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| The Rev. Thomas W. Ogletree, Dean Emeritus, Yale Divinity School |
Mr. Thomas Ogletree, Dean Emeritus
Yale Divinity School
Dear Dean Ogletree,
I owe you an apology. I see now that I made you and our distant encounter an emblem of the societal classism which my parents felt as children of New Haven's ghetto in the 1920's, a subtle oppression from which Dr.Macintosh's patronage offered them relief, and a topic which President Salovey has raised as a Yale concern in 2014.
My apologies.
I fell into the trap of a son honoring the feelings of his dead father after admiring the courage of a father honoring the feelings of his gay son and his son's lifemate.
My best wishes.
Paul Keane
cc:
Harry Adams, Chaplain Emeritus
Gregory Sterling, Dean
The Hon. Craig Henrici
PS
I have posted this on my blog as a mea culpa.
 |
| My father on his wedding day in New Haven 1934. He was so poor he had to borrow the suit he was wearing. |
 |
| My mother in a photographer's proof, taken before she was married. She could not afford the actual photo and had to wear the photographer's throw as a garment because she did not have a suitable dress. |
Dear Dean Ogletree,
You are very gracious.
Much of my effort in interacting with Yale since my matriculation in 1976 has been to offer Yale a bridge to the poor and underprivileged of New Haven from prostitutes and drug addicts to the New Haven Police themselves, where I created an internship at YDS as liaison between the police chief and the religious community, an internship whose fruits wound up on 60 Minutes in 1984.
I have continued that effort however inelegantly on my blog.
It is good to hear President Salovey "out" classism as a closet problem at Yale
Again, my apologies.
Sincerely,
Paul Keane
cc:
Harry Adams, Chaplain Emeritus
Gregory Sterling, Dean
The Hon. Craig Henrici
On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 10:03 AM, Ogletree, Thomas wrote:
Dear Mr. Keane,
Thanks for your apology. I confess that I did not remember responding to you as you suggested in your earlier e-mail. Thanks also for your affirmation of President Salovey's continuing support for Yale initiatives in the economic and social renewal of New Haven. We need your support and backing to advance such goals.
Warmest regards,
Tom Ogletree
BREAKING NEWS
Church trial set for
former Yale Divinity
dean for gay wedding
New Haven >> A former Yale Divinity School dean who officiated at his son’s same-sex wedding will be tried in March by his denomination, the United Methodist Church.
The Rev. Thomas W. Ogletree had been awaiting a decision on the matter since last year, when colleagues in the church’s New York Annual Conference filed a formal complaint. They had seen a wedding announcement in the New York Times about the Oct. 20, 2012, ceremony between Thomas Rimbey Ogletree and Nicholas Haddad at the Yale Club in New York City
“It is a shame that the church is choosing to prosecute me for this act of love, which is entirely in keeping with my ordination vows to ‘seek peace, justice and freedom for all people’ and with Methodism’s historic commitment to inclusive ministry embodied in its slogan ‘open hearts, open minds, open doors,’” Ogletree said in a statement released by the group Methodists In New Directions.
The church trial has been set for March 10 at First United Methodist Church in Stamford. Possible punishments include stripping Ogletree of his clergy credentials.
Ogletree, who is 80 and lives in Guilford Yale Divinity School
Last May, Ogletree told the Register that he had performed only one other marriage in his lengthy career in the clergy.
“It’s hard not to think of 1692 Salem United Methodist Church
Ogletree is accused of violating the church’s Book of Discipline, which says “homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.”
Last March, Bishop Martin D. McLee of the church’s New York Annual Conference referred Ogletree’s case to a church counsel for possible trial.
In a statement last week announcing the trial, McLee said, “The process of adjudication also allows for an opportunity to avoid a church trial by arriving at a just resolution. A just resolution is a settlement that can occur at any time during the complaint process right up to and during an actual trial.”
The United Methodist Church Alabama , New York and the Pacific Northwest .
“The charges are coming and the trials are coming, but it won’t stop this movement,” Benz said. “We’ve gotten past the spiritual crisis the church has caused by its discrimination. We’ve figured out the way around it — just don’t discriminate.”
