Colorado Integrity Chapters Meet With Bishop Robert O'Neill

A Report 
by
Ron Ramey

The four Integrity chapters in Colorado (Colorado Springs, Denver Metro, Fort Collins and Four Corners) co-hosted, with other progressive organizations, a Town Hall Meeting with Bishop Robert O’Neill at St John’s Cathedral, Denver on February 11th.   The other hosts were:

• The Richard Hooker Forum;
• Jubilee Ministries and its CO Episcopal Public Policy Network; and
• The Episcopal Peace Fellowship.

There were close to sixty-five attendees (plus the Holy Spirit) -- a great turnout, considering the poor weather.  The meeting had to be rescheduled from the original Feb. 4 date because of a major snow storm that affected most of Colorado.


Bishop O'Neill was so welcoming and gracious.  He was delighted to be with us.


As he has before, the Bishop thanked our gay & lesbian members for their patience, and he noted that these members are a gift and a blessing to all of us. He also spoke about mere "toleration" as an impoverishment -- a polite indifference, a passive co-existence -- vs. "engagement." There will always be the "Other" among us, and we are challenged to embrace the Other as a divine gift -- so that the Other might transform us.

Bishop O'Neill speaks at the Town Hall Meeting

He explained the process he had gone through with his announcement last May at a clergy conference which allowed a parish to go through a discernment process if they wanted to allow same-gender blessings.  This process required a parish to hold parish meetings and to consider all points of view.  The parish had to prepare a summary of the points of view expressed for his review and approval in order to offer same-gender blessings.  He noted that he did not receive any negative feedback from the clergy regarding the process.


Note:  Same-gender marriage is illegal in Colorado by Constitutional amendment.


He also discussed the Civil Unions bill that was before the Colorado State legislature in March 2011.   He noted that he wrote a personal letter of support to several key (opposing) legislators!  As the bill has been re-introduced this year as Senate Bill 2 (SB-2), he is again willing to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, where it failed last year by one vote, if his schedule allows.  As his schedule didn't allow him to testify last year, The Rev Becky Jones and Bill Oliver, the Integrity Diocesan Organizer for Colorado each testified on his behalf.


Jeremy Shaver, Executive Director of The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado, spoke briefly about the Faithful Voices for Strong Families Coalition in support of the pending Civil Unions Bill, SB-2.  They're hoping to enlist more clergy as Faithful Voices to counter the opposition to this bill by so many other Christian clergy.  Bishop O'Neill is a prominent member of the Faithful Voice coalition!

Status Reports

There were also wonderful status reports regarding same gender blessings from several churches:

• St. Thomas, Denver:
  - Their rector, The Rev Ruth Woodliff-Stanley and the congregation pioneered work two years ago to create a blessing liturgy with the Bishop that led into the current discernment process announced last May;
• St. Andrew's in Denver has already had two same-gender blessings;
• St. Laurence in Conifer is in the discernment process;
• St. Paul's in Fort Collins:
  - Has completed the discernment process.
  - The third same-gender blessing in Colorado will occur on Feb. 18.  More about this below.
• St. Barnabas in Denver:
  - Their assistant rector, The Rev Deb Angell gave an update on same-gender blessings at St. Barnabas.
  - The Rev Al Halverstadt, a retired priest and former rector of St. Barnabas, gave a stirring story about their trail-blazing work on same-gender blessings twenty years ago.
  - St.  Barnabas is likely to conduct a blessing this summer.
• St Brigit in Frederick:
  - The Rev. Felicia Smith-Graybeal stated their parish is in the discernment process and will probably have a same-gender blessing this summer.
• St. Martin in the Fields in Aurora is in the discernment process, and
• St John's Cathedral in Denver:
  - The Rev Sally Brown reported that the Cathedral is in the discernment process.

Jack Finlaw and Larry Hitt, both General Convention deputies, were engaging and masterful in their great tag-teaming presentation on SCLM's (Standing Commission on Liturgy & Music) work on developing a same-gender blessings liturgy.  The Commission's (180-page) report for GC should be released in about a month.  It looks very promising that GC will approve their work as a blessing liturgy to be used on a trial basis until GC in 2015.

Jim Steinborn (left) and Bill Rogers (right) at their blessing

On Feb. 18 at St. Paul’s in Fort Collins, the third same-gender blessing in the Diocese was held between two long time Integrity members, Bill Rogers and Jim Steinborn, who is also the convener of the Ft. Collins chapter.  Bill and Jim have been together nearly 21 years.  Jim said, “It is about time we were made honest men.”  Several Integrity members traveled to St. Paul’s, which was packed with well-wishers, for a very moving service using the beautiful liturgy that was developed by The Bishop, The Rev. Ruth Woodliff-Stanley, and others.


This was the fourth Town Hall Meeting that Bishop O’Neill has held with the GLBT community since 2003 when he was elected Bishop.  It was well received by all.  After the meeting, there was a good deal of interest in the Interfaith Alliance in Colorado.  Many wanted to know what they could do to help with the upcoming hearings on Senate Bill 2 to allow Civil Unions.

