UMC pastor to keep his job

The Baltimore Sun reports that United Methodist pastor Drew Phoenix can keep his position as pastor of St. John's United Methodist Church.

The highest judicial body of the United Methodist Church announced Tuesday that a transgender man can remain pastor of a congregation in Charles Village.

The ruling by the Judicial Council affirms last spring's decision by Bishop John R. Schol to reappoint the Rev. Drew Phoenix -- formerly the Rev. Ann Gordon -- to St. John's United Methodist Church.

Schol's action had been appealed to the Judicial Council by several local clergy in the Baltimore-Washington Conference, who have raised questions about the proper role of transgender people within the church.

Phoenix, who learned of the decision early Tuesday morning, said he was elated.

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Two Words + Annotation

"....the need to regard the Bishop and the Diocese as the primary locus of ecclesial identity rather than the abstract reality of the 'national church'."

—Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams
In the following letter to Bishop Howe of the Diocese of Central Florida

14 October 2007

Dear John

I've just received your message, which weighs very heavily on my heart, as it must - though far more so - on yours. At this stage, I can say only two things. The first is that I have committed myself very clearly to awaiting the views of the Primates before making any statement purporting to settle the question of The Episcopal Church's status, and I can't easily short-circuit that procedure. The second is that your Rectors need to recognize that this process is currently in train and that a separatist decision from them at this point would be irresponsible and potentially confusing. However, without forestalling what the Primates might say, I would repeat what I've said several times before - that any Diocese compliant with Windsor remains clearly in communion with Canterbury and the mainstream of the Communion, whatever may be the longer-term result for others in The Episcopal Church. The organ of union with the wider Church is the Bishop and the Diocese rather than the Provincial structure as such. Those who are rushing into separatist solutions are, I think, weakening that basic conviction of Catholic theology and in a sense treating the provincial structure of The Episcopal Church as if it were the most important thing - which is why I continue to hope and pray for the strengthening of the bonds of mutual support among those Episcopal Church Bishops who want to be clearly loyal to Windsor. Action that fragments their Dioceses will not help the consolidation of that all-important critical mass of ordinary faithful Anglicans in The Episcopal Church for whose nurture I am so much concerned. Breaking this up in favour of taking refuge in foreign jurisdictions complicates and embitters the future for this vision.

Do feel free to pass on these observations to your priests. I should feel a great deal happier, I must say, if those who are most eloquent for a traditionalist view in the United States showed a fuller understanding of the need to regard the Bishop and the Diocese as the primary locus of ecclesial identity rather than the abstract reality of the 'national church'. I think that if more thought in these terms there might be more understanding of why priests in a diocese such as yours ought to maintain their loyalty to their sacramental communion with you as Bishop. But at the emotional level I can understand something of the frustration they doubtless experience, just as you must.

With continuing prayers and love,

+Rowan

Lesbian couple on Amazing Race

Kate & Pat
Married Ministers

Kate: Thousand Oaks, CA
49, Episcopal Priest

Pat: Thousand Oaks, CA
65, Ordained Deacon

Kate and Pat dated for seven years before tying the knot three years ago. These well traveled Episcopal clergy are ready for the adventure of lifetime–but don’t let the collars fool you–they can play dirty too.

Kate is an Episcopal priest and has one grown son. She claims that the biggest difference between herself and Pat is that she avoids conflict while Pat dives right in. Kate describes herself as passionate and sarcastic while Pat says she is persistent and dependable.

Pat is a vocational deacon in the Episcopal Church and her ministry in the community is to people with disabilities. She is also the mother of two sons and grandmother of three. Pat’s biggest pet peeve about Kate is that she constantly misjudges her time, an issue that could surely cause problems on the Race.

Both are out to prove that they are not afraid to compete with anyone and they are extremely confident that their years of experience will help them combat the physical prowess of the younger Teams.

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Gay Christians receive anti-homophobia award from police

Ekklesia reports

Gay Christians have been presented with an award for their work in combating homophobia.

The award was given to the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) following their support for a controversial advert which appeared in the Independent newspaper, challenging faith-based homophobia.

Introducing the award Kevin Boyle a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Gay Police Association (GPA) said that Richard Kirker, chief executive of the LGCM, had first come to his attention in June 2000 when he was involved in a police investigation into homophobic attacks against the Rev Follett, the Vicar of Knightsbridge.

