A church that doesn't just preach tolerance

A congregation that has always embraced those whom others would turn away has won an award for its stands.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published June 22, 2002

PINELLAS PARK -- Since its founding, Good Samaritan Church's sense of outreach has run counter to the safety of the status quo.

Organized as a Presbyterian church in 1912, for years it attracted mostly Baptists with nowhere else to worship.

In 1969, the all-white church opened its new education center to a Headstart program for mostly minority children.

In 1970, Good Samaritan became affiliated with the United Church of Christ while retaining its Presbyterian connection.

Over the years, Good Samaritan started a food ministry, established a counterculture center to provide drug and draft counseling to young people and opened the first Meals on Wheels center in Pinellas County. The church also started a fellowship group for first-generation Chinese-Americans, provided an outlet for white and black teenagers to help defuse tension during the early days of school desegregation, started a group for gay, lesbian and bisexual teenagers and helped found the county's first chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays).

In 1993, the church also took the controversial step of declaring itself an inclusive, welcoming body for sexual minorities. In recent months, Good Samaritan rallied in support of a new city ordinance to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in St. Petersburg.

Last Saturday, the church's efforts on behalf of sexual minorities were recognized by More Light Presbyterians. The national group works for "the full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people of faith in the life, ministry and witness of the Presbyterian Church (USA)."

Said Marco Grimaldo, a national board member of More Light Presbyterians and an elder at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.: "This is a church with a powerful history that has taken great strides in recent years, and in particular this last year, toward reaching out among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in the Presbyterian Church (USA). And we're very proud of them."

Grimaldo praised Good Samaritan for educational efforts within the church and larger community and for its opposition to the Presbyterian Church's ban on the ordination of sexual minorities. He also commended Good Samaritan for including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered members in its leadership.

Good Samaritan is believed to be one of only two churches affiliated with the More Light movement in Florida. The other is Faith Presbyterian in Dunedin.

Last weekend eight representatives from the Pinellas Park church flew to Columbus, Ohio, where the Presbyterian Church was holding its 214th General Assembly, to accept More Light's Inclusive Church Award.

"We were very gratified to be recognized," said Wanda Gammel, 78, a church elder who lives at the Westminster Shores retirement community. "It was kind of an award for hard work, an uphill fight, with a lot of very unpleasant and unwelcome reaction."

Added Virginia Baxter, 83, also a church elder: "It's a vindication of all the battles we fought."

The congregation has not been in total agreement about the inclusion of sexual minorities, Mrs. Baxter said.

"Some of the members did not like it," she said. "Some of them left. Some of them stayed. Some of them just tolerate them."

The church's declaration of support for sexual minorities was the last straw for many, Mrs. Gammel said. "We lost a lot of members almost immediately, but the exodus continued for several years. People said, 'I'm fed up with this emphasis. There's too much attention being paid to gays. I can't do this.' ... On the other hand, we've had a lot of people who are not gay choose our church because of that stand."

Good Samaritan, at 6085 Park Blvd., "has an interesting history," said its longtime pastor, the Rev. Harold M. Brockus. "It was always kind of committed to serving the community, but has always been kind of a stranger to the community it was serving."

Brockus, who is retiring this year, arrived at the church in 1970. Before he accepted the post, Brockus said he told the congregation that he had to be sure that church members would accept his entire family, which included his adopted biracial baby daughter.

"This church never blinked about accepting my whole family," he said.

Brockus said he also was won over by the fact that the church had welcomed the Headstart program.

"It was very hard for white communities to accept Headstart and this church welcomed Headstart against the prevailing feeling of the community and that impressed me," he said.

The pastor said he would like his church to be recognized for all of its efforts, not simply those on behalf of sexual minorities.

"I've been here 32 years and we've been involved with the ministry of outcasts in many ways," he said. "We're not interested in being known as a one-issue church."

Nonetheless, that is the issue that has brought the church accolades from More Light Presbyterians. The group, though, "is not formally sanctioned" by the Presbyterian Church (USA), said Jerry Van Marter, director of the Presbyterian News Service in Louisville, Ky.

"It is an advocate for the full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Presbyterians in the life of the church, including their ordination as church elders, which is not currently denomination policy," Van Marter said. "We have a whole raft of special interest groups. ... They are part of the family, but they're not official."

That's of little consequence to Good Samaritan members such as Tim Lewis, who traveled to Saturday's ceremony with his partner, the Rev. Ken Hamilton.

"I guess it just means to me that our efforts have been recognized and that we are not afraid to stand up for what we believe," he said of last weekend's award.

Mrs. Gammel, who described herself as someone who has always stood with the minority, said she did not understand the issues that concern sexual minorities until she heard Brockus preach a series of sermons on the subject a few years ago.

Advocacy for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people is a civil rights issue, she said.

"I was personally involved in the civil rights movement, in women's rights, all the people who were struggling. It seems to me just another part of that particular mind-set," she said.

She and other church members believe their efforts will not be in vain.

"Every social issue throughout the church has caused rancor, but has eventually turned out to be progressive," said Al Frymier, who also traveled to Ohio last week.

"I can't think of an issue that has been raised -- slavery, divorced ministers, remarriage, women in the pulpit -- all taken on as issues, but eventually the church sees the progressive way," he said.

"Obviously," said Lewis, "the more churches that take a stand, the more likely that the Presbyterian Church as a whole will listen."

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