Ron Ramey was confirmed in the Episcopal Church in 1979. He first joined Integrity Washington DC chapter in the early 1990s. When the DC chapter closed in 1999, he joined  the Virginia chapter and was co-convener in 2000. He returned to Colorado in October 2000 and served as Network Coordinator from 2003-2010,  served as the Denver Metro Chapter convener from 2004-2010 and volunteere on the Integrity General Convention staff in 2006. He is a member of Holy Comforter, Broomfield, CO and serves as a chalice bearer.

Resources

• The Standing Commission on Liturgy & Music (SCLM) - Responding to the 2009 Gen Convention Resolution C056: Liturgies for Blessings
• SCLM Documents
• Educational Material for Deputies
• SCLM Blog
• Beginning the Conversation
• Colorado Diocese Same-Gender Blessing Liturgy
• Colorado Integrity
• The Richard Hooker Forum
• Colorado Episcopal Peace Fellowship
• Colorado Jubilee Ministries
• CO Episcopal Public Policy Network
• The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado

Vagina Dialogues and White Gay Men: A Lenten Discipline

This week the Rev. Jay Emerson Johnson published "Vagina Dialogues and White Gay Men: A Lenten Discipline on HuffPost. In this blog he challenges his gay male comrades: "As a white gay man, I am dismayed by the near-deafening silence from my gay  brothers concerning the twin poisons of sexism and racism in our society. This is deeply troubling..."

Do you agree with Jay? Please share your opinion with a comment below. We are anxious to hear your thoughts.

Here is the full text of Jay's letter: 

Dear gay male comrades:

Have you talked with each other lately about how important vaginas are? Or about the women who need to guard those precious organs at nearly every turn from the hands of prying male politicians? If you're gay and white, have you talked with each other lately about the poison of white supremacy infecting our relationships and sabotaging social progress?

As a white gay man, I am dismayed by the near-deafening silence from my gay brothers concerning the twin poisons of sexism and racism in our society. This is deeply troubling, especially since homophobia is the result, not the cause, of a much deeper confluence of male privilege and white supremacy in our history in our world today. If we fail to link male privilege with white supremacy, we do so at our own grave peril.

It is no mere coincidence that the latest battle in the war on women is transpiring with an African American in the White House. It is also no more coincidence that so much white panic over immigration transpires in the same state where women's access to birth control is at serious risk. (Read about the latest legislation proposed in Arizona and think about it the next time you buy condoms.)

I also want to make a confession. (This is Lent, after all, and I'm also an Episcopal priest.) I confess my own failures to connect the dots among sexism, racism, and homophobia and my failure to act on those vital connections. I make this confession not for the sake of indulging in the luxury of guilt; we don't have time for that. Guilt is utterly wasted energy. I make my confession instead for the sake of re energizing my commitment to building a better world, and for the sake of being held accountable to that commitment by others -- especially by women and people of color.

The struggle for control over women's bodies is a struggle for the liberation of all bodies: women's bodies, men's bodies, children's bodies, the bodies of all other animals, and the body of this planet itself, "Mother Earth." There is a direct link between the kind of male privilege that lays claim to women's bodies and the male privilege that rapes this planet for resources. Just consider what Rick Santorum had to say recently about the environment.

Accountability for a better world would be a great Lenten discipline. After all, as the ancient Hebrew prophet Isaiah once declared: "Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?" (58:6). Now that would certainly be a spiritual discipline all of us could, quite literally, live with.

Making the world a better place often begins in one's own backyard and indeed with one's self. I'm taking that to heart this Lent and spending time thinking carefully and writing about my own white male privilege and how it functions in our society and in our religious institutions. I'm also seeking ways to put my white male privilege to use for the sake of women's thriving and the flourishing of communities of color.

Religious or not, here's a great way to begin: get some of your gay male friends together and read Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. Then talk to the women in your life. Let them know that you're committed to their freedom, their dignity, and their autonomy. Ask them what you can do to be supportive -- then do it.

The Rev. Jay Emerson Johnson, Ph.D. is an Episcopal priest and a member of the core doctoral faculty at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, Calif. He chaired the Theology Task Force for the SCLM Blessings Project. He also serves as Senior Director of Academic Research and Resources at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Pacific School of Religion, a member school of the GTU. His first book was published in 2005, Dancing with God: Anglican Christianity and the Practice of Hope, and he is the co-editor of a forthcoming, two-volume anthology, Queer Religion. He blogs at http://www.peculiarfaith.com/.