Among those publicly supporting Ogletree is Yale Divinity School
“What I find particularly problematic about this is that it is a case where a father responded to a son’s request. It wasn’t at a church site,” Sterling
“The United Methodist Church is a global church,” Sterling United Methodist Church
Benz pointed out that the church’s New York district, which includes part of Connecticut
“Tom is retired. His reputation, his career as a world-renowned scholar on Christian ethics, is safe. But it would break his heart to lose his credentials,” Benz said.
Call Jim Shelton at 203-789-5664. Have questions, feedback or ideas about our news coverage? Connect directly with the editors of the New Haven Register at AskTheRegister.com
_______________________________________________________________________________
Fathers and Sons/Sons and Fathers
I am no fan of Dean Ogletree. He was quite rude to me when I dropped in to his office in 1986 [perhaps 1996--see below] to ask why the Macintosh Fellowship at Yale Divinity School had once again---for the
second time in three decades --- fallen into disuse after I had managed to get it restored in 1980. "What's your concern? Who are you?" he demanded of this intruder who was not in his appointment book, alumnus or not.
When I told him Macintosh had been a family friend and my parents had named me after him, it was an irrelevant triviality to the brusque dean who seemed completely
uninterested in the fate of this former faculty member's memory and Fellowship. As long as I was not a blood relative who could sue for recovery of the improperly used fellowship funds (an accounting which the Macintosh estate's executor, Professor Julian Hartt, had said he would demand of Yale only a few years before) Dean Ogletree could not to be bothered. Hrrrmph.
However, he seems suddenly much more human to me now in 2014, almost three [or perhaps two, see below] decades later, when he risks his frock and fame to stand by his gay son. (see recent New Haven Register article below).
Perhaps if Macintosh had not died childless and had had a blood son, Mr. Ogletree would have risen to that occasion 28 years ago.
Kudos to him.
Paul Douglas Macintosh Keane
M. Div. '80
second time in three decades --- fallen into disuse after I had managed to get it restored in 1980. "What's your concern? Who are you?" he demanded of this intruder who was not in his appointment book, alumnus or not.
When I told him Macintosh had been a family friend and my parents had named me after him, it was an irrelevant triviality to the brusque dean who seemed completely
uninterested in the fate of this former faculty member's memory and Fellowship. As long as I was not a blood relative who could sue for recovery of the improperly used fellowship funds (an accounting which the Macintosh estate's executor, Professor Julian Hartt, had said he would demand of Yale only a few years before) Dean Ogletree could not to be bothered. Hrrrmph.
However, he seems suddenly much more human to me now in 2014, almost three [or perhaps two, see below] decades later, when he risks his frock and fame to stand by his gay son. (see recent New Haven Register article below).
Perhaps if Macintosh had not died childless and had had a blood son, Mr. Ogletree would have risen to that occasion 28 years ago.
Kudos to him.
Paul Douglas Macintosh Keane
M. Div. '80
My
Term as Dean at YDS
Ogletree, Thomas
1:37 AM (1 hour ago)
Dear
Mr. Keane, Divinity School Divinity School
|
1:37 AM (1 hour ago)
|
|
Dear
Mr. Keane,
Greg
Sterling transmitted your e-mail to me. I did not have time to read it
until yesterday, but I discovered that you may be forgetting who was dean of
the Divinity School Divinity School
Regards,
Tom
Ogletree
Mr.
Thomas Ogletree, Dean EmeritusYale Divinity
School
Dear
Dean Ogletree:
How
the decades do congeal.
It
is quite possible that it was 1996 not 1986. I will change the date on my
blog and post this clarification.
Actually.
It was you---decidedly you. I'm sure it was nothing you would remember.
Yale Deans are so busy after all .
No,
it was not Dean Keck.
Dean
Keck was a good and loyal friend to me.
I
will never forget his consummate thoughtfulness: when
he took me privately into his office in 1984 (in a highly pressured
moment five minutes before a convocation for some distinguished lecture in
Marquand Chapel as a courtesy to my adopted grandfather, Roland H. Bainton)
to tell me that Dr. Bainton had died the night before on campus.
That
courtesy prevented my having to hear it cold from the pulpit as he
notified the YDS community at whatever distinguished lecture was about to begin
in Marquand .
The
lecture is long forgotten. The courtesy is not. A good lesson.
