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Reader responses to Episcopal Life's coverage of the 76th General Convention
Deputies support fully inclusive ordination process, ongoing commitment to communion
I believe that many members left The Episcopal Church because of B033. They [and possibly new members] will probably return in response to Resolution D025. This combination, possibly, could more than replace the conservatives, moderates and fragiles who search for the exit signs.
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I was deeply moved and impressed by the language in the new resolution D025. I was concerned that B033 hinted around as if ashamed at mentioning gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender members of our society and church. In 2009 no member of society should be identified by a label that cannot be matter-of-factly stated. We have worked hard to bring people to a point where we deal openly and honestly with all that God has done to make us diverse people. As in all other settings, our diversity brings richness and opportunities for new learning to our lives. I urge all present at the General Convention to pass D025 and move forward with accepting people as God created them.
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I'm fascinated that the Deputies seemed in adopting D025 to recognize the fact that GLBT persons have long been present in the ministries of the Episcopal Church and will be in future. By not specifically overturning B033, however, the Church continues to be simple a reactionary institution. We will never attract the brightest and best for ministry in the Episcopal Church until we state clearly that sexual orientation is like left-handedness. So what? The Quakers, bless them, did this close to 70 years ago. When will we grow into the maturity that God offers us and truly welcome everyone?
Congratulations also on considering the resolution having to do with transparency, which obviously targets Bishop Parsley's secret theology committee to discuss the theology of same sex relationships. The secrecy of that committee had to be some of the most troubling recent news.
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This new resolution D025 essentially is the liberal version of a spit in the face of not only B033, but the Word of God. I am SO saddened by this deliberate turn of events. Just when I thought the Episcopal leadership was finally experiencing a softness of heart for what the Scriptures say, this resolution is passed. Leaving the Anglican Communion out of this, and looking at the Word, I see a truly New Age church forming. And as a lay minister in the Episcopal Church, it is very hard to explain to the children I serve. May God have mercy on us all.
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Being present at the 2006 convention was very exciting for me, and I thought the judicious wording of the resolution to recognize gay and lesbian members of our clergy and congregation was tepid at best, but I understood at the time that we had to be very careful not to offend those of our own and in the Anglican Communion by our refusal to discount our GL persons seeking ordination. But that was 2006 and it is almost 2010, and I think we could have been a little more forward in our statement of inclusion.
I guess my main point is that we are the Episcopal Church in America, and we cannot continue to exclude and to show prejudice against any person for reasons of age, race, gender, or sexual preference. I wonder why we cannot state that in order to participate in this democracy called America, even though we preserve separation of church and state, it is disingenuous to exclude some on the basis that their love is not "holy" and faithful, as some would say. I wish the wording about our particular place in the global world was stronger as we move into the next decade.
I am heterosexual, by the way, but I am old, and I am a woman, and I remember when women were not allowed even to be priests (a practice that seems impossible to young Episcopal women now. I remember when, in Columbus, Episcopalian men were arguing that a woman could not serve as priest "at that time of the month," because she would be unclean." Hard to believe now, but that was just a few years ago. Let's stop this exclusiveness, regardless of what the Anglican Communion thinks of it and drag them into the 21st Century, if not into the inclusive love of our Lord. This is only just, but it is also a loving commitment to people everywhere around the world.
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I am so proud that finally LGBT Episcopalians will be given the respect as everyone else in the church. Our love for Christ and for what he stands for is evident in our lives with wanting all people to be at the table of the Lord. Thanks be to GOD for bringing this evolution to our church.
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Thank you for this balanced article. Let's hope the "public" media covers this issue with similar restraint.
D025 seems like a well-thought-out response, allowing individuals within the United States Episcopal Church and throughout the Anglican Communion some room to hold to their own beliefs without hurting others who do not agree with those beliefs. D033 was hard to swallow in 2006, but seemed appropriate at the time. Patience and love for those who honestly hear God's will in different terms seems to be the best answer.
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What a sad day for the Episcopal Church if the House of Bishops passes this D025. As I read it, it is nothing but an in-your-face repudiation of B033. If you think defections have been bad, wait and see what happens to the national church structure if this passes. Try and do world wide ministries with no financial base.