For the record,, Integrity's Interim Executive Director Harry Knox recently took a stand on behalf of women's rights and freedom. Read his blog here. Do you have a similar story you'd like share? Send it to communication@integrityusa.org

ST PATRICK: Patron Saint of Ireland, Evangelism & Inclusion

by the Reverend Canon Susan Russell, Integrity past-President (2003-2009)

From Lesser Feasts and Fasts: Patrick was born into a Christian family somewhere on the northeast coast of Britain in about 390. When Patrick was about sixteen, he was captured by a band of Irish slave-raiders. He was carried off to Ireland and forced to serve as a shepherd. When he was about twenty-one, he escaped and returned to Britain, where he took holy orders both as a presbyter and bishop. A vision then called him to return to Ireland…

In my day school chaplain days, every time I told this story to the kids gathered for morning chapel I would pause at this point and ask them if they could imagine that … IMAGINE what kind of vision it must have been to convince Patrick to go BACK to the place – to the people – who had held him captive in order to bring them the good news of God in Christ Jesus. For of course we remember Patrick as the great evangelist whose missionary journeys spread Christianity all over Ireland – and today we celebrate his life and ministry AND the vision that sent him back to Ireland -- which is why we wear green to school today and eat corned beef and cabbage for dinner tonight. (And one of the mysteries of life I've yet to figure out is how corned beef got to be an icon for evangelism but there it is!)

In 2003 I was in New York City on my way out to meetings on Long Island along with a train full of revelers returning from the annual St. Patrick's Day parade. One of those revelers was a NYPD officer who had sprained his ankle marching in the parade and was heading home for an icepack and some Advil.

I must have been traveling in my collar because the conversation turned to church stuff and I found myself telling him about my ministry – at the time I was the Executive Director of Claiming the Blessing – and about the work we were doing in the Episcopal Church. He had been raised an Irish Catholic – and his partner was Puerto Rican – and it had never occurred to either of them that there might be a church where they would be welcome.

We talked some more and exchanged cards and I promised to email some folks to connect with and he said, sprained ankle notwithstanding, that he felt like running into me on the train was a St. Patrick's Day dose of the luck of the Irish. And when we came to his stop and he stood up to limp off the train, he took the big, green plastic shamrock from around his neck and gave it to me. And he told me to remember there were plenty of other people like him out there who needed to hear what we had to say about a church that welcomed everybody and that I should take some of his Irish luck with me for the work in front of me.

And I still have it. And it reminds me every time I see it of the New York cop who is part of the mission field out there longing for the good news we have to offer – yearning to know that the "Episcopal Church Welcomes You" signs really means him. And here we are in 2012 -- a church continuing to wrestle with whether or not it is going to fulfill its commitment to the "full and equal claim" promised the gay and lesbian baptized since 1976.

On this particular St. Patrick's Day I believe asking gay and lesbian Episcopalians to hang in there and continue to take the vision of a Body of Christ that fully includes all the baptized BACK to the church that still questions their vocations and relationships is like unto asking Patrick to go evangelize the Irish who enslaved him.

And yet that's the vision we've been given – that's the call we have received. Our witness of God's inclusive love is not just a witness to the presence of the holy in our lives and our relationships and our vocations -- but a witness to the power of God's love to transcend ANYTHING that holds us captive or enslaves us.

So let's remember on this St. Patrick's Day that the same God who inspired a former captive named Patrick to return to his captors and evangelize them in the 4th century is working in us as we work to call this church and this communion to wholeness in the 21st. And let's remember that it is that power working in us that can do infinitely more than we can ask for or imagine. And then let's get on with the work we have been given to do. (After we have a little corned beef and cabbage!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Integrity Responds to +Rowan Williams Resignation

In response to the announcement this morning that Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will be stepping down at the end of the year in order to take on a new position as Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, Integrity President Caroline Hall released the following statement:

"This decade has arguably been the most tumultuous time for Anglicans since the end of the English Civil War. It has been an incredibly difficult time to be Archbishop of Canterbury, officially the "Instrument of Unity" in an Anglican Communion struggling with disunity and at times outright hostility."

"When he was elected we had high hopes that Rowan Williams would be willing to take a bold stand on LGBT inclusion. Those hopes were dashed almost immediately when he bowed to conservative pressure and forced Jeffrey John, an English gay man in a celibate relationship, to step down from his nominations as Bishop of Reading. We were also disappointed by his failure to respect Episcopal Church polity and his failure to invite and welcome the Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, to the 2008 Lambeth Conference of Bishops. In his attempts to keep everyone at the table, Williams has proved more willing to listen to conservative than to liberal voices, even though his own theological position is more progressive."

"I certainly admire his ability to stay in this position for a decade. To be called to leadership in the middle of rapid and contentious change is never easy and Williams has been the target for acrimonious letters and emails since he was first elected."

"Integrity wishes him well in his new position and prays that when God calls the next Archbishop he will be a forward-looking person of great courage who understands that to be the Instrument of Unity may not mean keeping everyone together in a unholy alliance. We hope that the members of the Crown Appointments Commission and the British Prime Minster will not bow to the forces who seek to keep the Church of England, and by example, the rest of the Anglican Communion, in the dark ages where women, gays, lesbians and trans-people are not welcome in the House of Bishops and thus are not welcome at all."

