Julian Rush

Julian Rush
Julian Rush
	Julian Rush's senior class photo at Meridian High School, 1954
Born	Julian Bailey Rush; August 24, 1936; Meridian, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	November 28, 2023 (aged 87); Sun City West, Arizona, U.S.
Education	Belhaven College (BA); Perkins School of Theology (STM)
Occupations	Non-profit administrator; clergyman; composer; playwright;
Title	Former executive director, Colorado AIDS Project
Spouse	Margaret Salena House (m. 1965;div. 1981)
Children	2
Family	J. H. Rush (granduncle); Leslie Rush (first cousin once removed); Anne Mollegen Smith (second cousin); Al and Fred Key (second cousins once removed)

Last updated April 17, 2024

Julian Rush was a clergyman, composer, playwright, and administrator, who prompted a national debate in the early 1980s when he became the first openly gay pastor appointed by the United Methodist Church (UMC).

Biography

Family and background

Julian Bailey Rush (August 24, 1936 - November 28, 2023) was born in Meridian, Mississippi, to Julian Otis and Rebecca (Bailey) Rush. He comes from a family of healthcare professionals. His father was a pharmacist. Both grandfathers and several relatives were doctors.^[2]

He attended Meridian High School and served as drum major his senior year. While attending school there, he participated in theatrical productions at Meridian Junior College, which was considered an extension of the high school. Upon graduation, he attended Meridian Junior College for two years. He completed his undergraduate education at Belhaven College in Jackson.^[2]

In 1965, he married Margaret Salena House in Munford, Alabama. The union produced two sons.^[2]

Early career

After studying church drama at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, he worked as a youth minister in Texas and staged a successful production of Jesus Christ Superstar .^[1]^[2]

In 1976, assigned to First United Methodist Church in Boulder, Colorado and staged original Christian themed productions for the church, including "The Man Who Can Save the Day."^[2]^[3]

By the late 1970s, unfulfilled in his marriage, Rush was in counseling and began to come to terms with his sexuality. He was gay. Rush separated from his wife in 1979 and began volunteering at the Gay and Lesbian Center in his spare time.^[2]^[3]

Coming out sparks national debate

In 1981, he came out as gay to some members of his church. The response was initially positive, but after the senior minister, other church elders and the larger congregation learned of Rush's disclosure, several members of the church expressed displeasure in having an openly gay pastor in their church. The United Methodist Church which had recently initiated a ban on “practicing homosexuals” in the church, was now put to the test. Both supporters and critics of Rush threatened to leave the church. The critics because of their objection to having a gay youth pastor, but also from supporters who didn't want to be members of a congregation that was openly hostile to gay people.^[2]^[3]

The divisiveness on the issue created an untenable situation for the church and eventually they saw no way to address the issue, but to have Rush leave the congregation.^[2]^[3]

In a controversial move, Bishop Melvin E. Wheatley assigned Rush to the smaller St. Paul United Methodist Church in Denver. St. Paul was one of the few United Methodist Churches in the United States at the time that openly welcomed gay people to their congregation.^[4] This was the first time that an openly gay pastor had received an appointment by the Methodist Church. Wheatley was severely criticized for his actions but survived the controversy.^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

Despite working only part-time at St. Paul, Rush's arrival as an openly gay pastor helped increase the church's membership.^[4] Unfortunately, Rush's battles with the United Methodist Church establishment continued. This included two separate attempts to de-commission him as a minister. These de-commissioning efforts proved unsuccessful because it required proof that Rush was a practicing homosexual to be removed by the Church.^[2]^[7]

Despite these setbacks, Rush's courage in coming out and the national publicity that followed served as an inspiration to other gay clergy. One of those individuals was Karen Oliveto, who would later become the first openly lesbian bishop in the United Methodist Church.^[8]

Colorado AIDS Project

At the same time, Rush was spending more time at the Gay and Lesbian Center just as the AIDS crisis was beginning. This led to his appointment in 1983 as the first director of the Colorado AIDS Project, which became the leading organization in Colorado to assist people infected with the virus.^[2]

In the beginning of the Colorado AIDS Project, Rush was the only paid staff member working with two volunteers, and eight clients.^[8] For at least two years, Rush continued to work part-time at St. Paul despite spending between 50-60 hours a week with the Colorado AIDS Project.^[4]

By the time he left the Colorado AIDS Project in 2000, the organization had grown to over 50 paid employees and an annual budget of over $3 million.^[2]^[8]

In the Midst of New Dimensions

The hymn "Ours the Journey," which is also known by the title, "In the Midst of New Dimensions," is Rush's best known creative work. It was written for the 1985 Rocky Mountain Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church promoting its theme of diversity. During the same conference the Rev. Roy Sano was commissioned as the UMC's first Japanese-American bishop.^[9]

"Ours the Journey" was first published in Chalice Hymnal (1995) in an abridged version containing four stanzas. A five stanza version which contains three stanzas from the Chalice Hymnal version plus two additional stanzas was published in The New Century Hymnal (1996), The Faith We Sing (2000), Sing the Faith (2003), and Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal (2013). Additionally, a six stanza version is published in Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God's Grace in an Inclusive Church (2000), a book of worship resources. The unabridged version of "Ours the Journey" contains seven stanzas.^[9]^[10]^[11]

The two stanzas omitted from The Faith We Sing, which is the most widely distributed version, are arguably the most controversial. One stanza contains the line "Gays and lesbians together fighting to be realized." Another states that people of different races are a "rainbow coalition, all of value in thy sight."^[9]^[10]^[11]

Death and lasting impact

Rush died on November 28, 2023 in Sun City West, Arizona.

