beholders.org

The decade was 1980's, the topic was AIDS. Several groups were trying to find a place where people with AIDS could meet  and help one another. The most obvious place, the place where doors should be open to all were churches, but yet, one after another, the churches would say no. 

This was a time of ignorance, when people thought that even having contact with people with AIDS would get them infected. A time when people with AIDS were seen as undesirables, and when overcoming that stigma was a major obstacle.

Yet, at least one person seemed to be following what she was preaching, and that person was Rev. Madeline Jervis, who was building up her congregation across the Potomac River as pastor of Clarendon Presbyterian Church. She invited them over.

"The church felt it was important to reach out to people who were being shunned," Jervis said.

Rev. Jervis had always worked with people who were facing difficult moments in their lives and with difficult topics. During her first years at Clarendon, Madeline was pastor to the many elderly members who were reaching the end of their lives. She conducted many funerals each year. By 1986, under the guidance of Rev. Jervis, the church was providing space for The Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance to meet political candidates.

During this same time four women who were members of Clarendon were ordained as ministers in the Presbyterian Church USA.

Her daughter, Mary Foulke, knew first hand how great an accomplishment that was.

When she first went to seminary, there was a male minister who said to her, 'Women preachers are like dogs walking on their hind legs. It's not that it's hard to do; it's a wonder it's done at all,' " Foulke said. "I didn't see ministry as particularly rosy."

But her mother's values seeped in. She was raised to believe in racial justice and sexual justice and community, Foulke said.

Now she's an Episcopal priest in Greenwich Village, where half the congregation is gay, bisexual or lesbian, as she is.

So have things changed since 1980? 

The answer is, yes, just not enough.

But at least the road is getting less bumpy. 2009 has been a year of hope and set backs, but for one person at least, it will be a year of modest recognition. Arlington County's Human Rights Commission nominated Jervis for Arlington's top human rights award.

Her message was simple.

"Everyone is a child of God, not just straight people, not just people of a certain race, not just people of a certain income level. Everyone." 

Twenty years ago, you were not hearing that. . . . It was a haven for so many, a welcoming haven, and still is.