IntegrityUSA Appoints Marie Alford-Harkey as Vice-President for Local Affairs

At a November 17th meeting, the Integrity USA Board of Directors appointed Marie Alford-Harkey as Vice President of Local Affairs, filling a vacancy created by the special election of Matt Haines as President this past October.

Marie is the Deputy Director of the Religious Institute, a national nonprofit dedicated to advocating for sexual health, education, and justice in faith communities and society. She is the lead author of the 2014 Religious Institute publication Bisexuality: Making the Invisible Visible in Faith Communities.

Marie leads workshops, writes, preaches, and teaches to promote a progressive vision of faith and sexuality. She has presented at the Wild Goose Festival and Creating Change, and is a contributor to the Believe Out Loud blog. Marie has led workshops on sexuality for future religious leaders, has preached on faith and sexuality from Episcopal, UCC, and Unitarian Universalist pulpits, and has advocated for sexual justice as a deputy to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Marie is a lay deputy to General Convention 2015 and served as an alternate in 2012.

An educator with twenty years of classroom experience, Marie holds a Master's degree in Divinity from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a Master's and a Bachelor's degree in French.

Marie joined the Episcopal Church in 2002.  She is the Associate for Digital Ministries at Trinity Episcopal Church in Hartford, Connecticut, where she preaches and teaches regularly.

Marie taught French and Spanish in public secondary schools for the first twenty years of her career. She was a faculty moderator for her school's Gay Straight Alliance, where she learned how important it is for queer youth to hear voices of love and welcome in their faith communities.

Please join us in congratulating and thanking Marie for agreeing to assume this responsibility.  You may reach her at marie@integrityusa.org or @EMarieAH on Twitter.

Requiescat in Pace: The Rt. Rev. Marvil Thomas Shaw III, SSJE

Integrity joins the church in mourning the death of the Right Rev. Marvil Thomas "Tom" Shaw III SSJE, recently retired bishop of Massachusetts.

Born in Battle Creek, Michigan in 1945, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1971 and joined the Society of St. John the Evangelist, an Anglican religious order for clergy and laity, in 1975. He served a term as its leader beginning in 1983.  He was consecrated a bishop in 1994 and assumed the diocesan seat the following year.

Bishop Shaw Visiting St. Paul's: Newburyport in January
PHOTO CREDIT: Ollie Jones (flickr.com/joebackward)
Used by Creative Commons License.  Some rights reserved

Bishop Shaw's advocacy for the LGBT community is significant.  He came out in 2012 and described his experience as a gay, celibate monk at the 2008 Lambeth Conference (a worldwide gathering of Anglican bishops that was fraught with controversy over the consecration of the Right Rev. Gene Robinson) in the documentary Love Free or Die.

The Rt. Rev. Mary Douglas Glasspool, Bishop Suffragan in the Diocese of Los Angeles, met Shaw over thirty years ago while a student at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge. "He committed himself when he became bishop, that he would make it a priority for LGBT families to feel safe, loved and included before his retirement."

"When I first came into the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts right out of college in 1995, Bishop Shaw was near the beginning of his episcopate. As I got to know this diocese, I was struck by the tone he set-- one of prayer, commitment, public advocacy and proclamation, innovation, discipline. LGBTQ people should remember his early, strong support for HIV/AIDS ministries, of openly gay and lesbian ecclesial leadership, and of marriage equality here in Massachusetts over two decades ago," said the Rev. Cameron Partridge, Co-Convener of TransEpiscopal and Chaplain at Boston University. "His support of transgender equality and leadership is particularly noteworthy, from his quiet support of my ordination process after I came out in 2001, to his public advocacy for trans non-discrimination legislation in MA and at the 2009 and 2012 General Conventions, to his memorable words of welcome at Boston's Trans Day of Remembrance observances from 2010-2013. All of this was so clearly the fruit of his ongoing conversion, of growth into the heart of God to which he always issued an open invitation. For me, that prayerful engagement of transformation -- including the opening of his own heart-- is +Tom's lasting legacy."

