Jimmy Creech
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
October 21, 1944
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Merle Smith(m. 1967, divorced)
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Chris Weedy(m. 1992; died 2021)
Jimmy Creech | |
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 Creech in 1992 | |
| Born | James Edward Creech October 21, 1944 |
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| Religion | United Methodist Church |
| Ordained | June 1970[1]: 24 |
| Laicized | November 17, 1999 |
James Edward Creech (born October 21, 1944) is an American gay rights activist and former minister in the United Methodist Church who was defrocked in 1999 for marrying same-sex couples.
James Edward Creech was born to a Methodist family in Goldsboro, North Carolina, on October 21, 1944.[1]: 6 [2] He earned a bachelor's degree in biblical studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and graduated from Duke University in 1970 with a Masters of Divinity.[1]: 20 [2] He began his career serving Methodist congregations in North Carolina.[2] In 1984, he became active in gay rights advocacy when a congregant came out to him, in response to the United Methodist Church formally banning "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" from becoming clergy.[2][3]
Due to his activism, he was not reappointed pastor of his Raleigh, North Carolina, congregation in 1990.[2] He subsequently worked for the North Carolina Council of Churches, a progressive organization, where he served as its liaison to the state legislature and focused on LGBTQ rights, the abolition of the death penalty, and worker's rights.[1]: 82 [2]
In 1996, he was appointed senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Omaha, Nebraska, where he performed a commitment ceremony for a lesbian couple the following year.[2] As such ceremonies were not allowed by the denomination, he was suspended and faced a defrocking trial, from which he was acquitted.[2] He returned to North Carolina, where he performed another ceremony for a gay couple, leading to a second trial that ended with his defrocking.[2] Creech denounced the second trial and did not enter a plea, performing a final ceremony the day before he was defrocked on November 17, 1999.[4]