While I have no political objections concerning the rights of gays and lesbians, what this whole debate has done is cause me to read the Bible in an effort to get God's word about both sides of the issue. The result is I have found nothing that would support this kind of action from our church. There is nothing but politics motivating this decision. I will prefer to worship in an environment that supports the word of God, not the word of man, as its theological base. As a cradle Episcopalian, I find this a sad day as I contemplate my possible imminent departure. I'm sure there are thousands of more members like myself that are hoping this heresy will run its course.
Hopefully, members of our House of Bishops will remember their ordination oaths that they believe the Bible to be the Holy Word of God and cast their votes accordingly. If they do not, what a mockery we will have become!
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Congratulations to the House of Deputies! The statement is a true expression of where the Episcopal Church is today. There is no going backwards and I thank God daily for having been part of the Diocese of Los Angeles and its forward thinking in following Jesus the Christ.
Repentance for slavery has a long way to go, say advocates
Two years ago, the Diocese of New Jersey created a Restorative Justice committee by resolution. The committee has had a tough time getting started for various reasons. A year ago, we produced a rather detailed survey of slavery in New Jersey (some surprises there). This report was also used by our neighboring Diocese of Newark in preparing the final report of their Reparations Committee.
After that report, I started searching for more detailed information on the Episcopal Church's complicity in slavery. It was easy to find out that no NJ bishops ever owned slaves, but after searching through a lot of old church documents, I found little or nothing of value. A next attempt might be to go to the oldest churches in the state (a number are over 300 years old) and get the names on the wall plaques that all of these churches have in order to check the existing census records to see who owned slaves. This is probably a good approach because if your name is on the wall, you probably had money and maybe even slaves. But this process will be time-consuming and I'm not sure we will actually find anything of interest.
I point this out just to indicate how difficult the tasks set by those GC resolutions of 2006 are going to be in some cases, although we are not about to give up.
We need to consider more than just history, of course, and I find a great deal of reluctance of people to talk about things like reparations. I think everyone, in all the dioceses of the Episcopal Church, probably experiences the same thing. On the positive side, I found out that if you want to end a conversation with someone quickly, the magic word "reparations" will do it for you.
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I read this story with great interest and great care. I am responding as a member of a southwestern diocese whose strongest need, I believe, is to work to address the great inequalities and other wrongs suffered by persons of Mexican, Spanish, and/or native American descent. For this reason, I find the total focus on slavery and the slave trade in the 2009 bills (A142 did not upload) disturbing. A127 from the last Convention is, I believe, much better as its language makes an umbrella under which all dioceses may fit. Certainly we in the southwest region should address ways that we may still be complicit with the effects of slavery, but that simply is not and should not be our strongest need nor our primary focus. Further, in the cathedral of which I am a member (St Johns in Albuquerque), we are working very hard -- never doing enough, for how can we? -- but working very hard, and that needs to be acknowledged in some way.
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A long way indeed. The enslavement of Africans (and Native Americans) is America's holocaust and like the Germans, Turks, Japanese and other nation-states that practiced genocide and enslavement, they are loathe to fess up.
The United States has not repented its sins against black and brown humanity and neither has our church. Wouldn't be nice if, for once, our church led to struggle for social justice?
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This is good, that society is now recognizing past and present injustices toward African-Americans. However, when will the Episcopal Church recognize the injustices toward other minority groups? The Anglican Church in England and Ireland worked closely with the English government to suppress, kill, and steal from Irish Catholics. When the Irish Catholics left their homes to avoid persecution, they came to America and were considered lower than African-American slaves. This established a pattern in which immigrants were abused and exploited by Americans. Now that we are apologizing to African-Americans, when will the Episcopal Church apologize to other minorities, starting with descendents of Irish-Americans -- many of whom are still living in poverty?
Budget committee's revenue hearing won't be testimony as usual
While it is necessary to fund the national church, and state as well, it should not come at the expense of the individual parish. Ours is a small church, operating on a shoe string. We finally have a new priest, and growth for our church now seems possible. But if it comes down to paying our priest, who will grow us, or paying the diocese, we vote to pay our priest!
