Date: Thu, 13 Jan 94 12:50:54 EST From: Louie Crew Subject: FYI, a copy of Voice of Integrity, Summer 93 This is an electronic reproduction of The Voice of Integrity, the quarterly publication of Integrity, Inc., the lesbian and gay justice ministry of the Episcopal Church. All materials except those reproduced from other sources are copyrighted by Integrity, Inc. You may reproduce all original material herein if you state "Reproduced from the Summer, 1993 issue of The Voice of Integrity, the quarterly publication of Integrity, Inc., the lesbian and gay justice ministry of the Episcopal Church." Material may not appear exactly as published since some changes were made after the document was transferred to desk top publishing format. We encourage you to join Integrity. We encourage non-Episcopalians and non-lesgay persons to join. If you are a lesbian or gay Episcopalian and don't belong to Integrity, you're benefitting from all our work and we hope you'll strongly consider helping us by joining. Individual annual membership $25, Couple's annual membership $40, Low income/student/sr. citizen $10. Please mail check or money order to Integrity, Inc., P.O. Box 19561, Washington, DC 20036-0561. ********** Summer 1993 *The Voice of Integrity* Volume 3, Number 3 Published by Integrity, Inc. P.O. Box 19561 Washington, D.C. 20036-0561 Telephone 718-720-3054 Bruce Garner, President Edgar Kim Byham, Publisher R. Scott Helsel, Editor Contributing Editors: Claudia Windal, Louie Crew, Paul Wooodrum Blair McFadden, Layout Dorothy Gunn, Production Editorial Office: 201-868-2485 PO Box 5202; NYC, NY 10185 Member Episcopal Communicators Associate Member Gay & Lesbian Press Association Copyright 1993 ******************** *TABLE OF CONTENTS* *March on Washington* Pilgrim Lutibelle's Report An Abiding Place Religious Leaders Support March Journey Folk All Things New The Wedding Celebrating Life EURRR's Cannons Flaming Again Former Integrity Chaplain Elected First Female Diocesan Judge Dismisses $4 Million Lawsuit in Virginia I Was in Prison and You Came to Me *Book Reviews* Nothing New: "New Millennium, New Church" New Prayers For Old Occasions: "Daring to Speak Love's Name" Chapter Updates Disciples' Candidate Supportive Claudia's Column Joshua's Baptism Pushes the Boundaries of the Family of God *Lesgays in the Military* The Beat Goes On A Retired Chaplain on Gays in the Military The Presiding Bishop Supports an End to the Military Ban UCC Leader Testifies for End of Military Ban PB Writes to Armed Forces Chaplains An Exchange of Pleasantries East Tennessee Symposium to Explore Search for Structural Reform of the Episcopal Church Much Fuss Down Under: First "Openly" Gay Ordinand in Australian Church Quits Topeka Parish Gay Bashed Commission on AIDS/HIV Surveying Church's Ministries EURRR Opposes Minnesota Bishop-Elect New Dallas Bishop Says He's Open, We'll See Suffragan Bishop-Elect in Virginia Accused of Sexual Misconduct A Not Very Pastoral Letter British Bishop Admits Charges, Resigns Homophobia Doesn't Just Hurt Gay People - Part II: Straight Integrity Member Fired for Supporting Equality Bishop Plummer Charged With Sexual Misconduct: The Church and the Media React God's Vulnerability in Our Sexual Choices Songs for One of Our Unsung Heroes, Helping Ohio Sing a New Song Should Integrity Change How it Addresses the Clergy? Integrity Plays A Major role in Colorado Losing 1997 General Convention Lesbian Prof Dismissed by General Seminary President's Column Should We Support the ESA? ******************** *EPISCOPAL COMMUNICATORS* This Publication Honored by Episcopal Communicators At its annual convention, held in New Orleans June 9-12, 1993, "The Voice of Integrity" received Polly Bond Awards and honorable mention recognition for several articles in 1992. Integrity's entries compete in the Magazine division, Agency Level, a group which includes "The Witness" and "The Living Church." Reader Response: Award of Excellence "Comments on the Bishops' 'Issues in Human Sexuality'" .LM 16 Authors: Louie Crew, Guy R. Foster, John M. Gessell, Larkette Lein, David Lochman, Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Peter C. Moore, Tim Vivian, David White .LM 11 Summer 1992 issue Headline: Award of Merit "Art Imitates Episcopal Life" Author: Kim Byham Fall 1992 issue Editorial: Honorable Mention "PB Hopelessly Heterosexist" Author: L. Paul Woodrum Fall 1992 issue News Story: Honorable Mention "`France's Troy Perry' Murdered, Police Implicated" Author: Kim Byham Spring 1992 issue Theological Reflection: Honorable Mention "Some Instructive Parallels" Author: Warner Traynham Winter 1992 issue Devotional/Inspirational: Honorable Mention "Kicking, Screaming, Limping: Being the Church in the World" Author: Louie Crew Spring 1992 issue ******************** MEMBERSHIP FORM *INTEGRITY, INC.* P.O. Box 19561, Washington, DC 20036 I want to share in Integrity's work for justice for lesbians and gay men. Please enter my membership as checked below and begin my subscription to "The Voice of Integrity." [ ] Individual annual membership $25 [ ] Couple annual membership $40 [ ] Low income/student/sr. citizen $10 Mr./Ms/Miss Mrs./Rev./Dr. __________________________________________ Address _________________________________________________ City _________________________ State ___________________ Phone ________________________ Zip _____________________ Please mail with your check or money order to: INTEGRITY, INC., PO Box 19561, Washington, DC 20036-0561. All contributions tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. ******************** *MARCH ON WASHINGTON* Pilgrim Lutibelle's Report by Louie Crew We were early enough Friday evening to park in St. Thomas's small lot, since David Allen White, our host, needed to arrive to multiply the loaves and fishes. Ernest and I walked to Dupont Circle, where I had come so many weekends, 1962-65, for long meditations and droolings that led me to flee to England and embrace my identity. I always remember Dupont Circle as at least four times larger than it actually is, rather the way I remember neighborhood gullies that I learned to jump when 8 or 9. "I feel like I'm back in Hong Kong," Ernest said, responding to the thickness of the crowd. It swelled even more as we walked up Mass. Ave., towards Lambda Rising and the March Office. Police limited the crowds allowed in Lambda Rising, and 5 or 6 separate lines of people, each a block long, waited to enter the book store. What revolution has ever been this much about the right to read!? A small crowd had already gathered outside St. Thomas's when we returned. A much larger crowd had grown inside. I gave up waiting in line to sign the guest book, lest I not get a seat in the service. Ushers brought in more and more chairs. The small Washington chapter wore itself to a frazzle feasting and libating all the pilgrims afterwards. At 10:30 on Saturday morning we rushed by cab to Mt. St. Alban. Ernest explored the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul for his first time. I slipped into the small chapel in the Bishops House, where four of us kept simultaneous vigil with similar small groups in cathedrals all over the United States protesting with prayers the consecration of Bishop Iker occurring at the same time in Fort Worth. Every chapel window depicted female Christians from all times. As part of my own meditation, I reMEMBERed every woman who had shaped me in my childhood, writing down long lists of names to make them members of me again, including my blood family, my surrogate black family, my teachers, the women in the neighborhood, Dorothy Potter whom I played dolls with, Emily Cater whom I played "naked" with, until her mother, Irene, came like God into the garden, and we covered ourselves with draperies as we stood in the bay windows, and I was spanked severely and forbidden to go to the puppet show.... "Justice, Justice, Shalt Thou Pursue" was the theme of the Interfaith Service at the Church of the Epiphany on Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Several hundred pilgrims packed in to hear Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and Episcopal priest Ted Karpf preach poignantly to this theme. [See Father Karpf's sermon on page 7.] Ted subtly reversed the Sodom story to address the question of our numbers. No one at this service -- designed months ago by all the lesbigay religious groups in our capital for all MOW pilgrims -- was able to attend a competing service, beginning at 4, long before this service was over, at the National Cathedral. Contrary to all its public announcements, the service at the National Cathedral was explicitly gay. The dean of the cathedral did greet the crowd with specific reference to lesbigay pilgrims. By all accounts of those there, the service was absolutely splendid and in the best traditions we all expect of our national cathedral. But why did the National Cathedral organize and publicize an event in direct competition with an ecumenical service of all lesbigay religious groups? Why did it make not one bit of effort to contact any of those religious groups to invite them to attend? Why did it get specific about its gay connection only when the audience arrived? On Sunday, I had been standing with Integrity in the thick crowd on the mall near the Washington monument for about four hours waiting for a space to clear for our group to enter the narrow stream of marchers going down Pennsylvania Avenue. The crowds were so large that at our position we could see no movement until long after the first marchers had reached the end of Pennsylvania Avenue and re-entered the mall at the other end. I was weary. My legs were swelling. I decided to risk lying down. While there was space enough, I was not sure that anyone moving about would see me, nor that I could get back up, given where Mr. K. Knee Stone had kicked me in the back. I lay there for half an hour or so, vaguely listening to the loud speakers of the performers and speakers on the platform two of three blocks away. The march, I realized, was not about getting somewhere, but about presence, about being there, about being present together. We marched but followed no one. In fact, we might just as well not have "marched," given the difficulty of movement, but might more expeditiously have just sat on the mall all day long. We had arrived en mass in our Capital. Any other movement was mere choreography. Celebrities dropped in and out occasionally, but never controlled us. No one completely rapt the throngs. (T-shirts might dispute that claim!) Jesse Jackson preached at one point, and some of us responded to his litany, "Keep hope alive" and "I'm somebody." I was glad that he was there, glad that he and other national leaders were not deaf to the pain and suffering of those whom our institutions defined as the least of these their sisters and brothers; but for much of even Jackson's speech, my attention rambled, as did that of many others present. Earlier Phil Donohue got more response to his litany, "Get over it!" How ironic that a talk show host has won major moral authority in our time, but why should I be surprised: the House of Bishop has dialogued itself into irrelevance; Churches can't even decide whether to be churches; arts consumers can't even decide whether the massive death of artists should even be noticed. Why should I be surprised if God uses the very stones to cry out? At one point I fetched Bishop Otis Charles (formerly Bishop of Utah, now Dean of Episcopal Divinity School) from the EDS/Harvard Divinity contingent and brought him like a prize to the Integrity area. Predictably, his episcopal shirt set up a murmur of "Who's that bishop?" and some eased over to meet him. For a brief moment when we did begin to move, Bishop Jane Dixon appeared, almost like an apparition, shook about 10 sets of palms, and disappeared. Mainly we pilgrims seemed a leaderless crowd, and that seemed good. So many hundreds of thousands of persons together, with folks vying to lead us, or merely to get our attention. It seemed to me we did quite well without a leader. Perhaps someone needed to be on a platform to feed the media, but for the most part, people about me seemed to feed on our massive presence itself, in all our glorious diversity. Several Episcopal Bishops showed up the 1963 March on Washington. Only two showed up for our much larger march in 1993. That's part of the problem! Thank God for Bishop Jane and for Bishop Otis Charles! I wish Bishop Ron could have been there with his gay son, whom he affirms, but Mary, his wife, is still trying to get the young man "regenerated" as straight. Pray for them. For me, the main moment of the weekend was a personal one. While I lay on the grass I realized that my spouse had sat down next to me. I was on my back with my eyes closed, my knees elevated to improve circulation. He rested himself by leaning on my right leg, for a very long time. I began to be uncomfortable with the pressure of his weight, and realized I was crying, but I struggled to give no indication whatever of my discomfort, lest he stop resting on my knee, because I realized for for the first time in two decades of married life we were in a space where such simple public affection called no attention to itself, in a space where no one needed to monitor or take note of our simply touching, and quite beyond the discomfort, I wanted the joy of this simple touch to last forever and to be available to everyone in the whole wide world. ******************** *AN ABIDING PLACE* A Sermon by the Rt. Rev. Jane Holmes Dixon, Suffragan Bishop of Washington, at the Integrity/Washington Eucharist, April 23, 1993 It is a privilege for me to be here with you this night. When Michael Hopkins called me some months ago and invited me to be the celebrant at this Eucharist, I had to do what we do when we think about what is the thing we should do. I'm in a new position, as you well know, with all my fine garb. Statements that I make and places that I go and pictures that are taken are seen in a different way, and there's a part of that that I hate. I hate it that I had to think about whether I would come here tonight. I have celebrated for Integrity before, in this very nave, and I thought, what a state to which I have been elevated! But I work for a wonderful man -- a man whom I admire more than I can ever tell you, or I would never have let my name be put forward last year when we elected a suffragan. And I went into him and I said, "Bishop, do you have any problems with my going to celebrate for Integrity the weekend of the Great March?" He said, "It's a celebration for Integrity, isn't it?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Do you celebrate there?" I said, "Yes." He said, "Then, what's the question?" I want you to know that, because there are times that he and I will make you angry and you will feel left out. Whatever you think about me, I want you to think the best of him because he's a brave and courageous man. I also was a little stunned when I read the lessons that are appointed for human dignity and rights that had been chosen for tonight's lessons. When I saw that when Michael sent me the service of liturgy, I thought, well, we're really going to get into justice big-time tonight! And there was that astonishing letter where John begins with "God is love" and then in Matthew's gospel where those two commandments on which all the law and the prophets rest, and there are only two that our Lord, Jesus Christ says, that we love God and that we love our neighbors as ourselves. And so we gather here tonight to talk about what it means to love when we don't feel very loved in this world. It was exciting driving down here tonight. The streets are full of people! And a rather extraordinary experience took place just before I got here. I was invited to tea at the Rector's home, the Rectory. As we were sitting there we thought, was this a new beginning for the church of God? There we sat in Jim's Holmes' rectory -- a woman bishop and an openly gay priest -- thank God! And his loving partner was with us and I have to tell you as we walked back to the church and we heard the music over at Dupont Circle, Tim and I were a little tempted to make a stop over there. But Jim said we had to be here so we came over. I want to talk about loving tonight. Because you and I can go out of this place and we can be so filled with bitterness and so filled with feeling oppressed that we will not do what God would have us to do. For there are goings-on in the church down in Texas this weekend that break my heart as well. And I had to struggle as to whether I would be there or not, and I have let women down by not being there. So I ask you to pray for those in that diocese, and for the men and women who are part of that world, and for the oppression that they feel, and for those who are even more oppressed who will not ordain women. You and I are called to tell the world about another way of being and it's very appropriate that this Great March is taking place in Eastertide, because you and I are Easter people. We always believe that God is doing a new thing and that no matter what humankind can do, God can always overcome it. In the epistle for tonight there is a word John uses frequently. It is the word "abide" and that word comes from the Hebrew word which means "to tabernacle together." And so as you've gathered here tonight and you have given me the privilege of gathering with you, we've come to make that safe place, that tent of meeting, that place of abiding, where we can come to be refreshed and restored and healed and sent out into the world. We need gatherings like this because sometimes the world seems overwhelming and it's very appropriate that people have come into this town this weekend to say to the world, there are many of us who care, straight and gay, for the dignity and worth of every human being. But it is important that we find those places, those abiding places where we can come for strength and solace and courage. Because the message, of course, is about loving, it is about loving those that we do not want to love. For if we go out of here tonight only thinking about ourselves and the things that have been inflicted upon us, we will not be doing what God has commanded us to do. God has commanded us to love our neighbor as ourself. And we know, when the lawyer asked Jesus who our neighbor was, we got the story of the Samaritan. But the neighbor for me is that one I really don't want to love, and there are lots of those out there. But if I hear these words and understand them, as I know God has intended for me to understand, it means that I am to love those who are the least lovable, those who say things to me that are hurtful, because God has called me to show the world another way. And I need that abiding place, that tabernacling together with people where I feel safe and I feel loved so that I can go into a world that often I feel does not love me. I am grateful that these are the lessons for tonight for it would be very easy for us to be here talking about our sorrows and the oppression that you have felt in ways that I will never know. And there are those among you who are people of color who have felt oppression in ways that those of us who are white will never know. And it is also important that this Holocaust new museum has been opened here in Washington this week to remind us what hatred can do. People who are oppressed are not free from hatred. And so that is a great reminder to me that hatred withers my soul and makes me bitter and stingy and mean, and we know what happens to people when we become that way. So I challenge you tonight as I challenge myself, as we hear the words that were read to us in the lessons from Holy Scripture, to love God and know that God loves you and me. It is because God loves us and deems us worthy that you and I are to go out in the world and love others. The passage from Isaiah tells us what we are to be -- a light to enlighten the nations. And so we have a responsibility, we have a duty as Jim was saying to me before we came tonight. We have a duty -- we have a duty to show the world another way. I pray for you as you are here this weekend, that you connect with those that maybe you've not seen for a long time, and that that abiding place which is begun here will go with you out into the world, and you will feel that kind of love of God and neighbor that will give you the courage to do the things that you were called upon to do, for the struggle is just beginning. Being here with you tonight gives me courage. I have been in a really bad mood all week. I have felt oppressed. Excuse me, gentlemen, I have had men put me down the last three days, and I've had to smile and be nice and keep on going. And I'm sorta sick of it. But I needed to hear those lessons. I needed to hear that God loves me no matter what I do. And because God loves me, then it is my privilege to serve my God and to love those who seem most unlovable to me. God bless you all. Thank you once again for the privilege of being the president of this Eucharist, and God be with you as you go out into this world to make a difference in the quality of life for all human beings. In the name of God who creates us, liberates us, and who sanctifies us. Amen. ******************** *RELIGIOUS LEADERS SUPPORT MARCH* Representatives of several national religious communities announced their support for the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual Equal Rights and Liberation. Endorsement were announced at a March 17 press conference organized by the United Church of Christ, which ended the Interfaith IMPACT Annual Legislative Briefing, a national gathering of people of faith for justice and peace held in Washington, DC. The Episcopal Church did not endorse the march. Rabbi Lynne F. Landsberg of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations discussed the need for religious people everywhere to fight discrimination against lesbians and gays. "We are here today to say, loudly and clearly, that the real traditional values of American life -- if not always of American history -- are those of freedom, liberty and equality." The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) joined in these statements of support, with Kay Dowhower saying, "The ELCA has committed itself to participate in God's mission by 'advocating dignity and justice for all people' ... which commits the church to the civil rights of homosexuals ... The ELCA continues its support of the Civil Rights Amendments Act for Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights. We urge swift passage of this legislation. We look upon the upcoming March on Washington as one way in which those supportive of the civil rights for all persons, regardless of sexual orientation, can join together to support one another in that effort." Robert F. Glover of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) agreed, saying, "The church stands firm today in its support for civil rights and in its solidarity with those who have too long endured the burden of fear, ignorance, hatred and violence ... We strongly support the April 25th March on Washington ... in the hope that the day will soon come when all Americans will enjoy equally the rights of their citizenship." Robert A. Alpern, director of the Washington office of the Unitarian Universalist Association, spoke of the long history of many religious groups in support of gay and lesbian rights, saying, "After passage of the anti-civil rights initiative in Colorado, the Unitarian Universalist's General Assembly Planning Committee withdrew its reservation for the $3 million 1997 General Assembly in Colorado. And our Beacon Press mailed copies of a newly published book "Homophobia: How We All Pay the Price" to 150 public libraries in Colorado. So it is in this spirit ... that we have for months urged Unitarian Universalists from across the continent to come to Washington and join this historic manifestation to reverse the cruel discrimination practiced against 25 million or more of our relatives, friends and others we do not know." ******************** *JOURNEY FOLK* by Donald Snyder Ubi sunt gaudia, In any place but there? There are angels singing Nova cantica, And there the bells are ringing, in Regis curia, O that we were there! This stanza from "In Dulci Jubio," especially the line, 'O that we were there!' kept flowing through my mind as the various events surrounding the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Equal Rights and Liberation began to unfold. I knew the special importance of this event, as did everyone in the gay and lesbian community. Even so, it soon became apparent that others saw the event's importance as well. The mainstream media, such as The New York Times, NBC, and National Public Radio, did a number of stories on gay and lesbian issues and used the march as a way to introduce them. I couldn't help but feel some support from these articles and stories, as the momentum in my own mind began to build. The significance of the march was in evidence as Allen Lowe, my close friend and traveling companion, and I began our journey toward Washington on Friday morning. As we drove on I-95 we came upon two women from New Hampshire with the hand-made sign, "Honk If You're Queer," in their back window and four men in a rental car from New York with a large lavender triangle in the rear window. No guessing was needed as to their destination. Even the four people from New Jersey with the Rand-McNally Street Map for Washington in their side window subtly stated their weekend location. At a well reviewed restaurant in Philadelphia, our sense of anticipation continued. Our server shared stories about people she knew who were going, and the bartender told of his plans to leave on Saturday. Upon arrival in the Dupont Circle area, I had the impression that the nation's capital had been transformed into a gay and lesbian small town. People walking to their destinations and visiting with strangers proved that given half a chance, we don't have to maintain the icy veneer that is often present in gay and lesbian bars. There was a family reunion feeling as Integrity members and friends began to gather at St. Thomas Church. As the service began and we sang the hymns, the standing-room-only congregation exuded more spirit and verve than the acoustics and architecture of the church could contain. It was so inspiring to hear the epistle reader for the evening share her heartfelt thoughts about having been alienated by the Southern Baptist Church several years earlier, and how she had found a special sense of reconnection with organized religion through Washington's Integrity chapter. As a musician, I found a special warmth in hearing "Es flog ein kleine Waldvogelsin," "Noel nouvelet," and "Land of Rest," three of my favorite hymn tunes. Jane Holmes Dixon, Washington's new Suffragan Bishop, spoke so thoughtfully of the ease with which she happily accepted the invitation to be our preacher and celebrant. The Washingtonians outdid themselves, providing a sumptuous