At the time the investigation attracted huge media interest. Kevin stated that whilst many in the church had condemned the victim because of his sexual orientation, Richard Kirker had gone on record to urge the Bishop of London not to tolerate the homophobic witch-hunt. Richard Kirker had also supported the police investigation and had supported the Rev Follett throughout the protracted enquiry.

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Diocese of California Resolution

The Diocese of California passed the following resolution by an overwhelming majority today at its 158th. Convention:

Response to the House of Bishops’ Statement

Resolved, That the 158th Diocesan Convention considers the statement made by the House of Bishops at their September 2007 New Orleans meeting to be non-binding on the Episcopal Church unless adopted by General Convention; and

Resolved, That the 158th Diocesan Convention affirms the unanimous decision of the Standing Committee to refuse to discriminate against partnered gay and lesbian bishops-elect in the consent process as called for in General Convention 2006 resolution B033; and

Resolved, That the 158th Diocesan Convention deplores the lack of access to adequate pastoral care and liturgical rites for the lives of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in most dioceses of The Episcopal Church and the refusal of the majority of our bishops to make provision for it, and calls upon the House of Bishops to publish guidelines for such care; and

Resolved, That the 158th Diocesan Convention commends the House of Bishops for its call to increase implementation of the Communion-wide listening process as a process of real engagement, and calls upon the Presiding Bishop and her staff to develop such a process within the Episcopal Church, recognizing that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people continue to be marginalized in many parts of our Church; and

Resolved, That the 158th Diocesan Convention commends the House of Bishops for its call for the full participation of the Bishop of New Hampshire in the 2008 Lambeth Conference, and acknowledges the basic contradiction between support for Bishop Robinson and the implementation of B033; and

Resolved, That the 158th Diocesan Convention commends the House of Bishops for its support for the civil rights, safety, and dignity of gay and lesbian persons, and calls upon the General Convention to work to resolve speedily and justly the basic contradiction between such support in civil society and the absence of such support within the Church’s own pastoral and sacramental life.

Submitted by Sarah Lawton on behalf of the rector and vestry
of the Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist, San Francisco

Dumbledore is gay

J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, told fans at a Carnegie Hall appearance that Dumbledore is gay.

Potter readers on fan sites and elsewhere on the Internet have speculated on the sexuality of Dumbledore, noting that he has no close relationship with women and a mysterious, troubled past. And explicit scenes with Dumbledore already have appeared in fan fiction.

Rowling told the audience that while working on the planned sixth Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," she spotted a reference in the script to a girl who once was of interest to Dumbledore. A note was duly passed to director David Yates, revealing the truth about her character.

Rowling, finishing a brief "Open Book Tour" of the United States, her first tour here since 2000, also said that she regarded her Potter books as a "prolonged argument for tolerance" and urged her fans to "question authority."

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Marriage and Blessings Report Published by Dio California

The Episcopal Diocese of California's Commission on Marriage and Blessing has released a 48-page report that proposes three possible rites for blessing same-sex couples .... the PDF for the report can be found on the following link:

http://www.marriageandblessing.org/PDFS/CMB%20Report%208-16-07.pdf

A Proposal for the Anglican Communion: Getting a divorce AND staying at the table

By the Rev. Clark West

Recently, in response to a post on the website of Canon Kendall Harmon, canon theologian to the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, and a leading voice against the ordination of gays and lesbians and blessings of same-sex couples, I wrote the following words:

"...as Canon Kendall has rightly pointed out in his comments on Bishop Robinson’s recent open letter following the New Orleans meeting of the house of bishops, many, including Bishop Robinson, are beginning to question the legitimacy of such a distinction between public and private. I myself share Bishop Robinson’s rejection of that distinction, and agree with him that it is unsustainable theologically and ecclesiologically.

"To that extent, I would agree with both Gene and Kendall, who, as odd as it may sound, actually seem to agree that a forward movement for all of us will involve more boldness on the part of ECUSA bishops and dioceses in affirming openly public rites of blessing for gay, lesbian, and transgendered persons. That this will put us on a path of separation from the Anglican Communion (I’m tempted to call it a divorce, a word which as an Anglican, and not a Roman Catholic, I do not fear, but can see as having its own blessings and grace) is a consequence I think we need to accept.

