The Tutu Connection

The July issue of Vanity Fair (starting on page 96) includes a conversation between Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Brad Pitt...

Brad Pitt: "So certainly discrimination has no place in Christianity. There's a big argument going on in America right now, on gay rights and equality."

Desmond Tutu: "For me, I couldn't ever keep quiet. I came from a situation where for a very long time people were discriminated against, made to suffer for something about which they could do nothing--their ethnicity. We were made to suffer because we were not white. Then, for a very long time in our church, we didn't ordain women, and we were penalizing a huge section of humanity for something about which they could do nothing--their gender. And I'm glad that now the church has changed all that. I'm glad that apartheid has ended. I could not for any part of me be able to keep quiet, because people were being penalized, ostracized, treated as if they were less than human, because of something they could do nothing to change--their sexual orientation. For me, I can't imagine the Lord that I worship, this Jesus Christ, actually concurring with the persecution of a minority that is already being persecuted. The Jesus who I worship is a Jesus who was forever on the side of those who were being clobbered, and he got into trouble precisely because of that. Our church, the Anglican Church, is experiencing a very, very serious crisis. It is all to do with human sexuality. I think God is weeping. He is weeping that we should be spending so much energy, time, resources on this subject at a time when the world is aching."

Brad Pitt: "I couldn't agree with you more. Thank you for saying that."

Photo by Annie Leibovitz

Questions and answers with Davis Mac-Iyalla

By John Johnson
John Johnson, a member of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Washington, D. C., is the domestic policy analyst for the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations.

On the eve of July fourth, I wondered how many would actually attend: A Conversation with Davis Mac-Iyalla. The venue was St. Thomas’ Episcopal Parish in Dupont Circle and the event was sponsored by both St. Thomas’ and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill. As 7 p.m. arrived the sanctuary was nearly filled with some 75 Episcopalians and visitors. I didn’t know who all was there from St. Marks, but I was amazed by the number of non-Episcopalians that attended. Davis spoke to the congregation gathered for nearly 55 minutes before taking questions and answers and the evening was followed by the beautiful Compline service from the Book of Common Prayer.

The altar was adorned with a simple white altar cloth with several black-based candle holders and lighted candles for the evening’s event. The clergy, senior and junior warden were robed in traditional black and white Evening Prayer vestments seated in the first row. Davis, dressed in blue jeans with a cut off sleeveless shirt and rainbow wrist band, joined them.

Davis was invited to be part of the Altar party for Compline after his presentation. The plate was passed as he vested and he was presented with $1000 gift as he concluded his 60-event, 20-city tour or the United States and left for the Church of England’s General Synod meeting. The money is greatly needed because Davis has been hounded from his home in Nigeria and now lives in Togo, where he ekes out a living by running a small restaurant.

Davis sang the Doxology at a reception following the service. For someone who lives in exile, who has been jailed for speaking truth to ecclesiastical power and who has been beaten in Nigerian Police custody, he remains remarkably cheerful, favoring friends with a deep gregarious laugh.

Prior to the evening’s events, I had the opportunity to interview Davis...

Click here to read the rest!

Floods are judgment on society, say bishops

Last Sunday, The Telegraph published an article in which the Rt. Rev. Graham Dow, Bishop of Carlisle, suggested that the recent flooding in the UK was God's judgement for gay and lesbian equality laws.

The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association immediately responded with a press release saying, "The Bishop's comments reveal a primitive, superstitious mind that belongs in the Bronze Age. If he thinks these floods are the result of pro-gay laws rather than global warming, then how come far more catastrophic floods afflict homophobic nations such as Bangladesh? And how come ultra-pious nations such as Pakistan suffer catastrophic earthquakes? And the self-proclaimed religiosity of the United States doesn't protect it from lethal hurricanes either."

A couple of days later Ruth Gledhill of The Times wrote an article explaining Bishop's background and worldview.

Anglican priests set to defy same-sex blessing ban

Richard Foot
CanWest News Service
Friday, July 06, 2007

Two weeks after the Anglican Church of Canada voted to maintain its ban on same-sex blessings, a pair of renegade parishes are publicly vowing to bless and even marry gay and lesbian couples, saying there are dozens of other Anglican parishes across the country defying the rules of the national church.

Clergy at Holy Trinity Church in downtown Toronto, and at St. Saviour's Church in Victoria, have each declared their intention to push ahead with blessing ceremonies despite a decision by their church's national governing body forbidding such acts.

