Perry Wiggins

Perry Wiggins

This stole was contributed by Perry Wiggins, a United Methodist pastor who took an early retirement in 1998.  Perry served for twenty-five years in local churches, on a district staff, as a hospital and hospice chaplain, and in social service agencies.  Despite deep roots in the denomination including a grandfather and great-grandfather who were Methodist preachers, Perry decided that he could no longer serve with integrity as an active United Methodist clergy person and a gay man.  He hopes the "retired relationship" will allow him to relate to the denomination (or not relate to it!) on his own terms rather than the church's.  This stole was made for him by his mother, Jane Wiggins, in 1971, the year he was ordained a deacon and served during the summer as a "minister in training" at his home church, First UMC in Redlands, California.  Perry and his life partner, the Rev. Rich Rossiter, live in Oak Park, Illinois.

Perry Wiggins and his partner, Richard Rossiter, were both ordained United Methodist ministers.  Perry is attempting to retain his ordination as retired clergy.  Richard, who relinquished his ordination in 1996, also gave a stole to the collection (#511).  He is now a pastor in the Metropolitan Community Church.  In addition, a Signature Stole honoring Richard was donated by Coloma, MI United Methodist Church, the last United Methodist congregation that Richard served (#635).

This stole was given to us in advance of the 2000 General Conference of the United Methodist Church in Cleveland, OH.  In 1999, the Reconciling Ministries Network (RMN) inquired about the possibility of having a display of the Shower of Stoles at the General Conference the following April.  At the time, there were only around twenty United Methodist stoles in the collection.  We decided to introduce the Shower of Stoles to the Reconciling community by bringing the twenty UM stoles and about a hundred others to RMN’s Convocation in Denton, TX over the Labor Day weekend.  Stoles started to trickle in during the fall, and by February they began coming in droves.  In all, we received 220 United Methodist stoles – the vast majority of them arriving within eight weeks of the Conference.  Thanks to a monumental effort by a number of volunteers who pitched in to help record, inventory, sew labels and make last-minute repairs, all of the new stoles were present in Cleveland.  Twenty more people brought stoles directly to Cleveland, bringing the total number on display to 240.

 Towards the end of the General Conference, twenty eight lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender United Methodists and allies stood on the Conference floor in silent protest over the Conference’s failure to overturn the ban on LGBT ordination – a profound witness and act of defiance for which they were later arrested.  As these twenty eight moved to the front of the room, another 200 supporters stood up around the balcony railing, each wearing one of the new United Methodist stoles.  Hundreds more stood in solidarity as well, in the balcony and on the plenary floor, wearing symbolic “stoles” made from colorful bands of cloth.  A group of young people from Minneapolis, members of a Communicant’s Class, had purchased bolts of cloth the preceding evening and stayed up all night cutting out close to a thousand of these “stoles”.  In less than eight months, a handful of stoles had grown to become a powerful, visible witness to the steadfast faith of LGBT United Methodists nationwide.

Martha Juillerat

Founder, Shower of Stoles Project

2006