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Love must prevail

Proposed covenant unworkable if it abandons justice for all
By Charles V. Willie, October 16, 2007

[Episcopal Life] The contentious relationship between the Episcopal Church based in the United States and the worldwide Anglican Communion is appropriately called a "civil war over homosexuality" by The New York Times. I, also, think it is an event of civil stress about love and justice. In 1966, Joseph Fletcher, an Episcopal priest on the faculty of the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, wrote a book titled Situation Ethics in which he declared that "love is the boss principle of life" and "justice is love distributed."

"God is love" is a fact of life some of us learned in Sunday school. We also learned that covenants, creeds, doctrines and traditions may pass away, but love endures. How, then, can a church with a responsibility of promoting love and justice adopt a policy of discrimination that prohibits homosexual people from being elected and consecrated as bishops? There is no evidence that such people cannot "love and be loved in return." If love is the boss principle of life, arbitrary and capricious acts of discrimination against all sorts and conditions of people, including male and female people, heterosexual and homosexual people, is unjust and should cease and desist.

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TransFaith on-line updated

This site has been updated:

TransFaith On-Line seeks to be inclusive of all spiritual traditions and orientation -- while placing a particular emphasis on support and education within the Christian tradition and Christian communities....

www.transfaithonline.org

Sui Generous: The PB Turns 1

A Look at the ‘Outcast’ Webcast

Yesterday’s webcast with +Katharine Jefferts Schori almost coincided with the first anniversary of her installation as the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church. Was she thinking, wow that was fast? Or, one down, eight more to go?

I came to the webcast with a fistful of questions designed to put serious rhetorical heat under +Katharine, but over the therapist’s hour I was disarmed by the generosity of her answers. Maybe she should be monitored by the Integrity member who, unable to get the webcast online, texted me to ask, “Is she doing her usual, sounding great but saying nothing?”

I texted back: “Yep, but lots less.” For instance, +Katharine talked about the delay in achieving “the full sacramental inclusion” of the lesbian and gay baptized. Sacramental. That was new. And she said it at least twice. Maybe she’s starting to get that what the church is doing, while mightily painful to LGBT folks, is something that pains the heart of Christ, as Integrity’s president Susan Russell has been reminding us for some time now.

It was also important to hear how central “our baptismal ministry” has become to the Presiding Bishop. In +Katharine’s mouth, the B word feels like a replacement for that worn out American differentiator, “polity.” Well, you heard it here at Integrity first. (Actually, you heard it first at your own baptisms, though living up to those vows has been a pillar of Integrity’s message for many a year now.)

But it’s not all sweetness and enlightenment at 815. I run through a few less comforting +Katharinisms in an annotated glossary below.

But first, let’s roll the tape one more time. See the face? Open, thrust up, sincere, in a word, welcoming. But suddenly it goes dark. Our moderator Jan Nunley is reading the very worrying stats from the new Barna Group study on the attitudes of young Americans toward Christianity. “Present-day Christianity is anti-homosexual: 91% of young non-Christians and 80% of young churchgoers say this phrase describes Christianity. They believe that Christians show excessive contempt and unloving attitudes towards gays and lesbians.” Where on earth did they get that idea?

Pastor Katharine is stumped. She says we “focus on what divides us,” so that’s what people see. But clearly she’s moved into a murkier place and the smooth interview gets bumpy—and interesting.

When +Katharine is asked to explain how she has been put in a sacrificial place personally by the struggles over gay folks, there’s no retreat into canned language. She confesses, “I suffer the crucifixion of not being able to include the fullness of the gifts of my gay & lesbian brothers and sisters, that they are not yet able to live those gifts out in all orders of ministry of this church and that their unions are in most places unable to be blessed in this church. We as a body lose the witness of that commitment.” She means it; you can see it in her face. Still, future hope and present pain are tucked into her answer with two little words, “…not yet…”

I was the only “press” on hand. After New Orleans it was downright lonely. The upside was I got to have a short one-on-one with the Presiding Bishop. Like I said, my gotcha questions were already on the cutting room floor. What I needed to hear were some predictions about the fate of B033.

Is it true that B033 expires with General Convention 2009? She answered, “We don’t actually know.” And if the PB don’t know, kids, who does? Then I asked about something that the bishops’ recent actions put into doubt for me, “Will B033 be repealed at General Convention 2009?” BIG smile: “I expect there will be many resolutions dealing with that.”