For further information, contact:
Louise Brooks, Director of Communication
communication@integrityusa.org 626.993.4605

Making "all" mean "all" in the Diocese of San Joaquin

A Reflection

 by

Louise Brooks

Carolyn Louise Woodall got ordained last Saturday to the Sacred Order of Deacons in the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin -- smack dab in the middle of California's conservative Central Valley. There was no fanfare, there were no media and there were no protesters. I was there with a film crew to document the event for Integrity’s VOICES OF WITNESS project entitled "Out Of The Box" -- celebrating the lives and witness of transgender Episcopalians.

 As the service began we had our cameras ready when the Bishop asked "... if any of you know any impediment or crime because of which we should not proceed, come forward now, and make it known." We were ready … but no one came forward. It was the people's will that Carolyn be ordained and it was their will to uphold her in her ministry – and they said so, loud and clear. On the surface this was your typical ordinary ordination … but truth be told it was anything but.

As I sat in the tiny church watching this ordinary/extraordinary ordination unfold, I remembered my last trip to the Diocese of San Joaquin. It was five years ago – just after the then-sitting Bishop Schofield tried to take the diocese out of the Episcopal Church and become the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin: a schismatic response to the ordination of Bishop Gene Robinson and the blessing of same sex unions.

 Bishop Schofield – arguably one of the most reactionary bishops in the Episcopal Church – would not ordain women to the priesthood and would not give communion to gay persons. People joked that he was more catholic than the Catholics – and when he became a bishop he added the name John to his birth-name David becoming Bishop John-David.

Four of us, LGBT leaders from the Diocese of Los Angeles, traveled the long Central Valley highway lined with citrus trees, table grapes, raisins, almond groves and other visually interesting crops, to meet with the Remain Episcopal team. They were the folks who stayed. And that day this faithful remnant of Episcopalians described to us the goals they had set for San Joaquin: to rebuild the diocese, to ordain women, to welcome and include all the strangers at the gate. And as I sat there in the pew in St. Anne’s, Stockton at the ordination of Carolyn Louise Woodall, I was aware that they have come a long way in those five years. A very long way.

Carolyn Louise Woodall was born Clifford Lawson Woodall. She was born out of the box. "I had known I was different since I was four or five years old, I just didn’t figure out the extent of my differences until much later in life. It isn’t as if there weren’t clues, it was just that I had gotten very good at denial. I never even heard the word “transsexual” until college, and then I had a passing thought that it might apply to me, but quickly buried that thought. As time went on, however, the thought that I might be transsexual kept resurfacing and I continued to bury it as best I could."

But she couldn't bury it forever. "I could learn to live with it, start living as a woman, and move on with life or, I could kill myself. I decided on suicide that night. I sat there convinced of a couple of things. One was that I was an abomination before God. God made me male at birth and I would be unfaithful to God by changing that. Additionally, this was wrong. So was suicide, but that night I prayed that God would consider suicide the lesser sin and forgive me for what I was about to do. I had a gun in the dresser right behind me and it would be quick and easy.

Fate intervened and Carolyn was relieved." I quickly realized that I had been looking for a reason not to go through with it and was very glad I had found one."

Carolyn Woodall always loved the church. She sang in choirs from a young age and felt a call to ministry as early as she can remember. She entered the discernment process as a transgendered woman and the Church received her call last Saturday.

She was ordained by one of the great champions of inclusion and giants of justice in the Episcopal Church: Bishop Chet Talton. Bishop Talton – who previously served as Bishop Suffragan in my diocese of Los Angeles so I can brag on him a bit -- has thrown down a gauntlet of welcome in the Diocese of San Joaquin: “Whoever you are and wherever you find yourself, you are welcome here." And they are.

Carolyn's ordination service was hosted by the Reverend Lyn Morlan, Rector of St. Anne's Church in Stockton. Five years ago she wouldn't have been licensed to serve in the Diocese of San Joaquin, let alone called to be the rector of a parish. And tears came to my eyes as I watched a gay couple come forward to the communion rail as I remembered the horror story of a another gay couple being turned away at the altar a few short years ago.

So here’s my message to those who are discouraged and think the church is not moving fast enough: take heart, it is happening. Giants of justice like Bishop Chet Talton are making it happen. Integrity USA is making it happen. Each and every one of you is making it happen. We set audacious goals and we achieve incremental victories every day. Saturday’s ordination of Carolyn Louise Woodall was surely an audacious victory in the Diocese of San Joaquin. And if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere.

In Texas and Tallahassee; South Florida and South Carolina – and in all the other places where the full inclusion of all the baptized in all the sacraments is still a goal and not a reality. It's just a matter of time. We are at the tipping point. And we are in it to win it.

Many thanks to those brave leaders who didn't give up. To the Remain Episcopal folks who rebuilt a diocese. To Bishop Chet Talton for being the right shepherd in the right place at the right time. And especially to Deacon Carolyn Louise Woodall for modeling for us God's mission: to be your true and authentic self so you can have a true and authentic relationship with Him in order to call others into the circle of God’s inclusive love.

Louise Brooks serves on Integrity's Board of Directors and is their Director of Communications.  She is currently the Executive Producer of VOICES OF WITNESS: Out Of The Box....a video that celebrates the lives and witness of transgender Episcopalians. The DVD, complete with a study guide, will be released in May, 2012 as a gift to the church from Integrity.

