Gay Priest Forced to Quit D.C. Church  Episcopal Congregation Split.
The Washington Post, May 29, 1993, FINAL Edition
By: Laurie Goodstein, Washington Post Staff Writer
Section: METRO, p. f01

The  Rev.  Jim  Steen,  under  pressure  to  leave his job as rector of St.
Patrick's  Episcopal  Church since he revealed his homosexuality nearly two
years  ago,  was forced to resign this week and will preach his last sermon
there tomorrow.

The debate over whether to ordain and accept openly gay clerics has created
painful  rifts  in  the  Episcopal  Church  nationally.  In the case of St.
Patrick's,  in  the  Foxhall neighborhood of Northwest Washington, the rift
may split the congregation.

   Church  officials  who  negotiated Steen's departure say he was asked to
leave, but not only because he is a homosexual.

   Steen's  supporters at St. Patrick's are so upset that they are planning
to  form  a  new congregation that would meet in one of the members' homes,
said  the  Rev.  Jerry  Anderson,  a diocesan priest and a former associate
priest  at  St.  Patrick's. Church officials and Steen's supporters said it
would  be  difficult  to estimate how many of the church's 900 parishioners
may leave.

   The issue of ordaining gay clerics is not new to St. Patrick's. In 1979,
it  was one of the first congregations in the diocese to hire an openly gay
priest when Anderson was given the job of associate rector.

   Nationally,  the  Episcopal  Church  does not favor ordaining practicing
homosexuals,  but bishops have done so for years because the church's canon
law  is  ambiguous. The Episcopal Church has ordained more homosexuals than
any  other mainstream denomination, according to Integrity, an Episcopalian
gay  rights  group, which estimates that more than 50 gay priests have been
ordained since 1977.

   When  Steen began serving St. Patrick's in 1979, he was a married priest
with  children. After a divorce, he became more aware of his homosexuality,
but  said  he  hid  it  from  the congregation. When he and his gay partner
wanted  to  buy  a  house  together, several St. Patrick's church officials
advised  him to be honest with his parishioners. So in the fall of 1991, he
told them the truth.

   Within  a  few  months, several current and former parish officers began
encouraging  him to leave. The pressure to resign abated, however, when the
parish   elected  a  new  vestry,  the  church's  governing  body,  largely
supportive of Steen.

   But  on March 17, the church again elected a vestry, a majority of whose
members  were  opposed to Steen. On Monday, Steen and the vestry reached an
agreement  under  which  he  would resign with a financial settlement, said
church Warden Tucker Battle, the chief lay officer of St. Patrick's.

   Battle said Steen was asked to leave, but not only because he is gay. He
declined to characterize the nature of the dispute with Steen. "It has just
been  a  long,  difficult  time,  and I think in many ways people have lost
sight of why all this is going on," he said.

   Battle  pointed  out  that the church currently has many gay members and
soon will be ordaining an openly gay church member.

   But  Steen's  supporters,  who did not want to be identified, argue that
the  church  has developed an environment that is unfriendly to homosexuals
and said that many gay members are among those who are so unhappy they will
leave the church.

   Steen  declined  to  be  interviewed  for  this  article.  Most  of  his
supporters contacted said they were too distraught or angry to talk.

   When  Steen  goes,  St.  Patrick's  also  will lose two assistant clergy
members,  Battle  said. One of those positions had to be eliminated because
the donor cut off funding "in part because of this whole issue," he said.

   It  will be some time before the church seeks a new rector, Battle said.
"In  order  to  know  who  to  hire,  we  need  to know who we are." In the
meantime, he said, St. Patrick's will rely on visiting clerics.Staff writer
Laura Sessions Stepp contributed to this report.