buffet for all in attendance. Talk about feeding the five thousand! As we dined, we had more of an opportunity to greet old friends and make new ones. Dupont Circle was presenting its own spring flower show as the last of the cherry blossoms and tulips as large as my cupped hand were in great evidence. The Circle proved to be an impromptu "meet and greet" for many people, including me. It was hard to believe that I would have to go to Washington to see friends and associates who were fellow New Yorkers. My sense of anticipation was as bright as the early sun as Sunday morning arrived. Even though an estimated one million of us were in the District of Columbia area, Washington was quiet at the 7 o'clock hour as I drove from the home of our host family in suburban Maryland to downtown for the Integrity gathering at St. John's, Lafayette Square. Several of us, bleary-eyed, met for the 8:00 Eucharist. Even though our contingent swelled the number in attendance to nearly one hundred from its usual half dozen or so, no mention of the march or our presence was made during the intercessions or announcements. Only the slightest, if veiled, referenced could be detected during the brief homily. My firm disappointment was tempered with a sense of satisfaction in knowing that we, subtly but assuredly, made our presence known. It seems like a bit of a coup, knowing that we had accomplished this in the "Church of Presidents," and done so in a very positive way. Music helped redeem the service, as the organist played Vaughan Williams' "Variations on 'Rhosymedre,'" another one of my favorites. As I moved the car and rode the Metro back to the Mall, I thought of others who weren't going to be in our number that day. There was a renewed sense of loss and grief for those who had died of AIDS or as a result of anti-gay hate and violence. There was dismay and even some anger for those who wouldn't have considered coming, since being homosexual is not a real issue or even "discussed in polite company." I knew, however, I could take a sense of pride in representing those who, because of distance, finances, career, or other legitimate reasons, couldn't be there. A sea of humanity was making its way toward the Mall by late morning. T-shirts seemed to be the uniform of choice for most marchers. The official march shirts proliferated. Of the others, my favorite was the one which said, "One Percent is a Fairy Tale." Those of us in the Integrity contingent began to gather at the appointed place with the other religious groups. The only weather worry was that of sunburn. There seemed to be a sense of relief more than anything else, when we were finally led to the street to join the march. We had a good number of chapters represented in our gathering by them, as Bishop Dixon came to greet us at the edge of the Mall. We had visible support from those in the straight community as well. Together the one million of us in attendance had the opportunity, even the duty, to sign our names to the petitions provided by the march organizers. This way we could prove the National Park Service wrong with its woeful under count. It was gratifying to be in the majority as we passed in front of the Treasury Building and were confronted by those from the so called "religious right." Their attempts at swaying opinions were easily rebuffed by our refrain, "We're here! We're queer! We're Anglican! Get used to it!" Militant as it sounded, those statements seemed to sum up the sentiment for all of us. With another passenger in the car we departed Washington, spending time recounting various aspects of our weekend as we drove north. I counted no less than twenty-six autos with fellow "journey folk" on their respective homeward treks. As I reflected upon the impact of the march and its related events, I found that the words 'O that we were there!' were transformed into the affirmation, 'Oh, yes, we *were* there!' ******************** *ALL THINGS NEW* A sermon preached by the Rev. Ted Karpf on April 24, 1993 at the Church of the Epiphany for the service organized by the Washington Area Gay and Lesbian Interfaith Alliance in observance of the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Equal Rights and Liberation. We're here! We're gathered to witness to the hope and fear, the joy and trauma of being lesbian and gay, transgender and bisexual in America. By these days in the nation's capital we are challenged to take our vision back to our communities to begin or continue and invigorate our movement for equal rights across America. As people of faith, we hold the conviction that no change happens apart from the presence of God. The very content of justice is based on a holy vision of God's ultimate victory over all that reduces and destroys life. Such a vision informs us in the words of Isaiah: Behold I create new heavens and a new earth; and former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. The Prophet continues, Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. This vision is dramatic. For it suggests a new order built out of the old -- a renewal, if you will, of what has been transformed to what can be. We gather here with no less dramatic and compelling determination. And what are some of our visions? They include tragedy and trauma, outrage and revolution, and hope and wholeness. At the heart of this visioning of what we have endured, what we are demonstrating, and of that for which we yearn is the Shalom -- peace -- envisaged by Isaiah when the whole of creation comes to terms with itself in peace. This hope is as old as humanity. But for bisexual and transgender, gay and lesbian people our peace is found in obtaining basic equal rights that we may join in the struggle for meaning and value with all other human beings. Gandhi is reputed to have said, "It would be a sin if God were to appear before a hungry man in any other form but a loaf of bread." For our community -- for we who have settled too often for the half a loaf that wasn't always better than none -- for God to come before us in any form but the full -- and fulfilling -- loaf of equal rights to enter the struggle for wholeness is a sin. For us to be at peace requires not only faith, which enables to us to rise above the terror, but the basic human rights to participate in the struggle toward meaning with all humanity. This expectation -- no, this demand -- of ours is consistent with God's promise that creation will be at peace with itself. We have reached a time where our critical mass in society is being felt. We have reached a time when the powers and principalities of this age can no longer ignore our presence, try though they may. There are simply too many of us, though some surveys say we are not enough. To that I say, if there are ten of us and we are deprived of our rights to give and be given in relationships and to enjoy the blessing of children, then there are too many of us to deny. If there are only five of us, and we are told that we cannot enter the struggle for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then there are too many of us to ignore. And if there is just one of us, and even this one cannot be allowed to just be, then there are too many of us who are oppressed. And for just this one, we -- all of us -- must engage in the struggle for human rights. There is an old Sufi legend told by Shams of Tabriz about himself. It talks about the meaning of being different, which is at the core of our struggle: how others can live with the differences which our lives present in the arena of the human struggle. The story goes like this: I have been considered a misfit since my childhood. No one seemed to understand me. My own father once said to me, "You are not mad enough to be put into a madhouse, and not withdrawn enough to be put in a monastery. I don't know what to do with you." I replied, "A duck's egg was once put under a hen. When the egg was hatched the duckling walked about with the mother hen until they came to a pond. The duckling went straight into the water. The hen stayed clucking anxiously on land. Now, dear father, I have walked into the ocean and find in it my home. You can hardly blame me if you choose to stay on the shore." How many of us have lived through this story? All of us in some way or other, I expect. This is our reason to celebrate: we have entered the ocean and have not drowned! We celebrate the fact that we are here today together. And what of the times in which we live? What have they taught us to celebrate? We are celebrating the triumph of making the break and entering the ocean. We are celebrating the triumph of passion become compassion as lesbian sisters and gay brothers demonstrate unremitting love in caring for those of us dying with AIDS. We are celebrating the witness of our community in making itself felt and heard in politics of the nation. We are celebrating the commitment in love of bisexual and transgender, lesbian and gay parents who have managed to keep and raise their children and grandchildren in the face of overwhelming and painful opposition. Thus, we are celebrating our determination not to drown, but to swim. Some wi}l say that we are celebrating the limitations of those who stay on the shore, but that is not true; would that the whole world be ducks! But what gift can we ducks give to the world as we celebrate this weekend? What can endure? We come to live as different. To a large extent as a community we shy from our calling to be different. Years ago, Don Clark, in "Loving Someone Gay," said, If you're going to be gay, you might as well be different! Even in the late seventies, ten years after Stonewall, many gay commentators were beginning to identify an emerging conformity to behavior, style, language, attitudes, and beliefs. But everything in the gay/lesbian, bi and transgender subculture says no matter how hard we try to look like everybody, we don't. We can't pass and we shouldn't try. Remember: *If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck then no matter how it looks, it must be a duck.* Or so the story goes. I see a dangerous desire on the part of many us to be like everyone else. But if we who exist in the reality of exile must become like our oppressors to get along -- to "pass" -- then we dare not try to be anyone but who we were created to be. For the God-given gift is that equal rights include the right to be different. Isaiah gives us a clue in describing the New Creation: The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. It is not just a matter of differences existing side by side: it is the promise that the predatory nature of creation -- the enmity and the need to consume each other -- will be removed from the order. What this vision says is that we shall exist side by side with all people. Color will be real, but not divisive. Sexual orientation will be real, but not fear inducing. Differences will be celebrated not abhorred. For central to the spirit of gaiety is the spirit of difference -- of constantly being made new and different. How then shall we live? In this week of the dedication of the Holocaust Museum there is a message for us in the screams, the whispers, the cries of the captives. Several years ago I was given the horrific gift of visiting two of the concentration camps of the holocaust -- Dachau and Terezin. Dachau, you may recall, was the place in Germany were those residing in the town -- just outside the camp walls -- denied any knowledge of the thousands upon thousand who were killed and cremated inside the walls. Orderly, systematic and carefully planned, Dachau was the prototype for the Final Solution. Strangely, because conformity was demanded and enforced, there was no record of resistance in this systematized, planned, hygienic industrial setting. Thousands died and thousands more denied. And in that place there is a prevailing sense of hopelessness and despair. Dachau is a monument to death and destruction and human cruelty -- systematized, planned, conformist, in every way. And then there is Terezin. There is the medieval fortress and prison, and the village. This was the village where the children were sent and from which we have the record of their art and letters about the camps. The prison and concentration camp are eerie in that the original bunks, signs, window covering, bowls and spoons remain on the tables where they were on the day of liberation. The wind blows softly through the camp, which feels as if its inhabitants had just left. This camp -- which saw the execution of 35,000 through disease, overwork, and firing squads -- is a monument to the constant resistance of humanity to conform. For in this camp, uprisings and escapes occurred regularly and often. The Nazis could not control the prisoners, so prisoners were regularly executed before all of the camp's inmates to reinforce fear and create order. It failed. So it had to be repeated often. As I stood touching the bullet holes in the wall where these executions took place, I surprisingly felt hope. The unconquerable will of the human spirit to survive pulsed through me. Even in a world of limited choices and few options, we still can choose to be different ... to not submit to those who would break us, and beat us, and even kill us. I have had the same experience again and again when ministering at the bedside of those dying with AIDS; in the life-giving, death-defying pangs of childbirth of lesbian mothers; in counseling adolescents struggling mightily with questions about their sexuality; and at the altar of the church where gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people have come to offer again their lives to God -- and to each other -- as people of faith. How do we live? We live by faith that the vision of Isaiah will come to pass and that we are part of that vision. We live by celebrating the differences and embracing the vast array of our choices. We live by drawing strength from the witness of our compassion, and by the power of our passion. We live by respecting the dignity -- and the differences -- of every human being. We live by coming together in peace, to seek peace and wholeness in a world which doesn't really know what that looks like. We live by trust, by faith, by courage, and by hope. That's how we live. May the God of each of us, of our calling, be with us and upon us all-ways in our search for a new heaven and a new earth. Amen. ******************** *THE WEDDING* by Kim Byham Scott had a good excuse for not attending "The Wedding" on Saturday morning. He had arrived on a red-eye train from New York at 8:00 am and was at our motel asleep when several thousand people gathered in front of the IRS building. We had had the Rev. Troy Perry, founder and moderator of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches and chief officiant at the event, for dinner at our home only a couple of weeks before. We had discussed the ceremony and I decided to let my journalistic curiosity overcome my Anglican disdain. It was marvelous. Despite the name, it made no pretense of being a wedding service or even a blessing of union. It was, instead, a wonderful rally in support of couple-rights. That's why it was held in front of the IRS building -- where better to protest the inequality of lesgay and straight couples. The highlight was the introduction of America's most famous lesbian couple: Karen Thompson and Sharon Kowalski. Thompson announced that she was that month taking Kowalski home from the nursing facility where she has been for many years following the car accident that left her paralyzed. Thompson's successful custody battle with Kowalski's parents is a landmark in lesgay couple rights. Introduced as the oldest lesbian couple were a delightful, though anachronistic couple from Florida. Bobby Smith, 69, and her life partner of 33 years, Kay Thompson, also 69, dressed in "masculine" and "feminine" garb, respectively. The longest-term gay couple had been together 46 years. Jim Busby and Dusty Keyes of Arlington, VA had been brought together by a federal government roommate service. A number of religious "dignitaries" were briefly introduced. They included the Rev. Karen Murphy, Assistant Rector at Grace Church, Madison, NJ, "representing that part of the Episcopal Church that affirms lesbian and gay unions." After a brief exchange of expressions of love and the statement, "We proclaim together our rights as couples," Perry said, "Couples, you may kiss." At that point, the Wedding March was played and rice filled the air. The schmaltzy ending did not detract from a significant event, the symbolism of which was largely lost on the straight media. ******************** *CELEBRATING LIFE* by Bruce Garner Well, by now, we have all learned that the National Park Service can't count. (They give the rest of us federal employees a bad name - if they worked for me, they would either be in a math class or looking for a job!) Empowered is the word I think best describes being in Washington along with over a million of us homosexual types. There is nothing that can ever compare with being among your own people, knowing that it is your time to be, and to be who you were created to be, without shame, without hesitation, without fear. It was indeed our time, and I hope it was the beginning of the end to our oppression. (I ain't that naive, children - but I *can* hope, can't I?!) The Eucharist on Friday night was incredible. St. Thomas was filled to capacity. The responses of the congregation shook the building. The singing almost overpowered the organ. Bishop Dixon inspired us with a homily about love and with her obvious love and compassion for us. And as usual, our DC chapter put on an impressive spread during the reception. It was a welcomed reunion for so many of us, seeing folks we hadn't seen in quite a while. Sunday morning at St. John's Lafayette Square was special too. It was appropriate that we begin the day in the house of God, fed from God's table. I doubt the 8:00 am service had seen quite so many folks in many a day. We were acknowledged, though safely and subtly. A bit of reality was reintroduced to us in the realization that, even in that place, on that particular Sunday, some of us still cannot live our lives as they were created to be lived. We all must remember that reality. The rainbow of our family was quite impressive. We looked just like who we are: ordinary, average looking, American citizens. Our folks included the same variations in color, appearance, dress, and attitude that we find in the American public at large, despite how much so many would like to deny that truth. We really are not all that different - at least in appearance. I visited back and forth between our Integrity contingent with the religious organizations and the extremely large (rumor had it to be the third largest) Georgia delegation. (We had to make up for producing the likes of Sam Nunn!) If we really are only 1%, there weren't many queers anywhere else but DC that weekend. One of the most moving and empowering moments for me was looking up and seeing Integrity's banners with their cross-topped standards, some wrapped in palm branches, processing forward with the movement of the march. In front of us were other religious symbols such as the orthodox processional crosses. I saw it all again in a picture and realized how powerful that sight really was. God was there. God was marching with us. The symbols of God's demonstration of love for us all led the way. While this was a indeed a civil rights demonstration, it was also a glorious celebration of life. We celebrated who we are and did so in the bright light of day - no hiding in the darkness, no cowering in corners - but out in sight of God and everybody. And there we were. All over the Mall (and we weren't shopping - well maybe we were at that!). There was the Quilt - a powerful reminder still of what homophobia can produce when disease is linked to prejudice. There were the entertainers and speech makers. There were folks so angry that they made no sense. There were others who spoke from a peace that comes from making progress, however slowly, and understanding that the road is still rocky and steep, but we must plod along if we are to reach our destination. There were those who touched us with humor - the one salve we have for the pain that sometimes results from our being who we are. It was good. I hope someday we can go to DC for the sole purpose of celebrating who we are, no political agenda's, no need for demonstrations to get our rights, just to celebrate. Until then, we must continue to struggle to obtain our birthright. With the help and grace of God, I believe we will finally take our place at the table. I pray I am alive to see it. ******************** *EURRR's Cannons Flaming Again* The sexuality dialogues in most parishes are now complete. The process was extremely biased, and many participants felt that the conclusions were preordained. Although less than 1% of our Church's membership participated in the dialogues, their opinions will be proclaimed as representative of the entire Church. Now the homosexual lobby is preparing yet another attack. Please, read this letter carefully ... April 22, 1993 Dear Friend, The homosexual lobby is on the march against the Episcopal Church ... and the next stop may be a courtroom where "homosexual rights" replace biblical teaching on morality. The defendants: your parish priest and your vestry. How can this be happening? Here's how. The homosexual lobby in our Church is copying a strategy that's being used successfully on the national political level. Their agenda for the 1994 General Convention calls for: 1. Passage of a non-discrimination cannon [sic]. 2. Access to ordination without regard for sexual orientation. 3. An authorized liturgy for the blessing of same-sex unions. The path leading to approval of the homosexual agenda has been carefully plotted by both the homosexual lobby, which ironically calls itself "Integrity," and by many within our own Church leadership. *We need your help now to counter their efforts.* We can only stop them if we act now ... and that's why I'm asking for your help today. *No matter how painful, we must face the truth. Our Church is feeling the impact of the gay agenda.* Bishops and priests violate the expressed position of the Church by performing ordinations of practicing homosexuals and blessing homosexual "unions." HOW CAN WE BE SILENT? This is a battle for the very soul of the Episcopal Church. If we remain quiet we will lose. We must speak out! We must stand together now! *The ministry of Episcopalians United has never been more vital*. Homosexual activists within the Church are encouraged ... and with good reason ... They have influenced key leaders within our Church. On February 5, the Rt. Rev. Edmond L. Browning, our Presiding Bishop, wrote to President Clinton, commending him on his efforts to end the military's ban on homosexuals in the armed forces and expressing his belief that "gay rights" is a justice issue. And sadly, there are a large number of lay people within our Church who will be swayed by the arguments of leaders like Bishop Browning ... even though he's dead wrong! Within the Church, the ordination of practicing homosexuals to our clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions are not civil rights issues ... and they are *not* justice issues. They are theological issues, and they must be addressed on sound theological grounds. To bless the experience of homosexuality, we are being asked to assent to a process which rewrites Scripture ... nullifies the Word of God ... and disavows 2000 years of Christian moral teaching. Approval of the homosexual agenda will so warp the doctrine, discipline and worship of our church that within a generation the Episcopal Church will no longer be recognizably Christian. And that's why we cannot give in. We must prepare for battle and we must fight. We must prepare sound, convincing Scriptural arguments. We must mobilize every concerned Episcopalian in every parish ... and we must equip them with the information and understanding they need in order to make a difference. We cannot afford to lose. *Our families, our country ... and the very soul of our Church ... these are all at stake*. Some 450 years ago, Martin Luther wrote: "If I profess with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God, except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at the moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ. *Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point."* Please stand with us today. If you don't take a stand with us, where will you stand? If you won't stand now, then when? We are fighting for the right to teach our children and grandchildren the truth of Scripture when it comes to sexual morality ... and to give them at least one place in our society where they can learn from positive role models. *We are fighting to save our Church and country from judgment*. