Thursday, July 2, 2009

Weekly Witness For 2 July 2009



We're packing our bags for Anaheim!

Integrity Brings General Convention To You!

This year you will be able to catch the news and buzz of General Convention as quickly as it's happening, wherever you are on Twitter, Facebook, IntegriTV or this blog.
All of these are available through our web portal at www.integrityusa.org/gc2009--so this is a good time to get that bookmarked if you haven’t already.

If you want to get there directly...
But rather than typing all that, you can just go to www.integrityusa.org/gc2009 and follow the links!

Integrity's communications team is planning to post 3 articles per day to this blog from
Anaheim. Stay tuned!

Integrity Eucharist Start Time Changed

To accommodate the shifting sands of the General Convention calendar
and thus make sure that as many people as possible can attend the Integrity Eucharist on July 10th at the Anaheim Hilton, we've changed the start time from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The service will be preceded [beginning at 6pm] and followed by a reception hosted by the All Saints, Beverly Hills, Gay & Lesbian Fellowship on the Promenade outside the Pacific Ballroom.

This General Convention, the Integrity Eucharist will bring together two historic pioneers of inclusion: Bishop Barbara Harris (first woman bishop
in the Anglican Communion) will preach and Bishop Gene Robinson (first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion) will celebrate at the service.

The service is open to all: bishops, deputies, and visitors to the Episcopal Church's General Convention; as well as to ecumenical and interfaith guests. Music will be provided by the fabulous choirs of All Saints Church, Pasadena, under the direction of the extraordinary James Walker.

Join us for an extra
ordinary opportunity to experience the ministry of two of the Episcopal Church's historic justice leaders in a service designed to embody the full inclusion of all the baptized in all the sacraments.

After Anaheim...Join Us In St. Louis!
Registration is now open for After Anaheim--a leadership conference for national, provincial, and local leaders of Integrity--that will be held September 9-12, 2009, in St. Louis. Although the conference is primarily intended for leaders, all Integrity members who want to be more effective inclusion activists are welcome to attend.

The core of the conference will be the "Faith-Based Community Organizing" workshop facilitated by staff from the Institute for Welcoming Resources. In addition, Integrity's new Stakeholders' Council will hold its first-ever annual meeting.

After Anaheim is a crucial first step in planning the next 3 years of Integrity's ministry. We hope that as many of you as possible will be able to attend.

Please visit http://sites.google.com/site/afteranaheim/ for more information about the conference and to register. Seating is limited, so sign-up now!

ENDA Bulletin Insert

This is a historic moment in the LGBT community. An inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Barney Frank, Tammy Baldwin, and Jared Polis.

United ENDA, a coalition of over 400 groups [including Integrity USA] working to assure the enactment of workplace protection bill that would include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons, has initiated a variety of actions aimed at generating support for this new legislation.

One project has been to develop a church bulletin insert and the group is hoping that as many religious settings as possible will make it available to their memberships.

Click here to download the bulletin insert. Please ask your rector to distribute it to your congregation in the next few weeks.

The influence of supportive churches and religious settings will be an important element in the success of this legislation.

The Role Of Religion In 2 LGBT Ballot Initiatives

Last month, two groundbreaking reports were released analyzing religious and secular advocacy of marriage-equality ballot initiatives in Michigan and California.

Representing the Arcus Foundation, funder of the California report, Tom Kam, director, Religion and Values Program, comments, "Collectively, these reports recognize the power of conservative religious voices to utilize their moral authority to influence public debate on LGBT equality. It is time to respond to these voices with similar authority, fully incorporating within the leadership of the LGBT movement and the public debate, the LGBT and allied religious leaders whose lives and voices speak the truth about our civil and moral equality." The goal of the Arcus Foundation's Religion and Values program is to achieve LGBT moral equality. Read a summary of both report findings here.

Read the Center for American Progress report: The Faithful Divide Over Wedding Vows: A Profile of Michigan's 2004 Battle Over Marriage Equality

Read the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force's National Religious Leadership Roundtable report: A Time to Build-Up: Analysis of the No on Proposition 8 Campaign and Its Implications for Future Pro-LGBTQQIA Religious Organizing

Tom Fehr Ordained

Thomas James Fehr of Cincinnati, Ohio, was ordained as a priest of the Episcopal Church on June 20 by the Rt. Rev. Thomas E. Breidenthal, bishop of the Diocese of Southern Ohio.

Fr. Fehr earned a master’s of divinity degree from Bexley Hall Episcopal Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. He will now begin a two-year residency program, serving as Assistant to the Rector at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Granville, OH.

Fr. Fehr has been involved with Integrity Greater Cincinnati and has served as co-lead of the Integrity Booth at General Convention in 2003 and 2006. He will be serving in this capacity for the 2009 General Convention as well.

Congratulations, Tom!

Unblogged News

Chicago Consultation
Episcopal News Service
House of Deputies may convene unusual sessions on Resolution B033
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_111601_ENG_HTM.htm

The Jersey Journal
Pride in Hoboken
http://www.nj.com/hobokennow/index.ssf/2009/06/pride_in_hoboken.html

Seattle Post Intelligencer
Gay Episcopalians to March
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/archives/172021.asp

CNN
Same-sex weddings, heartland style
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/06/22/same.sex.weddings/index.html

Anchorage Daily News
Anti-discrimination debate raises passions
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/anchorage/city_election/assembly/story/833422.html
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