CONSULTATION & DIALOGUE

a truly remarkable coming together

The following report of the January, 1966, "Consultation on Religion and the Homophile" was written by three young members of ONE who participated in a truly remarkable coming together of two social groups, often thought to be antagonistic to each other. The "Consultation" proved dramatically that this need not be the case.

During six sessions the clergymen, about a dozen of them, and the homophile men and women, argued, agreed, disagreed, ate together, shared housing cabins, played volley-ball, hiked, sang and prayed, as humans concerned together about a very human problem for which they felt themselves obligated to do something. What that something ought to be was the theme of their quest.

Included in the group were Episcopal, Presbyterian, United Church, Lutheran, Methodist, Roman Catholic and Jewish clergy and laymen. Others, while not religiously committed, still felt strongly concerned that two major segments of society ought somehow to better understand each other.

Homophile groups represented were: ONE, Incorporated; Mattachine Society; Society for Individual Rights; Daughters of Bilitis; Pursuit & Symposium; Society of Good Companions. A Trustee of the San Francisco Council on Religion and the Homosexual also participated.

At its February meeting held in Glendale, California, "The Committee" took formal action to incorporate as "The Southern California Council on Religion and the Homophile." Hence, less than twelve months after its inaugural meeting, the Council is very much a going concern. Several of its clergy took part in ONE's 1966 Midwinter Sessions. Members of ONE's staff have been fulfilling speaking engagements at various Southern California churches and before official church bodies with frank discussions of homosexuality. Individuals have been referred by clergymen to ONE's Social Service Division, which in return has referred those having religious questions to ministers on the Council.

The Council thus finds itself already at work in some very practical and useful ways. It hopes and expects that its usefulness will grow and be more widely understood as time goes on.

The Committee on Religion and the Homophile of Southern California was organized during the summer of 1965, and instigated by the Council on Religion and the Homosexual of San Francisco which was then just a year old. Members of the clergy and of homophile organizations were invited to form such a committee in order to discuss and come to grips with the problems of the homosexual in this area.

(For a more complete account, see Editorial, ONE Magazine, October, 1965.)

The Committee's activities took on the form of monthly, day-long dialogues between the clergymen and homosexuals, culminating in a three-day weekend of consultations at a church conference ground, in Pacific Palisades, California. Approximately 35 people attended the retreat on January 21-23,

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