Today is the day. On your legislative calendar for this, the fifth day of the 78th General Convention, are the resolutions from Committee 20 (the Special Legislative Committee on Marriage) authorizing canonical changes and liturgical resources to make marriage equally available to all couples desiring marriage in the Episcopal Church.
These resolutions have been carefully and prayerfully crafted to provide as wide a tent as possible for the broad diversity of perspectives that is the hallmark of our heritage as Anglicans whilst making what the Supreme Court ruled last week as a “fundamental right” for all Americans equally available for all Episcopalians.
The journey to this day has been long and the challenges have been great. We have worked, prayed, argued, debated and compromised to this moment. And it is the moment to “let our yes be yes.” (Matthew 5:37) It is time to let our yes be yes – and not only to the LGBT members of this church who have been waiting since 1976 for the promise of “full and equal claim” to become a reality and not just a resolution.
It is time to let our yes be yes for the whole church. It is time to put behind us our forty years of wrangling in the wilderness over the full inclusion of all the baptized in all the sacraments. And it is time to journey together into God’s future – a diverse people united in our commitment to the Jesus Movement our Presiding Bishop-elect has called us to claim and to proclaim a world hungry for love, justice and compassion.
Today is the day. Let your yes be yes.
Susan Russell is an Integrity past-president, the convener of Claiming the Blessing and on staff at All Saints Church in Pasadena CA.
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Let the church say "Yes!" Amen!
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