"In 2008 Bishop Shaw confirmed me into the Episcopal Church," said Vivian Taylor, executive director of Integrity USA. "His strong, wise leadership created an environment in the Diocese of Massachusetts where I could come out, where I could transition. He is a great leader and his work will live on both here in Massachusetts and throughout the Episcopal Church."

"Tom was a kind, contemplative man, and willing to learn and grow," added Marie Alford-Harkey, Integrity's Province I (New England) Coordinator, a graduate of Episcopal Divinity School and Deputy Director of the Religious Institute.

Bishop Shaw's advocacy did not start or end on human sexuality.  Bishop Glasspool cited his dedication to reforming the structures that lead to poverty, as well as immigration policy and gun laws. He also campaigned for peace in the Middle East and led numerous pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Africa, and South America, to bring about better understanding of global social issues.  Locally, he founded a middle school and other programs for disadvantaged Boston youth, and -- in 2003 -- helped launch the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center, a facility in Greenfield, N.H. that is operated by the Diocese of Massachusetts.

Christian Paolino is the Chair of the Integrity Stakeholders' Council.  This is a revision of the original breaking story.

Two Web Events for Bisexual Visibility Week

Did you know yesterday was Celebrate Bisexuality Day and that this is Bisexual Visibility Week?  As part of our efforts to broaden our understanding of the full range of attraction and identity, we are pleased to present two opportunities to better understand the "B" in LGBT.

Integrity's Province I (New England) Coordinator, Marie Alford-Harkey, in her role as Deputy Director of The Religious Institute, was the lead collaborator on a guidebook for congregations entitled Bisexuality: Making the Invisible Visible in Faith Communities. Please click here for more information: http://www.religiousinstitute.org/bisexuality/ 

On Saturday, September 27th, she will appear on Interfaith Alliance and Welton Gaddy's State of Belief, which will be available here: http://www.stateofbelief.com/

Then, on Wednesday, October 8th at 1pm EDT, she and the Institute's Co-Founder and President, Debra Haffner, will discuss the new book on a teleconference as part of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual's WATERtalk series.  Please click here to register or get more information.

We hope you are able to take advantage of these opportunities.

October LGBT Faith Conference to Feature Gene Robinson

On Saturday, Oct. 11th, the Right Rev. V. Gene Robinson, IX Bishop of New Hampshire (ret.) will be part of an all-day conference on spirituality for LGBT people and their allies at All Saints: Worcester, a Believe Out Loud Episcopal Congregation in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts.

Flag array above the doors to All Saints Church

The day will include a choice of workshops, one of which will be facilitated by Marie Alford-Harkey, Integrity's Province I Coordinator.  Marie is the Deputy Director of the Religious Institute and recently collaborated on a breakthrough guidebook on ministry for and with bisexual people, which will be the topic of her seminar.  Other options are "Coming Out and Coming Home... to the Church" by the Rev. Kathy McAdams and a workshop focusing on forgiveness piloted by the Rev. Mark Seifried.

Lunch will follow the workshops, and then Bishop Robinson will celebrate the Eucharist and preach, joined by the Rt. Rev. Douglas Fisher, Bishop of Western Massachusetts; the Revs. Judith Freeman Clark and Ronald C. Crocker, Interim Co-Rectors of All Saints; and the parish choir.

Advance registration is required, either to participate in the whole day or just the Eucharist.  For details please visit the All Saints Church web site: http://www.allsaintsw.org/content.cfm?id=341. This annual event is popular and is likely to "sell out".

This event is co-sponsored by the LGBT Alliance of All Saints Church, St. John's: Sutton, and Integrity.  We are proud of and grateful for the work of Diocesan Organizer Rich Markiewicz and his organizing team.

This will be the second cooperative effort between Integrity and the Alliance this year.  This spring, we co-hosted a Believe Out Loud Congregational Workshop at All Saints, which was highlighted in the newest edition of Abundant Times, the diocesan magazine.  Click here and scroll to page 20 to read a recap of the workshop by Diocesan Communications Director Vicky Ix.