And with that (really big) smile +Katharine Jefferts Schori lit out for the next stop on her journey…just eight years to go.


WATCHWORDS TO WATCH FOR

“End of the spectrum.” This is one of the expressions used to paint us as the far end of some small fringe. Yet if that’s so, then who is this “wide” group, this “we,” +Katharine says have “no willingness to go backward,” who believe “our vocation is to keep moving forward”? The truth is that the people who truly want full inclusion—coupled with the folks who just want to get inclusion done and out of the way—represent the true mind of the church. It’s time for us to stop marginalizing the majority.

“Civil rights.” When I first read the House of Bishops statement there was something anachronistic about “civil rights.” Plus, why separate our full “civil” from our ecclesiastical dignity? Because there’s an underbelly. It is part of the gospel, preached in the highest places in the Anglican Communion, that calls for justice outside the church but not within it. Be on the lookout also for “legal.” It’s all code for NIMC: “not in my church.”

“Sexual ethics.” Another High Anglican phrase. “Changing our view of sexual ethics” seems to be the big stumbling block for otherwise liberal folk. But the implication is that we gays and lesbians lead inherently less ethical sexual lives than straights do. This is part of what, I think, Susan Russell (again!) means when she talks about the price we all pay for entrenched heterosexism. I don’t think anyone’s calling for a change in what constitutes ethical behavior, sexual or otherwise. LGBT folks are just asking that the church stop using it as a polite cover for implying that we are intrinsically unethical—unless that’s what they really think?

“Some have compared [the bishops’ reaffirmation of B033] with the compromise of Elizabeth I.” Ah, music to the anglophiliac ears of the Episcopal Church. Lest we forget, the Elizabethan compromise was crafted to stabilize a shaky elite and did nothing to stop the incineration of papists and puritans throughout the Virgin Queen’s reign. B033 is a ‘compromise’ designed to comfort a foreign elite and is doing nothing to move gay and lesbian people out of the sacrificial place in The Episcopal Church.

“I wish we could stop focusing on what divides us.” One wonders, wouldn’t the simplest way to do this be to stop authoring,“reaffirming” and enforcing divisions—like B033 for instance? Brothers and sisters, I’d warn you against letting anyone shame you into silence but I know that’s unnecessary.

I hope such glossaries outlive their usefulness soon. After all:

“WE understand that our vocation is to keep moving forward.”
—Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, October 16, 2007

A Conversation with Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori talks with the Episcopal Church via this live webcast from Trinity Wall Street.

Click here to watch the video archive.

AP: Study Seeks DNA Clues on Homosexuality

Oct 15, 8:56 PM EDT

By LINDSEY TANNER
AP Medical Writer


CHICAGO (AP) -- Julio and Mauricio Cabrera are gay brothers who are convinced their sexual orientation is as deeply rooted as their Mexican ancestry. They are among 1,000 pairs of gay brothers taking part in the largest study to date seeking genes that may influence whether people are gay.

The Cabreras hope the findings will help silence critics who say homosexuality is an immoral choice.

If fresh evidence is found suggesting genes are involved, perhaps homosexuality will be viewed as no different than other genetic traits like height and hair color, said Julio, a student at DePaul University in Chicago.

Adds his brother, "I think it would help a lot of folks understand us better."

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Philly Missioner: GLBT Episcopalians 'sold down the river'

By THE REV. DR. RICHARD P. SMIRAGLIA

....We feel we have been sold down the river for the sake of Anglican unity. The bishops pledge once again to "listen" to the stories of gay and lesbian Christians. But since this was called for in 1998, nobody has paid much attention. Who gets to listen? We the GLBT Episcopalians do. We are told constantly to be patient and not to expect much, while the conservative voices are heard everywhere.

GLBT people are disappointed. Being forced into the depths of the closet by our own church is unacceptable....

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BBC: Vatican bars prelate in gay row

The Vatican has confirmed local newspaper reports that a high-ranking Catholic priest has been suspended.

The man, who works in the department in charge of clergy around the world, appeared on Italian TV earlier this month admitting that he was gay.

The unnamed prelate or monsignor was suspended pending further investigations, said chief Vatican spokesman Father Frederico Lombari.

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