Media Coverage
Seminary fires its president for performing gay wedding
Friday, February 11, 2005
BY STEVE CHAMBERS AND JEFF DIAMANT
Star-Ledger Staff

The New Brunswick Theological Seminary, one of the nation's oldest schools for training mainline Protestant clergy, has retired its president and reprimanded him for officiating at his gay daughter's wedding.

The school's board of trustees implied in an earlier statement that the wedding wasn't a factor in its decision not to renew the contract of the Rev. Norman Kansfield, 64. But last night, a board spokesman and Kansfield confirmed that the ceremony, which was conducted in Massachusetts, had precipitated the decision.

"We decided that the president had put the seminary in an awkward position by performing that ceremony without giving us the benefit of offering sufficient counsel," the Rev. Larry Williams Sr., a member speaking on the board's behalf, said last night. "It could have hurt the school if it divided people in our student body, if it divided our faculty, if it divided other people who support us."

In a letter sent shortly before the June 19 wedding of his daughter, Anne, Kansfield informed the board of his decision and said he wasn't seeking its permission. The board voted Jan. 28 not to renew Kansfield's contract.

The ceremony took place shortly after Massachusetts began allowing same-sex marriages, touching off a national furor.

In an interview last night at the seminary, Kansfield said he had not done anything to hurt his denomination, the Reformed Church of America. A former pastor and seminary librarian, Kansfield is considered among the church's most learned theologians.

"People presume I have been on a crusade," said Kansfield, a strapping man with a shock of white hair. "In point of fact, I'm a conservative theologian. I would not do anything that goes against the church."

The Reformed Church -- which traces its roots to Dutch settlers who arrived in America 400 years ago -- is one of the more conservative denominations in the National Council of Churches.

Unlike its fellow mainline Protestant churches -- such as Episcopalians and Methodists -- the church has not had high-profile controversies over the rights of homosexuals. That is about to change.

The denomination's national office in Grand Rapids, Mich., recently said formal complaints have been filed against Kansfield, and he said he expected to be brought up on charges in June at the church's General Synod in Schenectady, N.Y.

Kansfield, who has been president of the New Brunswick seminary since 1993, is one of a dozen "professors" of the church, an honor bestowed on its most learned theologians. After serving as a minister in New York City, he had been the librarian at several seminaries. He has been married to his wife, Mary, for 40 years.

Kansfield, who said he has had close gay friends since high school and his early days as a minister in Queens, said he sought permission from Massachusetts authorities last summer before he performed the ceremony.

Kansfield said a trial would be the highest-profile proceeding in the church since 1962, when a seminary professor questioned whether the first parts of Genesis should be taken literally. Kansfield said he was proud to be a catalyst for the discussion in his church.

Asked whether he or his daughter had made the decision for him to officiate, Kansfield said, "We arm-wrestled for that. We're a family that talks over major issues. I really very much wanted to do this. Anne and Jennifer consented."

His daughter and her partner, Jennifer Aull, live in New York City.

Kansfield had been in a one- year extension of a four-year contract when the controversy erupted last month. He said last night there had been "talk" of his contract being extended for two more years.

The Jan. 28 board of trustees meeting at Hertzog Hall, on the seminary's grassy New Brunswick campus adjacent to Rutgers University, lasted more than five hours. The 22 board members in attendance agreed not to release the exact tally of the voice vote against renewing Kansfield's contract.

The school, which has about 220 students, all of whom take classes in the evenings, is in the midst of a major expansion. A parking deck and on-campus housing are under construction. Kansfield and his wife live on the campus.

One student said last night the student body is divided about Kansfield's actions.

"Some people support what he did, some people don't," said Dave Haase, a second-year master's of divinity student. "Some people are on the fence."

Haase said he thought the board reacted out of "fear" of the broader controversy that Kansfield's actions might spur.

"We know very well that fear is the opposite of faith," he said. "They were worried about how conservatives would react. Unfortunately, church government tends to get very defensive when (it) feels threatened."


ecclesia reformata, sed semper reformanda