Taking Their Authority: Marie Alford-Harkey Reflects on the Philadelphia 11

Sermon Proper 13A
August 3, 2014
Trinity Episcopal Church, Hartford, CT
Marie Alford-Harkey, M.Div.
Matthew 14:13-21

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. 

When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." They replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.” And he said, "Bring them here to me." 

Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

In the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand there’s an inside story between Jesus and his disciples, and that’s where I want to focus today.

Jesus is training the disciples to take up their own ministries. It starts when he refuses to allow them to send the people away to find food, but instead tells them "You give them something to eat." When they protest, he says, "Bring me what you have." And so they bring him the five loaves and two fish that they have.

After he said the blessing, Jesus didn’t hand the disciples baskets and baskets of bread and fish. He handed back to them exactly what they had given him. He sent them out into that crowd of 5,000 men and countless women and children with five loaves of bread and two fish.

That’s what ministry looks like. Bring me what you have, says Jesus, and I’ll bless you and send you back into the world. But I’m going to make you do the work. You feed the people.

It’s an appropriate message on this weekend after the celebration of the anniversary of women’s ordination in the Episcopal Church. On July 29, 1974, eleven women were "irregularly" ordained to the Episcopal priesthood at the Church of the Advocate in Philadelphia. They came to be known as the
Philadelphia 11.

The Rev. Suzanne Hiatt, one of the Philadelphia 11, said in a speech some 9 years after the fact, "In the prayerbook ordination service according to which I was ordained a priest in July 1974 (remember, this was before the 'new' 1979 prayerbook), the bishop in laying hands on the head of the ordinand recites this formula: 'Take thou authority to execute the office of a Priest in the Church of God, now committed to thee by the imposition of our hands.' ... The bishop does not confer priestly authority but simply tells the ordinand to assume it. The story of the ordination of women priests in the Episcopal Church is a case study of women 'taking' authority..."

Those women got tired of waiting for the church to act, and so they took what they had, it was blessed, and they went about doing the work they had been called to do.

Perhaps you are like me. By the time I showed up at an Episcopal Church, the ordination of women was a given. Or perhaps you’ve been an Episcopalian for a long time, and you remember the ordination of the Philadelphia 11. Perhaps you are young enough that women have been priests in the Episcopal
Church all your life. Perhaps you’re still a little uncomfortable with the idea of a soprano-pitched chanting voice, or painted fingernails around a chalice, or a curvy female body under a cassock or alb.

But all of us, no matter where we are situated in respect to the events July 29, 1974, all of us have been affected by the ordination of women in this church. Thank God.

Earlier this year, when I was at my parents’ house down in Georgia, I came across an essay I wrote when I was a 9th  grader. The date on this yellowing sheet of paper is 9-9-80. The title is "What I Want to Do With My Life."

In it, I wrote, "I want to find new ways to reach people for Christ and develop my own teaching ministry." My 14 year old self went on to say that "I want to study Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic," and that I "want to get into theology a little later on, after my beliefs and convictions become stronger." (I wonder who had warned me already about the crisis of faith that is a nearly universal experience for those who study theology.) Finally, I concluded that, "I want to be a really good teacher in some sort of outreach ministry teaching conferences and seminars."

Do you notice what I notice in that old paper? At 14, as a part of a conservative Christian tradition, it did not even cross my mind that I could study theology and become a minister. But I knew that I was called. And I went on to fulfill the call to teach. And by the time that I eventually heeded the call to study theology, because of the Philadelphia 11, I knew that it was possible for a woman, even a lesbian woman, to be a priest in my chosen faith tradition.

Last weekend, April and I went to the celebration that marked this historic anniversary at the Church of the Advocate. While April and I both love a good church party, I am usually the one who wants to go to diocesan convention, or General Convention, or a mission conference, or a listening session. But this was April’s idea. She was the one who reminded me that we stand on the shoulders of the Philadelphia 11, who took their authority as priests 40 years ago.