Then
there were a couple of interim acting deans, Aiden Kavanaugh and Harry Adams
among them.
I
recall Dean Kavanaugh taking me into his office and proudly showing me Jonathan
Edwards' presidential furniture which he had rescued from a Yale warehouse.
I suppose it has been banished again since then to the same fate as
Macintosh's fellowship.
And
Dean Adams---bless his soul ---actually arranged the Marquand ceremony
and Common Room reception for the unveiling of the vandalized
Macintosh portrait which I had arranged to have restored (at no expense
to YDS) in 1980 I believe, although it could have been 1979.
It
may have been 1996 that I appeared unannounced at your office although it
probably was the early 90's. I was visiting my father in Mt. Carmel
from my home in Vermont
While
the decades may have faded, the rudeness and arrogance of your cavalier
dismissal of my family's concern for Macintosh and his legacy did not fade.
My
mother and father were impoverished New
Haven
No,
it was not Dean Keck who brushed me off.
He
was annoyed at the Yale arrogance; I was used to it, frankly.
Sorry
about the chronological confusion.
While
I regret our encounter, apparently in the 1990's not 80"s, I do admire
your guts in championing your son's dignity as a human being in
2013 / 14
Christianity
has crucified gay people long enough.
Peace.
Paul
D. Keane
PS
"Widowered" not "widowed" ?
Cc:
Harry
Adams, Dean Emeritus
|
|||
Mr.
Thomas Ogletree, Dean Emeritus
Dear
Dean Ogletree:
How
the decades do congeal.
It
is quite possible that it was 1996 not 1986. I will change the date on my
blog and post this clarification.
Actually.
It was you---decidedly you. I'm sure it was nothing you would remember.
Yale Deans are so busy after all .
No,
it was not Dean Keck.
Dean
Keck was a good and loyal friend to me.
I
will never forget his consummate thoughtfulness: when
he took me privately into his office in 1984 (in a highly pressured
moment five minutes before a convocation for some distinguished lecture in
Marquand Chapel as a courtesy to my adopted grandfather, Roland H. Bainton)
to tell me that Dr. Bainton had died the night before on campus.
That
courtesy prevented my having to hear it cold from the pulpit as he
notified the YDS community at whatever distinguished lecture was about to begin
in Marquand .
The
lecture is long forgotten. The courtesy is not. A good lesson.
Then
there were a couple of interim acting deans, Aiden Kavanaugh and Harry Adams
among them.
I
recall Dean Kavanaugh taking me into his office and proudly showing me Jonathan
Edwards' presidential furniture which he had rescued from a Yale warehouse.
I suppose it has been banished again since then to the same fate as
Macintosh's fellowship.
And
Dean Adams---bless his soul ---actually arranged the Marquand ceremony
and Common Room reception for the unveiling of the vandalized
Macintosh portrait which I had arranged to have restored (at no expense
to YDS) in 1980 I believe, although it could have been 1979.
It
may have been 1996 that I appeared unannounced at your office although it
probably was the early 90's. I was visiting my father in Mt. Carmel
from my home in Vermont
He
had dispatched me to YDS to inquire about Macintosh's Fellowship
While the decades may have faded, the rudeness and arrogance of your cavalier dismissal of my family's concern for Macintosh and his legacy did not fade.
My
mother and father were impoverished New
Haven
Both
of my parents were fatherless and Macintosh (who was childless) served a
paternal role in their lives.
Yale
arrogance was not Dr. Macintosh's cup of tea.
No, it was not Dean Keck who brushed me off.
It
was decidedly you, whose face and tone I recall quite well as you swept me from
your august YDS presence, leaving me to report my meeting to my then
widowed, septuagenarian father in Mt.Carmel.
He
was annoyed at the Yale arrogance; I was used to it, frankly.
Sorry about the chronological confusion.
While
I regret our encounter, apparently in the 1990's not 80"s, I do admire
your guts in championing your son's dignity as a human being in
2013 / 14
Christianity has crucified gay people long enough.
Time
to end it.
Good
for you.
Peace.
Paul
D. Keane
M.A.,
M.Div., M.Ed.
PS
"Widowered" not "widowed" ?
Cc:
Harry
Adams, Dean Emeritus
Gregory
Sterling, Dean
The
Hon.Craig Henrici
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