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. He will judge America too. Remember, the Scriptures says, "It is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God" (1 Peter 4:17). We must throw aside our lethargy. For years we thought America's values where [sic] secure -- protected by our President, our Congress and the Supreme Court. We also believed that the Church would protect our values -- and it should -- but we were wrong. Many of the leaders of the Church are unwilling to defend our values. *Each one of us must take a stand for what we believe, and we must unite with others who share our convictions. It is our only hope*. We can have an impact on the issues of our day, but only if we have courage enough to stand ... and only if we're wise enough to stand together. That's why Episcopalians United was founded. It's the reason we continue to work for reform and renewal in the Episcopal Church. Our job is to empower you to save the Church we love. We're committed to giving you the weapons to fight the battle ... to fight it well. Episcopalians United helps you promote a correct view of sexuality issues ... one that's faithful to Holy Scripture and the long-held tradition of the Church. We share successful strategies about how to influence decisions ... not just at your local level, but also at the diocesan and national levels. So I urge you to become involved today, while there's still time. The sexuality debate will be a key part of the 1994 General Convention. *Those who believe in the ordination of homosexuals to the Episcopal clergy and seek the Church's blessing for same-sex unions will be there in force*. We must begin our preparations today! We must match their efforts delegate-for-delegate, argument-for- argument, dollar-for-dollar. No effort can be spared in this critical battle. *This is not time for passivity. If you're not willing to stand now, then our Church is in deep trouble*. Perhaps you're tired of fighting -- so am I. Frankly, I'm so sick of this issue that I just want it to go away. During the past 5 years, the trauma of the debate, dialogue and confrontation we've been though has occasionally led me to despair. But despair and discouragement are not from the Lord ... and 2 Timothy 1:7 has been a wonderful encouragement: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." That's why Episcopalians United will keep fighting. God is our true source of strength ... and as long as we remain faithful we will see His provision. *I invite you to be part of that provision*. Help us redouble our efforts during this critical year for our Church. Please search your heart today ... ask God to show you the role He wants you to have ... then send the most generous gift you can. Your support will make a critical difference as Episcopalians United continues the fight with you to preserve the soul of our Church ... you will be helping to save our godly heritage, not just for ourselves, but for our children and grandchildren. And please, don't just send a gift -- as vitally important as that is. Humble yourself before God in a prayer of repentance for our Church's many sins. Plead for His mercy and grace. Ask for His divine intervention. Commit yourself to help fight the battle today! Together, we can make a difference. If we persevere, we will see God triumph. Yours by His grace, The Rev. Todd H. Wetzel P.S. May God bless you for your concern for the Episcopal Church. Please be encouraged. There are already over 18,000 people who stand with you in support of our ministry. Many more are with us in their hearts. But remember, winning this battle will be expensive! That's why I need to hear from you today. [Editor's Note: Enclosed with this fund raiser was a copy of page 9 of the Spring, 1993 issue of The Voice of Integrity, which was the ad encouraging participation in the March on Washington. We hope they enjoyed reprinting our material as much as we enjoy reprinting theirs.] ******************** *FORMER INTEGRITY CHAPLAIN ELECTED FIRST FEMALE DIOCESAN* based on a release from the Episcopal News Service After three short ballots, the clergy and lay delegates to a special June 5, 1993 convention of the Diocese of Vermont elected the Rev. Mary Adelia McLeod of West Virginia to be the first woman to serve as a diocesan bishop in the Episcopal Church. McLeod, rector of St. John's Church in Charleston, West Virginia, was co-chaplain, together with her husband, the Rev. Henry M. (Mack) McLeod, of Integrity/Charleston until it disbanded in 1986. She is strongly supportive of equal rights for lesbians and gay men in the Church. In an interview with the press, McLeod said that the election of women to the episcopate is important. She added, however, that the diocese "in great prayer and consideration and thought were led by the Holy Spirit to elect me" and the fact that "I just happen to be a woman is incidental." When she is consecrated in October, pending consents from a majority of standing committees and bishops in the church, McLeod would become the third woman bishop in the Episcopal Church. Bishop Barbara Harris was elected suffragan bishop of Massachusetts in September of 1988 -- and the first woman bishop in the history of the Anglican Communion -- and Bishop Jane Dixon was elected suffragan bishop of Washington (DC) in May of 1992. Bishop Penelope Jamieson of New Zealand was consecrated in June 1990 as the first woman in the Anglican Communion to head a diocese. Women have been candidates in a number of recent elections in the Episcopal Church. McLeod was among the first women considered for the episcopate and Vermont was the fifth time she had been a final candidate. Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning offered his prayers for the new bishop and said that "this new chapter in her ministry is a new chapter in the life of our church as well." Contending that the ministry of the church "is enriched by the gifts of both women and men," the Presiding Bishop added, "We can rejoice as another step is taken toward our episcopal ministry better reflecting this blessing." McLeod was born and grew up in Alabama and, after a number of years as a mother (she and her husband have five grown children) and homemaker, she took her seminary degree at the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. As archdeacon for the western region of West Virginia, she has helped shape an innovative cluster ministry and has been active in supporting rural deans, clergy deployment and she has served on Diocesan Council, president of the Standing Committee and a deputy to General Convention in 1988 and 1991. Ironically, the current bishop of West Virginia, the Rt. Rev. John H. Smith, who has strongly opposed full inclusion of lesgay persons in the Episcopal Church, was a priest in Vermont at the time of his election in West Virginia. ******************** *JUDGE DISMISSES $4 MILLION LAWSUIT IN VIRGINIA* based on a release from the Episcopal News Service During a preliminary June 2 hearing in Arlington Circuit Court, Judge Benjamin Kedrick dismissed a $4 million lawsuit against the Rev. Bruce Newell, accused of sexual misconduct, the parish where he served, its rector and the bishop of Virginia. The suit was filed by a woman who said that Newell had sexually abused her for 11 months when he was serving Falls Church. And it charged that the diocese, Bishop Peter James Lee, the church and its rector shared responsibility for the injury. The judge said that the complaint exceeded the two- year statute of limitations on personal injury case and would have required the court to delve into theological issues in violation of the separation of church and state. It would have required "a secular court of law to establish standards of conduct for members of the clergy, which would undermine the First Amendment of the United States Constitution," according to a statement from Bishop Lee. The bishop said that, after a presentment and an investigation by a church- appointed board, the diocese had decided to proceed with an ecclesiastical trial of Newell. ******************** *I WAS IN PRISON AND YOU CAME TO ME* by (the Rev.) Barry L. Stopfel When I was a young boy growing up in the farm country of Pennsylvania, I spent most of my own time roaming the corn fields, meadows and woods. Each year I would bargain with my parents to lengthen my tether, and they would reluctantly allow me to explore a little farther. By the time I was 12, I could be gone for the day lost in the seasons of the earth. When I was eight years old, my father took me to an invitation-only open house for the new county prison. I was enthusiastic and a little afraid about being on the inside of such a place. More than thirty years later I can close my eyes and hear the sounds, sense the smells, and picture the colors of the floors and cinder block walls, and the pattern of steel, cement and wire. During the tour I stuck to my father like glue. I figured they would let me leave with him -- unless of course someone told them that I had stolen some corn out of Mr. Schaeffer's corn crib to throw against people's houses on Halloween. One of the guards asked me if I wanted to into a cell. My curiosity overcame my anxiety and into the terrifying unknown I went. I walked only a few steps when the cell door crashed shut behind me. It was an isolation cell with no windows and a solid steel door. I panicked. Trapped! Doomed! Someone knew of my corn caper! I'm dead, I thought -- an eternity of captivity is a terrible price to pay for a few ears of corn the pigs would never miss in their trough. I started kicking everywhere, hollering as loud as I could. I vowed that I would never commit even the tiniest infraction of the law because I would die if I ended up in a prison. In my young boy's way I knew that the source of my life was my freedom to roam. The childhood memory made a return visit in technicolor and SenseSurround the night I walked into the Bureau of Correction's Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center to participate in a Bible study group with gay sex offenders. I saw the building and the guards through the eyes of a familiar eight-year-old who seemed to have taken over my senses. And the faint sketches of Jesus' words filtered through my awareness, "I was in prison and you came to me ... as you did it to one of the least of these you did it to me." I often say that proclaiming the Gospel and living by the way of Jesus is risky business with a cost attached. In the first moments at Avenel the cost for me was walking through those sense memories that created fear and dread in me, for I still need to roam the seasons of the woods to stay lodged in my faith and close to my God. The thought of imprisonment by walls, by ideas, by fear, or by any tyranny strikes fear in my heart. I learned very quickly the cost of caring about the spiritual journeys of the men in the Bible study group. I had been invited into the ministry by my good friend Louie Crew and so we arrived together. As would be expected the security procedures to enter the prison are rigorous. One of the corrections officers on duty had heard that a guest had been invited to lead the Bible study. It was soon obvious that the officer would abuse his ultimate authority through his immunity to the demands of human kindness. He seemed all too happy to dish out an abusive and deliberately insulting security process on my behalf. In the face of the hatred of this prison guard's demeaning the humanity of a stranger priest, the little boy and I joined hands waiting for the sound of the slamming door. I imagine there must be a similar chilling sound when the doors on our lives slam shut when we give words or actions to bigotry and hate. The following week we filed a complaint. A member of the Bible group wrote later, "you will be pleased to know that the officer has been removed from contact with civilians. The bad news is that he'll have more contract with us inmates. I think he learned his lesson. And besides, we're used to him. Perhaps it's just as well that he works here. It keeps him off the streets for eight hours a day. I feel better knowing that the public is safe one shift a day." In his letter there was no rancor, no malice, just graceful human wisdom destroying the power of human hate. As I read the letter, the line between who should be on the inside and who should be on the outside of the prison walls grew suddenly thin. Each month in the prison, I encounter a group of men who have been willing to suffer shame and abuse in order to hear a gospel of hope, healing, acceptance and forgiveness proclaimed to them. In their world there is little evidence of a regard for religious experience of the human spirit. These men are searching for the goodness of God in themselves and in each other amidst the wreckage of their own lives. Before I was an authorized volunteer at the prison I submitted to regular humiliation so that they could hear a Gospel of hope, a Gospel that reflected back to them their goodness as a creature of God. After my visits they willingly endured the personal degradation of strip searches for I might be smuggling drugs in my Bible. I heard the echoes of the soldiers voices as they stripped Jesus and cast lots for his garments when I heard the guard enter the room and bark the command, "clothes off" while he slipped on his latex gloves to do the rectal exams. It felt hard bearing the burden of the one whose presence forced these brothers in Christ to undergo a humiliating procedure. Even so, one of the men with profound and redeeming humor wrote later, "It was always wonderful to have Barry with the group. Tell him none of us minded taking our clothes off for him." His comment may startle all of us with its many layers of human sexual innuendo. But the truth of his comment is that within this particular context of physical violation and certainly within the context of the community of gay men, innuendo and humor are covers for lifetimes of hurt. Such humor is a life-giving balm to those who suffer personal and verbal abuse at the hands of other human beings who have the social and institutional power to do so. The men were grateful for my being there. And they were powerfully enlivened by the Gospel. They proved, in their very spiritual survival, the power of the Word and its healing spirit to overcome the power of death in systems of violence. These men are not the demons that we somehow need them to be when we debate crime and punishment. Like each of us they are formed by God in their Mother's womb. But the sacred fabric of their selves has been torn by a complex weaving of circumstances early in their lives that was largely beyond their control. In nearly every instance they have been sexually abused. They know too well the degradation born by both the abused and the abuser. They understand instinctively the human nature of those who abused Jesus, and they know the suffering that results from such abuse. Jesus understood the suffering of the abused and the rage of the abuser and was willing to offer forgiveness to both. I have come to know that when I hear the doors slam, sense the cold steel and barbed wire, climb the concrete steps to the prison room, I walk the steps that Jesus walked. When I sit down and open the Bible amidst the brokenness of these men's lives and the broken places of my own, I know that Jesus is there. I am on sacred ground with gay men who know, like Harvey Milk, that the important thing is not that we can live on hope alone, but that life is not worth living without it. Yes, some of my brothers have made damaging choices for which they have come to freely accept responsibility. Daily in their therapy and study, they take responsibility for their actions and work hard on themselves to grab a measure of psychological and spiritual health. In their search for healing I see the Christ embracing their need and pain. I am touched by their willingness to express their thirst for living water. With these men I have seen grace and hope emerge over and over, and my faith is fed. All of us in that small prison Bible study room become free to roam the endless banks and swim the ever-flowing rivers of our God-given human spirits. There is more than death inside those walls after all. By the grace of God and the hope of the men in our group, the fear in the little boy within me who shows up each month is both calmed and liberated. The prisoners have set me free. ----- Barry L. Stopfel was installed on June 19, 1993 as rector of St. George's, Maplewood, New Jersey. He was ordained as an openly gay man in September, 1991. This article appeared in the May, 1993 issue of "The Voice," the publication of the Diocese of Newark, and was part of their "Journey of the Spirit Series." It is reprinted with permission. ******************** *CELEBRATING A SEASON OF PRIDE!!* The National AIDS Memorial Established in 1985 Located in The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, 112th & Amsterdam Ave NYC The National AIDS Memorial "honors the dead" through the AIDS Memorial Shrine and the Book of Remembrance in which the names of those who have died of HIV/AIDS related conditions are inscribed. We "serve the living" through the provision of small (primarily start-up or special project) grants to organizations who serve those with HIV. Over $80,000.00 in grants have been made since 1985, drawn from the contributions which have been sent in with names. Our Board is all volunteer, and only 5% of donations to the memorial goes for maintenance. 85% of contributions to the Memorial are returned to the community in grants and 10% is reserved for the establishment of a permanent memorial to all who have died in this epidemic. Contributions are always welcome, but not required for the submission of names for the book. We have a "master list" of names, and will check for duplications. To submit names or for more information please fill out the coupon and mail to: The National AIDS Memorial, P.O. Box 5202, NYC, NY 10185-0043 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Your name:__________________________________________________ Address:________________________________ Apt./Box # ________ City(Boro)____________________State:________Zip:____________ Please send me additional information ___about the memorial ___about the grant process ___about making a bequest I have enclosed the following donation $______ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Please inscribe the following names in the Book of Remembrance: (Use additional paper if needed) Note: We do have a Master List of the Names already in the Book, and will check for duplications before entering names that are submitted. Name Dates (if known) Comments 1)__________________________________________________________ 2)__________________________________________________________ 3)__________________________________________________________ 4)__________________________________________________________ 5)__________________________________________________________ ******************** *BOOK REVIEWS* NOTHING NEW "New Millennium, New Church: trends shaping the Episcopal Church for the 21st Century" Kew, Richard and Roger J. White. "New Millennium, New Church: trends shaping the Episcopal Church for the 21st Century." Boston, MA: Cowley Publications, 1992. $12.95. Review by (the Rev.) W. Keith McCoy Easily the most talked about book in the Episcopal Church in the past few months, "New Millennium, New Church" is offered as a "compass for the 1990s," which will guide local parishes, as well as the national church, away from self-wounding controversy and towards a more Anglican (read: polite and quiet) existence. While chock-full of ideas and opinions, it is not so much a compass as a conservative wish book for the near future. Another book would be needed to comment on the authors' many thoughts, too many of which I found unfinished, but let me tackle a few that may be of interest to readers of this forum. One theme that runs under the entire text is that the Episcopal Church is essentially conservative, but good-hearted, but it has been the captive in recent years of a small band of liberal experimenters and social activists. Somehow, this minority always manages to elect sheep-like delegates to General Convention, and then lead them into temptation with strange resolutions and canons. Kew and White suggest that the time has come when right-thinking people will start attending these conventions and begin making decisions that will not upset the real majority anymore. As an observer of and participant in diocesan politics for almost twenty years, my opinion is that the clergy and laity sent to General Convention are generally among the most caring, thoughtful, and religious people of our church. As such, they have voted to allow women into the priesthood, revise the BCP, and recommend the tithe because, having weighed all the arguments, they made what they felt was a Christian decision. It so happens that the liberals have made all of the arguments in favor of those actions. The conservatives, on the other hand, have been against everything, and never for anything. They say, "Whatever justice (hymnal, program ...) we have today is fine -- I'm satisfied, and so should be the rest of the Episcopal Church." Faced with a choice of thoughtful progress or mere stand-patism, General Convention has rightly opted for progress. The authors stumble over this right at the beginning of their book. While lamenting our decline in numbers from the boom years of the 1950s, they ignore their own quote from Vance Packard that many people joined our denomination at that time because it was the social thing to do. Many then chose to leave when issues of faith vs. the world were raised, beginning with the Vietnam War. The church population has stabilized because almost everyone left believes that we are a religious organization, not a club. When they get into their chapter on single-issue organizations, Kew and White again suggest that good people have been chased away by irresponsible actions. I can respect the decision of a person who leaves because their theology no longer meshes with that of the parish or the wider Episcopal Church. I wonder, however, at how great a loss it is when someone flounces out over the "imagined 'unbelief' of their rector, an ill-considered pronouncement or action by a bishop, or an objection to the policies of the national church." (p. 124) Parishioners who leave over imagined issues or statements from regional and national headquarters are more interested in feeling cosseted than in grappling with matters of faith. Moreover, if we express regret because someone leaves over, say, the ordination of women as priests, aren't we also regretting taking that step and those priests? Integrity is only mentioned once specifically, but the reader gets the sense that it is a part of that cabal which has hijacked the true faith. While credited with media savvy and a sound knowledge of the political process, we are, in the authors' words, "speak[ing] for a relatively small group of activists." p. 126) This contrasts with Episcopalians United, with 20,000 "members" and a big budget. Kew and White feel this is evidence of something; might I suggest the hollowness of EU's arguments? Using a Gallup survey, a few publications from other denominations, and their own impressions, most of what Kew and White provide as planning fodder for the future of our denomination is only speculation. They have adopted every progressive action in the Episcopal Church over the last thirty years as their own, and then decry the possibility of further change. They have decided what they want the church to look like in ten years, and then found the material to back up their concept. This book has nothing new. It is just the lament of those people who would never be moved to change one iota of their current existence, but, once moved, find that change acceptable. Now they ask the church not to make them move forward again. Come 2000 AD, we will probably find Kew and White again celebrating the current state of the Episcopal Church, and still warning against some further progress. NEW PRAYERS FOR OLD OCCASIONS "Daring to Speak Love's Name, A Gay and Lesbian Prayer Book." Stuart, Elizabeth, Editor. "Daring to Speak Love's Name, A Gay and Lesbian Prayer Book." London: Hamish Hamilton, 1992. Review by (The Rev.) Paul Woodrum  Editor Elizabeth Stuart's "Daring to Speak Love's Name, A Gay and Lesbian Prayer Book," fulfills three functions. First, it provides a lot of apologia for gay people liturgically celebrating life's transitions. Second, it's a resource for gay/lesbian specific public rites. Third, it provides prayers and readings for private meditation. It's not quite clear to whom most of the apologia is directed, especially the extensive justification given for celebrating lesbian and gay relationships." Most of it is pretty familiar stuff to lesbians and gay men who have experienced any sort of consciousness raising what so ever. All the right people are quoted from John Boswell to John McNeill to Carter Heyward. It is a helpful summary of the polemics, useful perhaps, for a quick refresher course before trotting off to a meeting of the diocesan commission on human sexuality. A straight audience who might benefit most from this part of the book is probably the least likely to read it. Much of the apologia may be in response to the rather strange publication history of the volume. Initially, it was to be published by the SPCK which, not untypically, developed a case of the jitters about dealing with subjects gay and lesbian. Unable to get its own auditors to condemn the publication, it finally resorted to an unprecedented appeal to Archbishop of Canterbury and SPCK President George Carey for an opinion. He disapproved. The SPCK backed away from publication. The C of E breathed a sigh of relief at once again being able to avoid sex. If the apologia isn't directly in response to all this heterosexist nonsense, the extensive Preface, Foreword and Introduction certainly are. The Preface and Forward are worth reading for the insights they provide into the fragility and fears of heterosexuals. The Introduction by Dr. Stuart counters with a splendid discussion of Blessed Aelred of Rievaulx's theology of Christian friendship and relates his 12th century thought to 20th century feminist and gay and lesbian thought, especially as applied to liturgical understanding and expression, naming and claiming the validity of the lesgay experience of the holy. Stuart provides extensive and varied resources for liturgies celebrating relationships, housewarmings, coming out, partings, illness (particularly HIV & AIDS), and death. Considering the contributions of gay people to liturgy for which they seem to have had a special affinity over the centuries - at least 60% of the official revisers of the American BCP and Hymnal were gay or lesbian - it may seem somewhat ironic that anything more is needed. Stuart, by the way, is Roman Catholic but, being British, just sounds Anglican and her views are certainly not those in much favor with the Vatican. Stuart's contribution is not in replacing the standard, general and common devotions of the church, but in augmenting them with expressions growing from and applicable to the lesbian and gay life of prayer, public and private. Her audience is ecumenical. Her resources are diverse. Her coverage including rites and prayers for coming out, for partings, and for HIV/AIDS is comprehensive. One would be hardpressed not to find something helpful for either planning public worship or for private devotion. "Daring to Speak Love's Name" is not the final word, nor even the penultimate, but it is a valuable addition to a growing body of resources which openly incorporate and informs the lesbian/gay experience of the common prayer of God's holy people. ******************** *Chapter Updates* Changes in Integrity Chapters since the Winter 1993 issue: New: .LM 16 Integrity/Boston-Metro Christ Church, Episcopal 12 Quincy Ave. Quincy, MA 02169 Integrity/East Tennessee P.O. Box 4956 Chattanooga, TN 37405 Integrity/Maine P.O. Box 25 Waldoboro, ME 04572 Integrity/Toledo 2272 Collingwood Blvd. Toledo, OH 43620 Integrity/Twin Cities c/o University Episcopal Center 317 17th Ave. S.E. Minneapolis, MN 55414 Integrity/Melbourne St. Stephen's Anglican Church 3 Docker St. Richmond, VIC 3121 AUSTRALIA .LM 11 New Name and New Address: .LM 16 Integrity/Los Angeles 7985 Santa Monica Blvd. #109-113 West Hollywood, CA 90046 .LM 11 New Addresses: .LM 16 Integrity/Central Florida P.O. Box 530031 Orlando, FL 32853-0031 Dignity-Integrity/Charlottesville P.O. Box 3670 Charlottesville, VA 22903 .LM 11 No longer meeting: .LM 16 Integrity/Central Indiana Integrity/Colorado Integrity/San Antonio .LM 11 ******************** *The University of South Dakota Press* Announces Publication of *Don't Hang Up...