Marie Alford-Harkey with the Rev. Carter Heyward
PHOTO CREDIT April Alford-Harkey

It was a joyous weekend, filled with the fun of greeting friends old and new, honoring how far women have come in the church, and recognizing how far we have to go in reaching the goal of equality for all people in the institutional structures of the Episcopal Church.

I got to meet and talk to one of my sheroes, the Rev. Carter Heyward, Ph.D., who was one of the Philadelphia 11 and a professor at Episcopal Divinity School (where April and I both went to seminary) from 1975 until her retirement in 2006. My smile (and Carter’s) in the picture that April took of us testifies to my excitement, and I’m sure, to my place as a true church nerd.

Dr. Fredrica Harris Thompsett, another EDS professor and a noted Anglican church historian and theologian gave the keynote address at the symposium. She challenged us to live truly into the "embodied nature of Anglican theology" that emphasizes the goodness of all creation and the dwelling of the incarnate Christ in us and us in him. All people, she said, must claim their bodies "as sacred vehicles of spiritual authority."

And this is one reason why I say that all of us here have been affected by the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church. Every Sunday, we gather as diverse people who make up the whole body of Christ, and celebrate the Eucharist together. Just here in this community, we are old and young and in
between, we have light brown, dark brown, or rosy pink skin, we are lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender, we are born in this country and not born in this country. Our bodies vary by size, shape, and ability. The fact that those who preside at our celebration of the Eucharist, our priests, can also represent that beautiful diversity is of great theological significance, and it would not be true had not those 11 women "taken their authority."

The women who took their priestly authority, like Carter Heyward and Suzanne Hiatt, were unabashed feminists. They made no apologies for their hope that rather than the institution changing women to serve its ends, women could help the institution continue to renew itself by becoming less clergy-centered and less hierarchical. Our "new" prayer book of 1979 was meant to further this aim by reminding us that baptism is our first ordination.

Our catechism, which is much older, teaches us that "The ministers of the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons." All Christians are ordained by God in Christ through baptism to carry out God’s mission in the world. We are all called to take what we have to Jesus, have it blessed, and
then go out into the world to do our ministry.

So today, I invite you to reflect on your own ordination as a minister of the gospel of Christ. What do you have that you can bring to Jesus to be blessed? How will you claim your authority as an ordained person?

Marie Alford-Harkey earned her M. Div from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., and is a aspirant for Holy Orders in the Diocese of Connecticut.  When not busy at her "day job" as Deputy Director of the Religious Institute, she serves Integrity as Province I Coordinator and on the board of Integrity Connecticut.

Eyebrows, Up! EDS Courts African Bishop Spurned by Dartmouth

In July of this year, the Rt. Rev. James Tengatenga, Anglican Bishop of Southern Malawi, was offered an appointment as Dean of the William Jewett Tucker Foundation at Dartmouth College. A month later, the offer was rescinded. On November 15, Episcopal Divinity School, with the support of the Episcopal Dioceses of Connecticut and Massachusetts, announced that Bishop Tengatenga had been offered a six-month presidential fellowship. It’s enough to give LGBTQ activists whiplash, since the withdrawal of Dartmouth’s offer was due to protests by campus LGBTQ activists, and Episcopal Divinity School is the most progressive, pro-LGBTQ seminary of the Episcopal Church.

On August 15, the Boston Globe reported on the rescinding of the offer from Dartmouth:

"His [Bishop Tengatenga’s] appointment had sparked a campus controversy as word spread that he had sharply criticized the election of the Right Rev. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion, and that he had asserted in 2011 that the Anglican dioceses in Malawi remained 'totally against homosexuality.'" 

These two statements are technically true, and are surrounded by some very complicated context.

The withdrawal of the offer to Bishop Tengatenga sparked a letter of support with 14 signatories, including the Most. Rev. Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa; the Right Rev. Ian T. Douglas, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut; and the Very Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, President and Dean of Episcopal Divinity School. The letter, which was published in The Living Church, reads, in part:

"The President’s decision brought applause from some in the Dartmouth community. Others were appalled, as are we. The action represents a gross injustice to an individual who would have made an ideal person to provide moral and ethical leadership at the College. It casts serious doubts on what is being learned in American universities when members of those communities fail to distinguish between public positions of institutions and the views of individuals who participate in those institutions. It reflects badly on western human rights advocates who consciously or unconsciously engage in forms of cultural imperialism that undermine their own success and credibility by demanding proofs identical to their own kind and, in this instance, by also ignoring the voices of Africans and church leaders who have known and worked with Tengatenga in some cases for decades."