Caro Hall Comments on NH Bishop Nominees

A STATEMENT FROM INTEGRITY PRESIDENT, THE REV. DR. CAROLINE HALL, ON NOMINEES FOR BISHOP-ADJUTOR OF THE DIOCESE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Today the Bishop Search and Nomination Committee of the Diocese of New Hampshire joyfully announced their nominees for a Bishop Coadjutor to succeed the Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson, Ninth Bishop of New Hampshire:

The Rev. Penelope Maud Bridges, Rector, St. Francis Episcopal Church, Great Falls, Virginia;
The Rev. A. Robert Hirschfeld, Rector, Grace Episcopal Church, Amherst, Massachusetts;  The Rev. Dr. William Warwick Rich, Senior Associate Rector for Christian Formation, Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts.

Integrity USA congratulates all the nominees and applauds a search process that is open to all candidates.

In 2003 the people of New Hampshire searched for and elected the person they felt could best lead them as their Bishop. We were,of course, delighted that they elected our friend Gene Robinson and that his election was confirmed by the wider church. Now they are once again engaged in the process of selecting a new bishop. Integrity has every confidence that they will choose the best person whom God is calling to lead them into the future, regardless of his or her gender or sexual orientation.

Our prayers are with all the candidates who have courageously offered themselves to participate in the vital but arduous process of Bishop selection.

Call To Action: Help Gay Adoption Legislation Pass

Write Your US Senators and Urge Passage of Every Child Deserves a Family Act

Today, Harry Knox, Interim Executive Director of Integrity USA, sent the letter below to every US Senator asking her or him to support the Every Child Deserves A Family Act (ECDF). We are sending out this Call To Action asking you to join Harry and do the same.

The Family Equality Council, a sponsor of ECDF, has seen immediate results by letter-writing campaigns such as this which educate lawmakers as to why this bill needs to pass.

Lend your voice to advocate for this important legislation. Copy this letter, sign your own name and send it to your two state senators today. Show that we can make a difference by taking action on this very important piece of legislation. To contact your US Senators, click here.

IntegrityUSA

838 East High Street #291

Lexington, KY 40502

March 14, 2012

United States Senate

Washington, DC

Dear Senator,

On behalf of Integrity USA, a non-profit organization working to proclaim God’s inclusive love in and through the Episcopal Church since 1975, I write to express our support for the Every Child Deserves a Family Act (S.1770). Many of Integrity’s members and supporters are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) parents, and children of those fine parents. We urge you to support and co-sponsor this important legislation, which would help ensure that every child can have a loving, stable home.

Of the 408,000 children in the U.S. foster care system, 107,000 of whom are waiting to be adopted, 27,000 children will leave the system without ever finding a home because of a lack of adoptive parents, according to the  Department of Health and Human Services. This represents a colossal system failure, since there are two million potential LGBT parents who would consider adopting from the public system if they were not obstructed by state policies, practices, and procedures.

While a few states have laws or policies prohibiting discrimination, most do not. Several states have

specifically excluded LGBT people from acting as foster parents or adopting. The law in many states remains silent on these issues, leaving children and potential parents open to decisions based on bias rather than the interests of children. LGBT people and their partners, whether in opposite-gender or same-gender relationships and whether married or unmarried, frequently face this kind of discrimination. The Every Child Deserves a Family Act would prohibit discrimination in public adoption and foster care placements on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, or marital status.

Scientists and child welfare experts have agreed for decades that children raised by LGBT parents fare just as well as others when it comes to healthy development and psychosocial adjustment. It is clear today that public agencies should focus on placing all children in permanent, loving homes, and not on the sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status of parents.

For all those thousands of children who today are awaiting a forever home, I hope you will consider lending your support and becoming a co-sponsor of the Every Child Deserves a Family Act. Integrity stands ready to work with you to build a country where every child has a loving family and a place to call home.

Sincerely,

Rev. Harry F. Knox

Interim Executive Director

Integrity stands with women in struggle for justice and freedom.

Why We Marched

By

Rev. Harry Knox

Interim Executive Director

Integrity USA

Women and men from all over Georgia gathered yesterday at the Georgia State Capitol for “Walk in My Shoes, Hear Our Voice”: a march for women’s health and reproductive freedom.  My husband Mike and I were proud to march with other activists from around the state for several reasons.

1.    For Mike, advocating for women’s legal empowerment has been a lifelong work.  He was motivated to become a lawyer by his great-grandmother’s experience of gender-based discrimination in courtrooms in South Georgia.  She fought against a male-dominated system to keep her family’s property intact – and lost.  Mike has worked for decades to see that women, working folks, and LGBT people receive true justice.