* an anthology of poems about AIDS edited by Andrew Miller This unique volume of poetry is a collection of works by both professional and amateur writers from across the country, all of whom have lost loved ones to AIDS. The works are expressions of their pain and confusion, their fears and hopes. Their voices, too often drowned out by those who would pass judgment, represent the humanness of the suffering caused by this ongoing tragedy. Their cries of loss transcend the cultural, political and religious barriers that divide us, to reveal the universality of their experience. The book's title is taken from a poem by Dr. Louie Crew, Integrity's founder. "Don't Hang Up" has also been made into a short-subject film. It is the hope of the editor and the University of South Dakota Press that this volume can bring comfort to those who are still suffering and can bring new understanding and compassion to those who are still trapped by fear and prejudice. All profits from the volume will be donated to an AIDS research or education program. The book sells for *$8.95 postpaid* * For more information, contact USD Press at either (605) 677-5401 or (605) 624-8258. To order, send your check, money order, or credit card information to: The University of South Dakota Press, 301 East Hall, USD, 414 East Clark, Vermillion, SD 57069. ISBN 0-929925-20-3 * South Dakota residents please add 5% sales tax. ******************** *DISCIPLES' CANDIDATE SUPPORTIVE* Based on an Episcopal News Service Release Members of the General Board of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) endorsed the Rev. Richard Hamm, a 45-year-old Tennessee church executive, for general minister and president of the denomination. Hamm told members of the board that decisions on the ordination of homosexuals should be left up to local regions and congregations. "After working through my homophobia, Bible study and much prayer, I came to believe that homosexuality in and ofitself should not be a bar to ordination," he said. Hamm added that he has no intention, however, of forcing his views upon the denomination. He said he would speak the truth as one Disciple, while encouraging others whose views are different to speak. In 1991 the Rev. Michael Kinnamon was not elected president of the denomination because of his support of lesbian and gay Disciples in the ordained ministry. The election of a new president will take place in the meeting of the church's General Assembly in July. ******************** *CLAUDIA'S COLUMN* "Our nettlesome task is to discover how to organize our strength into compelling power so that (the church) cannot elude our demands. We must develop, from strength, a situation where (the church) finds it wise and prudent to collaborate with us. It would be the height of naivete to wait passively until (the church) had somehow been infused with such blessings of good will that it implored us for our programs. The first course is grounded in mature realism; the other, in childish fantasy." (I have replaced "government" with "the church") -- *The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.*, p. 45 Several weeks ago the people of the Diocese of Minnesota gathered to meet the three clergypeople who had been chosen as candidates for bishop. One question, especially, surfaced for each of the candidates, "In this decade of evangelism, how do you see church growth occurring?" The questioner then proceeded to explain that parishes are interested in techniques to attract new members and that they expect help from the bishop in this area. Each of the candidates responded similarly in that they emphasized introspection before outreach. That is, they would encourage individual congregations to ask what it is that they have to offer their members and what is preventing the active participation of those who are on the fringes of parish communities; those who rarely attend service or participate in parish functions yet do just enough to keep their names on the parish register. The question of increasing chapter membership surfaces often for those of us involved with Integrity and local chapters. What, we want to know, can we do to enlarge our membership; to increase growth. In response to that question, I turn to the reply of the bishop candidates. We must first look inward asking ourselves what we have to offer our present members and what is preventing active participation of those who continue on our membership rosters while participating only on the fringes. Despite the objections of some African- Americans, I see many parallels between the civil rights struggles of their community and those of our lesbigay community. Although racism continues to exist in our church, progress towards its obliteration has been made. In search of answers to what we can learn from our African-American sisters and brothers I have turned in part to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. One of Dr. King's most powerful attributes is the immediacy of a well defined and confidently voiced vision and understanding of mission as well as a strategy for its fulfillment. I believe that it is a vision and strategy that is of utmost importance to members of Integrity chapters yet is often either lacking or poorly presented. If we cannot articulate who we are, what we expect of the church, and how we intend to accomplish our goals, what exactly is it that appeals to our membership? What do we have to offer them? I often wonder how many of our members would be able to articulate the vision of their individual chapters. It seems to me that not only does the vision vary from chapter to chapter, but in many cases it varies dramatically from chapter member to chapter member. "Our nettlesome task is to discover how to organize our strength into compelling power ..." We will not attain that power, my sisters and brothers, until we define common goals and strategies and I believe that the hope of a compelling power "so that the church cannot elude our demands" is the greatest gift that we have to offer our members and that lack of cohesiveness, vision, and strategy is what keeps many members on the fringes. Had members of the civil rights movement been asked to define their goals, and had the responses varied from goals of socializing with other African-Americans to working for the inclusion of all African-Americans in every aspect of American life and society, I believe there would have been no civil rights movement, no strength organized into compelling power to move white America to welcome our African-American sisters and brothers. In the same vein, my friends, I believe that if our goals are as divergently defined as providing a safe social environment for Episcopalian lesbigay persons, to working for the inclusion of all lesbigay persons in every aspect of the life and ministry of our church, I fear that there will be no strength to organize into a compelling power to move our church to welcome us to full inclusion. It's not uncommon for us to question whether lesbigay persons are included in "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You" signs. How willing and able are we to say, "This Integrity Chapter Welcomes You"; persons of color, women, feminists, users of inclusive language, differently abled persons, conservative, and bi-sexual persons? Until we practice the inclusion that we demand from our church, there will be no strength in our chapters and our goals might as well be to provide a safe place to socialize, or for lesbigay persons to meet prospective partners, or to catch up on local gossip. In each of these activities we can talk about the wish for inclusion for each of us into the full life and ministry of our church, but "it would be the height of naivete to wait passively until the church had somehow been infused with such blessings of good will ..." There would be no church, my friends, if the early disciples had no common goal; where some saw their mission to proclaim the Christ, and others, to band together solely for strength against the Roman government, and others yet, to set themselves up as better than the Jews who still practiced the old law. Their strength was their common goal to proclaim Jesus Christ which became the compelling power that brought those to whom they witnessed to Christ and the new law. Advertising in local lesbigay papers and diocesan newsletters might attract a few new members and increase your chapter size, my friends. Your strength, however, lies in the power of a unified goal: the inclusion of lesbigay persons in the full life and ministry of the Episcopal Church. When that goal is identified and articulated and when all those who count themselves members of your chapters feel their inclusion in the life of the chapter, the strategies can be defined and others will want to add their commitments and strengthen your power in the church. "We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and dejected with a lost opportunity ... over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written with the pathetic words: 'Too late' ... This may well be our last chance to choose between chaos and community." -- *The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr.*, p. 90 We can't wait until next June to articulate our goals, define our strategies, and muster our strength just in time for the General Convention. "Tomorrow is today." Let us welcome all who have chosen to affiliate with our chapters to discuss and define our goals and to develop strategies so that those goals can and will be met. When that has been accomplished, we will witness a renewed strength, an inviting organization, chapters so powerful that, in joining forces with all other chapters, the church will no longer be able to exclude us from full life and ministry within her. ******************** *JOSHUA'S BAPTISM PUSHES THE BOUNDARIES OF THE FAMILY OF GOD* by Lily DeYoung In the early church, the celebration of Easter was preceded by an all-night vigil. When dawn broke, neophytes were baptized into the Christian family, and the Easter festival began. But the baptism of three-month old Joshua Kilian Meneghin on February 14 at the Church of the Redeemer, Morristown, was preceded by a five-year vigil kept by Cindy Meneghin and Maureen Kilian, his parents. Cindy and Maureen are a lesbian couple who have been together since 1974, shortly after they met in high school. Although both were raised as Catholics, they never felt personal anxiety about their sexuality. From the beginning, they have lived openly as a couple hoping that family and church would accept them as other couples were accepted and celebrated. When acceptance and celebration did not come, they began the long, slow process of helping people to understand. "We have always been 'out' and open so that we could be a role model to other lesbians and gays, and for their families ... especially for families because they often fear that being gay means being unhappy," said Cindy. "As people got to know us, they began to understand that we were a couple, in love and very happy." She said, "It took many years of struggle to help our parents and siblings to see that a 'couple' was not necessarily a man and a woman, that we were just as much a couple as they were with their spouses." One meaningful sign of their acceptance as a couple came when Maureen's parents included a picture of Maureen and Cindy on the wall with the pictures of her six siblings and their spouses, and when the family began sending anniversary cards to them each August 28. Like many other couples, they wanted a child. "We started talking about having a baby five years ago," said Cindy. "But we knew that 'our world' wasn't quite ready yet." So again, they started the slow process of helping people to understand. They told family, friends and co-workers about their desire to start a family. At first people were surprised. Gradually, as their notions of "family" grew, friends told the couple, "You'd be good parents!" Cindy and Maureen wanted church to be a part of their child's life too. But unlike the family and friends who had openly accepted them, their church did not. After years of committed service as parish lectors, eucharistic and youth ministers, Cindy and Maureen were told that they could not participate in couples' programs or start a gay group, and if they had a child, he or she could 'probably' be baptized, but in private. To Cindy and Maureen it seemed that the Catholic Church was the only place where their child and his family would not be welcome. To forego church was not an option. Said Maureen, "We need organized religion. We want community. And we decided we would either find it or make it!" Their search brought them to a visit one Sunday to Redeemer. There, they were impressed by the diversity of the congregation and the inclusive liturgical language. But they wanted to find a church closer to home. Redeemer was eighteen miles away, and they were used to a neighborhood church. They visited many Episcopal churches, and deeply appreciated the welcome they found. They decided to return to Redeemer when they learned that its inclusiveness was not the personal initiative of a few but rather a parish-wide commitment officially undertaken by the vestry. Vestry member Ann Johnson assured them that homophobia was not acceptable at Redeemer and that if anyone felt uncomfortable with that, it would be their problem, not Cindy's or Maureen's ... and not Joshua's. Said Cindy, "That was a complete reversal for us. For once, we wouldn't have to struggle with others' exclusionary concepts of family and fears about gay relationships." "And we knew," said Maureen, "that Redeemer was not a gay parish either. That wasn't what we wanted. We have always wanted to belong to a community that includes people of different races, ages, ethnic backgrounds and sexual orientations. It's what we want for Joshua: to experience the real world within his church community." Preaching at Joshua's baptism, rector Philip Wilson said that if teaching today, in place of 'the Kingdom' Jesus might use the image of 'the Family of God.' "If we accept 'the Family of God' as the definition of Jesus' vision," Wilson said, "then the action of God is to ever enlarge the family, ever to push the circle wider." That day, the Redeemer community enthusiastically embraced Josh and his family. After their vigilant five years of preparation, his parents are happy and confident: Joshua is a member of the family just as much as anyone else. ----- Lily DeYoung is a member of Church of the Redeemer, Morristown. This article first appeared in the April, 1993 issue of "The Voice", the publication of the Diocese of Newark, and is reprinted with permission. ******************** *Special Section:* *LESGAYS IN THE MILITARY * The Beat Goes On by Jim Lewis As some people waved Bibles over their heads and shouted "amen," one questioner denounced what he said was a lessening of moral standards in American Society. "Is being old a sin?' asked the citizen, who did not identify himself. "No!" the crowd yelled back. "Is being handicapped a sin?" the man asked. "No!" the crowd screamed, louder this time. "Is being homosexual a sin?" he came back. "Yes!" roared the crowd, loudest of all. March 25 - "New York Times" article describing a forum held in Jacksonville, N.C. The subject was gays in the military. The matter of lifting the ban on gays in the military is heating up. Just how hot this struggle really is was driven home to me after reading copies of the "Marine Corps Gazette" (MCG), the professional journal of the U.S. Marine Corps. William Lind, Director of the Center for Cultural Conservation of the Free Congress Foundation, writes in the March issue of the MCG: "Allowing homosexuals to serve in the military is part of a larger, hidden agenda, one that is dangerous to the whole of American society and culture." The "hidden agenda" for Lind is "the destruction of traditional Western, Judeo-Christian culture, morals, and values." In a November 1992 MCG article, Lind identifies feminism as "an element in the coalition" of forces out to destroy Western, Judeo-Christian culture. And just how will Marines react to this battle? "Marines will opt," he says, "for massive passive resistance -- resistance that makes the open homosexual an 'unperson' (the homosexual who remains 'in the closet' is not an issue since nobody knows he is one). The more organized the passive resistance, the more likely it will include too many people to overcome. There is strength in numbers: No administration can maintain a policy when the vast majority of those affected by it reject it. The fact that "passive resistance," on the part of the military, is but one bullet in the chamber of this gun being used to kill Clinton's proposed plan to lift the ban on gays is best seen in the frontal attack being used by the military. Marine Corps commandant, General Carl Mundy Jr., has been circulating a 20-minute videotape, "The Gay Agenda" to Marine bases throughout the country to be shown to all the troops. Produced by a fundamentalist church in California, Antelope Valley Springs of Life Ministries, it features nudity, and assertions that homosexuality is unnatural, a sickness and not worthy of legal protection. This California church, by the way, uses armed security guards who patrol the aisles during services, along with electronically locked doors. In the January issue of the MCG, Major Arthur J. Corbett likens the gay effort to the vandal who took a hammer to the Pieta a few years ago. His message is simple: The Marine Corps should disband rather than admit gays. For those with eyes to see and ears to hear the mood and terms of this struggle are pretty clear. @ There is a concerted campaign to defeat an effort to left the ban on gays in the military. It is a crusade based in fear, appealing to every stereotype and distorted image associated with gays. @ This struggle over the military is the most visible place to observe all the issues surrounding gay liberation in our society. Gay military folk have come front and center to articulate and personify the issue. Hollywood, despite the liberal image, isn't doing it. The test: How many openly gay actors can you identify. As for the church, supposedly engaging the issue: Not one bishop in the Episcopal Church has come out of the closet, and very few gay priests and lay people are willing to be out and open. @ When all is said and done, these fearful, angry military voices are on to something -- something radically different is going on here. Keeping in mind that the word radical is defined as "going to the root of the origin," this struggle is one among many that address racial, class, sexual and power issues. An old way of life is dying and a new way of life is being born and the generals and scout leaders of the world, not to mention some politicians and church people, understand this movement only too well. @ The military opposition centers around "the military's ability to fulfill its mission of fighting and winning wars." In other words, can men and women who love their comrades enough to lay down their lives for one another maintain that intimacy given the possibility of romantic love and sexual attraction? This is a huge issue and takes all of us to the key matter of spirituality and eroticism, the likes of which good church folks need to discuss and understand as well. @ Trying to closet and silence people, gays or anyone else feeling the boot on their neck, just plain won't work. Stuffing people and issues into boxes just postpones justice. From a faith perspective, self knowledge and revelation of self is at the heart of God's revelation in and through human beings. For a person to turn his or her back on their sexual orientation is to block a deeply spiritual connection. It is to hide God's very basic gift to us -- our sexual orientation -- under a basket -- in a closet, if you will. * Recently I heard Kathleen Carlin, a feminist (sorry boys), speak to this matter. She said, "Oppression relies for its continuation upon the silencing of the oppressed. Silencing works this way. Part of the dominant's self-identity is *not to hear* the subordinate's reality. ln other words, part of what it means to be male, or white or heterosexual, is to be able to exclude from dominant reality the experience of those who are oppressed by the social construction of male and white and straight and have that be *right*. Once again, from a faith perspective, listening to God, who is present in the lives of those who have been subordinated by the dominant political and cultural interests of a society, is the very posture of faith. The most important moments for Jesus were those in which he paid attention to people who had been shoved to the fringe of society and beaten down to the bottom of society. Justice/love became known in those encounters. The military, along with a host of other institutions in our society, including the Church and the Boy Scouts, is out of step with justice and it's time to get squared away. ----- The Rev. Jim Lewis has been Director for Christian Social Ministries of the Diocese of North Carolina since 1987. He served as assistant lacrosse coach at the U.S. Naval Academy while serving as curate at St. Anne's, Anapolis. This appeared in Jim's April 4, 1993 newsletter: "Notes from under the Fig Tree." *LETTERS TO PRESIDENT CLINTON* A RETIRED CHAPLAIN ON GAYS IN THE MILITARY The Rev. Charles Dunlap Brown Oklahoma City, Oklahoma April 20, 1993 President Bill Clinton The White House Dear President Clinton: I am writing in support of ending the ban against lesbian and gay people in the military of the United States. We are one of only three countries in the Western Alliance who ban homosexuals. The current policy of discrimination denies able bodied men and women the opportunity to serve our country and costs taxpayers millions of dollars each year. I agree that the cause of discipline and discharge from military-service should be conduct and job performance and not status which judges a person because of what they "might" do. I retired from the United States Army Reserve March 31, 1990 after serving almost 42 years in the Army National Guard, the Army Reserve and extended active duty. At the time of my retirement I was the senior Colonel in the Army Reserve and was the Staff Chaplain for the 77th USARCOM at Ft. Totten, New York which is the largest Reserve Command in the United States. I was responsible for the recruitment, professional education and assignment of 43 unit chaplains in the State of New York and northern New Jersey. I was advisor to the Commanding General of the 77th ARCOM in matters of morale, morals and religion. During the Korean conflict I was mobilized with the 45th Infantry Division, Oklahoma Army National Guard. I earned the Combat Medic Badge and Bronze Star for meritorious service and was offered a battlefield commission. I was a Platoon Sergeant responsible for 75 Medical Corpsmen with an Infantry Battalion. It was this experience which influenced my going to Seminary instead of Medical School upon being released from active duty. In all my years as an enlisted man, medical service corps officer and chaplain, I knew and counselled many gay and lesbian soldiers as well as heterosexual soldiers. The only sexual conduct unbecoming a soldier that occurred in the various units to which I belonged was that of males harassing females. I was an enlisted person with an Infantry Battalion in Korea when we were integrated with our first black soldiers. We had heard the same arguments then against having blacks in the Army as are being used today against gays and lesbians. With good leadership and teaching the Army made great progress in solving racial discrimination. The same can be said for the acceptance of female soldiers. With this same good leadership gay and lesbian soldiers are accepted today in many units. Gay and lesbian soldiers are not asking for special rights, only those rights and freedoms provided by our Constitution for all citizens. Witch hunts should be stopped and all people should be judged by their job performance and not their sexual status or orientation. In addition to being an Episcopal Priest, I have a Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma in Counseling Psychology. My professional education and experience has made me realize that a person can no more change their sexual orientation that they can change the color of their skin. When I retired, the Army awarded me the Legion of Merit, which is the highest award that can be given for meritorious service. Over the years I was also awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service in a combat setting, the Army Commendation Medal twice, the Army Achievement Medal as well as the Good Conduct Medal. Had the Army known my sexual orientation I would have been given a dishonorable discharge instead and not have been allowed to do the good job for our country which I did for 41 years and 9 months. Sincerely yours, Charles H.D. Brown Chaplain (COL) AUS Retired PB SUPPORTS AN END TO THE MILITARY BAN The Most Reverend Edmond L. Browning Presiding Bishop, The Episcopal Church February 5, 1993 The Honorable William Clinton The White House Dear Mr. President: I write to commend you for your position on the issue of ending discrimination against gay and lesbian members of the Armed Services. We as a nation are well served by your openness in addressing this difficult issue, which is before all of our churches as well. The current situation in our armed forces with regard to gays and lesbians is most unfortunate. It is my deep sense that we live in a time when we need to honor the contributions of *all* men and women who serve our country, regardless of sexual orientation. In so doing, we will define in a better way who we are as a nation. At my request the Suffragan Bishop of the Armed Forces has developed a means of assisting our military chaplains as a change is contemplated. I have attached for your information a copy of a letter to our chaplains. [See page 20 for text of letter.] It is my hope and expectation that they will be of service in a time of transition. In 1991 our General Convention initiated a study on attitudes toward human sexuality that is now underway around our church. Part of the outcome of the study will be a heightened awareness of the thoughts and opinions of one another, and a deepened commitment to make creative decisions about difficult issues in the midst of these differences. Also, our General Convention is clearly on record in support of upholding the full civil rights and equal protection under the law of homosexual persons. The struggles of our church around issues of homosexuality have given me a pretty clear understanding of some of the complex dynamics. It is in light of this particular experience that I offer to be [of] assistance to you in any possible way. I know that change is difficult in the absence of converted hearts. At the same time, I do believe this is a justice issue and there is a real need to press on. I much applaud your way of going forward. Please be in touch with me if you believe there is merit in exploring a way I might be of assistance. I welcome this opportunity to let you know that you, your family and the group of men and women who will be part of your team are in my prayers. You have been called to a responsibility few can imagine and an opportunity most never have. In an abiding awareness of both the responsibility and opportunity of your office I will continue to hold you in my prayers. I will share with you that I am enormously strengthened knowing of the prayers for me of people all around our church. You are also prayed for in every service. I hope you find yourself similarly strengthened. This letter comes with my blessings and my warm personal greetings. Faithfully yours, Edmond L. Browning [Presiding Bishop Browning's letter to Armed Forces Chaplains in on page 20.] *MORE ON LESGAYS IN THE MILITARY* UCC LEADER TESTIFIES FOR END OF MILITARY BAN By James Solheim Testifying for the church leaders before the House Armed Services Committee in Washington, D.C., Dr. Paul Sherry, president of the United Church of Christ (UCC), said, "While each of us would want to speak out of our distinctive theological traditions, we share a common conviction that the civil rights guaranteed for all citizens should be guaranteed for gay and lesbian persons as well." Sherry said that the "moral fiber of our nation is very much at stake" in the current debate. "Some would argue that our society's very structure is being undermined by gay and lesbian persons declaring their orientation openly and demanding the civil rights guaranteed to all other American citizens," he observed. "We see it quite the opposite," he said in referring to actions taken by the UCC and other churches. The ban against gays and lesbians runs counter to "the basic principles of our nation -- liberty and justice for all," Sherry said. "To allow the military to discriminate is morally intolerable and contrary to the values that undergird our society." MISCONDUCT NOT ORIENTATION The sexual misconduct of military personnel, not their sexual orientation, should be the issue, Sherry said. "While the religious community and the nation are still in the midst of a profound and difficult debate about the moral character of various forms of sexual behavior, there is growing conviction that sexual orientation, in and of itself, is not an adequate or appropriate basis for judging others, any more than is one's gender, race or ethnic background." Sherry praised military leaders who "have demonstrated the capacity to lead our forces effectively through transitions that have included racial integration and the admission of women." He said that military leaders "can be responsible for insuring that sexism, racism and homophobia are not supported or condoned in their units." In challenging Sherry's testimony, Rep. Herb Bateman (D-VA) said that "specially protected rights" should not be legislated for "people who profess to be homosexuals on the grounds that it is a civil liberty to which they are entitled." Sherry responded by arguing that gays and lesbians do not seek special consideration. "People simply want those rights which every citizen of this land -- by virtue of birthright and by virtue of citizenship -- have a right to expect." Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning has joined leaders of other churches in calling for an end to the ban on gays in the military. Other church leaders endorsing Sherry's Congressional testimony represented the National Council of Churches, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, the Moravian Church in America, the United Methodist Church, the American Baptist Churches and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. ----- James Solheim is Director of the Episcopal News Service. PB WRITES TO ARMED FORCES CHAPLAINS The Most Reverend Edmond L. Browning Presiding Bishop, The Episcopal Church February 5, 1993 A letter for all Armed Forces Chaplains Dear friends: As various governmental agencies spend the next six months studying the subject of the President's lifting of the Department of Defense ban on gay and lesbian persons serving in the Armed Forces, I have conferred with Bishop Keyser as to how best the Episcopal Church might respond to the strong probability of this policy change. As we discussed the implications of lifting the ban, I was impressed by the fact that many changes may no doubt be taking place in your units. With full awareness that it will demand your best efforts I want you to be at the forefront in alleviating all discriminatory practices and to continue to be pastorally sensitive in the care of your people during this particular transition. This six-month period of study should be a significant time for you to teach those for whom you are responsible. Please encourage others to study the policy change with an open attitude regarding the priority of carrying out the mission of the Armed Forces in the defense of our nation. Above all, do all you can to prevent verbally and physically hostile acts from taking place. At the recent meeting of the National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces a resolution was passed affirming "the right of Chaplains to publicly discuss the position of their faith community concerning the integration of homosexual persons into the Armed Forces." To assist you in such dialogue I am enclosing pertinent resolutions which have been passed by the Episcopal Church in General Convention. Share them with your people, and teach them the significance of these resolutions. Bishop Keyser has briefed me on the process being developed to facilitate the participation of clergy serving in federal agencies in the church-wide dialogue on human sexuality as directed by the 1991 General Convention's Resolution - A-104sa. With my full concurrence he intends to insure that an important portion of each dialogue will specifically deal with the complex changes that will take place with the lifting of the ban and your role as a chaplain to all persons in the midst of these changes. Your role, as always, includes teaching, preaching, counseling, advising, and healing. The regional dialogues Bishop Keyser has planned will help equip you to represent the Episcopal Church well during this critical time. I commend that opportunity for dialogue to you. The world is changing in many ways, and this can be frightening to many. As ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we can respond with the good news that he is Lord and calls us to work for justice and peace through the power fo the Holy Spirit. May our wise counsel and Christ-centered pastoral care be an impetus for our people to more fully "seek and serve Christ in all persons, strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being." I continue to be inspired by your ministry to Episcopalians in uniform and to your people of various denominational affiliations and cultural backgrounds. Please know that you are in my thoughts and prayers. Faithfully yours, Edmond L. Browning ******************** *AN EXCHANGE OF PLEASANTRIES* Letter to the Editor: "The Living Church," March 14, 1993 IDEOLOGICAL TERRORISM The board of Integrity dissociates itself from the National Council of Churches' (NCC) vote which refused observer status to the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, a predominantly homosexual group ["TLC," Jan. 3]. It also calls for "the immediate replacement of the Rev. William Norgren as ecumenical officer of the Episcopal Church and the replacement of four other members of the Episcopal delegation" who voted against observer status. This comes from a group which has now begun a new buzzword, "gentle," as a self- description. It is a group which has terrorized everybody, not only to give its members freedom of democratic voice, but also a place to make decisions (even if they offend others) while, at the same time, withdrawing the same freedom from others. When will we realize that the ideological terrorism of Integrity, a despotic and ruthless segment who simply want everything their own way and on their own terms, is running the program of this church and the rest of us who are paying the growing costs? Fr. Norgren is entitled to opinion and vote, even if it is contrary to Integrity's wishes. Frankly, I don't care who goes to the NCC or who observes, since I have never followed the fortunes or misfortunes of the WCC. Both are too great a pain for the church and have outlived their usefulness. But I do wonder if, politically and in the church, we have entered an era of despotism under the guise of democracy. Certainly that is the way Integrity and its friends seem to work. (The Rt. Rev.) Terence Kelshaw, Bishop of the Rio Grande Letter to the Editor: "The Living Church," April 11, 1993 CASE OF PROJECTION Methinks the bishop doth protest too much. For Bishop Kelshaw to describe Integrity as "despotic" is a case of projection. To be a despot implies having power to misuse. Integrity has never had "power" in the Episcopal Church comparable to that of any bishop. Bishop Kelshaw attacks a straw man of his own creation when he says that the church's ecumenical officer has a right to vote contrary to the wishes of Integrity. No one suggests otherwise. What our national board protested was Fr. Norgren's voting contrary to the mandate of the 1991 General Convention to promote dialogue with lesbian and gay Christians. Contrary to Bishop Kelshaw, Integrity thinks the work of the National and World Councils of Churches is important. Unfortunately Bishop Kelshaw's letter is replete with other factual inaccuracies. For example, Integrity has never used "gentle" to describe itself. The use of such a term to describe oneself would always be suspect. Perhaps what is really wrong with the Episcopal Church is the quality of the leadership in some of our dioceses. Edgar K. Byham, Director of Communications, Integrity, Inc. Letter to the Editor: "The Living Church," May 2, 1993 RAW ANGER I have never seen such raw anger, such dysfunctional hatefulness, or such naked self- righteousness as in Bishop Kelshaw's letter. Integrity, certainly, is a flawed organization as are the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of the Rio Grande. However, Integrity is not ACTUP. Can it be in any way pastoral to call a Christian group despotic, ruthless and terrorist? Why is a bishop saying such things? What would Jesus say? (The Rev.) Thomas W. Philips, Providence, R.I. ******************** *EAST TENNESSEE SYMPOSIUM TO EXPLORE SEARCH FOR STRUCTURAL REFORM OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH* Based on an Episcopal News Service release In recent years, members of the Episcopal Church from the tiniest parishes to bishops and national leaders have asked aloud what kind of structure is needed for the challenges of the 21st century. The question has been uttered by Episcopalians of a variety of viewpoints and theological perspectives. Whether the dialogue includes such terms as "long- range planning" or "paradigm shift" or "decentralization," there seems to be a crescendo of voices asking if the Episcopal Church should make some significant changes in its institutional life. Just as the church's Executive Council has embarked on a churchwide process to gather concerns from the grassroots, a symposium in St. Louis this August may serve to turn up the volume in the conversation about church structure. The August 12-15 symposium, "Shaping Our Future: A Grassroots Forum on Episcopal Structures," sponsored by the Diocese of East Tennessee had hoped to bring as many as 2,000 Episcopalians together to talk about structural reform, though it appears the numbers will be far smaller. Some of the original motivation for the symposium was sparked by two rectors from the Diocese of East Tennessee, the Rev. Stephen Freeman and the Rev. Peter Keese. Freeman and Keese offered a resolution at the 1991 diocesan convention that called for significant changes in the structure of the Episcopal Church. Among other things, Freeman and Keese called for the General Convention to meet once every 10 years, and for a diocesan bishop to serve as the presiding bishop. Although the proposal was not adopted by the diocesan convention, it was referred to a committee for further study. The committee, later known as the "East Tennessee Initiative," initially proposed to convene a small symposium of scholars and church leaders at the University of the South in Sewanee, then suggested a larger meeting in St. Louis. Some skeptics of the upcoming symposium have criticized it as an uncontrollable "shadow General Convention." One observer said that it could well be a "magnet for the discontented." Another suggested that cool passions and calm heads would not necessarily prevail in the "heat and humidity of an August in St. Louis." Bishop Robert Tharp of East Tennessee in a telephone interview with ENS's Jeffrey Penn dismissed such characterizations. "This is not an alternative to General Convention nor a mini-General Convention. I would disavow the whole thing if it turned into something like that." Tharp said that, although there would be some plenary sessions at the meeting, "none of them would resemble the House of Bishops or Deputies. There will be no opportunity to debate in the plenary sessions. I don't believe that any resolutions will come out of this meeting." To explore whether opposition to the inclusion of lesgay persons has helped motivate or will play a role in the symposium, Integrity will be represented by Dr. Louie Crew. *MUCH FUSS DOWN UNDER* *FIRST "OPENLY" GAY ORDINAND IN AUSTRALIAN CHURCH QUITS* The first article below appeared in "The Australian Magazine" prior to the Rev. David McAuliffe's decision to leave the Anglican priesthood. Off-the-record remarks by Archbishop Carnley, while visiting Integrity/New York in May, suggest that parts of the story may be innaccurate. The second article appeared in "The Australian" (the Perth newpaper in which the Magazine is a Sunday supplement) shortly after the resignation. *HONEST TO GOD* Still divided over women priests, the Anglican Church is now being urged to confront its other contentious problem -- gay priests. The case of David McAuliffe epitomises the forces, fears and theories at work. By Janine Cohen The Reverend David McAuliffe regularly gets hate mail, despite the fact that he has devoted his life to God. Most of it comes from members of his own Church. They warn him that he is going to burn in hell and that his soul will perish in the eternal flames. They ask him to repent and give up his wicked ways. McAuliffe believes his only sin is that, unlike many other Anglican clergy, he has refused to lie about his sexuality. He would rather be hated for something he is than loved for something he is not. Seven months ago, the tall, urbane 51-year-old was ordained the first self-proclaimed homosexual in the Anglican Church in Australia, an event that has propelled the Anglican Church into yet another controversy -- one that many think the Church is not ready to deal with, particularly with the continuing divisions over the ordination of women priests. For the moment, the Church has gone to ground on the issue. McAuliffe, who was told not to speak to the media, agreed to talk to me only after finding himself in what he considers an impossible position. His honesty has come at a cost. He is now a priest without a parish and on the verge of reconsidering his future with the Church. "I am not going to sit around in limbo for the rest of my life," he says, clearly frustrated. "I can do other things." Since news of his ordination became public, he has been shunned by his peers and left jobless. "What the Church, and I mean the Church in its totality, has to do is to just be honest for once and say there are gay people in the Church, there have always been gay people in the Church, and the Church and the family has not fallen apart." Western Australia's Archbishop Peter Carnley, the man who defied many in his Church and ordained the first women priests in Australia, ordained McAuliffe last August, knowing he was homosexual. After all, he had come from Perth's gay Resurrection Community Church where for three years he had ministered openly to many gays and lesbians. The church began with 12 people meeting in McAuliffe's lounge and grew to about 250 members. Many in the Anglican Church were angry that there was no debate on the issue before McAuliffe was ordained. The Archbishop was accused of not consulting his flock and the fundamentalists were furious. Liberal theologians argued that there have always been homosexual clergy in the Church. The only difference here was that the latest recruit had been open about it. The violent reaction to McAuliffe's ordination caught even the Archbishop unprepared. Letters poured in from disgusted Christians. The clergy was divided. Some preached from the pulpit about the evils of homosexuality while others said it was God's way. Some simply remained tight-lipped, too confused to counsel their congregation. Homosexual priests, who had not made their sexuality known to their parish and peers, started deadlocking the closets. McAuliffe is pragmatic about the homophobia. "I never take it personally because they don't know me personally. Really what they are doing is just voicing their own prejudices or their own feelings or their own very consciously held beliefs." Part of his week is spent replying to the "more rational" letters he receives condemning his ordination. His critics cite passages from the Bible supporting their stand and he writes back quoting others. The irony is that when he was considering entering the Anglican Church he took counsel with a number of homosexual Anglican ministers. They were all encouraging. Then the story broke in the media and a public storm followed. "It has been rather fascinating really," says McAuliffe. "I have had no support at all from the Anglican clergy. Through the whole crisis I had no support at all from any of the gay priests in the Church. Absolutely nothing. I am just stunned that these men can be so cowardly." McAuliffe is a stately man with heavy dark eyebrows and a calming, well-modulated voice. Extremely well-read, he is a moderate on most things, although a self-confessed socialist on social issues. While working as a Liberal Catholic priest in the mid- eighties, his parishioners used to complain that his sermons were too conservative. Many find him a dichotomy. He has a striking intellect and a wry, earthy sense of humour. His vocabulary is peppered with long theological terms, although when the issue of homosexuality is raised he uses some language that is common only to the gay community and seems incongruous coming from such a seemingly conventional minister. In a photograph taken at his ordination are his 85-year-old mother, his homosexual lover, a gay Christian friend, the Archbishop and several bishops, all of whom knew about the new priest's sexual preferences. It was a lovely ceremony, he recalls, a pleasant day. Everyone was hospitable. They all agreed the new minister had a bright future. One of the clergy present even invited him to assist him in his parish duties until he was allocated his own. Then word got out of the gay priest's ordination and the furore erupted. McAuliffe heard nothing more. Since then, he has not been invited to a single church to celebrate the Eucharist. "It is unusual to know there is a priest around on the loose and there are priests who go away on holidays and you go and help out, but nothing. Obviously they are too afraid to broach it." McAuliffe estimates that almost 40 per cent of the Anglican clergy in Perth are gay (a figure disputed by some clergy and confirmed by others). It seems some marry as a front while others live with their partners and are known to the gay community. McAuliffe says traditionally the bishops were aware that they had ordained gay priests, but as the issue was never discussed their sexuality had not been a problem. "If I had gone through the training system as most Anglican priests do, and not come in as an ordained priest and having been known as a gay person, then I would have slipped into a parish and become the usual parish priest living a quiet life with a good salary." Instead, he has been jobless for more than six months and has received no financial support from the Church. As he sees it, his only sin is that he refuses to lie about being in a long-term monogamous relationship. He believes vast numbers of Anglicans throughout the history of the Church have been ministered to, married by and buried by gay clergy. "Probably the people who have written to me condemning [me] or condemning the Archbishop for ordaining me, probably their rector is gay," he says nonchalantly. Some fundamentalists believe gay people have a choice despite the fact that modern psychiatry disagrees. Born-again Christians believe if gay people repent and throw themselves on the mercy of God, they can cast aside the demons that tempt them into this life. McAuliffe says he knows from experience this is not true. As a young man, he fought hard to suppress his homosexual feelings. He led a devoted life and prayed diligently, and when that failed he became engaged to a young woman, but could not continue with the engagement. The stir over McAuliffe's ordination presented Perth's Archbishop with a problem. He needed to find a parish for his latest recruit, but which one? Last year, he chose the trendy, middle-class Perth parish of Subiaco. The congregation there had a history of supporting progressive social-justice issues. They were in the main modern and well-educated. They had a woman priest on staff. But their reaction shocked the Archbishop. The Subiaco flock went into a flap. What would happen when the rector went away? Would McAuliffe have to conduct the service. And what about the altar boys? (McAuliffe points out that the heterosexual parish priest was never considered a threat to the altar girls.) After months of heated meetings, which McAuliffe was not allowed to attend, the parishioners decided to give their gay priest a trial. But in the meantime, another problem had arisen. In answer to growing criticism of his decision to ordain a self-proclaimed homosexual, Archbishop Carnley told the media that McAuliffe was celibate. McAuliffe has had a live-in lover for two years. Until this was cleared up, the new priest felt he could not accept the Subiaco position. When McAuliffe complained about the celibacy issue, the Archbishop said he was given to understand that he was celibate. "But you didn't ask me, did you?" McAuliffe complained to his superior. "No, but you didn't tell me either," the Archbishop replied. McAuliffe says the Church may not have known he had a partner but that should have been a natural assumption. What really riles him is that as the controversy over his ordination continued, the Church gave the impression that he had given assurances he was celibate. "I had not. I absolutely had not." His chief concern was that people who knew his true position would think him a hypocrite. "There has been this perception in the community that I have turned my back on the whole gay issue and walked away from it." After the Archbishop's comments about his alleged celibacy, members of the gay community called him wanting to know why the lie. Suddenly, his credibility was at stake and this was the main reason that moved him to talk publicly. He wanted to set the record right. He knows that as a non-celibate priest he poses ethical problems for a Church that condemns sex outside of marriage. "I think what is happening is the Church is using a heterosexual -- a straight model -- and imposing that on the gay community and you cannot do that. What the Church has to do -- whether it is the Anglican Church, the Roman Church or any other Church -- is to theologise the thing right through, look at all the scriptures and then come up with a model that suits gay relationships. The Church is trying to crush gay people into a model that doesn't fit." McAuliffe only ever planned to stay three years with the gay Resurrection Community Church. Eventually, he wanted to return to a more orthodox Church. He approached the Anglican Church which was very responsive. "The sexuality issue came up but it was basically laughed out of court," he says. He has no doubt that Archbishop Carnley is supportive of homosexual clergy in the Church from a justice perspective but he doubts that he would ordain another practising homosexual because of the anger in the community and his own Church. Archbishop Carnley, in the US until May, was unavailable for comment, but his acting administrator, Bishop Brian Kyme, says he is unaware of any plans the Archbishop may have for McAuliffe and such decisions will have to wait until his return. "The Church has been very accepting in his [McAuliffe's] case and it is just unfortunate that the planned appointment [to Subiaco] didn't come off." Kyme believes the issue of homosexuals and the Church is becoming less contentious. "Today, the vast majority of Church people accept that there are people that have a homosexual orientation and that they ought to be accepted as persons, and that it is not of their own making. It is the way they are." However, he also believes that certain "homosexual acts" are contrary to what the Bible teaches. "I think the Church recognises that some of the clergy have a homosexual orientation and that is true across the population and we would expect that to be true of the clergy, too. Now that is one issue and the other issue is that most members of the Church believe that certain sexual acts are prohibited in the scripture so we draw a distinction between the sexual orientation of the person and the things that they do or don't do. So while we would not be happy to condone certain homosexual acts, at the same time we are ready to accept that some people have a homosexual orientation." This is where the issue gets cloudy for the Church. Does this mean that in order to be accepted by the Church, homosexual clergy should be celibate? "Well certainly they either should be celibate ... but I am sure there are cases where we don't probe into the private behaviour of our clergy leaving it to them as a matter of conscience," Kyme says. "There may well be homosexual clergy who are not celibate and we are unaware of it. But we don't make an issue of, aah ... we don't interrogate prospective ordinands about their sexual behaviour. We have never done that." Kyme does "not believe for a moment" McAuliffe's claim that as many as 40 per cent of Anglican clergy are homosexual. "I am sure there are some and I am sure I know who some of them are, but I am not interested in going around asking the clergy what their sexual orientation is." The Anglican view of homosexuality and the Church depends on whom you speak to. One of the more liberal voices is Rev. Roger Sharr, director of the Wollaston Anglican Theological College in WA, who says there is nothing in the scriptures that says homosexuality is a sin; there are mentions of homosexuality that are not favourable in relationship to promiscuity but the same is so of heterosexuality. It has to be read on context. Some people believe the issue means bad publicity for the Church, but his view is that it has nothing to do with publicity. "It is