My work with Curio Theatre led to my being asked to shoot some short testimonial videos for the Calvary United Methodist Church at 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue. (Curio shares the building with the Church.) So, when the Methodists needed someone to do some quick video work for a project, Curio suggested that they me to help out. So I did.
As I’m not a Methodist, I have to rely on Wikipedia to spell out the situation. “The United Methodist Church holds that “homosexual persons no less than heterosexual persons are individuals of sacred worth.” In other words, all individuals are of worth to God. Nevertheless, in keeping with historic Church teaching, it considers the “practice of homosexuality [to be] incompatible with Christian teaching,” For this reason, the “United Methodist Church does not condone the practice of homosexuality” or allow “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” to be “certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.”
There are many Methodists who want to change that language, and Calvary, being an all-inclusive church, has a lot of’em. So I was asked to shoot video of several members of the congregation reading personal testimonies about the need for change within the Church, the importance of the Church in their lives, and how the Church’s current doctrines have impacted them as gays or lesbians, or as relatives of gays and lesbians.
Last year I shot three of these videos. There’s no attempt to be fancy or dazzling: it’s just people talking about their lives. I was told that they became part of a video package that’s been circulating among Methodists. (I’m told that opposing videos exist; I’d like to see them if only to assure myself that the other side has lousy video skills.) This past week I shot a fourth segment, and was told that the first three were up on YouTube for all to see. So, here they are.