Reverend Norman Kansfield

Norman Kansfield grew up surrounded by the love and support of his parents and community in the town of South Holland, IL. He was baptized in the First Reformed Church of Mount Greenwood in Chicago, IL and was a member of the First Reformed Church of South Holland, a church his father served as a deacon. He attended Hope College and was President of the Student Council. He graduated from Western Theological Seminary in 1965 and was licensed by the Classis of Illiana and ordained by the Classis of Queens.

In the summer of 1965 he began two new adventures in his life. He got married to Mary Klein at the First Reformed Church in Fremont, MI and the following week began serving the Second Reformed Church of Astoria, Queens, NY. For the next three years, Norm and Mary enjoyed adventures in New York City such as attending the World’s Fair and standing in the cheap section of the Metropolitan Opera House. After completing his S.T.M. degree at Union Seminary, Norm and Mary moved to Chicago so that Norm could pursue a PhD at the University of Chicago.

During part of this time, Norm began working at the Beardslee Library at Western Theological Seminary. Eventually, he became its librarian and was instrumental in the development of the new library building.

Norm and Mary had two children: Ann Margaret and John Livingston. Both of them were baptized at the Third Reformed Church in Holland, MI. In 1981, Norm finally completed his PhD. This was a long time coming, but was worth it because his father took the entire family out for a wonderful celebratory dinner.

From 1979-1985, Norm served on the committee that created Rejoice in the Lord. Three years later, the family moved to Rochester, NY where Norm served as the librarian of the Colgate Rochester/Bexley Hall/Crozer Divinity School . The family attended the First Reformed Church of Rochester where Ann and John made their profession of faith and Mary served as the Vice President of the consistory.

In 1993, the board of trustees of New Brunswick Theological Seminary called Norm to become its President. He has served in this capacity ever since. Over the course of the last 11 years, the seminary has developed significantly. Student enrollment has doubled, and the school has expanded to meet the needs of a growing and diverse student body.

At the age of 19, Norm and Mary’s daughter Ann began to discern that she was gay. This was a difficult process for her, and like many other young lesbian or gay kids, she contemplated committing suicide in order to avoid the pain and embarrassment of disappointing her family and her church. Fortunately, she found a welcome home at the Middle Collegiate Church in New York City. Middle literally saved her life, as it has for countless other people.

Jennifer has a similar story of self loathing and of experiencing God’s grace at Middle Church. Having grown up in the Southern Baptist Church, Jennifer spent many years of her adulthood struggling with the pain of having been excluded from church. Middle changed that for her. After going to the same church for four years and both working in finance at the World Trade Center, the two finally met one another in the spring of 2003. By Christmas of that year, they knew they wanted to make a lifelong commitment to one another.

Having ruled that "The history of our nation has demonstrated that separate is seldom, if ever, equal," the Supreme Court of Massachusetts decided that civil marriage should be opened to same-sex couples. This meant that Ann and Jen could be legally married in Massachusetts. They decided on getting married in June, since both of their sets of parents had gotten married in the summer. Since they didn't want to cause controversy, they decided on a small, intimate wedding. Norm officiated, pausing briefly to cry throughout the service. Because lesbian and gay people are not accepted by so many churches, several of Ann and Jen’s friends had not attended a worship service in many years. This offered a unique opportunity for Norm to extend God’s grace to them. There are several powerful stories of how this wedding helped heal part of the pain caused by the church.