Shortly after Rush was assigned to St. Paul Methodist Church, it became one of the first in the nation to declare itself a Reconciling Congregation, a term the UMC uses to describe churches that openly embrace the LGBT Community.^[9]

In 1997, First UMC in Boulder became a Reconciling Congregation.^[9]

"Without someone like Julian," Bishop Oliveto said at the time of his death, "I would have lived in despair, totally wondering how can I rectify that the God who made me called me into this, but the church doesn’t want me and I think my life would have been much different."^[8]

Selected works

Hymns

The Call of God^[11]
Come to the Table^[11]
Ours the Journey (also known as In the Midst of New Dimensions)^[9]^[10]^[11]

Plays

Jesus Song^[12]
The Man Who Can Save the Day^[1]
PT was Here^[13]

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References

1 2 3 "Ideology, Politics Portrayed By Youth of First Methodist" . Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Fort Worth, Texas. 6 Jun 1968. p. 73. Retrieved 18 March 2024– via newspapers.com. Julian Rush youth minister and production director wrote the play his filth show. Rush majored in church drama at Perkins School of Theology at Southern :Methodist University.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Hart Merrick, Lee (2001). Julian Rush-Facing the Music: A Gay Methodist Minister's Story. Lincoln, Nebraska: Writers Club Press. ISBN 0595196586. I was born in Mississippi, the grandson of a horse-loving urologist and one of two children of a pharmacist.
1 2 3 4 5 Trillin, Calvin (28 February 1982). "Coming Out in Boulder" . San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, California. pp. 251–254. Retrieved 9 March 2024– via newspapers.com. A lot of the young people in the church's youth program found Julian Rush a magnetic figure a gifted, handsome man who could discuss any subject calmly, in a soft Southern accent. After Rush arrived at First Church, in 1976, the annual play was the high point of the youth program with young people not only acting in a play written by Julian Rush, but intensely discussing the moral and ethical and theological issues it raised.
1 2 3 4 "Gay minister battles AIDS, church politics in Denver" . The Daily Sentinel. Grand Junction, Colorado. 30 March 1985. p. 25. Retrieved 13 March 2024– via newspapers.com. Rush now is the director of the Colorado AIDS Project, a private group helping victims of Acquired Immune-Deficiency Syndrome. He also remains a minister -- the only openly gay minister in the country currently appointed to a United Methodist Church.
↑ "Bishop insists on appointing homosexual" . Latrobe Bulletin. Latrobe, Pennsylvania. 12 April 1982. p. 11. Retrieved 9 March 2024– via newspapers.com. A United Methodist bishop is standing firm on his decision to appoint a homosexual minister to a Denver church and says he isn't bothered by the possible church trial that could result.
↑ Woo, Elran (15 March 2009). "Melvin E. Wheatley dies at 93; Methodist bishop caused a stir by appointing gay pastor" . Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. Retrieved 9 March 2024. In 1980 he broke with fellow bishops when he refused to support their joint statement calling homosexuality "incompatible with Christian teaching." Two years later, he appointed an openly gay pastor, the Rev. Julian Rush, to a Denver church and was accused of heresy but was absolved by a national church panel.
↑ Mattingly, Terry (24 April 2004). "Methodists renew debate over gay clergy" . The Herald-Palladium. Benton Harbor, Michigan. p. 12. Retrieved 13 March 2024– via newspapers.com. The Rev. Julian Rush watched the headlines as 13 United Methodist pastors in the Pacific Northwest judged the fate of a colleague.
1 2 3 4 Arizarry, Jaleesa (9 December 2023). "Leader in Colorado's fight against AIDS in Colorado dies". Denver, Colorado: KUSA-TV. Retrieved 13 March 2024. The Colorado AIDS project started in 1983. At the time, there was one staff member, two volunteers and eight clients.
1 2 3 4 5 6 "History of Hymns: "In the Midst of New Dimensions"". Discipleship Ministries. Nashville, Tennessee. 29 August 2018. Retrieved 16 April 2024. As Hamilton notes, these are seven stanzas of rich and dense text. Rush uses many allusions to Scripture and vivid imagery to describe the weaknesses of humanity and the power of God.
1 2 3 The Faith We Sing. Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press. 2000. ISBN 0687090547.
1 2 3 4 5 Turney, Kelly, ed. (2000). Shaping Sanctuary: Proclaiming God's Grace in an Inclusive Church. Chicago: Reconciling Congregation Program. pp. 328, 340, 358. ISBN 0-9701568-0-4. p. xiv: This resource is offered as a gift to the church. It is presented as a window into the faithful journeys of LGBT persons and their allies, as a resource for justice-orientated worship, and as a tool for exploring a theology that values human sexuality and the consequences that such a theology may have for worship.
↑ "Youth Group to Present 'Jesus Song'" . El Paso Herald-Post. El Paso, Texas. 23 March 1974. p. 3. Retrieved 18 March 2024– via newspapers.com. The play was written and produced by Rev Julian Rush young minister of the Colorado Church.
↑ "'P.T. Was Here' To Be Performed" . Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph. Fort Worth, Texas. 1 May 1976. p. 21. Retrieved 18 March 2024– via newspapers.com. The play was written by the Rev. Julian Rush of First United Methodist and is sponsored by the youth and music departments of the church.