Diocese of Texas Opens the Door to Equality for All

This past weekend marked a monumental shift in the Diocese of Texas in terms of equality for ALL. It also opened the doors for unlimited opportunities to advance the mission of the Church. With a vote of 499 in favor and 144 against the reordering and restructuring of the Diocesan Canons, a 19 year battle for the soul of the diocese has drawn to a close.

While there have been many on both sides of this battle, two progressives who deserve to be singled out are Muffie Moroney and The Rev. Jim Stockton. Both Moroney and Rev. Stockton can be described as tenaciously loyal to the ideal of justice and to the church that they love and serve. In the end it was current Bishop C Andrew Doyle who forged a new unity - a unity that will allow the diocese to finally put divisions on marriage and LGBTQ rights behind us as we are given the opportunity to move into mission without bringing along nearly two decades of harmful political baggage. Ultimately, this vote was more about mission and less about marriage.

There are several key points that highlight the effect of this council action.

1. This restructuring and reordering of the canons, treats all marriages equally. No longer will married LGBTQ clergy be automatically disqualified from serving in this diocese.

2. Parishes will be able to call the priests of their own choosing. Hiring can now be based on a person's abilities, skill and job performance.

3. The responsibility for moral discipline as it pertains to the breaking of the marriage vows within the ranks of the clergy is returned to the office of the bishop.

Even more wide sweeping than these direct effects, this council action changes the political tone for councils yet to convene. No more will there be a need to strategize, plot, and plan how one side will win against the other. Months of gathering support on either side will cease. No more political posturing over the sexual mores of an entire diocese.

This action also signals to every LGBTQ Christian that they indeed have a home in the Episcopal Church. The opportunities to serve Christ are open to all without limitations.

The road forward may be rocky but Episcopalians throughout the Diocese can hold fast to the idea of being unified in mission as they seek to engage the communities in which they serve.


S Wayne Mathis
VP of Local Affairs Integrity USA
Co Convener Integrity Houston

NYT: A shifting litmus test at Roman Catholic seminaries

A seminary psychologist who screens applicants to the priesthood says:

"We have no gay men in our seminary at this time," said Dr. Robert Palumbo, a psychologist who has screened seminary candidates at the diocese’s Cathedral Seminary Residence in Douglaston, Queens, for 10 years. "I’m pretty sure of it." Whether that reflects rigorous vetting or the reluctance of gay men to apply, he could not say. "I’m just reporting what is," he said.

...

“A criterion like this may not ensure that you are getting the best candidates,” said Mark D. Jordan, the R. R. Niebuhr professor at Harvard Divinity School, who has studied homosexuality in the Catholic priesthood. “Though it might get you people who lie or who are so confused they do not really know who they are.”

“And not the least irony here,” he added, “is that these new regulations are being enforced in many cases by seminary directors who are themselves gay.”

NYT, 5/20/2010, Prospective Catholic Priests Face Sexuality Hurdles

Lesbian to Lead Local Church

Windy City Times
2007-08-01

The wardens and vestry of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, 621 W. Belmont, have announced that the Rev. Sarah K. Fisher, a partnered lesbian, will serve as priest-in-charge.

Fisher, 36, was born in Georgia and is a cradle Episcopalian. She attended Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga., where she graduated in 1993 with a liberal arts degree. She attended the General Theological Seminary in New York City from 2002 to 2005. In 2005, Fisher came to the Diocese of Chicago to serve for two years as assistant rector and lilly curate at St. Paul and the Redeemer Episcopal Church, 4945 S. Dorchester.

Fisher’s first service (Sung Eucharist ) will be held Aug. 12 at 10 a.m. A reception will follow in the Guild Room of the Parish House.

Source: http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=15653

Anglicans 'obsessed' by gay issue

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called on Africa's Anglican church to overcome its "obsession" with the issue of gay priests and same-sex marriages.

By Mike Lanchin
BBC News religious affairs correspondent
May 26, 2007

He said they should spend time on more pressing issues in the region.

Speaking to the BBC World Service, the South African bishop said Zimbabwe, HIV/Aids and the crisis in Darfur were not getting sufficient attention.

Zimbabwe's Anglican church also lacked courage to stand up to President Robert Mugabe's regime, he said.

This was the 76-year-old Nobel peace laureate touching raw nerves for the Anglican church in Africa on very sensitive subjects.

In his usual forthright manner, Archbishop Tutu told the BBC that the Anglican communion was spending too much of its time and energy on debating differences over gay priests and same sex marriages - a subject, he said, that had now become "an extraordinary obsession".

He said: "We've, it seems to me, been fiddling whilst as it were our Rome was burning. At a time when our continent has been groaning under the burden of HIV/Aids, of corruption.

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