The Way We Were

"The way we were" is more than just the title of a hit movie and hit song.  It reflects the way things were, or at least the way we remember things were, during a specific period of time.  I have thought about that frequently during our discussions about the communique from the Primates.

I look back to “the way we were" 70, 60, 50 years ago.  I wasn’t around 70 years ago.  I was a child 60 years ago.  And I was a teenager 50 years ago.  One issue I remember about the way we were is that there were no discussions about human sexuality and certainly none about lesbian and gay issues.  I recall bisexuality being an “exotic” topic.  Christine Jorgenson introduced the world to transgender issues, even though the term itself would not come along for several more decades.

When we recite the creeds, we include phrases about believing in things seen and unseen.  Now that is usually in reference to our Creator, the Holy Spirit or one of the multitude of holy and mysterious things beyond human sight.  Yet I can also see it at work in earthly issues as well.  But, in some cases it works the opposite way: we don’t believe because we can’t or haven’t seen.  Such is the case with human sexuality issues and LGBTQ issues in particular.  Not seeing us is an excuse for thinking we do not exist.  Not seeing us provides justification for exercising bigotry and prejudice… even to the point of torture and execution.

I’ve recalled numerous ordained persons state with all seriousness that there were no "homosexuals" in their parish/diocese/province.  Such is an easy stance to take if that population is not visible, remains fully closeted, lives in fear of discovery or just cannot be public about their existence.  I have even had folks say that they did not know anyone who was "homosexual."  I have to admit that my thoughts, not my words, my thoughts were:  Doesn’t this dimwit know what is standing right in front of him (yes it is usually a male!)  Being able to "pass" has some advantages, especially having people reveal their true thoughts and feelings right in front of you!  Of course it then becomes an educational tool and opportunity as well.

The issue here is visibility. It is not, I repeat not, about whether an area of the world has "progressed" more or less than any other area.  It is not a measure of development as a country or region.  It is certainly not an issue of whether one group of God’s children is more "civilized" than another.  It is simply an issue of visibility.  Again, it is simply an issue of visibility.

So now, let’s turn to the situations that gave birth to the recent statement of the Primates of the Anglican Communion.  Aside from the expressed levels of disdain, judgment, and posturing, there is the issue of visibility, more accurately, the lack of visibility.

We know that there are LGBTQ members of every province in the Anglican Communion.  We also know that many live closeted lives….lives filled with the fear of being found out…..lives immersed in a marinade of hate, bigotry and prejudice.  Ignorance gives birth to hatred, bigotry and prejudice…and it creates an atmosphere of fear on all impacted by the situation.  These sisters and brothers in Christ are not even seen by the very people who denigrate them.

We know from the experiences of others around the globe, secular and faith based, that visibility will change the way our LGBTQ sisters and brothers are perceived and treated.  Right now, many Primates see issues of human sexuality as nothing but an issue.  When that issue gains a human face, the face of a child of God, the conversation begins to change.  It is easy for any of us to just dismiss an issue.  We have a much more difficult time, at least I hope we do, dismissing a human being.

What should we do to assist without being perceived as interfering or continuing to impose some type of colonial view upon those with whom we so vehemently disagree?  Among the first involves educating people, particularly some of the Primates, on the very existence of some of "us" among "them" and having been there for a long time.  We need to find a way to create relationships with those who are so different from us in their thinking and help them see the face of Christ even in a queer.  If they begin to see the face of Christ in us, we can further the process of helping them see the face of Christ among their own flocks.  This will neither be easy nor quick.

I hope and pray that the parishes and dioceses in The Episcopal Church will maintain ties and companion relationships with their counterparts around the communion who seek to walk apart from us. (Despite what some may hope, this issue is not going away.  It will only get more critical over time.)  Those ties and relationships provide an opportunity for us to witness to the presence of Christ in our lives as LGBTQ Christians. They allow us to help make it more safe for others by our own visibility.

I challenge us all, members of Integrity, lay and clergy leaders, all who claim The Episcopal Church as their part of the Body of Christ, to seek out ways locally, church-wide, worldwide to help those who would act out of hatred, cruelty and prejudice begin to see the face of Christ in all…..even those toward whom they would use vile and offensive labels.  Jesus Christ taught us to love and never provided any exceptions as to whom we were to love.  Let us not create what He did not.  Let us be the hands and feet, eyes and ears, heart and soul of the One who loved us and gave His life ransom for all.