"We also intend, when the opportunity arises, to take the next step which is a (same-sex) marriage ceremony," said Jim Ferry, one of the priests at Holy Trinity.

"And we're not the only ones," he said Friday. "There are other parishes across the country who have been quietly going ahead and doing same-sex blessings. They're in the major urban centres, wherever there's a significant population of gay and lesbian people.

"I think, for the most part, it will be tolerated."

One senior Anglican official, who did not want his name published, said he expects the Anglican bishops in Toronto and Victoria to discipline priests in those parishes in order to enforce the rules of the national church. Bishops have the authority to fire priests or withhold their licences to minister.

Click here to read the rest.

Photograph by : MALCOLM TAYLOR/CNS

Holy disobedience

Breaking the law for the sake of love.
by Rev. Shawn Sanford Beck
July 6, 2007

From June 18 to 25, members of the Anglican Church of Canada gathered from across the country to hear reports, to worship together, and to make decisions on some fairly important issues. The most controversial of the issues, of course, was the ongoing acrimonious debate about the place of queer folk in the church. As someone who has been in the thick of this particular battle for the past several years, I was watching closely (via internet coverage) to see where the chips would fall.

snip

It was almost a year ago when my own patience ran out. I found myself caught on the horns of a vexing ethical dilemma: as a priest in the Anglican Church of Canada, I had taken a vow of obedience to my bishop (yes, slightly medieval, I know), but now that vow was putting me in a position where I would be actively discriminating against GLBTT members of the church. As the chaplain for our local chapter of Integrity (a group within the church for queer folk and their allies), I had received a request from a gay couple to bless their relationship. Church law forbade me. My bishop forbade me. But the Spirit compelled me, and She trumps the others. There was no way I was going to turn this couple down.

So after a fair bit of soul-searching, I told my bishop that I would not be towing the line on this issue anymore. I called my position an act of ecclesiastical civil disobedience, but I don’t think he really got it. In any case, I soon found myself delicensed and out of a job, in exile along with the many who have been marginalized by the ecclesiastical powers that be. Interestingly enough, others in the church have picked up on my action, calling it “holy disobedience,” and it is not impossible that more clergy will follow suit in the months to come. In fact, recently Holy Trinity parish in downtown Toronto voted to do just that: clergy and people together, they are not waiting any longer for the full inclusion of queer Christians — the entire parish is prepared to break canon law. Holy disobedience indeed.

Click here to read the entire article.

Canon Phil Groves on the Listening Process

[Episcopal News Service] The Rev. Canon Phil Groves speaks with ENS national correspondent, the Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg, during a recent visit to New York about the Anglican Communion's Listening Process, its progress so far, and the next steps.

The Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, secretary general of the Anglican Communion, appointed Groves as the facilitator of the Listening Process in November 2005. Groves' task, as defined in a portion of the 1998 Lambeth Conference Resolution 1.10, is to establish "a means of monitoring the work done on the subject of human sexuality in the Communion" and to help the Communion listen to the experiences of homosexual persons.

The Primates Meeting at Dromantine, Ireland, in February 2005 asked the Anglican Consultative Council "to take positive steps to initiate the listening and study process" which has been the subject of resolutions at Lambeth Conferences since at least 1978 (Lambeth 1978, Resolution 10).

An audio stream of the interview is available at

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/audio/ens/elo_groves.mp3

Two Anglican parishes offer same-sex ceremonies

Priests say Synod resolution allows blessings
Marites N. Sison
staff writer
Anglican Journal
Jul 5, 2007

The dust has barely settled and already, different interpretations of the decisions General Synod made last month about human sexuality have led one parish to publicly offer blessings to same-gender unions, and another to say that it would not deny a parishioner's request for a same-sex marriage.

During its seven-day meeting in Winnipeg, the church's highest governing body approved a resolution saying that same-sex blessings are "not in conflict" with the church's core doctrine but defeated another that would have given dioceses the power to offer them in churches.

There is enough ambiguity in those decisions that it is left open to dioceses and churches to offer same-sex blessings, said Rev. Jim Ferry, who was fired for being involved in a homosexual relationship in 1991. He has since been given some duties at Holy Trinity church in downtown Toronto.

"I think at first there was some confusion (regarding the decisions on sexuality). But after having reflected on them, it seemed that the most important of the two resolutions (the one stating same-sex blessings are 'not in conflict' with Anglican core doctrine) had passed," said Mr. Ferry. "It's very positive. It moves us out of the realm of canon law into pastoral decision-making."

