Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 18:57:00 -0400 From: Chris Ambidge Subject: *Integrator* files for 1990 INTEGRATOR, the newsletter of Integrity/Toronto volume 90-4, issue date 1990 04 18 copyright 1990 Integrity/Toronto. The hard-copy version of this newsletter carries the ISSN 0843-574X Integrity/Toronto Box 873 Stn F Toronto ON Canada M4Y 2N9 == contents == [90-4-1] 0853424-47 [90-4-2] THE PRIMATE'S SECOND VISIT [90-4-3] BISHOP SPONG'S ADDRESS TO INTEGRITY CONVENTION by the Rt Rev John Spong ======== [90-4-1] 0853424-47 This is a very important number. It is our new tax status number. Yes, you read that correctly, Integrity/Toronto now has official income tax status as a Charitable Organisation. This means that we can issue tax receipts for all donations given to us. We are the first Integrity chapter in Canada to have this status, though Integrity/Vancouver is currently trying to get one as well. We felt it was necessary to pursue tax status for a number of reasons. Firstly, we have been asked more than once if we had status; and when we told the people "no" there was no donation forthcoming. Secondly, our income from GCDC (Gay Community Dance Committee) dances has been on the decline, with fewer dances, rising costs and poor attendance. Our primary source of revenue was thus being threatened. This meant that we would have to find another way of maintaining or increasing our income. We realised that while we have been contributing to the collection basket every week, it would have been nice to get tax receipts for this money. We would probably have given more had the contributions been tax deductible. We assumed that there were many people, members and non- members alike, who were in the same situation. Now that we have the magic number, doors that were closed to us are now open. We are now eligible for funding from governmental and charitable granting agencies. A prime example of this is the pool of money that the Lesbian and Gay Community Appeal has to give out to organisations with tax status. We hope that many of you will take advantage of this new situation and consider Integrity/Toronto when you are deciding where your charitable dollars will go in the upcoming years [those of you who sent donations along with your 1990 membership will be receiving receipts]. We feel the work we are doing by publishing *Integrator*, and our other ministries to the church and to gays/lesbians to be worth the effort we put into it. If you agree, please help support this work. ======== [90-4-2] THE PRIMATE'S SECOND VISIT On March 28th we were very fortunate to have our second visit from the Primate, Archbishop Michael Peers, in less than a year. As with his first visit, we were all quite overwhelmed by how approachable and personable he is. Archbishop Michael celebrated the Eucharist with us. Afterwards we asked him questions in a group session, before retiring for more informal conversation and refreshments. During this initial question period Bonnie asked the Primate what response to our presence at General Synod he had received. He said that while there was limited response to any of the displays, he was only aware of favourable comments on our presence. This was both reassuring and encouraging to hear. Once again we were joined for the Primate's visit by people from a number of the other lesbian/gay religious caucuses. Our pleasure in Archbishop Michael's visit is even greater because we can share this significant event with others from the gay/lesbian community. Increased acceptance for any one of the caucuses is a victory for us all, in the same way that the Roman Catholic church's increased hostility to Dignity/ Toronto/ Dignite is source of sorrow for all of us. While [the] picture [reproduced in the paper edition] of Archbishop Peers was not taken by Bonnie, she shot a whole roll of them during the reception. These pictures have gone into our ever-expanding photo album. Come and check them out! ======== [90-4-3] BISHOP SPONG'S ADDRESS TO INTEGRITY CONVENTION by the Rt Rev John Spong [JOHN SPONG is the bishop of Newark, New Jersey. He has long been an advocate for lesbian/gay rights within the church. He has written several books, most recently* Living in Sin? * which was reviewed in *Integrator* last year.] [This is the text of the address that he gave to Integrity's Convention in San Francisco in summer 1989.] = = = = = = I accepted your invitation to address his gathering because I believe that members of Integrity are important to the church. The church needs your voices, your witness, your commitment. I am grateful to members of Integrity for their ministry to me for raising my consciousness and for the love you have for this church despite its official stands which are so often judgmental and rejecting. My first text comes from the catechism in the 1928 Prayer Book. I thought that might seem a bit unusual. The opening question in that catechism is, "What is your name? " I have always liked that question because it was easy to answer. Then the catechism proceeded by asking, "Who gave you this name? " The answer was: "My sponsor gave me this name in baptism wherein I was made a member of Christ, a child of God and the inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven." All Episcopalians learned that catechism - blacks, whites, males, females, gays, straights. That was a defining statement in which the church told each of us what the church believed us to be. My second text is from the 1979 Prayer Book. In that Prayer Book the Baptism Covenant has us answer positively to this question: "Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?" "All people", "every" human being - those sound to me like inclusive words. I do not see a provision for exceptions to accommodate our prejudices. My third text is the slogan of