A Presbyterian minister has been censured by her church for participating in a religious service on RTÉ television with LGBT+ Christians, a cross-community group in Northern Ireland has said.
The cross-community Northern Ireland Corrymeela group said it is “deeply concerned” the censuring of the Dublin minister for taking part in the 2023 religious service would have “a chilling effect on other clergy and church leaders who retain the right to dissent, the freedom of their own conscience, and a wider view of God’s reconciling love”.
It was “saddened” at the formal censure of Rev Dr Katherine Meyer by the Presbyterian Church for her participation in the service, said Corrymeela leader Rev Dr Alexander Wimberly.
Until her recent retirement, Rev Dr Meyer had been minister at Christ Church Sandymount in Dublin where she was censured and threatened with dismissal in 2021 by Presbyterian Church authorities in Belfast for allowing a gay man became a council member there.
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Rev Meyer and the Christ Church Sandymount council were ordered to recant following the appointment of Steven Smyrl, who is in a same-sex marriage, to the council.
In June 2023 she took part with the Amach le Dia LGBT+ Christians in the religious service at RTÉ as part of the broadcaster’s coverage of Pride events that month.
Following complaints, the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’s judicial commission in Belfast conducted an investigation and found Rev Dr Meyer’s participation in the ‘RTÉ Pride Service – affirming queer worship’ organised by Amach le Dia was unwise and inappropriate.
It formally rebuked Rev Dr Meyer “for her poor judgement and her actions” and said that Dr Meyer had not given “due regard” to “her need to strive to preserve the peace and unity of the church and especially that of the Presbytery of Dublin and Munster”.
“The Judicial Commission strongly urges the Reverend Dr Katherine Meyer not just to accept the fact that this censure has been issued, but to reflect on its meaning and, in so doing, to accept that her judgement and actions were wrong and to desist from such actions and behaviour in the future,” the judgement continued.
Rev Dr Meyer is also facing a further investigation by the church into complaints that she attended the Dublin Pride parade this year.
Rev Teagan MacAodhagáin of Amach le Dia said: “Any suggestion that a widely respected and honourable minister, like Reverend Dr Katherine Meyer, would receive such a backlash for attending a church service demonstrates the profound and piteous need for Amach Le Dia to exist to provide a place for people not accepted within the wider church community.”
He described Amach Le Dia as a “small non-denominational group of LGBTQI+ Christians and allies providing a space for LGBTQI+ Christians to use their God given gifts and talents in service of God and their community”.
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