Unmoved

I'm sitting here listening to Presiding Bishop the Most Rev'd. Frank Griswold being interviewed by Terry Gross on her program Fresh Air. I have probably never heard the Presiding Bishop speak for so long a time. I realize suddenly that he sounds a lot like The Rev'd. Fred (Mr.) Rogers, and that's both comforting and creepy.

While listening to Bishop Griswold's interview, I've also been reading the latest letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury. I must say, I first became aware of this latest missive while reading an article in the New York Times yesterday about the desire of some dioceses in the Episcopal Church to be placed into a separate province that will be armored with gay bishop, woman deacon/priest/bishop deflective plating.

(Oh my God, she's asking him about his freakin' vestments. Terry, is this the best your researchers and interns could come up with??)

Having read Cantuar's letter I'm completely unconvinced that there is anything to be gained by fighting the global church regarding the issue of ordaining gay and lesbian persons to the episcopate. The letter is perhaps the most equivocating, placating, ingratiating thing I've read in the aftermath of GC 2003 and GC 2006. Basically the Most Rev'd. Williams reminds everyone that gay and lesbian people are to be protected from bigotry and given the same legal rights as others -- something some of his brother bishops and primates have actively campaigned against. He then goes on to say that only a small minority of Christians believe that gay and lesbian persons' relationships should be honored or celebrated, implying therefore that the majority will and not justice should rule the day on matters of this sort. He then says that we aren't the Roman Catholic Church (and thank God someone told us!), only to follow this point with an expression of eagerness to explore the model of Catholic hierarchy and a hopefulness that we might learn something from this ecclesiastical/political model.

I guess I'm just weak, but I'm just not willing to fight this fight any more. It's only been a week since the passage of B033 and, frankly, I'm exhausted. It takes a lot of energy constantly to defend one's validity as a member of the body of Christ. No matter how many calls are made to recognize the value of gay and lesbian persons within the church and their role in the life of ministry, so long as those pleas are followed by a call for their exclusion from ordained ministry or full sacramental blessing, these exhortations will ring hollow. Loving the sinner but detesting the sin is a sanctimonious affront perpetrated by a majority class that would rather forget their own sins and concentrate on the supposed sins of another group, especially a sin they feel they themselves are incapable of committing.

So, to all the churches of the Anglican Communion for whom my "manner of life presents a challenge," I say God bless you, and let's move on. My world won't end if my bishop isn't invited to Lambeth two years from now, and Christ will be no less present in our church, or my heart, if the invitations from Cantuar don't arrive.

To all the dioceses and churches in the Episcopal Church who, because of a gay bishop who exercises no authority over you or a presiding bishop-elect whose Wolffian ducts degenerated during embryonic development or both, feel as though you must leave the bounds of the Episcopal Church and become constituent members of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, then I say go with God. If you are tired of fighting, then I can say with abiding empathy I wish you joy and peace. And love.

Because, after all, isn't it often said that if you love something, or someone, you have to let them go?