the Episcopal Church engraved on signs around the world - "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You". I assume the "you" is any person who might be attracted to the possibility of being defined as a member of Christ, a child of God and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven. Episcopalians seem to like this motto. It seems, to most, to be a fairly inane statement. No disclaimers are published to modify or limit who the "you" is that the church welcomes. Members of the Diocese of Newark tested this slogan recently when they carried a banner in the New York City Lesbian and Gay Pride Parade, proclaiming those familiar words - "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You". In the context of a gay pride parade, those words of welcome were heard in a dramatic way that communicated Gospel power. But somehow, what the church says and it believes and how the church acts are frequently not in touch with each other. Human prejudice seems to have the power to take our state ideals and to filter them into workable compromises where something less than our ideals becomes operative. Prejudice is a powerful human emotion. It allows people to justify duplicitous and even evil behaviour. Prejudice prevents us from seeing others as they usually are. Prejudice requires that we view people within the stereotype that we have created for them. When prejudice dies we wonder how it was we could have been so blind, so distorted. So Integrity meets in this national convention to raise the consciousness of the church - to allow the ideals of Christ to escape the relentless force of ecclesiastical compromises. I am privileged to meet with you and to identify with that cause. The ultimate power of prejudice is seen when it is allowed to shape our definitions of another person. How can we as a church reject anyone we have defined as a member of Christ, a child of God or an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven? Yet, look at our history. Western civilisation, claiming to be overtly Christian, practised slavery for almost 1900 years after Christ. The Christian church shared in that sin shamelessly. When slavery died another evil, called segregation, took its place. The church also participated in segregation. It still does. How could one who is a member of Christ, a child of God, an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven, be enslaved and segregated by Christians? It was allowed to happen because the operative definition of humanity in a slave-owning and bigoted society simply did not include the slaves. In this way, ideals were left intact and prejudice was left unchallenged. The church has treated women in a quite similar fashion. Indeed, in many segments of the church today, we still do that. Women were marginalised by the church. We called the women of the church the Auxiliary until about 25 years ago, and we reserved for them only auxiliary, and therefore, powerless roles in the church. Women could not serve on vestries or be lay readers prior to World War II. Women could not be deacons until 1970, priests until 1977, or bishops until 1989. Only men, said the church, were created in the image of God, so only men could represent God at the altar. When women are defined as less than human, ideals can be left intact and prejudice can be left unchallenged. A similar fate has befallen the lesbian and gay male population. Unconsciously the corporate prejudice of both church and society has said that the homosexual population is not fully human, that the definitions of the catechism, the vows of the baptism covenant and the ideals of the Gospel do not apply to this minority. If gay persons cannot be publicly ordained, if their holiest commitments cannot be blessed by the church, then the clear implication is that gay and lesbian people are not quite human, that they need to be changed or fixed and if that is not possible, then they need to be repressed and made to keep silent. The power of one person to define another is an ultimate human power. It is so overwhelming that both definer and victim accept, at least for a time, the dehumanising definition. In the one who has the power to define others this power creates a moral and psychic schizophrenia, for prejudice blinds the power people to the realisation that what they have done is to define humanity in terms of themselves. Anyone who does not fit that definition can be categorised as subhuman. Such people are, therefore, exempted from the stated ideals of the defining majority with no qualms of conscience. In Western civilisation and in the official life of the church those who have possessed the power to define others have been, by and large, white, male and heterosexual. Anyone who is not white, not male and not heterosexual has had to live with an imposed pejorative definition. These power people have not been content simple to define human life. They have also defined God in whose image they seem to believe only they themselves have been created. It is amazing how much that God of the Western world has seemed to be a white heterosexual male deity. It is no wonder that the houses of worship dedicated to such a god have discriminated against women, racial minorities and homosexual persons. Unconsciously, the assumption has been allowed to become operative that real humanity is only the humanity of the one who has the power to define. The result is that the church can talk abut the goodness of creation, the universal love of Christ, the inclusiveness of the Holy Spirit, while at the same time participate in the enslavement and segregation of blacks, the oppression of women and the inhumane treatment of homosexual persons. The primary purpose of prejudice is to create a stereotype and impose a definition while keeping a clear conscience. To break the