Resolution B033 continues to spark passionate debate
"The Episcopal Church Welcomes You" - Yes. That does not mean the church approves of a same-sex lifestyle or union. We welcome people who have stolen, murdered, etc. They need the church. They need to meet God. That does not mean God approves of their actions or their life style.
We are not asking them to make any sacrifice that we would not make. We do not approve of same-sex marriage or theft or murder.
It is not past our comfort zone. I would gladly welcome a gay man into the church, hug him when passing the peace; this does not mean I approve of same-sex marriages or his lifestyle. It means that I accept him as a person.
General Convention Chapel: Contemplation and Reflection
I loved this article, probably because I am not there this time, and this article brings the convention alive for me as if I were there. One of my favorite parts of General Convention is how the planning committee brings the theme out and includes local touches to make each general convention both unique and broadening. I can always look up the legislation after general convention is over, but this room will be one of the things I remember. Now, if you could only bring the worship and fellowship to me in an article!
Budget committee hears Episcopalians ask for hope, symbols, money
Way back in the 60s and 70s -- and, perhaps, earlier than that, for all I know -- there existed a New York-based Episcopal Guild for the Blind, headed by our church's (then) only blind priest, Father Harry J. Sutcliffe. Further, there was an Illinois-based Braille transcription service, the St. Luke's Braillists, producing editions of important Episcopal works. I think I read both The Four Loves and The Problem of Pain (both by C. S. Lewis) in transcriptions made available by this Midwestern lending library.
Perhaps if funding for the more numerous deaf population is coming under national scrutiny for reduction, if might just be best, for now, if blind folks, being an even smaller disability-related population, wait for ECUSA's budgetary woes to either reverse themselves or at least level off, before attempting to ever again resurrect the wonderful array of national services that we used to have.
B033-related legislation to move to House of Deputies
I have been pondering the issues of normalcy and integration as they may be applied to same-gender, trans-gender and bisexual couples and their children as I have come to understand them. I found that the more these groups are integrated as families when they come to worship, the more I was able to perceive them for what they were -- just plain normal. It seemed their first task was to make their little tykes totally at home with their blankets and toys. There was no yelling or squalling to disrupt us old codgers, but instead the constant "at- homeness" of little ones helped to make them integrated and totally welcome at "big people's" worship. They brought their stuffed toys and dolls, and everyone just fit in.
It helped me to realize how little I understood sexual variance. In fact I didn't know anything about anyone and very little about myself. They taught me that our Father's house is a very big tent indeed. All I had to lose were my own prejudices.
Bishops seek deeper relations with Presbyterians, Church of Sweden
I have been following the agreement document with the PCUSA [Presbyterian Church in the United States of America], of which I am a long time minister of word and sacrament. Our polity and its lack of meshing with the polity of TEC is a big issue. Yet, as a participant in the life of St John's Episcopal Church here in Charleston, West Virginia, I have grown to love the Episcopal Church even more than I did as a lad growing up on James Island, South Carolina, where both denominations furnished me rich experiences in worship.
Right now, both our churches face enormous issues. I only wish that an agreement such as the one with the Moravians could be adopted. I would love to be able (if able) to celebrate the Eucharist among my friends at St John's as I do with the Lutherans. (Or did until my hearing went.) I pray that my upcoming cochlear implant surgery will allow me to return to preaching and teaching, and perhaps to celebrations of the Eucharist with my Lutheran and Episcopal companions along the way.
Four-footed ambassadors attend hearings
Thank you for bringing this to the attention as a matter of pastoral care rather than something to be dismissed as "warm and fuzzy." I have always adopted rescue animals, and time and again they resiliently respond to good care, food, love, and play. One of my current dogs, Rosie, a full-breed Pomeranian, was a puppy mill mother for her first 10 years. I have no clue how much money they made on who-knows-how-many puppies she bore for them. She came to us unable to walk and with major digestive and continence issues. She is now a soon to be a 13-year-old, six-pound bundle of trotting, happy dogdom. Thank you again!
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