Complacency

Moving to the Diocese of Chicago has obviously made me complacent about the state of affairs in the Episcopal Church.

You see, for eight years I lived in the Diocese of Tennessee, a bastion of conservative parishioners led by a conservative bishop who recruited syncophant conservative priests to toe the party line. Gay clergy? Forget it. Gay parishioners were barely tolerated, and in at least one parish were actually asked to leave. I attended one diocesan convention as an alternate delegate and left in disgust as the convention voted down a resolution acknowledging and affirming the national church's position that gay men and lesbians were to be included in all aspects of lay ministry within the church.

Then I moved to Chicago. I found a church that not only embraced gay people in lay ministry, but also in ordained ministry. A few months after moving here, I met a man whose own bishop had abandoned him in the midst of his path towards ordination because it was no longer prudent for a bishop in this man's diocese to sponsor an openly gay man aspiring to the diaconate. The bishop of Chicago stepped in and sponsored this man. I have since learned that this diocese has been a haven for gay men and lesbians who are called to be ordained but face hostility in their home dioceses because of their orientation.

In my joy at having found a place within the church where my sexuality was so less important that my spirituality, I allowed myself to blindsided by yesterday's passage at General Convention of an incredibly homophobic resolution that actually makes me a second-class citizen in the Episcopal Church.

Resolution B033, adopted by both the House of Bishops and House of Deputies, reads as follows:

Resolved, the House of Deputies concurring, that the 75th General Convention receive and embrace The Windsor Report's invitation to engage in a process of healing and reconcilation; and be it further

Resolved, that this Convention therefore call upon Standing Committees and bishops with jurisdiction to exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate to the episcopate whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion.

The dignity and episcopal gifts of gay men, lesbians and bisexuals -- and presumably transgender persons -- have been cast aside in the name of maintaining unity with the global Anglican Communion. As if that weren't bad enough, this lousy resolution was even endorsed by the Rt. Rev'd. Geralyn Wolf of Rhode Island, a woman whom I truly admire. The only moment of beauty and grace that I found in this whole debacle was an impassioned plea from the Rev'd. Ruth Meyers broadcast on NPR this morning. The Rev'd. Meyers stated, tearfully, that she could not sacrifice her gay and lesbian colleagues on the altar of Anglican unity. As I listened to her voice breaking, I began to cry. Reading more about the resolution today I just got more and more depressed.

But something wonderful happened tonight. I had dinner with several friends from church. We talked a bit about General Convention, and the absurdity of some of the arguments made against electing a woman as presiding bishop. (Our personal favorite? That it would strain our ecumenical ties with the Vatican. Because we were on such solid ground before the election of the Rt. Rev'd. Jefferts Schorri.) Then on the way to my car, I ran into a couple from church who were returning home from a shopping trip. We chatted about choir, and moving, and renovating a new home.

As Ken and Sara walked towards their apartment from the sidewalk, and I continued down the street to my car, I realized that this is the church. These people with whom I worship every week, with whom I sing every Sunday, with whom I have dinner every few weeks -- they are the church I care about. The fact that I'm gay makes no more difference to them than being Southern or having brown eyes. It is because of them, and not because of Bishop Gerry Wolf or Bishop Bertram Herlong or the Rev'd Canon Kendall Harmon, that I am a member of the Episcopal Church. Even more important than this, through baptism I am a very member incorporate in the mystical body and blood of Jesus Christ. That cannot and will not ever change, no matter how many overwrought conservative pundits declare that the Episcopal Church is being dragged into the fiery gates of Hell by a stampede of homosexuals.

Unfortunately, I feel as though a response to this action by the General Convention is in order. I don't know what that response should be, but I will be prayerfully considering it over the next several days.