Bruce Garner, President
Integrity USA

An Open Letter

An open letter to those concerned about the impact of the decisions reached at the recent meeting of the Primates of the Anglican Communion at Canterbury England.

So, let’s talk amongst ourselves.  What does the statement of the Primates call on us to do?  Aside from our response to their statement, there is more for us to do as members of Integrity, as members of The Episcopal Church, and as followers of Jesus Christ.

The Primates issued their statement with its “consequences” outlined therein.  As you are aware, we, Integrity USA, responded with what was, for all practical purposes, a somewhat “political” response/portion of the discussion.  Yet we have a more important discussion:  the pastoral implications and needs for ourselves and others.

What will we do to provide pastoral support to each other and to our sisters and brothers in less hospitable provinces of the Anglican Communion?

We will continue to "Love one another as I have loved you."

We will continue to "Forgive your enemies and those who hate you."

We will continue to "Forgive 70 times 7."

Why will we do these things?  These are the words Jesus spoke to His followers.  Jesus calls us over this tumult.

Jesus calls us to forgive those who hurt us, those who hate us and seek to injure us whether in body or mind or soul.  If we claim any authenticity as followers of Jesus we must confess that forgiveness is central to our identity as Christians.  These are some of the things we must do if we are to be Jesus people in a Jesus movement.

This calling is now even more important to us as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people as the result of the release of the statement by the Primates. Their words are painful to all LGBTQ people everywhere who know ourselves as beloved children of God. Their words are also painful to The Episcopal Church which has taken the risk of the Gospel in the full inclusion of all God’s children in the sacramental life of the church.

This is not the first time the Primates have inflicted pain on LGBTQ people and The Episcopal Church. I doubt it will be their last attempt. And yet, we will persevere.  We have been to the foot of the cross before and we will be there again.  That is where we find the strength to endure being there. It is where we find redemption, release and healing and the ability to forgive.

We will find forgiveness – 70 times 7. Such is the cost of discipleship.

We will find healing for our broken hearts, for there is a balm in Gilead.

We will find hope for our weary spirits. Such is the promise of the resurrection.  And, like the first disciples, we will find the courage to open the eyes of our hearts to see the fullness of love in the empty tomb.

More importantly, we will share that hope and continue to be a beacon of the unconditional love of God in Christ to our LGBTQ sisters and brothers in the very provinces where these Primates continue to oppress and persecute them.

The decades of discussion, debate, and attempts to exclude, have given both The Episcopal Church and its LGBTQ members a level of spiritual maturity that allows us to be clear about where we are, who we are, and whose we are.

Our own Primate, the Most Reverend Michael B. Curry has and I suspect will continue to remind us that we are Jesus people and part of a Jesus movement.  The President of our House of Deputies, the Reverend Gay Clark Jennings, has been clear that we will continue to be part of the Anglican Communion and will fulfill our responsibilities on the Anglican Consultative Council, the more legislative of the instruments of communion.  Integrity USA is in full support of the work and the statements of the two individuals who are the presiding officers and the chief pastors of The Episcopal Church.

So, we have and will continue to endure the cost of discipleship that comes with following what the Holy Spirit is calling us to do.  We can take no other stance if we claim to follow Jesus.  It is a price we have paid and are willing to continue to pay.

The struggle continues. We do not struggle alone.

Bruce Garner
President
Integrity USA

Integrity Response to the 2016 Anglican Primate Meeting

The Episcopal Church (TEC) is and has been an integral part of the Anglican Communion from beginning of the communion.  Throughout our history we have gathered, debated, and made decisions on what we have believed and have faith in as being the work of the Holy Spirit among us, as being true to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Integrity USA has been part of The Episcopal Church for over 40 years and we have also been participants in the gatherings, debates and decisions reached by The Episcopal Church over those 40 years.  In fact, we have worked to initiate the discussions that have led to many decisions made that affected lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) members of our church and our society.  In the early days, our members and supporters put themselves at considerable personal risk to engage in discussions around human sexuality.

We believe in the work of the Holy Spirit.  We cannot do otherwise if we are to be true to the Gospel, particularly the account provided to us by John: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth." John 16: 12-13a

The work of the Holy Spirit did not cease with its coming on the Day of Pentecost.  Rather, the work continued and continues, as many will testify from personal experiences.  God continues to work and speak in our world today.  We believe that God, through the Holy Spirit, continues to guide us into all truth even as history continues to unfold before us.