2.     I “went down to the demonstration”, as the old Simon and Garfunkel tune says, because my nieces and sisters and friends are under attack and I’m determined to stand with them as they have stood with me through many a struggle.  The leadership of the Georgia General Assembly is seeking to pass legislation that will limit the health care options the women I love need desperately – and to curtail their freedom to make their own decisions about their bodies and their health.  I’ve noticed many who say they are for “limited government” really mean “maximum government control” when it comes to women’s bodies.  I trust the women of Georgia and would not presume to make health decisions for them.  I will join them in the struggle to preserve freedoms their mothers and grandmothers fought for.

3.     I went down to Atlanta from our home in rural Northeast Georgia because there needed to be a clerical collar in the crowd.  I was heartbroken at how many times women thanked me especially for being present in my Christian pastor’s garb.  They acted as if it were a surprise that a faith leader would be marching for women’s freedom and health.  It was wonderful to see signs provided by the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice that read “Pro-faith, Pro-family, Pro-choice!”  It was a message welcomed by all in attendance – and it’s newsworthy, folks.  I pray we clergy-types will be willing, as Jesus was, to make (good) news.

Integrity USA is the advocacy voice of LGBT Episcopalians and their allies.  Make no mistake: the attack on women currently underway in this country reflects a larger mission on the part of some to enshrine straight, white, male dominance once again as the law and practice of the land.   Integrity stands with women in this struggle for justice and freedom.

Integrity To Hold Elections, Seeks Nominations

An Announcement from Integrity President Caroline Hall

It is time for us to start the process of electing the  Board of Directors and the Provincial Coordinators to lead Integrity into the new 2012- 2015  triennium. This leadership team will have the joy of building on the successes of General Convention and as well as the challenge of retooling Integrity for the evolving mission of making All Mean ALL.

We have named a Nominations Committee whose task is to to gather nominations from the membership for the Board (President, National Vice-President, Vice President for Local Affairs, Treasurer, Secretary, and Chair of the Stakeholder’s Council) and for Provincial Coordinators for each of the eight domestic Provinces.

The members of the Nominations Committee are:
Marie Alford-Harkey (Province 1)
Mary O'Shaughnessy (Province 2)
Ann Turner (Province 3)
Nancy Mott (Province 4)
Bill Oliver (Province 6)
Br Thomas Squiers (Province 7)
Susan Russell+ (Province 8)
together with Harry Knox and Caro Hall+.

If you think that God might be calling you to run for one of these elected positions, please take a look at the task outlines (available here) and then send an email to nominate@integrityusa.org with the following information:

• Name, Address, Phone, Email
• The position you want to run for.
• 2-3 paragraphs about yourself

                 -         your diocese and your experience with Integrity
                 -         the skills/experience you will bring to this position
                 -         why you think God may be calling you to this position

We need to receive your nomination by Wednesday March 28. The only requirement to run is that  you are a member of Integrity. So please make sure your membership is up to date!

You are welcome to contact Caro Hall (caro@integrityusa.org) or other current Board members if you want to know more about what’s involved, or contact Matt Haines, Vice-President for Local Affairs, to talk about the role of the Provincial Coordinators.

Please join us in praying that God will raise up leaders among us who can joyfully take on the responsibilities of this organization so that we may further God's kingdom together.

Integrity Produces Groundbreaking Documentary On Transgender Issues

Integrity Produces Groundbreaking Documentary On Transgender Issues

Integrity USA announces the completion of principal photography on “Out of the Box” – another groundbreaking documentary in the award winning Voices of Witness series. “‘Out of the Box’” puts the “T” in LGBT by celebrating the work and witness of the transgender community,” said Louise Brooks, Integrity’s Communication Director and the Executive Producer of the project.

 “This documentary film is a resource for both teaching and transformation," said Brooks.  "It is Integrity's gift to the Episcopal Church and will be accompanied by a study guide designed to equip and inform opinion leaders and decision makers as we prepare for General Convention 2012.” The filming, which culminated this weekend in Stockton, California, in the Diocese of San Joaquin, at a historic ordination of a transgender woman to the diaconate, now heads into the editing process.

 

"The project builds on the collaboration between Integrity and TransEpiscopal that successfully introduced trans-inclusion legislation in Anaheim at the Episcopal Church’s General Convention 2009, " said Brooks.   "It was clear in Anaheim that to continue to advance non-discriminatory and inclusive resolutions much more education was needed to be done on the issues of gender identity and gender expression."

Brooks continued, “Gender identity and gender expression are issues that can easily be misunderstood and cannot be wrapped up in a neat little box.  So our goal with “Out of the Box” is to answer some of the most frequently asked questions. We have been blessed by a truly amazing cloud of witnesses who shared their stories and their lives with us. It has been a privilege to work with them to take this project from a dream to a reality. “Out of the Box” takes us one step closer toward Integrity's goal at General Convention this summer: 'Claiming the Promise: Making All Mean All!' ”

• In 2006 the initial “Voices of Witness” offered the inspirational stories of the lives of gay and lesbian Episcopalians, their friends and their families moving to the other side of “the inclusion wars”.

 • In 2009 “Voices of Witness: Africa” gave voice to the voiceless LGBT baptized in Africa and gave hope to those who work to combat homophobia in our churches, our Communion and our world.