what the truth is which is far more important. Therefore the question needs to be addressed." He says many clergy and parishioners are uninformed about homosexuality. "There is an automatic association with child molesting and other things that really have nothing to do with the debate at all." For Rev. Greg Harvey, the chairperson of the Anglican Social Responsibility Commission, the Church has been ambivalent on the issue for centuries, and it is time to develop a more open position on the matter. "If you get hold of one of these fundamentalist clergy and you speak to them about one of their friends who might be a gay priest, of whom there are a very great number around the place, they would say 'Look we really like that guy, but we can't deal with the fact that he is a homosexual.'" Harvey says a person's sexuality has not bearing whatever on their ability to be a priest. "It is clear that God calls homosexual people as well as non- homosexual people. I certainly support the ordination of people who are homosexual, but I do not believe that priest's sexuality is the issue for his or her people." Others disagree. Rev. Peter Brain, a rector of an outlying Perth parish who unsuccessfully tried to put a motion to the last WA synod indirectly condemning homosexuality, was upset when he heard that McAuliffe had been ordained. He immediately contacted the Archbishop who, he says, assured him that the new minister was celibate. The only way the Wanneroo minister would accept the new priest was if he was no longer a practising homosexual and did not condone such a lifestyle for others. He says he knows of people who have left the Church because of McAuliffe's ordination. Brain has been surprised at other clergy's claims that there is a considerable number of gay clergy, as he knows of only two. He believes practising homosexual ministers should be asked to resign from the Church -- because being a practising homosexual and a Christian is a total contradiction. And he maintains that a homosexual can be "cured" if he or she turns to the gospel. "My understanding is that there are some [homosexuals] who are cured in the sense that no longer do they practise and no longer do they experience the actual temptation in terms of their orientation. With good support from a caring congregation and with God's help, although the orientation may well remain, the grip over them gets less and less." Last October, an Anglican commission was set up to look at the theology of the human person and incorporated in this will be the issue of homosexuality. It is not expected to report for at least a year. Some of its members are sympathetic to the issue of gay clergy, others are not. One is Rev. John Yates, who runs a group called "Genesis," which tries to save Christians who are tempted by homosexual feelings. It started last year and has five members, all from his congregation in Leederville, an inner Perth suburb. Yates believes it is possible for people with "homosexual feelings" (he refuses to call any of his flock homosexuals) to be cured by long-term spiritual psychotherapy. "It is something we believe will happen but it takes time. There are plenty of people in the Church who have homosexual temptations or orientation and that is their disposition. A disposition is not, in terms of Christian morals theology, a sin. It is only when you act on it." Yates says practising homosexuals cannot be ordained. "Now according to the Archbishop, the man [McAuliffe] has renounced open homosexual activity and so is living a celibate life. In that case, there is nothing extraordinary about that because there are plenty of people in the ministry who have had problems with drugs, with alcohol, with adultery ... you name it. If he was practising, it would be entirely different." He intends to submit a paper to the commission detailing his views on how physical sexual intimacy between two people of the same sex is impossible. He believes poor nurturing is responsible for much of our homosexuality, in particular emotional deprivation in relationship to the same sex parent. His theory is that men have been characteristically more distant as parents and believes this explains why there are more male homosexuals than lesbians. Yates says he knows of a significant number of homosexuals who have been attracted to the priesthood, some of whom have been practising. He suspects they are attracted to the Church because of the brightly coloured vestments and the drama and colour of sermons. "It is a hypothesis, but I think it is a hypothesis that fits some of the homosexuals I have know." There has never been an official Church position on homosexuality, but Yates believes it will increasingly be on the Church agenda. Even his colleagues, who do not share his other views, agree with him on this point.  FIRST OPENLY GAY PRIEST QUITS CHURCH* By Mark Irving The Anglican Church's first self-proclaims homosexual priest, [editor's note: first openly gay ordinand, if McAuliffe's was that, has incorrectly been transformed into first openly gay priest] the Reverend David McAuliffe, has quit the church after a row with the hierarchy over his sexual orientation. Mr. McAuliffe's decision follows his public denial in "The Australian" colour magazine earlier this month of statements by the Archbishop of Perth, the Most Reverend Peter Carnley, that he was celibate. Mr. McAuliffe is not celibate. He has a long- time partner -- something, he says, that many people in the church knew about when he was ordained last August. "He (Archbishop Carnley) went out on his own and said I was celibate and then went further and said: 'This man has given me assurances that he is celibate.' But that never happened. I've never been asked to this day ... whether I was celibate. I had the impression all along the line that they didn't want to ask that question," Mr. McAuliffe said. Archbishop Carnley's "off-the-cuff" remarks, as Mr. McAuliffe describes them, had placed him under intolerable pressure -- both personally and from gay friends who queried whether he had "sold out ... in order to get a nice cosy rectory somewhere." He had "hassled" for six months to get the record set straight before he decided to go public in "The Australian." Now he finds himself a reluctant homosexual cause celebre in the church. A former Catholic and leader of a gay church in Perth, Mr. McAuliffe was ordained by Archbishop Carnley (who also ordained the church's first women priests). He had been earmarked for a position in a church at Subiaco, an inner suburb of Perth, until his sexual orientation became an issue and church-goers were misinformed about his celibacy. "They had been sold the idea I was gay and celibate," Mr. McAuliffe said. "I said in conscience I couldn't accept the post because it would have been giving the lie to everything I stood for." Archbishop Carnley is now overseas lecturing and the matter has been handled by Bishop Brian Kyme, the assistant bishop of the Perth northern region. Mr. McAuliffe's decision to quit the church followed a meeting last Friday with Bishop Kyme. Two days ago, he resigned his licence to officiate as a priest and now faces an uncertain future as a "freelance" priest. Yesterday, Bishop Kyme published a statement he had issued to all diocese clergy. "Most of your will have seen the article in the magazine supplement to 'The Australian' which raises the whole question of the employment of priests with a homosexual orientation," the statement reads. "The bottom line is that parishes are not willing to entertain the nomination of a priest who openly acknowledges he is a sexually active homosexual with a live-in partner." Mr. McAuliffe said: "When I approached the church (to join) I had no wish to rock the boat. All I wanted to be was a fairly quiet priest with a parish. "I realise there is not very much emancipation out there at all, that the battle was hardly joined, let alone won." Honesty, he said, had not paid off. Many other priests in Perth (he claims the figure is as high as 40 per cent) were gay, some living in rectories with their lovers. ******************** *TOPEKA PARISH GAY BASHED* by Patricia Wainwright On Sunday morning for more than a year, members of St. David's Church, Topeka, Kan., have had to walk by a group of pickets to enter their church. Members of Westboro Baptist Church have stood on the sidewalk outside the front door of St. David's, proclaiming with placards and shouts their opinions of homosexuals, their sympathizers, families, or friends. The Rev. Fred Phelps, Sr., is pastor of Westboro Baptist, a small independent church. According to several sources in Topeka, Mr. Phelps is a disbarred attorney whose activities stay carefully within the law. His congregation consists largely of family members, several of whom are also lawyers. Mr. Phelps and his followers regularly picket in Gage Park, a popular site of civic events and family gatherings, which they perceive as an area of homosexual activity. St. David's became a target of pickets after some church members were part of an ecumenical group that countered Mr. Phelps' activities with a "Sunday in the Park Without Fred." The Rt. Rev. William Smalley, Bishop of Kansas, said it was simply "a day in the park -- just be there to reclaim the park for the community." The people from St. David's were easily identifiable, wearing "St. David's Deacons" shirts, which are worn at various church activities. "St. David's has always been a very active parish ... which sees liturgy and mission as one," said parishioner Winnie Crapson in a telephone conversation. She agreed with the Rev. Robert Layne, rector of St. David's, in feeling that the Westboro activities affected not only St. David's but the entire community. Several Topekans interviewed described the group's picketing of civic concerts, plays, and most recently, funerals. Both Bishop Smalley and an American Baptist pastor told of demonstrations outside funeral homes where services were being held for someone perceived to have died of AIDS. The group has sent "certificates" to families of recently deceased homosexuals, causing a brief arrest of Mr. Phelps on a charge of defaming the dead. The AIDS memorial quilt was the target of protest when it was on display at Washburn University. Fr. Layne described in a letter a typical Sunday morning: "We have faced obscene and cruel signs, and on many occasions individual parishioners have received verbal assaults such as elderly female parishioners being called 'sodomites,' or one of our Oriental parishioners being called 'slant-eyed bastard,' as well as my being called 'son of perdition' and 'antichrist rector.'" People entering the church have not been physically assaulted, but many feel threatened and have begun avoiding the front door. On Palm Sunday, St. David's and four other churches held their traditional procession and blessing of the palms. "We obtained a parade permit this year -- something we never did in previous years," said Alan Fries, senior warden. For the last 25 years, the procession has used the sidewalks which the Westboro group now occupies. "They stayed out of the way," said St. David's youth leader, Rita Hernault. "The protesters were on three corners [of the intersection]. They stepped off the sidewalk to let us pass. It was a wonderful procession!" Fr. Fries said the vestry supports Fr. Layne's decision to stand up to the Westboro group. "There is something wrong about having to scurry into your own back door," he said. "The vast majority supported taking a stand against hatred, vile language, and the misuse of God's word." Members of the church have been meeting to develop appropriate non-violent responses. Fr. Layne's letter to TLC ["The Living Church"] said, "We want our response to be Christian -- purposeful, powerful, peaceful, with perseverance. We don't want to return hate for hate, or allow evil to provoke us to violence." The First Southern Baptist Church in Topeka was picketed by members of Westboro Baptist for four or five weeks. The Rev. Clark Johnson, pastor of First Baptist, said one reason the picketers chose plays and concerts, as well as his church was "that's where the audience is. If you can't generate an audience, you go where it is." Neither Mr. Johnson nor the American Baptist pastor supported Mr. Phelps' activities. "He's a poor representation of the church ... quick to jump on anyone in opposition," said the American Baptist minister, who asked not to be identified. He quoted a member of his congregation who complained. "He *would* have to be a Baptist." Mr. Johnson expressed regret that small group of people preaching hate attract a large amount of attention. "There are some 260-some churches in Topeka who preach the gospel and love," he said. "They don't get headlines." Several people expressed the fear that the community was becoming polarized around the issues of Mr. Phelps and his targets. Awareness and compassion for homosexuals may have increased as a result of the verbal attacks seen as vicious and obscene. FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT Mr. Phelps has "caused people to hate -- him -- who otherwise wouldn't," said Joe Sullivan, executive editor of the Topeka "Capital-Journal" and a deacon at St. David's. Even so, his newspaper has opposed censorship of Mr. Phelps' message because "he has his First Amendment right to do his thing." Deacon Sullivan predicted violence as the situation becomes more tense. While he admires Fr. Layne's courage and agrees that "it's time somebody said Christians have a responsibility to resist hate," he was somewhat worried about the Palm Sunday plans. "Why risk confrontation?" he said. "These are not benign picketers. [There verbal abuse] wouldn't add to the Palm Sunday experience." The pickets carried their signs on Palm Sunday, and "sang songs; they weren't shouting," said Ms. Hernault. "We had one TV station, our own video camera, and the police. They were pretty quiet." She offered an explanation: "The protesters have always claimed that others shouted hateful things at them. The cameras would prove that's not true." Deacon Sullivan also played devil's advocate in a telephone conversation: "Fred Phelps has his interpretation of the Bible. He sees his role as prophet; his intent is to drive homosexuals out of the city. Who are we to say he is not called by God to do what he's doing? How many of the Old Testament prophets were poster children?" ----- This article first appeared in "The Living Church," April 25, 1993 and is reprinted with permission. ******************** *COMMISSION ON AIDS/HIV SURVEYING CHURCH'S MINISTRIES* Based on a report by the Episcopal News Service The Episcopal Church's Joint Commission on AIDS/HIV is sending out about 800 letters in an attempt to assess the church's ministries in the first decade of the epidemic. In preparation for its report to the 1994 General Convention, "we want to know what the people of the Episcopal Church want to see done.... We want to learn from your experiences with HIV/AIDS. We want to know of your hopes and fears. We want the larger view, the view that dares to dream dreams and seek visions," said the letter, signed by Bishop Douglas Theuner of New Hampshire, chair of the commission. "As we live with people who know suffering and for whom death is not a matter of contemplation about a far-off time and place, but an everyday reality, we have a sense of urgency about the Gospel response to that. We need to know how the membership of the Episcopal Church shares that urgency and can help us to translate it into our lives," the letter said. The commission is seeking an answer to one big question: "Through your work with others and your own prayer life, what do you believe God is calling the Episcopal Church to do in response to HIV and AIDS by 1997? By 2001?" Responses can be sent to the AIDS ministry office at the Episcopal Church Center in New York. ******************** *EURRR OPPOSES MINNESOTA BISHOP-ELECT* based in part on a release from the Episcopal News Service Episcopalians United for Revelation, Renewal and Reformation (EURRR) is challenging the election of the Rev. James Jelinek as Bishop of Minnesota because of his support for equal access to the ordination process for lesbians and gay men. John Winslow, convener of the EURRR in Minnesota, said that his organization has sent letters to 110 standing committees in dioceses throughout the Church asking them to vote against the ratification of Jelinek's election. A majority standing committees must ratify the election in order for Jelinek to be consecrated as a bishop. "This diocese [Minnesota] is controlled by a very liberal element," Winslow said. "That's what I've been fighting. Here you have a bishop who will violate a church resolution. It makes a mockery of the church." Jelinek said that he believes church laws do not prohibit the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals. He maintains that "if a person is going through the entire discernment process and they appear to be a healthy, whole person, the decision should not be made on the basis of their sexuality alone. Bishop Robert Anderson of Minnesota said he was "confident that the will of the lay people and clergy of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota would be upheld by the bishops and lay leaders of other dioceses around the country. The larger church will not easily set aside the will of the people of a diocese expressed in a fair and open election," he said in a statement. Jelinek, who is Rector of St. Aidan's Church in San Francisco, said during the election process that as a priest he has presided at several blessings of lesgay relationships, but that he would not do so as a bishop since that would be a "political" rather than a "pastoral" act. ******************** *NEW DALLAS BISHOP SAYS HE'S OPEN, WE'LL SEE* from "The Dallas Morning News" March 6, 1993 by Daniel Cattau When James M. Stanton officially becomes bishop of the 36,000-member Episcopal Diocese of Dallas on March 6, two bishops from opposite sides of the theological spectrum will serve among five co- consecrators. Bishop John-David Schofield of San Joaquin, Calif., a member of the traditionalist Episcopal Synod of America, opposes the ordination of women. Bishop Frederick H. Borsch of Los Angeles, by contrast, is known as one of the more liberal Episcopal bishops. ... [Stanton] said he hasn't met yet with members of the Episcopal Synod or with Integrity, a group of gay and lesbian Episcopalians. "I have not met with people who are part of any affiliated group," he said. "But my door is open to all Episcopalians." ******************** *SUFFRAGAN BISHOP-ELECT IN VIRGINIA ACCUSED OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT* BY James Solheim A month after he was elected suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Virginia, the Rev. Canon Antoine (Tony) Lamont Campbell has been accused of sexual misconduct and the consent process has been put on hold pending an investigation into the charges. Campbell, who is canon missioner in the Diocese of South Carolina in Charleston, would be the first African American bishop in the 207-year-old Diocese of Virginia and youngest member of the church's House of Bishops. Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning said in a June 7 statement that he learned of the accusations "made by an adult woman" in late May. "Canon Campbell denies the truth of the accusations," Browning said. "Canon Campbell agrees that the investigation proceed and a prompt resolution be reached," he added. In a letter to the diocese, Bishop Peter James Lee of Virginia express his "great sorrow" and asked for prayers for Campbell and his family "in these difficult days." Campbell was one of two suffragan bishops elected at a special convention on May 1. "Our diocese exhibited great strength and energy in the election of our two suffragan bishops-elect and that energy and unity are still realities for which we can be thankful. As the weeks unfold, we must trust these events will be used for God's purposes," Lee concluded. Campbell is former rector of Baskervill Ministries in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. He is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served in the U.S. Marine Corps before entering Yale Divinity School, graduating in 1985. He and his wife Julia have three children. ******************** * A NOT VERY PASTORAL LETTER* [Editor's Note: This "Pastoral Letter" by the Bishop of Georgia is important not because it recommends excommunication for all sexually active lesbians and gay men, but because the Rt. Rev. Harry W. Shipps is a member of the committee charged with writing a pastoral teaching for the entire Church on human sexuality pursuant to resolution A-104sa of the 1991 General Convention. This letter was issued in March, 1993 and was read in all parishes in the Diocese of Georgia.] I write to define my position, and what I believe to be that of the House of Bishops generally, concerning human sexuality, with special attention regarding sexual conduct of persons seeking ordination. The Church includes persons of all sexual persuasions amongst its members. It asks that unmarried persons, heterosexual and homosexual, be and remain celibate. It asks of married persons chastity. There can be no marriage of same-sex persons or blessing of their relationship. Single heterosexual persons who are fornicators, and married heterosexual persons who are adulterers may not be ordained. Non-celibate homosexual persons may not be ordained. (The fact that some bishops have broken this rule of the Church, and the attendant notoriety, demonstrates the explicitness of the rule.) There is no disparity between heterosexual misbehavior and homosexual misbehavior. There is no more stringent behavioral check made of homosexual persons than of heterosexual persons. *Open and notorious sexual misbehavior by either heterosexual persons or homosexual persons should disallow reception of Holy Communion* (pg. 409 of the Book of Common Prayer). Heterosexual persons living together before intended marriage fall under this principle. This statement should answer the question concerning the inclusivity of the Church and also the naming of unacceptable conduct, particularly for those persons seeking ordination, who would be required to be "wholesome examples." In pastoral terms, I explain it this way to either heterosexual or homosexual persons: *Precept* (or principle): The precept of the Church is outlined above, and is a given. *Practice:* All mortals fall and transgress. This does not alter the precept. *Pastoral:* The pastor always counsels the sinner in the most helpful and sensitive way possible, dealing with the practice that is at variance with the principle and calling for repentance and amendment of life. ******************** *BRITISH BISHOP ADMITS CHARGES, RESIGNS* by Kim Byham The Bishop of Gloucester, the Rt. Rev. Peter Ball, has resigned after admitting gross indecency with a 17-year- old man apparently interested in joining a monastic order that the bishop had founded. [See "The Voice," Spring, 1993.] The bishop decided to resign immediately after police formally cautioned him, a legal step that is taken only after a clear admission of guilt. Police did not file charges. "I regret, with great penitence and sorrow, the circumstances that have led to this police caution," Ball, 61, said in a statement. Ball remains a bishop although he has resigned his position as Bishop of Gloucester. Under British law when a suspect is released without charges, police can warn him that if he is later investigated for another offense, the circumstances relating to his first offense can be taken into account. Gloucester police said Ball was cautioned for an offense of "gross indecency," which means a sexual offense that falls short of intercourse. Any homosexual act involving a male under the age of 21 is illegal in Britain. Canon Andy Radford, the diocesan press spokesman, said: "He decided, having admitted guilt, that it would be inappropriate both for the church in Gloucester and for the wider church if he were to continue. The fact that he admitted guilt has been a severe shock to the diocese and people are taking it hard. But we must keep this in proportion. This is one incident and should not be enough to negate 30 or 40 years of devoted pastoral work." The Archbishop of Canterbury said: "Bishop Peter is a highly gifted and original man who has inspired many people to deepen their faith in Jesus Christ. He has been much loved, both in his diocese and in the wider church, including the House of Bishops. His resignation is therefore a cause of great sorrow." ******************** *HOMOPHOBIA DOESN'T JUST HURT GAY PEOPLE - PART II* STRAIGHT INTEGRITY MEMBER FIRED FOR SUPPORTING EQUALITY When Prof. June Stefensen Hagen wore a one inch square "Support Gay Rights" button on her book bag at Nyack College last fall she had little idea that it would lead to the end of her job at the conservative, evangelical school up the Hudson River from New York City. Most of the college's 560 undergraduates live in dormitories on the wooded campus and have little to do with the nearby town. They take a pledge not to smoke, drink or dance. But in the last five years, under its president, Rexford A. Boda, Nyack College had become more diverse. It began to attract more students from inner-city neighborhoods, increasing its minority enrollment to 40 percent in the current academic year. In 1991, for the first time, the campus radio station was allowed to play nonreligious music. In December, a student complained to the president that Hagen was advocating tolerance of homosexuality by wearing a button in support of gay rights. After interviewing Professor Hagen and students in her classes, Mr. Boda defended her at a chapel service, saying she was trying only to make students aware of attacks on homosexuals and of legal discrimination against them. Boda said that he had hired Hagen knowing that she was a feminist and was likely to lead discussions on current events in her classes. Before last year's elections, Hagen found her students quarreling about how the issue of civil rights for gays and lesbians was being handled during the presidential campaign. She said she wore the button to stimulate that discussion but that she also made it clear she personally supported civil rights for everyone, including gays and lesbians. Hagen is filing a complaint with the American Association of University Professors. Prof. David Turk, head of the college's English department, called Hagen "a very fine teacher and a person of great integrity" and was surprised when the contract was not renewed. The case has attracted widespread media attention, including articles in "The New York Times." Dr. Hagen, who is an Integrity member, was anxious to share some of her reaction to the events with us: "Anyone's motivations for such action/speech as mine are complicated. My motivations come from my Christian commitment. In fact, one of my reasons for speaking is that I am fed up with the religious right's assumption that only they are moved by the Gospel. "Every time the congregation reaffirms its own Baptismal Covenant, the two last questions are: 'Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself? Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?' "When I answer each time, 'I will, with God's help,' I do mean that. And it seems to me that the struggle for equal rights for lesbians and gay men is a part of my working out of this Covenant. "Another part of my motivation comes from this: During the last three years my husband, the Rev. James B. Hagen, Rector of the Church of the Redeemer, Astoria, New York, has been an official nominee for Bishop in three dioceses in this country: Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Diego. From our visits nationwide we realized that gay rights even within the Church are in need of the support of those who might define themselves as 'straight but not narrow!' We both speak out on this issue. "Finally, through the ministry to me of several good friends who are lesbian, I have learned firsthand of the constant threat of physical violence just because of who one is -- or who one is presumed to be -- and the subtle threats to one's vocation and free pursuit of the usual happiness of an American citizen: housing, job, free association, etc. "Second only to my Christian commitment is my commitment to the liberal arts education. I ma a 51- year-old Ph.D., I've been teaching for 26 years, 17 of those years in evangelical Christian liberal arts colleges. Colleges give lip-service to the basic principles of free discussion, 'the free play of the mind,' etc. I believe it is my duty as an educator to help the institutions I serve to grapple with ideas, including controversial ideas." ******************** *BISHOP PLUMMER CHARGED WITH SEXUAL MISCONDUCT: THE CHURCH AND THE MEDIA REACT* THE PRESIDING BISHOP'S LETTER May 26, 1993 To the members of the House of Bishops Dear Brothers and Sisters: I write to share with you a painful matter in the life of our House and our church. I also want to ask your prayers that we may approach these difficult realities as God would have us do, and that healing will proceed for all concerned. More than two years ago the Rt. Rev. Steven T. Plummer, bishop of Navajoland Area Mission since March 1990, contacted me to tell me that he had engaged in sexual activity with a male minor in a breach of a trust relationship over a period of time ending approximately four years ago. I requested a thorough medical and psychological evaluation of Bishop Plummer at a highly respected medical institution. The evaluation indicated that he was not "at risk" for repeating the behavior. He has been undergoing therapy since that time and I have continued to monitor the situation and to keep in touch with Steven and Cathy. At the time Bishop Plummer brought this matter to me the young man was no longer a minor and unwilling to pursue this any further. As is always the case in instances of sexual misconduct, the protection of the right to privacy of a victim is a primary consideration. The healing of the young man continues to be of grave concern to me. This situation was discussed at a meeting on May 8, 1993 in Farmington, New Mexico of the Council, Standing Committee and Staff of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland. At the meeting, the Rev. Gary Sosa, a deacon of Navajoland, made a statement that included a report that some two years ago Bishop Plummer had told him in confidence of the relationship with the young man. Bishop Plummer made a brief response and asked for prayers. He indicated that he is taking responsibility for his healing, and that he believes God has forgiven him. After a two-week period for prayerful consideration, the Council reconvened for a special meeting at my request on May 22. The purpose of the meeting was to review all of the information and to discuss their recommendation to me concerning the ministry of Bishop Plummer amongst the Navajo people. Enclosed is a copy of a resolution they passed unanimously. I commend the Council for moving to consensus around a painful issue. The spirit of their resolution and the compassion they have shown indicates to me that a process of healing is beginning. The recommendation of the Council has been helpful to me as I have made some decisions concerning the next steps. I note that in addition to my pastoral concern for Steven and Cathy Plummer, their families, the victim, and others most closely involved, also of tremendous concern is our Indian ministry, and specifically the ongoing ministry of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland. At my request Bishop Plummer has commenced a one-year leave of absence during which time he has agreed not to perform any priestly or episcopal functions without my permission. He will continue in closely monitored program of therapy. In addition, I have asked the Rt. Rev. Stewart Zabriskie, who as Bishop of Nevada is in a neighboring area, to serve as a mentor for Steven and his family. In the meantime, I have appointed the Rt. Rev. William Wantland, Bishop of Eau Claire, who is the senior active Native American bishop, as the Interim Bishop of the Navajoland Area Mission. Bill has graciously accepted this responsibility. I have also conferred and will continue to be in consultation with the Native American leadership of the church about the ministry of Navajoland. Specifically, I have been in consultation with the Episcopal Council of Indian Ministries and asked their help in the evaluation both long and short range of the mission and ministry of Navajoland. Prior to the end of the one-year period the situation will be reviewed to determine most appropriate next steps for Steven and his ministry, and for the ministry of Navajoland. As the House of Bishops has ultimate responsibility for the program and oversight of the Navajoland Area Mission, I will then communicate with the House concerning any actions that might be needed as the 1994 General Convention. In closing I again ask for your prayers. Let us pray that the healing love of Christ will transform the pain of this situation and that redemption can be found. Faithfully yours, The Most Rev. Edmond L. Browning Presiding Bishop RESOLUTION OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF NAVAJOLAND Whereas: 1) Our Bishop, Steven T. Plummer, has acknowledged before this Council that he has been guilty of certain misconduct in the past; and 2) We are all concerned about the victim and do not approve of legal or illegal sexual misconduct; and 3) He has sought and received help in this matter through Christian prayer, modern psychology and traditional Navajo ways; and 4) We are convinced that his behavior is truly in the past, that he has confessed his sin to the appropriate people, and has done all in his power to make amends; and 5) In the Navajo tradition, the past is left behind, and our concern is with the present and the future; and 6) In the Christian tradition, we are called to be a redeeming community; and 7) Steven T. Plummer is one of our own, called by God and chosen by the Episcopal Church in Navajoland to be our Bishop. Now Therefore Be It Resolved That: 1) It is our desire that Steven T. Plummer continue to be our Bishop. 2) Steven T. Plummer should be given an indefinite leave of absence at the discretion of the Presiding Bishop, beginning May 8, 1993, with full pay and benefits and that during this leave of absence he continue in therapy and do all other things reasonable and necessary to care for his physical, mental and spiritual health. 3) After the leave of absence and treatment, Bishop Plummer consult with the Presiding Bishop to determine if he should continue his duties as Bishop of Navajoland. 4) This resolution should be sent to the Presiding Bishop as our recommendation with the hope and prayer that it be favorably considered by the Presiding Bishop and the House of Bishops. *Approved 20-0 at a meeting May 22, 1993 of the Council, Standing Committee and Staff of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland.* THE PRESS REACTION All of the articles below are highly edited to avoid repetition. "The Dallas Morning News," May 29, 1993 HEADLINE: *BISHOP PUT ON LEAVE AFTER AFFAIR WITH BOY - EPISCOPAL CHURCH LEARNED OF MATTER TWO YEARS AGO* Religious News Service The Rev. Gary Sosa, the deacon who went public with the matter at a meeting in Farmington, N.M., charged church officials with trying to cover up Bishop Plummer's sexual affair to protect the church's reputation. Father (sic) Sosa has also accused Bishop Plummer of harassing him sexually by making abusive remarks. Bishop Harold Hopkins, director of the church's Office of Pastoral Development in Maine and a key player in the matter, said the bishop has "on a number of occasions" denied "categorically and emphatically" that he made any inappropriate comments to Father (sic) Sosa. "Los Angeles Times," May 29, 1993 HEADLINE: *BISHOP PUT ON LEAVE AFTER SEX REVELATION; EPISCOPAL LEADER ACTS AGAINST THE PRELATE TWO YEARS AFTER LEARNING OF THE MISCONDUCT WITH A TEEN-AGE BOY. THE ISSUE IS FORCED BY AN ANGRY DEACON'S ACTION*. By LARRY B. STAMMER The deacon, Gary Sosa, said the disciplinary action was far overdue. "My feeling is that they buried this," Sosa said Friday in a telephone interview from Bluff, Utah. "If Steven had been a social service worker or counselor or school teacher and engaged in this kind of behavior he would not be working with people who were at risk for his kind of behavior," Sosa said. In a further twist to the story, Sosa has been suspended by Plummer for breaking conditions of a self-imposed leave. Although Browning has acknowledged that he kept Plummer's disclosure secret and allowed him to continue functioning as a bishop, Browning said he promptly requested a thorough medical and psychological evaluation. The five-day evaluation indicated, Browning said, that Plummer was not "at risk" for repeating the behavior. Plummer has remained in therapy since then. Versions of how the church first learned of Plummer's misconduct differ. Browning and Bishop Harold Hopkins, director of the Office of Pastoral Development, said Plummer reported the activity himself. But Sosa said that Plummer went to Browning two years ago only after Sosa first informed national church authorities in March, 1991. The local church council, however, was not informed until this month when Sosa went to them directly. Sosa said Plummer disclosed his sexual encounters with the teen-age boy in November, 1990, while they drove to a meeting. Later, Sosa said, Plummer used "sexually loaded" language with him that rekindled disturbing memories of Sosa's own sexual victimization as a child. Hopkins said Plummer categorically denied Sosa's charge. Sosa, who is married, said he is on voluntary leave of absence and re-evaluating whether to seek ordination to the priesthood. Sosa said he was later suspended from duties as a deacon by Plummer, reportedly on grounds that Sosa broke conditions of a his leave by reading the Gospel in a church service without the bishop's permission. Plummer, 49, was ordained a deacon in 1975 after graduating from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. The following year he was made a priest. He was elevated to the episcopacy in March, 1990. He is married and has four children. "The Arizona Republic," June 4, 1993 HEADLINE: *NAVAJOS' EPISCOPAL SEX SCANDAL; BISHOP'S AFFAIR CONTINUES TO HAUNT INDIANS, CHURCH* by Kim Sue Lia Perkes Their pride was shattered May 26, when the 1,500 Episcopalians who make up the Navajoland Area Mission, encompassing parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, learned that their beloved Bishop Steven Plummer had a two-year affair with a teen-age boy. Navajos dealing with the shock of the affair also would come to find out that the national church headquarters had known about the charges for two years but had failed to take any ecclesiastical action until Plummer's deacon, the Rev. Gary Sosa, went public and forced the church's hand. Sosa, who implied that Plummer also made passes at him, said the bishop confided in him about the affair. Sosa said he reported it to church officials immediately. Church officials say they do not believe Plummer made inappropriate remarks to Sosa. "Gary was injured by Steven's remark, but we would not agree with him" that they were suggestive, said Bishop Harold Hopkins. "There are a lot of things in Gary's charge (against Plummer) that we don't agree with," Hopkins added. He declined to elaborate. However, Sosa says that church officials advised him to keep the affair a secret, and that the two years he spent in silence devastated him spiritually and emotionally. "At every point along the line, I was asked to keep it a secret," Sosa said. "Plummer asked me to keep it a secret, and then the national church asked me to keep it a secret. It wasn't possible for me to work with him (Plummer) after that." Church officials admitted they saw no need to make the affair public. They responded by sending Plummer to Minnesota for an intensive psychological evaluation that concluded he was not "at risk" of being a repeat offender. Sosa took a leave of absence from the church and now says he probably will not pursue his ecclesiastical calling to become an Episcopal priest - a position he used to consider sacred. "Before, I had a great deal of faith in the church," Sosa said. "I thought they would do the right thing." Plummer, who lives in Bluff, Utah, declined to be interviewed beyond making the statement Thursday that "the Navajo people and the church are all supportive of me." Hopkins, meanwhile, said it is difficult to decide the right thing to do in cases of sexual-abuse allegations involving clergy. "The problem was we really felt we had no way of making the matter public without violating the privacy wishes of the person involved," he said. "We did not want to additionally victimize the person injured. I can't tell you how many times we're caught in that bind. When Gary Sosa, for his own needs, decided to make it public, we had to shift gears and make another form of attack." The publicity has taken its toll on Plummer's health. The week before his suspension, Plummer was hospitalized for diabetic complications. After addressing the council [on May 8] Plummer suffered what he thought was a mild heart attack and was hospitalized for observation and tests, Wantland said. Sosa said he turned the matter over to police authorities and family-service agencies, as well as the church. However, the young man, who now is in his early 20s, has not filed charges, Sosa said. "The Phoenix Gazette," June 5, 1993 HEADLINE: *A SECRET ON THE RESERVATION: AFTER ADMITTING TO THE HEAD OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH THAT HE HAD MOLESTED A TEENAGE BOY FOR NEARLY TWO YEARS, NAVAJO BISHOP STEVEN PLUMMER WAS GIVEN A PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION AND, EVENTUALLY, MINIMAL TREATMENT. NOT A WORD WAS SAID PUBLICLY, AND PLUMMER KEPT HIS POST. IT WOULD BE TWO YEARS BEFORE THE SECRET WAS SPILLED BY A CHURCH DEACON*. by Ben Winton When treatment did begin for Bishop Steven Plummer, it consisted of twice-monthly visits with a psychiatrist - far less treatment than what several professionals said they would recommend initially for child molesters. Plummer had confided several years ago to Sosa that he had engaged in sex with a teenage boy over a 1 1/2 to two-year period that ended in 1989. That confession surfaced after Plummer learned that he had something in common with Sosa - both had been victims of sexual abuse as children. But early this year, Sosa said he had become concerned because he said Plummer had made intimidating remarks of a sexual nature to him, that he seemed to show no remorse for the molestations and that the church had engaged in a cover-up. "He's very compassionate, a strong leader for the Navajo church," said Bishop Joseph Heistand, who led the Diocese of Arizona until retiring last year. "It just shows that all of us have feet of clay and we're all sinners at some point in our lives. Nobody's immune." Bishop Harold Hopkins said the church had difficulty finding a psychiatrist who understood the Navajo culture well enough to adequately assess and treat Plummer. When it did find one, in Minnesota, the psychiatrist recommended twice-monthly therapy sessions. ******************** *GOD'S VULNERABILITY IN OUR SEXUAL CHOICES* by (the Rev. Canon) Gene Robinson Think for a moment about your growing up and the messages you received about sexuality. For most of us, it will come as no surprise that we have a difficult time with sexuality. At best, we were confused about it; at worst, we were downright frightened. And indeed, I believe that fear is precisely the message we were meant to get: NOT that sexuality is a wonderful, wonderful gift from God, meant for our joy and pleasure, and a means of communication with a beloved -- but, rather, that sexuality is a horrifying Pandora's box that must be kept sealed up, lest the demons of desire and passion come rushing out, like so many uncontrollable banshees, to devour our hearts and souls. My favorite of these crazy-making messages we are given (first articulated for me by James Nelson) is this: "Sex is dirty; save it for someone you love." We're told that sex is this horrifying threat that must be tamed and controlled. Indeed, we're taught, sometimes explicitly, but mostly through dirty jokes and innuendo, that sex is sinful and dirty and disgusting. Then, somehow, in some magical and mysterious way, on our wedding night, it is supposed to become this wonderful, easy thing. How can this fact of life, this force inside us, that has produced more guilt than anything else in our growing up, suddenly become the joyful gift of God in marriage? That kind of turnaround is crazy-making. Now, in defense of parents everywhere -- including me, now faced with a 14-year-old daughter who speaks and looks and acts about 22! -- I must say that such a characterization of sexuality as a beast-to-be-tamed, rather than a gift to be cherished and enjoyed, comes from fear. I love both my daughters very, very much. I don't want them to be hurt. I fear that they will make themselves vulnerable to deep and lasting pain. And because the potential for hurt is so great in matters sexual, it is tempting to paint sexuality with a frightening brush -- in hopes of scaring them off. There is hardly a more vulnerable place to be than in a sexual relationship. There is hardly a better place to experience both the joys and dangers of vulnerability. In few places is "love of self and love of neighbor" more important. When I do AIDS education and people ask whether or not I believe in abstinence before or outside of marriage or a committed relationship, I can say "you bet I do." We need to talk to kids and 30-year-old singles and 40- and 50-year-old divorcees about how vulnerable lovemaking makes you. Not just vulnerable to pregnancy and AIDS, but to damage to one's self- esteem, disappointment, and feelings of incredible loneliness in the midst of the most intimate physical connection two people can have. It seems to me that the vulnerability inherent in God's own creation of the world and in God's vulnerability in becoming flesh in Jesus Christ is a central key in unlocking the power and meaning of human sexuality. The spiritual and physical union between two people mirrors the relationship God desires with humankind. The longing of a husband for a wife, a lover for the beloved, who has been away for a few days or a few weeks, mirrors God's longing for us. A lover's sheer delight in the body of the beloved reflects God's sheer delight in us when we give our attention and our love and our hearts back to God. When one fully gives oneself to another in lovemaking, it's a participation in the kind of self-giving love that God IS. If vulnerability is at the heart of the nature of God, and if one of the ways we come close to God is through the vulnerability we share in our intimate sexual relations, what can we say about those interactions? Are there standards by which we can judge our intimate sexual relationships? Let me offer three criteria: equality, authenticity and appropriate vulnerability. First, I believe that any healthy, moral relationship which is sexually intimate requires equality of the lovers. For me, sexual partners need to be on the same footing for their sexual acts to be moral. Virtually every sexual problem that has been brought to me as a priest, most of the pain and discomfort and disease in the sexual relationships I've counseled inside and outside of marriage, has been related to this inequality. Someone feels pushed too far, unable to say no; someone feels powerless in the face of the partner; someone feels like the entire responsibility for the sexual relationship is on his/her shoulders. At its worst, this inequality actually defines the abuse and sexual misconduct we hear so much about. At its root, child abuse is wrong because of the unequal power held by virtually any adult over any child -- an inequality of power, experience, perspective. Sexual misconduct by clergy or professional counselors is misconduct precisely because it is an inappropriate and immoral use of the inherent inequality of the counselor/counselee relationship. Rape is by definition a circumstance of inequality. Incest is the manipulation of someone through fear of physical or emotional violence or the fear of the loss of an important family relationship. The inequality of these settings indeed defines the immorality. Let me point out that while most of us are not guilty of such gross immoralities of inequality, we should not congratulate ourselves too quickly. The overt and covert inequalities between men and women in this society carry over into our relationships and marriages, and until we are willing to look at that, we'll never get very far in our discussions about wholesome sexual relationships between equals. I would maintain that authenticity is another way of judging those relationships. By authenticity, I mean that what we exhibit on the "outside" with our bodies is reflective of what is going on "inside" with our spirits. For Christian moral relationships of sexual intimacy, there must be an integrating of one's life, so that the "outward and physical" actions of sexuality become the sacramental signs of an "inward and spiritual grace." Finally, I would propose as a third criterion Karen Lebacqz's notion of "appropriate vulnerability" [in "Appropriate Vulnerability: A Sexual Ethic for Singles," *The Christian Century*, 5/6/87]. This notion builds upon the earlier standard of equality, and gives us some direction with respect to specific levels of depth in our sexual relationships. For a sexual relationship to be healthy and moral, there must be a shared and equal vulnerability. Each partner must be a willing participant in the level of vulnerability that is chosen -- unmanipulated and unthreatened. In addition, Lebacqz maintains that in order to be proper, "the level of sexual expression should be commensurate with the level of commitment in the relationship." In other words, you don't have intercourse on the first date -- even if you are equally vulnerable. It is simply crazy and dangerous to make oneself so vulnerable to hurt in a relationship in which no trustworthiness is present. "Appropriate vulnerability" is a criteria by which to question intimate sexual relations between very young people, between casual acquaintances or for anyone *not* in a relationship that includes a mutual commitment to love, honor and trust the other and, in turn, to BE trustworthy. ----- Gene Robinson is Canon to the Ordinary for the Diocese of New Hampshire and Executive Secretary of Province I. He serves as a consultant to the committee on the A104sa resolution of the 1991 General Convention, which called the church "to work to reconcile the discontinuity between this teaching [that physical sexual expression is appropriate only within the life-long monogamous union of husband and wife] and the experience of many members of this body." This article first appeared in the May 1993 issue of THE WITNESS and is reprinted with permission. ******************** *SONGS FOR ONE OF OUR UNSUNG HEROES, HELPING OHIO SING A NEW SONG* The Rev. Ted Blumenstein, Rector of St. Paul's, Marion, Ohio and a long-time Integrity member, was named Citizen of the Year in Marion. During his 12 years in Marion, he has helped spearhead an ecumenical feeding program, an emergency shelter for the homeless, a job counseling center for the unemployed, and an AIDS task force. Most recently he helped start the Free Medical Clinic of Marion, in response to the deep cuts in the state's General Assistance program. Ted is also chairing the Gay & Lesbian Clergy Caucus in the Diocese of Ohio. Ohio has begun the task of electing a new bishop and the caucus sent the following to the Profile Committee on March 23, 1993: As Gay and Lesbian clergy in the diocese, this is what we want from our next bishop: 1. Our bishop is a person who understands or is willing to understand homophobia and can act pastorally and politically based on that understanding. a. Our homosexuality is not a cause for us to have special pastoral needs. We have the same pastoral needs as others and for the same reasons. b. We have special problems because we live in a homophobic society and church, and we must constantly accommodate to it. c. Internalized homophobia in gay and lesbian people is widespread and can be very destructive. It is a factor in much alcoholism and suicide. d. Special pastoral concern is appropriate to those who exhibit homophobia, just as it is to those with any irrational fear. (To say it plainly: the hate mongers are sick, not the homosexuals.) 2. Our bishop is a person who proclaims and teaches a traditional Anglican view of Holy Scripture boldly and fearlessly. a. We are not literalists. b. We do not apply ancient codes of behavior in present day life. c. We recognize that the sex negative attitudes of our society are not found in either Hebrew or Greek scripture unless we read them in. d. Same sex loving relationships are affirmed in scripture. 3. Our bishop recognizes and acknowledges our lives and relationships. a. The Blessing of Holy Union and the Burial of the Dead have the same significance in our relationships as they do with heterosexual life partners. b. Events that include spouses can also include our life partners. 4. Our bishop recognizes the responsibility of our church to be an intelligent counter voice to the hysteria and ignorance that emanates from churches and so- called Christian leaders. ******************** *SHOULD INTEGRITY CHANGE HOW IT ADDRESSES THE CLERGY?