The statement from the 2016 Primates meeting is not seen by Integrity USA as bringing the good news of Jesus Christ.  Our own Primate, the Rt. Rev. Michael B. Curry, has called on us as TEC to be part of the “Jesus movement” and to be “Jesus people.”  Jesus’ ministry was one of building relationships, right relationships.  He was not guided or restricted by any human precept that might divide the children of God.  He was not one to make distinctions unless it was to shine the light of justice on a situation.  It was clear that He abhorred relationships that were based on coercion, abuse or exploitation.  Unfortunately, we see glimpses of such in the statement of the Primates and the actions proposed.

To be as clear as possible in our response to that statement, we offer our response to each of the paragraphs of the Primates’ statement below:

1. We gathered as Anglican Primates to pray and consider how we may preserve our unity in Christ given the ongoing deep differences that exist among us concerning our understanding of marriage.

Response:  The “understanding” of marriage has changed significantly over history.  What was initially an exchange of property, i.e., the woman, has moved closer to being the formalization of a loving, caring, committed and monogamous relationship between a man and a woman.  We find it interesting to note that the only references made by Jesus to marriage were in the context of discussions about divorce and adultery.  TEC’s understanding of marriage has not changed; rather it has broadened to include loving, caring, committed and monogamous relationships between couples of the same gender.

2. Recent developments in The Episcopal Church with respect to a change in their Canon on marriage represent a fundamental departure from the faith and teaching held by the majority of our Provinces on the doctrine of marriage. Possible developments in other Provinces could further exacerbate this situation.

Response:  TEC has engaged in lengthy study, prayer and discussion about marriage at both the faith and teaching level and at the personal relationship level.  Marriage is not a definition to be taught but a relationship to be lived out in faith the partners have in each other and the faith they have in the God of their creation.  We put into canon law what we believe and practice before God.

3. All of us acknowledge that these developments have caused further deep pain throughout our Communion.

Response:  Opening the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all has almost always caused similar developments in the history of the church.  Even in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter was greeted by dissension when God made it clear to him through a dream that all foods were clean and that he should not call anything profane that God had made.  James the brother of Jesus was also met with dissension when he declared that it was not necessary for Gentiles to be circumcised to become followers of Jesus.  He ended centuries of tradition with a single decision.  We have been engaged in the discussions of marriage for decades.

4. The traditional doctrine of the church in view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds marriage as between a man and a woman in faithful, lifelong union. The majority of those gathered reaffirm this teaching.

Response:  A truly critical view of the teaching of Scripture is that marriage was not just between a man and a woman but could also be between a man and as many women as he chose to have as his wives.  Again, Acts tells us that the only men who were restricted to one wife were bishops and deacons.  It seems disingenuous to cite something that has not always been true and that is still not true in some provinces of the Anglican Communion. The most important issue seems to be that of faithful, lifelong union and we still uphold that value.

5. In keeping with the consistent position of previous Primates’ meetings such unilateral actions on a matter of doctrine without Catholic unity is considered by many of us as a departure from the mutual accountability and interdependence implied through being in relationship with each other in the Anglican Communion.

Response:  This seems only a recent view of our relationships.  Books of Common Prayer, Canons, liturgical materials, etc. have been revised and utilized throughout our common history by the provinces as they found the need to do so.  None of the provinces have sought the approval or even input from their sister provinces on such matters.

6. Such actions further impair our communion and create a deeper mistrust between us. This results in significant distance between us and places huge strains on the functioning of the Instruments of Communion and the ways in which we express our historic and ongoing relationships.

Response:  Yet this has only become the case with regard to issues of gender and human sexuality. Otherwise, we have all given each other considerable leeway in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ as was best for us in our respective situations.

7. It is our unanimous desire to walk together. However given the seriousness of these matters we formally acknowledge this distance by requiring that for a period of three years The Episcopal Church no longer represent us on ecumenical and interfaith bodies, should not be appointed or elected to an internal standing committee and that while participating in the internal bodies of the Anglican Communion, they will not take part in decision making on any issues pertaining to doctrine or polity.

Response: Whatever distance has been created between provinces will not be lessened by excluding any other provinces from full participation in the life of the Anglican Communion.  We do not learn from each other when we are apart from each other, regardless of the mechanism.  We do not allow room for the Holy Spirit to speak collectively to us when we exclude each other.