• And in 2012 Voices of Witness will continue to celebrate our diversity in “Voices of Witness: Out of the Box.” as it continues to present the case for "whoever you are and where ever you find yourself, you are welcome in the Episcopal Church".

“Out of the Box” is currently scheduled for release in May 2012. Bishop Gene Robinson, in an interview for this film said, "I believe God is calling us into this conversation now. It's an opportunity to get to understand another part of God's never-ending diversity and another way to live into our baptismal calling to love all God's children."

For more information contact:

Louise Brooks

Director of Communications

Integrity USA

communication@integrityusa.org 

Integrity Calls SCLM Work "Milestone" On Our Journey

Integrity Calls SCLM Work "Milestone" On Our Journey

Integrity commends the work of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music (SCLM) and welcomes the publication today of excerpts from the work on blessing of same-gender unions that  the SCLM has undertaken in the last three years. (The complete report will be published in April in the so-called Blue Book). The Commission was authorized by the 2009 General Convention to collect and develop theological resources and liturgies for blessing same-gender relationships and report to this summer’s General Convention. They undertook a project of mammoth proportions to collect the work that has been going on for the last fifty years in parishes, Integrity chapters and dioceses across the country.

Today’s excerpts total eighty-four pages so it will take a while for us to digest their contents and evaluate the results of three years work from many of our brightest theologians, liturgists and church leaders.  The results are sure to provoke diverse opinions, but there is no question that this is a work of the whole church, not the machinations of a special interest group working in secret to impose its will upon the rest of us. The SCLM solicited, received and read material from across the country, involved deputies and bishops in conversation and study and even took the proposed liturgy to the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation.

“This is a milestone on our journey to open the Episcopal Church to all people,” said Caroline Hall, President of Integrity. “the Commission’s work not only stands as an example of exceptional collaborative church-wide study but brings us an important step closer to full equality. Their remit was to look at blessings for same-gender couples and they have done this with aplomb, offering not just a rite of blessing but a theological statement which will challenge us all to reconsider the theology of committed relationships, including traditional heterosexual marriage.”

For the Episcopal Church to undertake such an extensive project on blessings for same-gender unions indicates the seriousness with which the needs, pastoral concerns and rights of LGBT people are now taken within the church. Integrity extends its thanks and gratitude to the SCLM for their leadership and vision in making this possible.

At General Convention, Integrity will wholeheartedly support the passage of the resolution proposed by the SCLM to authorize this rite for trial use.  We stand ready to claim the promise made to us 35 years ago that we are entitled to "full and equal claim of the love,  acceptance and pastoral concern and care of the Church (AO76). " We know there will be dioceses where, even if passed, the resolution may not and cannot be used.  Integrity will continue to work for the full inclusion of all the baptized. We will not rest until all really means ALL, until our relationships receive the full blessing of the Church equal in every way equal to heterosexual relationships, including the same rites available in all dioceses.

CONTACT:

Louise Brooks

Director of Communications

Integrity USA

626-993-4605

communication@integrityusa.org

Claiming the Promise at General Convention

INTEGRITY ANNOUNCES FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN & THEME FOR GC12

Claiming the Promise: Making All Mean ALL is the title of our General Convention 2012 fund raising appeal this summer.   In 1976, The Episcopal Church made us a promise in Resolution AO76 that "…homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance and pastoral concern and care of the Church." At GC12 we will claim that promise made to us 35 years ago by one of the first Christian denominations to recognize the human dignity of lesbian, gay and bisexual people – and to pronounce God’s loving care for same gender loving people.

 

At every General Convention since 1976,  Integrity has promulgated discourse and change designed to help TEC live more fully into that promise. We vowed to settle for nothing less than our rallying cry of "All the Sacraments for All the Baptized." Now in 2012, as we claim the promise made to us, our vow is to make All (the sacraments) really Mean ALL.

This announcement begins our fundraising campaign for GC12. Please keep it in mind as you consider your contribution to Integrity’s work at General Convention.  We must raise $110,000 in the next few weeks in order to Make All Mean ALL to make the welcome of The Episcopal Church a reality for everyone regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. 

In the next few days, most of you will receive a specific appeal from Integrity for your sacrificial gift in support of our work at GC2012.  It will outline our agenda as well as what your contribution will help to pay for.  (Some of you will receive invitations to fundraising house parties in your area in the next few months.) Please pray about your gift and give all you can to help us claim the promise made in 1976.  It’s God’s message to the Church and to the world – “All means ALL!”

Click here to donate to CLAIMING THE PROMISE: Making All Mean ALL

- From Rev. Harry Knox

Integrity Sponsored Workshop Tackles Inclusion in Southern Virginia

A Pivotal Moment

By Ann Turner

Secretary, Integrity Virginia Beach Chapter

Integrity USA

On Saturday, February 25^th, Southern Virginia hosted the diocese’s first Believe Out Loud training workshop. Integrity USA’s David Cupps led the training with the assistance of Mike Diaz, board member and treasurer of the local Integrity Virginia Beach Chapter. Among those in attendance were parish and diocesan leaders, both ordained and lay.