Andrew Longhi, a junior at Dartmouth, is among those who were not convinced of Bishop Tengatenga’s support of LGBTQ rights. In an article in the Huffington Post, he states, "Tengatenga's appointment is deeply disrespectful to the Dartmouth LGBT community and its allies, who need leaders whom they can trust and learn from."

The withdrawal of Bishop Tengatenga’s appointment as Dean of the Tucker Foundation left the bishop without a job (he had already resigned his episcopate in Southern Malawi) and his public statements in favor of LGBT rights (after his appointment but before the controversy surfaced) left him in a difficult position should he try to return to Malawi.

Episcopal Divinity School stepped into the breach by offering Bishop Tengatenga a six-month Presidential Fellowship. EDS’ press release gives examples of the Bishop’s support of LGBTQ rights in his context:

"Bishop Tengatenga’s long record of support for LGBTQ rights in his native Malawi and across Africa was a decisive factor in inviting him to EDS as a Presidential Fellow. In 2007, Bishop Tengatenga opposed a move by church leaders in Africa to cut ties with the U.S. Episcopal Church because of its support of LGBTQ clergy, and in 2010, together with bishops from Central and Southern Africa, wrote a strong counter-statement to an anti-LGBTQ communique from church leaders at the All-African Anglican Bishops' Conference."

So, what are we to conclude about Bishop Tengatenga’s support for LGBTQ rights? Personally, I am persuaded by the testimony of those who know him; people whom I know personally and whose LGBTQ activist credentials I trust. Thanks to EDS, we will have opportunities to hear more from Bishop Tengatenga himself. I look forward to learning more.

Marie Alford-Harkey is Province I Coordinator of Integrity and Deputy Director of the Religious Institute. She holds a Masters of Divinity from Episcopal Divinity School.

Episcopalians Cheer SCOTUS Actions on DOMA, Prop 8

From coast to coast, Integrity members and other Episcopalians took part in celebrating the actions of the Supreme Court on Wednesday, which struck down the section of the Defense of Marriage Act denying Federal benefits to married same-gender couples and let stand a lower court ruling that California's Proposition 8 is unconstitutional, paving the way for marriage equality to return to the nation's most populous state.

In Washington D.C. the bells of the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter & Saint Paul (popularly called the National Cathedral) pealed for a full hour from noon to celebrate the ruling.  The Very Rev. Gary Hall, Dean of the Cathedral, told the Huffington Post, "We are ringing our bells at the Cathedral to celebrate the extension of federal marriage equality to all the same-sex couples modeling God’s love in lifelong covenants. Our prayers for continued happiness are with them and with all couples who will be joined in matrimony in the years to come, whether at Washington National Cathedral or elsewhere."  A special worship service was held at the Cathedral that evening.

In New York, a crowd had gathered at the iconic Stonewall Inn in the morning, and the celebration continued all day, spilling out into the street.  By nightfall, Christopher Street was closed to traffic as hundreds of people paid respect to the place where the gay-rights movement is widely regarded to have begun with several days of riots in June 1969.  Diocesan Organizer Paul Lane and NYC-Metro Chapter Convener Mary O'Shaughnessy were there.

The crowd outside the Stonewall Inn following SCOTUS ruling

"Christopher Street was again full of LGBT people with signs, placards and flags. This time however, the NYPD was there to keep order and prevent any harm, and the LGBT community, their friends and families, were there to celebrate. How things have changed!" Among the politicians and others who gathered, Lane said " the undisputed star of the evening had to be Ms. Edie Windsor, along with her attorney, Ms Roberta Kaplan, whose courage and determination to fight an injustice through the courts led to the Defense of Marriage Act (sic) being ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States."