8. We have asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to appoint a Task Group to maintain conversation among ourselves with the intention of restoration of relationship, the rebuilding of mutual trust, healing the legacy of hurt, recognising the extent of our commonality and exploring our deep differences, ensuring they are held between us in the love and grace of Christ.

Response:  We fully support the appointment of such a Task Group.  However, that Task Group must also address the injustices, torture, imprisonment and killing of LGBTQ people taking place in several provinces of the Anglican Communion.  It must also include forthright discussions about human trafficking, a scourge on all of society.  It must also include discussions about hunger, poverty, illness and all that impacts the lives of God’s children.  Our Scriptural tradition clearly focuses far more attention on our responsibilities to others and the human condition than it does on any issue of human sexuality.  

If we believe the faith we seek to practice, we have no basis for abusing, exploiting or coercing any child of God into a particular way of living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Each of us has been created by Love for love, by God for love.  Jesus Christ came that all might be saved.  His was a ministry to the excluded, the marginalized, the outcasts, the poor, the neglected and all whom the powers of His day would ignore.  Whom shall we follow?  Jesus Christ or those who would seek power at the expense of other children of God.  We follow Jesus as Jesus people in a Jesus movement.

Faithfully,
Bruce Garner
President
Integrity USA

Church of England Takes Another Backwards Step

Archbishop Justin Welby

Photo by "Messiah Lutheran (Mechanicsville, VA)"

Used under Creative Commons License

The Church of England has an interesting system of alternating evangelicals and Catholics when appointing the Archbishop of Canterbury. It seems that they are adopting a similar system for the control of their (possibly) unruly LGBT members. The Pilling Report published at Thanksgiving offered some (small) hope that attitudes were shifting, with its recommendation that clergy could be allowed to offer a service to mark same-gender unions. This pleased liberals and annoyed conservatives. But just a day after St. Valentine’s Day, the Church of England House of Bishops made it quite clear that that’s not going to happen any time soon.

Responding to the fact that same-gender marriages will happen in the UK starting next month, they issued a pastoral statement saying once again that marriage is only for a man and a woman. Consequently, CofE clergy, already banned from performing such weddings, may not offer a service of any kind – merely "informal prayers." Not surprisingly, this is annoying liberals and pleasing conservatives.

It wouldn't all be quite so baffling if the same House of Bishops hadn't stated just last month, "We are united in welcoming and affirming the presence and ministry within the Church of gay and lesbian people, both lay and ordained. We are united in acknowledging the need for the Church to repent for the homophobic attitudes it has sometimes failed to rebuke and affirming the need to stand firmly against homophobia wherever and whenever it is to be found."

Why then, do this pastoral statement and its accompanying guidelines make it very clear that gay Anglican clergy may not marry and married gay people need not apply to become clergy?

"Marriage" is socially defined. A quick survey of the history of marriage shows that it has meant different things at different times and in different places. The only difference the CofE seems to make between civil partnerships (which it allows for gay clergy) and marriage (which is reserved for heterosexuals) is gender. Is banning people from being able to live their lives fully and joyfully just because of gender "standing firmly against homophobia?” I don’t think so.

The fact that the statement was sent to bishops and archbishops throughout the Anglican Communion makes it seem as though this statement had a particular audience. Whereas the Pilling Report, which seemed to open the door of equality just a chink, was directed at the Church of England, this missive was directed at the Anglican Communion. Just as the Most Rev. Rowan Williams found it politically necessary shortly after his appointment to declare Lambeth 1.10 the "standard of teaching” of the Anglican Communion, thus promulgating the notion that homosexual activity is incompatible with Scripture, so now the Most Rev. Justin Welby may be finding it necessary to show that he’s not going "soft” on gay marriage.

The day before the statement was published, he told the General Synod of the CofE "There is great fear among some, here and round the world, that [special services for gay couples] will lead to the betrayal of our traditions, to the denial of the authority of scripture, to apostasy, not to use too strong a word,”… "And there is also a great fear that our decisions will lead us to the rejection of LGBT people, to irrelevance in a changing society, to behaviour that many see akin to racism."

It seems that once again the Archbishop of Canterbury is choosing to bow to those Anglicans who insist on a traditionalist view of Christian teaching rather than daring to boldly re-interpreting God’s grace for contemporary times.

My heart goes out to those in England who will pay the price.

The Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall is the President of Integrity and author of A Thorn in the Flesh: How Gay Sexuality is Changing the Episcopal Church.