The attendees came from a variety of parishes which represented a wide spectrum of inclusion and openness with regards to LGBT members. Some expressed frustration about the unwillingness of their parish leadership to openly address the issue of LGBT inclusion. Some came from very inclusive communities and were eager to begin taking intentional steps toward welcoming LGBT members.

No matter what the situation in their home parish, each participant recognized and acknowledged that the Diocese of Southern Virginia is currently at a pivotal moment when it comes to LGBT inclusion. The diocese’s Annual Council, held just three weeks ago, included two major events. Delegates to Council voted overwhelmingly in support of a resolution that urged our Bishop, the Rt. Rev. “Holly” Hollerith, to permit clergy to use the trial liturgies for blessing same-gender unions that General Convention will likely approve this summer. Additionally, Bishop Hollerith’s Leading a Holy Life Task Force - convened to foster conversation in the diocese around issues of sexuality – launched a new blog site with weekly posts inviting online conversation.

The folks who participated in our BOL workshop agree that the tools provided by this training – specifically the skills of “graceful engagement” and “framing” – will be vital as we move forward from the events of Annual Council.  The training equipped participants to share their stories and experiences, to make valuable contributions to the online conversation of the Leading a Holy Life blog, and to help parishes that will participate in the use of trial liturgies to share their experiences, joys and concerns.

Plans are already under way for additional training opportunities to be offered across the diocese. Also for development of our own diocesan trainers so that congregations which need help engaging in conversation around these issues can receive direct and immediate assistance.

We are thankful that our diocese is directly addressing LGBT inclusion and that, with the help of Integrity USA, we have access to training and tools that will support a strong and healthy community within the diocese so that we can confidently, courageously and compassionately address these issues in the midst of our differences.

Ann Turner

Secretary, Integrity Virginia Beach Chapter

To hold a workshop for your chapter or Diocese, you can email info@integrityusa.org

Episcopal bishop applauds marriage equality signing

Integrity USA thanks Bishop Mariann Budde for her support.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BISHOP BUDDE APPLAUDS SIGNING OF MARRIAGE EQUALITY BILL

Will “allow and encourage” clergy to officiate at civil marriage ceremonies

WASHINGTON, D. C., MARCH 1—The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, released a statement today on the signing of the Civil Marriage Protection Act in the state of Maryland. Her diocese includes the Maryland counties of Montgomery, Prince George’s, Charles and Saint Mary’s. The statement follows:

“I congratulate the Maryland legislature and Governor Martin O'Malley for their courageous and persistent efforts to ensure marriage equity for all Maryland citizens. As soon as the Civil Marriage Protection Act is enacted and same-gender couples can be married in the eyes of the state, I will allow and encourage Episcopal clergy in the Diocese of Washington to preside at such ceremonies, asking that they bring to this ministry the same spiritual intention and pastoral care provided to heterosexual couples seeking marriage in the Church.

“Not all Episcopal clergy and congregations support same-gender marriage, and in no way do I intend to force this issue upon them. But for those who feel called to offer the sacramental and spiritual support of the Church to same-gender couples seeking marriage, I gladly give consent and the authority to do so.”

                                                        

                                                      ###

________________________

Jim Naughton

Canticle Communications

202.288.5125

PO Box 5959

Takoma Park, MD 20913

jim@canticlecommunications.com

www.canticlecommunications.com

The Presiding Bishop's Lenten Message

Lent Message 2012

 I greet you at the beginning of Lent.

In this year I’m going to invite you to think about the ancient traditions of preparing in solidarity with candidates for baptism, to think about the old disciplines of prayer and fasting and alms-giving and study, through the focus on those beyond our communities, in the developing world, who live in abject poverty.

I invite you to use the Millennium Development Goals as your focus for Lenten study and discipline and prayer and fasting this year.  I’m going to remind you that the Millennium Development Goals are about healing the worst of the world’s hunger. They’re about seeing that all children get access to primary education.  They’re about empowering women. They’re about attending to issues of maternal health and child mortality. They’re about attending to issues of communicable disease like AIDS and malaria and tuberculosis. They’re about environmentally sustainable development, seeing that people have access to clean water and sanitation and that the conditions in slums are alleviated.  And finally, they are about aid, foreign aid.  They’re about trade relationships, and they’re about building partnerships for sustainable development in this world.

As you pray through the forty days of Lent, I encourage you to attend to the needs of those with the least around the world.  I would invite you to study, both about how human beings live in other parts of the world and our own responsibility as Christians.

What the Bible says more often than anything else is to tend to the needs of the widows and orphans, those without.  Jesus himself says, “Care for the least of these.”

I invite you to consider your alms-giving discipline this Lent and remember those in the developing world who go without.

I wish you a blessed Lent and a joyful resurrection at the end of it that may be shared with others around the world.

God bless you.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori

Presiding Bishop and Primate

The Episcopal Church