stereotype is to challenge the prejudice and, therefore, to trouble the conscience, which of course also means that the church is troubled and the nation is troubled. Every successive wave of revolution in Western civilisation has had its beginning in the refusal on the part of the oppressed group to accept any longer the imposed definition of the power majority. Revolution begins when oppressed people demand the power of self-definition. "I am not who you say I am, I am who I say I am." That is always the call to change and ultimately the call to revolution. In the civil rights movement black Americans challenged the white- imposed definition. We will not be "non-whites", they shouted. We will not be Erastus, Amos 'n' Andy, Rochester, boy, Bojangles, or Uncle Tom. We are Africans - proud human beings. Black is beautiful. We will define ourselves, empower ourselves, organise ourselves. You will have to deal with us as we are, not as you think we are. We will be business and political leaders, social and athletic leaders. We will be managers and executives. We will be union members and leaders. We are and will be part of this nation and part of this church. We will even contend for the office of President of the United States and Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. You will have to deal with us. We will not go away. We will never again be excluded. The catechism applies to us. We are "members of Christ, children of God and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven." The feminist movement likewise began when women challenged the male- imposed definition of what it means to be a woman. No longer were women willing to be relegated to the biological functions of wife and mother. We will control our own bodies, women proclaimed. We will not be relegated to the world of schoolteachers, nurses and secretaries. We will be bankers, lawyers, priests and bishops. We will be scientists and senators. We will run for President and Vice-President. We will sit on the Supreme Court of the United States. Above all women, not men, will henceforth define who a woman is. Women will force others to deal with who they are, not who someone else says they are. The catechism applies to us. Women were saying, we are "members of Christ, children of God, inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven." The rise of such organisations as Integrity and Dignity indicates that we are in the midst of yet another revolution. This revolution started the moment lesbian and gay people demanded the power to define themselves. The lesbian and gay members of our society have begun to throw off the shackles of the pejorative definition imposed on them by the power majority. "We are not who you say we are," the lesbian and gay population is saying. "We are who we say we are." "We will not accept the stereotype you have imposed." Gay Pride is the emotional equivalent of Black is Beautiful. Gay Pride stakes a claim for the power of self-definition. Lesbians and gay men are saying that the catechism applies to them also. We are "members of Christ, children of God, inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven." Whenever the power of self-definition is claimed by an oppressed group the power people have to adjust. When lesbian and gay persons insist on defining themselves the straight world must begin to acknowledge its prejudice. That is happening today. Slowly but surely both church and society are learning to recognise that different is not evil - it is simply different. The dawning truth is that it is not abnormal to be gay, it is not deviant, it is not depraved, it is not sick. Homosexuality is a normal part of the rich variety of human life. Homosexuality has the same potential for health and wholeness as does heterosexuality. Homosexuality has been a part of human life since the dawn of humanity. Homosexuality is an aspect of nature found in almost every higher species of life. Far from being negative it has greatly enriched the human enterprise. Homosexuality must break the stereotype in which it has been captured so that it can be acknowledged, accepted, celebrated and appreciated. All people take a step into wholeness when they can affirm and live out openly and honestly the deepest identities of their lives. We are called to demand of both church and society that the self each of us is be accorded justice, acceptance, affirmation and protection. So, lesbian and gay Christians together with their friends have come to San Francisco to say to the leaders of our church that the time has come to remove the blinders of ecclesiastical prejudice. The time has come to affirm the basic identity of every human being . The time has come to make real for all our people - white, black, Hispanic, male, female, gay and straight - the imperatives of the Gospel The Episcopal Church does welcome you. The Episcopal Church does accept the definitions of its ancient catechism Every Christian is a member of Christ, a child of God and an inheritor of the Kingdom of heaven. The Episcopal Church does believe its baptism vows. We pledge this church to work for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being. We are the Body of Christ. This church would welcome all whom Christ would welcome. We will love all whom Christ does love. We will serve all whom Christ would serve. We make these demands and issue these challenges not because it is politically expedient, or even politically wise. We do it because the Gospel demands it. We do it because it is right. ======== End of volume 90-4 of Integrator, the newsletter of Integrity/Toronto copyright 1990 Integrity/Toronto Editors this issue: Bonnie Bewley & Chris Ambidge comments please to Chris Ambidge, current Editor chris.ambidge@utoronto.ca OR Integrity/Toronto Box 873 Stn F Toronto ON Canada M4Y 2N9