The crowd (many Episcopalians among them) cheered, some weeping, as the 84-year-old Ms Windsor told her story. Bi-national couples, who the day before had to fear the deportation of one, could now look forward to the day that they could apply for a US Green Card for the non-American spouse, just like any other married couple. "Everyone was there: gay, straight, bi, lesbian, trans, drag-queens, even Rollerena, although without the roller-skates," Lane recalled. The party went on long into the night.  

Footage from the street in New York featuring footage of Chapter Convener
Mary O'Shaughnessy, courtesy of allout.com

"I can't wait to celebrate this historic moment at NYC Pride on Sunday. I am still stunned, and grateful to all the activists who made this day possible. I know that the 40-year history of Integrity's Christian witness is part of what made yesterday possible, and I am grateful to Louie Crew, Susan Russell, Louise Brooks, Elizabeth Kaeton, and all those whose names I don't know," said Marie Alford-Harkey, Integrity's Province I Coordinator, whose "day job" is at the Religious Institute for Sexual Morality, Justice, and Healing.

"I wrote and we at the Religious Institute held a Twitter worship service (which you can see by searching  #SCOTUSworship). My own reaction was one of great joy - I immediately texted and emailed April when the DOMA ruling came down. It's tempered of course, by the gutting of the voting rights act the day before. My African American lesbian wife says it's hard to know how to feel at this point, and I agree."

 In Atlanta, LGBT organizers were invited in advance to be present at a popular intersection in the city's "gayborhood" to be together whatever the outcome.  When Province IV Coordinator Bruce Garner arrived, hundreds were already gathered.  "People honked their horns as they arrived at the intersection – except for one woman in a Lexus who would not even dare look toward the sidewalk! We noticed another parishioner driving past and waved…..he was headed home and his year old son was in the car too. He and baby soon joined us. Then his partner, the baby’s other Dad drove by and saw them, so we yelled for him to join us. So we ended up with a little All Saints’ contingent with baby Harrison in the middle stealing the show with his HRC flag." There, too, the celebration kept bars and restaurants busy late into the night.

Garner knows Integrity's work goes on. The ruling has no impact in states that do not recognize same-gender marriages, which includes all of the Southeast, where Province IV is located.  "God is good….ALL the time. In Georgia, some of God’s children don’t quite yet understand that God’s goodness applies to ALL of God’s children. With the help of our bishop, we continue to try and educate them."

Integrity members in Oregon gather for a rally.

In Portland, Oregon, Integrity members and supporters including Vice President for Local Affairs Matt Haines, gathered at St Stephen's downtown for a brief prayer and then processed through the streets to join hundreds of fellow Oregonians across the from Portland's City Hall for a rally to celebrate the Supreme Court victories and to look forward to winning the freedom to marry in 2014. The mayor of Portland and the state's former governor were among the speakers. Along the way the Integrity team, which included a number of local clergy, was greeted with honks, waves and shouts of support.  A photo gallery was placed on the chapter's Facebook page.

Northern California clergy gather
on the State House steps in Sacramento.

Clergy and others including the Very Rev. Dr. Brian Baker (in cowboy hat at left), Dean of Trinity Cathedral, and Diocesan Organizer Shireen Miles also gathered at the State House in Sacramento, where the Supreme Court's decision not to overturn a lower court ruling means that Proposition 8, which suspended same-gender marriages in California, will soon be repealed.

Integrity's founder, Dr. Louie Crew said, "We marry ourselves. God is always present when any two persons say, even with no others present, 'I thee wed.' No court or church can change our marriages. A court or a church may only recognize or refuse to recognize them."

Dr. Crew called the court's bold action on Wednesday a union between justice and liberty. "Their swoon brings with it more than 1,000 benefits too long denied to LGBTQ persons. 'Sweet Land of Liberty' indeed. 'God bless America.'"

These are just some of many celebrations that took place across the country.  In many places, much work remains before safety and equal treatment are a reality in both religious and civil life. For today, please celebrate this incremental step with us, and give thanks to God.