* If you're a clerical member of Integrity, we'll address you any way you want. Just let us know. Our default, however, if you don't state a preference is "Mother" and "Father." The Committee on the Status of Women of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church has some very different suggestions. They are charged with monitoring, investigating, advocating, and recommending measures to promote the full participation of women in the life of the Church and their corollary well-being in society. The Committee recommends eliminating "Father" as a form of address for male priests, in order to decrease the distinctions made between men and women in ordained ministry. The Committee notes that the most common terms used for ordained women in places where ordained men are called "Father" have been "Ms." and "Mother." "Ms." is obviously not a parallel term, and the Committee believes that "Mother" is not an appropriate equivalent to "Father" because of the very different values and roles assigned to male and female parents in our culture. The Committee also questions the appropriateness of parental terms for ordained persons, which imply that lay persons should assume a dependent or childish role vis-a-vis clergy. If the secular Mr./Ms. form of address is deemed inadequate, the Committee recommends use of "the Rev." (or the full "Reverend" when speaking) or "Pastor," noting that grammatical objections to "Reverend" reflect an upper class bias that is denigrating to many of our Protestant sisters and brothers. The Committee recommends the following forms of title and address: .TB 6 35 61 86 101 Full title: The Rev. John Doe The Rev. Jane Doe The Rev. Mr. John Doe The Rev. Ms. Jane Doe When speaking: Hello, Mr. Doe Hello, Ms. Doe Hello, Reverend Doe Hello, Reverend Doe Hello, Pastor Doe Hello, Pastor Doe Hello, John Hello, Jane Salutation: Dear Mr. Doe Dear Ms. Doe Dear Rev. Doe Dear Rev. Doe Dear Pastor Doe Dear Pastor Doe Let us know whether you think Integrity should adopt these proposals. ******************** .TB 6 16 21 26 31 36 41 46 51 56 61 66 71 76 *MEET AELRED OF RIEVAULX* Challwood Studio has a new mascot. He's a Bichon Frise and named Aelred. Aelred spends brief periods in his dog house, which Paul and Victor have named Rievaulx. ******************** *INTEGRITY PLAYS A MAJOR ROLE IN COLORADO LOSING 1997 GENERAL CONVENTION* The General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 1997 will be in Philadelphia. Up until June, it appeared that despite the controversial constitutional Amendment 2 adopted by Colorado prohibiting civil rights protection for lesbians and gay men in Colorado, planners of the 1997 General Convention could not rule it out of the list of possible sites for the meeting. Denver, Orlando and Philadelphia were the three cities approved for consideration at the 1991 General Convention in Phoenix. During a March meeting of the church's Joint Standing Committee on Planning and Arrangements (JSCPA), members of the committee grappled with the issues surrounding Denver. Some members of JSCPA expressed concern that lesbian and gay Episcopalians might be subject to discrimination if the convention were held in Denver. The committee concluded that Denver should be removed from consideration in 1997, but that the church should be in dialogue with Colorado Episcopalians about the issues involved in Amendment 2, and Denver might be considered for the convention in 2000. Almost as soon as the JSCPA had decided to drop Denver from consideration, a series of new developments emerged that lead the committee to reconsider its decision. In response to a lawsuit filed by a group of Colorado residents and the cities of Denver, Aspen and Boulder, a Denver district judge has placed an injunction on Amendment 2, preventing state officials from enacting it into law until after a full legal review -- expected by the end of 1993. In addition, attempts to repeal the amendment are under way, leading some observers to conclude that it may never become law. "Because of this and other new developments, we felt that we should at least look at Denver again," said Pamela Chinnis, president of the Episcopal Church's House of Deputies. "We are not under the same kind of time pressure that we had with Phoenix." In a March 24 memo to members of the JSCPA, Chinnis and Presiding Bishop Edmond L. Browning wrote that "a number of extenuating circumstances have developed which might suggest that the committee rethink its decision." They reported that practical problems with two other sites have developed -- in Philadelphia a snag has developed regarding available hotel space, and in Orlando there is difficulty with proposed dates for the convention. Members of the JSCPA visited Denver in early May. In large part because of the clear message of Integrity, however, Denver remained "unacceptable." The national board of Integrity adopted a resolution on April 13 calling on "our national church and the agencies and institutions which report to it to refrain from scheduling General Convention, other meetings or official activities in the State of Colorado until such time as Amendment 2 is repealed or overturned." BISHOP WAS OPPOSED TO AMENDMENT 2 BUT CONVENTION WAS AMBIGUOUS Prior to the vote on Amendment 2, Colorado Bishop William Winterrowd publicly opposed its adoption. In the October-November issue of the Colorado Episcopalian, Winterrowd wrote that it was "inappropriate to ban local ordinances that protect the basic civil rights of any minority, including the rights of the gay community." Citing the baptismal covenant and resolutions of General Conventions, Winterrowd said that his opposition to Amendment 2 was "founded on my understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that all people are children of God." Winterrowd still rejects an argument by supporters of Amendment 2 that it upholds equal rights for homosexuals but prevents the state from recognizing "special rights" for them. "Our understanding of justice as Christians is to say that we feel compelled to protect the human rights of all people -- especially of minority persons," he said. At its recent 106th annual convention, the Diocese of Colorado adopted a resolution affirming prior General Convention statements on the civil rights of homosexuals. However, a call for a repeal of Amendment 2 was withdrawn and the diocesan convention passed a compromise resolution that condemns "all discrimination in matters of civil rights based upon whether persons are gay men, lesbians, or bisexuals, and calls for such persons to be guaranteed the full protection of the civil laws, urging Colorado Episcopalians to make every effort in public and private to insure that such equal protection in provided in actuality." Kim Byham, director of communication for Integrity described the action by the Colorado diocesan convention as "lukewarm." Byham noted that other denominations in Colorado specifically opposed Amendment 2 or have called for its repeal. He denied the suggestion that there was a parallel between the situation in Phoenix in 1991 and the current situation with Denver. "In Arizona, the Episcopal diocese passed a resolution supporting a Martin Luther King, Jr., holiday. In contrast, the 1993 diocesan convention did not call for a repeal of Amendment 2," Byham said. ******************** *LESBIAN PROF HARASSED BY GENERAL SEMINARY* by Nick Dowen Professor Deirdre J. Good has filed a complaint with the City of New York Commission on Human Rights against the General Theological Seminary, the Episcopal Church's oldest seminary, alleging discrimi nation in housing and employment on the basis of sexual orientation and marital status. Dr. Good has been ordered to vacate faculty houseing at the end of her upcoming sabbatical for allegedly violating school policy regarding cohabitation. She is professor of New Testament at General where she has taught since 1985. The seminary's Executive Committee took its action expelling Good based on its interpretation of "The Community Life Handbook," which states: "Persons living together as couples in seminary housing must be married as this is understood by the Church." Prof. Good, who is a member of Integrity/New York, is a lesbian and lives with her life partner. Prof. Good's living arrangements were brought to the attention of seminary officials in February. Although the faculty subsequently advised that the housing policy needed to be reconsidered, the seminary's dean since May 1, the Rt. Rev. Craig Barry Anderson, former Bishop of South Dakota, apparently decided to go along with the Executive Committee. However, the committee wanted Prof. Good to move out immediately and Bishop Anderson persuaded them that she ought to remain until January 1994, after a sabbatical. The student/resident housing policy was written under the previous Dean, the Very Rev. James C. Fenhagen, who retired last year. There is no question that it applies to students and ostensibly to non-seminary renters, but there is doubt about its application to faculty. The Faculty Bylaws make no mention of such a policy. The Faculty Bylaws, passed in 1981 before Dean Fenhagen's tenure, do state that the faculty member must live (with family, where appropriate) in seminary housing, and must not sublet. There are currently two other faculty households in residence at the seminary including persons not related by blood or marriage. General Seminary is historically a residential community. Faculty salaries express the fact that housing is provided. The Executive Committee does not propose to dismiss Prof. Good from the faculty (she has tenure) but neither does it offer to increase her salary to compensate for the deprivation of housing. The City of New York Commission on Human Rights offered to mediate this dispute, but the seminary declined, anticipating legal proceedings. The New York City Lesbian and Gay Rights Law, enacted in 1986, specifically prohibits discrimination in housing and employment based on sexual orientation. General Seminary has for some years rented apartments to the general public who have been required to subscribe to "The Community Life Handbook" policy. The complaint states that the GTS housing constitutes "a housing accommodation as defined by the Administrative Code of the City of New York." It is hoped that the filing of legal papers will cause the seminary to reconsider. Bishop Anderson is perceived to be supportive of lesbian and gay issues based on his votes at General Convention and at House of Bishops' meetings. ----- Nick Dowen is President of Integrity/New York. ******************** *AN AMAZING OPPORTUNITY* An Integrity member recently visited Rievaulx Abbey and purchased an original print of St Aelred's home from a local artist. We thought many in Integrity might be interested in having one of these *signed and numbered prints* for themselves. We arranged with the artist to do a special pressing just for Integrity and we now offer them to you. ONLY $25.00 plus $2.00 shipping. Write: Integrity, P.O. Box 5202 New York, NY 10185 or phone 201-868-2485 Don't miss this opportunity. The picture, in browns and blues, is extraordinary and will make a wonderful Christmas gift for any Integrity member or Episcopalian on your shopping list. And chapters should consider this as a thank-you gift for those who have made special contributions to Integrity. ******************** "Excellent Resource for Dialogue" -- Bruce Garner, mbr. Comm. on Human Affairs *A BOOK OF REVELATIONS* Stories of 52 Lesgay Episcopalians Now with a FREE Study Guide Perfect for Parish Study Individual copies $12 incl. shipping Contact: Integrity, PO Box 5202 New York, NY 10185-0043 201-868-2485 Write or call for quantity discounts ******************** *ATTENTION INTEGRITY MEMBERS WITH A COMPUTER AND A MODEM* Tired of Being Fed to the Lions? Put away your asbestoswear for awhile and come to a prayer-lit electronic catacomb, *LUTI*. Join more than 100 persons daily sending e-mail to uphold the faith. In the catacomb, God dares to love absolutely everyone. You don't even have to speak or be known. If you need to, you may sit in the corner and lick your wounds. Lo, everyone that thirsts, come, drink eternal water which Jesus revealed at Samaritan wells! For a guide away from the Coliseum down the Appian Way, send e-mail with the SUBJECT: LUTI, yes to Dr. Louie Crew or from CompuServe to: >INTERNET:lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu In this space we know one another not by whether we are circumcized or uncircumcized, male or female, straight or gay, pigmented privileged or pigmented vulnerable ... but by whether we love one another. Come, be the church with us. ******************** *WHAT DO WOMEN WANT?* Well, we can't speak for all women everywhere, but we can tell you what we want. We are Women for Social Witness, a group of Episcopal Women committed to seeking justice in the world through the work of the Church, and Women for Social Witness want: @ Justice in public policy. .LM 16 .PM 11 @ An end to oppression in our homes, in our Church and in the world. @ A Church which welcomes and encourages the ministries and leadership of women. .LM 11 .PM 0 And here's what we're doing about it: .LM 16 .PM 11 @ Preparing bi-monthly mailings on issues of church and public policy affecting women, to assist members of our grassroots network in their advocacy work. @ Gathering and preparing resources on violence against women, sexual abuse, and sexual harassment -- especially as they occur within the Church. @ Developing and implementing an advocacy training program for grassroots women in the Church. @ Working to see that Women for Social Witness is, and remains, a model of inclusiveness by continuing to represent the rich variety of the Church's women's groups and by maintaining geographic, racial/ethnic, and cultural diversity. .LM 11 .PM 0 To become part of the Women for Social Witness Network, or to participate in any of its activities write: Women for Social Witness, Women in Mission & Ministry, 815 Second Ave., New York, NY 10017 or cal 1-800-334-7626 x5346 (N.Y. State: 1-800-321- 2231) *What About YOU? What Do YOU Want? What are YOU Doing About It?* ******************** *PRESIDENT'S COLUMN* I began composing this column thinking that I was angry. Then I decided that I was, to put it in the vernacular, pissed off. And finally, I reached the conclusion that I was simply weary and tired. I'm tired of sharing the intimate details of my life with strangers who often listen with a lurid curiosity at what I "do," but fail to learn one damned thing about who I *am* as a human being, as a child of God. I am wearied by those who cannot seem to understand that when the Presiding Bishop says "no outcasts," he means *NO* outcasts - from any part of the theological or political spectrum of our church. I'm weary of those who cannot accept the Gospel entrenched fact that the table of God is large enough to accommodate the Episcopal Synod, EURRR, the Prayer Book Society, Integrity, and everyone else! It's God's table anyway, not ours. God can make it as big as it needs to be. I'm weary of reading about the "homosexual agenda" and hearing those words hurled at us with the dagger-like force of a filthy epithet. The only agenda I'm aware of is simply that of nudging the church into living the inclusivity of the Gospel and our baptismal vows with regard to its lesbian and gay members. That "nudging" is not unlike what was required for the church to include people of color, ethnic minorities, and women, such as it does (or still tries not to do). I'm tired of bishops who accuse Integrity of being terroristic in its actions and attitude, while knowing nothing about us and refusing to learn, refusing to see us as people striving to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm equally tired of bishops who ride fences, fearful of taking a stand because they might offend someone with the inclusive truth of the Gospel. The real issue is not "offending" anyone, it is discomfort with being forced to deal with the fact that human beings - bishops, priests, and deacons included - are sexual creatures. I'm tired of clergy-folk who will not exercise the prophetic ministry to which they pledged prayerful allegiance at their ordinations. And I guess I'm tired of all of us who conveniently forget the baptismal vows we took and continually renew, the vows to respect the dignity of every human being, to love our neighbors as ourselves, even when we don't like them very much. The weight of my weariness and frustration was lifted by a sermon preached by the Associate Rector of my parish on the Fourth Sunday in Lent. Martha Sterne preached on the Gospel lesson, John 9:1-38, where Jesus restored the sight of a blind man and got into all sorts of hot water doing so. That sermon is the bulk of my column and it follows. I am of the humble opinion that it carries in it a message for every single member of this church of ours: *Grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus Christ.* I have been struggling the last couple of weeks with a new pair of eye glasses, my first pair of bifocals. Before, whenever I had my glasses on the only thing I could see was what I was reading. Standing up here, I didn't know what you all were doing. You could have been reading the funnies or playing cards or you all could have slipped out the back and gone to the Varsity for all I would have known. But NOW. These bifocal things are not the end all and be all of seeing. I can see up close - my fingers and my words down here and what time it is. And I can see you far off. Not the details of course. Not the color of your eyes or the little freckles you got in the sun last summer. All I can see really, even with these bifocals, is enough of you to guess at who you are. All I can see really is my image, my guess of you. And then there is a sort of middle ground where I can't see much at all. A little out beyond me and my reach, but not far enough away - right in the middle -I've got a blind spot. And that's where I need one of you to say "watch out. You're fixing to trip!" Or I need one of you to say "Come quick. Come closer. It's beautiful over here. You'll love it over here. Come quick. Come and see." So by myself, even with these things, I can't see it all. I can't see all of you or all of me either for that matter. And God knows I've got some blind spots. There is a man, blind from birth. And Jesus comes. And in the endless power and wisdom and light of his humility, Jesus spits in the dirt, the humus, and makes mud. And heals the man. And gives the man sight. And what's so weird is nobody likes it. Not really. Nobody rejoices. The neighbors say, "What's going on here? This looks strange to us." And they take him to the church. And the preachers say, "We don't like the looks of this. This looks suspicious. Did it on a holy day, did he? How dare that guy spit and make mud or whatever it was he did to you on a holy day? And how dare you go and get healed? How dare you break the rules? Well, we'll see about that." And then the man's parents say, "This looks like we could get into trouble. You're on your own, boy." Nobody likes it. This new sight among them. And so they kick him out. And Jesus walks out after him. And that's been happening with regularity ever since. It happens most every time somebody sees new or sees different. We drive them out. Away from us and away from God we suppose, if we forget the end of this story. Because the end of this story says one more time for the umpteenth time in the scriptures of the church that Jesus walks out the door of the church right behind the driven out. Turns out that our God doesn't take to driving people out. And it turns out the way we see God isn't the only way to see God at all. Every time we think we see the only reality there is to see, what we will see eventually is the back of Jesus' head walking out the door. To be with people who don't think they can see it all. To be with people who know that everybody doesn't see the same. I believe Jesus comes to places - to communities of faith and homes and schools and workplaces - where blind spots are acknowledged. I believe the light of God comes to the community of people who say to each other, "Look what I see from over here. Yeah, but look what I see from over here. And over there and over there. Everybody telling each other what they see and don't see, trying to figure out what's going on and who and how and what God is calling us to. Everybody's sight counting. Nobody insisting we all see the same. Because the people know that the only One who sees it clear and sees it whole is the Holy One who gathers us together - all us nearsighted, farsighted, middlesighted, crosseyed, blindspotted people - gathers all of us together to care for each other and for the world. To keep each other from tripping. To help each other find what's beautiful and truthful and lifegiving. Now I'm pretty good at picking up on somebody thinking they .UL ON see it all and see it clear. I am sure that is what is happening with that crazed man in the standoff in Waco. And the murder of the doctor in Florida by of all things a pro-life advocate. And even the fractures in our own national church by those who claim to see rather exclusively the will of God. I believe violence and schism are always evil, always evidence that the powers of darkness are at work. And I get troubled and enraged by self-righteous people whose values and theology I deeply reject. But unfortunately for me and any of you who are right now thinking about how closeminded or wrongheaded or pharisaical somebody else is, unfortunately for us, God isn't interested in us repenting anybody else's sins. When I repent somebody else's sins, then it always, always flips-turns upside down and inside out. And my own rage and violence and self- righteousness fill me and block the light of God. And once again the darkness comes to the ones, even me, even you, who think we can see it clear and that it is only the others who are blind. Now that does not mean that in living out our faith with repentance and humility that God calls us to sit silently by when people do evil. The churches in Germany who sat in silence during the holocaust were undeniably part of the dark and the evil. But interestingly, the churches who spoke out against Hitler and actively worked for the overthrow of the Nazis, those churches identified themselves as the "confessing churches." Because they understood and confessed and repented their own complicity in the evils of the day. They confessed before and all the while they moved against the Third Reich. What I cannot see without help from somebody who sees different from me is how I am part of the dark. What I cannot see without somebody who sees different is where I am blind. I have no *in*sight without you. I will always assume that it is the other people who are blind and in the dark, causing the violence and the schism. And I will always assume that things are just the way I see them unless you are willing to tell me you see something different. If you are not there or not willing, I will be blind indeed. In the community of faith we have got to have those who see differently if we are to see at all. We need restless eyes eager to let go and move on and change the scenery. We need careful eyes watching, wanting to hold on and honor that which has been handed to us. We need the eyes of octogenarians and children, the singles and the married, the bean-counters and the dreamers, the lonely, isolated and the over- connected, over-committed. And we need the eyes of the artists and the business people and the straights with 2.2 children and the gays with families formed out of the material at hand. And we need the movers and shakers. And we need those who just simply shake in the night. We need eyes who see different from each other. Because all of us - every single one of us - all of us have too many blind spots to make it through the days, much less the nights, alone. And, too, all of us can see a piece of the truth. A piece of the vision. All of us have eyes that see what nobody else can see. The man says all I know is this. Once I was blind. Now I see. And they drive him out. Because he sees different. Maybe he was conservative and they are liberals. Maybe he's left brain and they are right. Who knows. He just sees different and tells them what he sees. And they drive him away. And Jesus walks out the door behind him. Love God and love our neighbor. That's all we must agree on. Jesus says everything else hangs on that. However you see. And however I see. And however we work at seeing more clearly together. "By the grace of God, with all of our eyes, we will surely see the kingdom. Amen." Martha P. Sterne, March 21, 1993 As long as *anyone*, including us as gay and lesbian persons, is made an outcast and driven from the church, I am certain that the one who joins us in our exile, the one who follows us out the door, will be none other than Jesus Christ himself. And the path we tread will be wet with his tears. May those tears provide us all with the mud needed to restore sight to the blind. And may the restoration of sight let us all see the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen - again. ******************** *CHALLWOOD STUDIO* Victor Challenor Paul Woodrum Custom designed and made ... EUCHARISTIC VESTMENTS PREACHING GOWNS - STOLES ALBS - SURPLICES - TIPPETS 100 Lexington Ave., Suite 1-L, Brooklyn, NY 11238 Phone: 718-398-2877 ANGLICAN CHOIR HABIT *Challwood Surplice*: Neat pleats from yoke and A-cut give deep folds and 26' circumference at hem. 30" deep square cut sleeves. Made to measure in cotton/poly broadcloth. $185. *Cape Style Hood*: Wool and silk. $150. *Tippet*: 15" wide scarf style in wool or silk. $85. ******************** *SHOULD WE SUPPORT THE ESA?* THE EPISCOPAL SYNOD'S PROPOSED GENERAL CONVENTION RESOLUTION by Kim Byham, based on an Episcopal News Service Release At its governing board's annual meeting, the Episcopal Synod of America (ESA) proposed a to introduce a resolution on ordination at General Convention which it hopes will be defeated. Meeting April 29-May 1 in a suburb of Philadelphia, the ESA said its members may leave the church if the resolution it's presenting is passed by next year's convention. In an effort to force the Episcopal Church to take a clear stand on the question of ordination of women and perhaps of lesbians and gay men as well, the ESA bishops will present to the 1994 General Convention in Indianapolis a resolution that "no person shall be ordained to any of the three orders -- bishop, priest or deacon -- unless that person accepts as valid the ministry of all persons ordained in this church." If the resolution passes, the ESA said that it will be regarded as a signal that the church "wishes to exclude those who hold to the 2,000- year tradition of ordaining only male candidates." If the General Convention defeats the resolution, "we understand that all persecution of traditionalists will cease," the ESA said. If the General Convention refuses to consider the resolution, probably the most likely action for a resolution not supported by its own sponsors, "the ESA could only understand such actions as a clear move to exclude its members" from the Episcopal Church and it would take appropriate action.