (some of which we will explore next week). We were honest with each other, and we respected each other. It was life-giving.
Ann, as some of you may know, has a difficult history with the Reformed Church in America. Amazingly to me, Ann also has a lot of affection for the RCA, and the church. Her father, Norman Kansfield, was president and professor of theology at New Brunswick Seminary, beginning in 1993. New Brunswick is an RCA seminary.
In 2004, Norm chose to officiate Ann’s wedding to her partner, Jen. Same-sex marriage was legalized in Massachusetts on May 17, 2004. Norm officiated Ann and Jen’s wedding on June 19, 2004. This event caused a firestorm within the RCA, a storm that still rages in the RCA and many other denominations.
[Norm] was dismissed from the Presidency due to officiating at Ann's 2004 marriage to her same-sex partner. Subsequent charges were brought to the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America, which put him on trial in June 2005. He was found guilty of all charges and punished by being deposed from the office of Professor of Theology and suspended from the office of Minister of Word and Sacrament.1
It was awful, a truly shameful moment in the RCA. You can read the New York Times write-up on Norm’s trial here. Norm was reinstated as a minister in the RCA through a process (partly confidential, see below) in 2011.
A classis (regional group) of RCA congregations announced in November that it had voted to restore Kansfield to the ministry in a ceremony held October 18 at Hawthorne (New York) Reformed Church.
Kansfield told the Century that in 2005 he renewed his public vow that he would not perform another same-sex marriage until authorized to do so within the RCA. "The content of my confession/repentance is confidential," Kansfield said in an e-mail. "At the time of my reinstatement, the [Rockland-Westchester] classis was well aware of my work with Room for All, and in particular, my workshop at the group's recent national conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan."2
Obviously Ann and I will spend a part of the evening reflecting on this seminal event in her life. But Ann is not defined by this one event. She has done so much since 2005. Ann and Jen are the pastors of Greenpoint Reformed Church in Brooklyn, New York, which has an amazing Hunger Program, which was started by Ann.
Ann was the first openly gay chaplain to serve the FDNY, beginning in 2015. As you might imagine, fire departments are extremely masculine institutions. It is no small task for a woman, let alone a lesbian, to earn the respect and admiration of the FDNY, but Ann has done just that.
And this just scratches the surface of Ann’s journey and wisdom. She also wrote a book about her journey and her values: Be the Brave One: Living Your Spiritual Values and Other Life Lessons. We will have some copies of her book for sale on Thursday, which Ann would be happy to sign. I hope you’ll join us next Thursday!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_J._Kansfield
https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-01/ex-rca-seminary-head-reinstated-ministry