In Victoria, B.C., the rector of St. Saviour’s church, Rev. Antonio Osorio, invited lesbian and gay couples to be blessed in his parish during the Sunday service July 1. Four couples showed up to be blessed as a group and as couples, said Mr. Osorio.

"These were people in committed, faithful and long-term relationships," he said in a telephone interview. "They were there as friends, as members of our community and as volunteers of our church."

Click here to read the rest.

For God’s sake

From The Times
July 5, 2007

Archbishop Akinola of Nigeria, the world's most powerful Anglican leader, tells Religion Correspondent Ruth Gledhill that his conservatism is the true faith

snip

Nigeria's bishops will not meet to decide about Lambeth until September. Dr Akinola says he does not know how they will decide. But at this point, attendance by Nigeria looks extremely unlikely. And if they stay away, this will mark the start of true schism. The Lambeth Conference is one of the communion’s four instruments of unity. For the Nigerians to attend, the Archbishop of Canterbury would have to invite Bishop Minns, which he will not.

And the Episcopal Church in the US would have to backpedal on its liberal agenda, which would be a betrayal of everything it has struggled for in the past two decades.

Dr Akinola does not deny that homosexuals exist in Africa. "All we are saying is, do not celebrate what the Bible says is wrong. If the Bible says it is an aberration, it is an aberration. Do not do it." He sees no point in his church attending the Lambeth Conference if the bishops cannot share together in Holy Communion. He begins to get passionate, becoming eloquent in his anger. "The missionaries brought the word of God here and showed us the way of life. We have seen the way of life and we rejoice in it. Now you are telling me this way of life is not right. I have to do something else. Keep it for yourself. I do not want it."

No Nigerian bishop needs to go to Canterbury to learn how to be a bishop, he says. "No Nigerian Anglican needs to go to Lambeth Palace to learn how to become a Christian. It is all available here. We rejoice in our fellowship, we rejoice in our heritage as Anglicans. We celebrate it. But our unity will never be at the expense of truth, of the historic faith."

In spite of what Western church leaders fear, he has no ambitions to lead a breakaway church. "That has never been on my mind. This is the media thing. You see we have scripture. We have our traditions. We have not broken the law. It is your churches that are breaking the law. You are the ones breaking the rules. You are the ones doing what should not be done with impunity. We are saying you cannot sweep it under the carpet. Maybe in the past you could get away with it, but not any more. We have aged. So we are not breaking away from anybody. We remain Anglicans. We are Anglican Church. We will die Anglicans. We are going nowhere."

I ask him about his comments a few years ago, when he was reported as saying that homosexuality was an aberration unknown even in the world of animal relationships. He urges me to see these remarks in their context. A diocese in Canada was moving towards authorising the first Angican liturgy for same-sex blessings. "I was shocked to my marrow the very first time I heard the Church is saying a man can marry a man. What? It is from that shock, that surprise, how is that possible? Is it a kind of experiment or something? They are sick or tired of normal heterosexual relationships? How could that be? That is the context in which I said what I said."

snip

He has been criticised for not speaking out against a new law proposed in Nigeria to make it an offence to promote homosexuality. "The Western world does not have a monopoly of homosexuals," he says. "They are everywhere in the world. But we do not desire to celebrate it. We see it as a problem that can be treated. There have been a lot of importation of Western values and practices in our country. Now the Western world is highlighting the gay issue as the thing. We realise that if care is not taken, our country will be one where you can do whatever you want to do." The new law was intended to prevent wholesale importation of Western values and practices, he says. He admits to problems with the specific provisions, which are, to Western sensibilities, draconian. "But what you have there is still much less, much softer than if it were to be sharia. This is our context. On the one hand the Christian community is happy that we have this provision. It is just our hope that it will help to preserve the institution of marriage, family life as we know it. But if it is not passed, fine, we will look for something else. It is purely democratic."

Click here to read the entire article.

The sun is up and the sky isn't falling!

The Honorable Byron Rushing, member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and distinguished Episcopal lay leader, reflects on the recent Massachusetts marriage decision -- the subject of a Washington Post editorial earlier today -- in this commentary (shared with permission. Thanks, Byron!)

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Before last month's vote in the Massachusetts legislature already the majority of my colleagues supported the Goodridge decision and same-sex marriage, and opposed adding a discriminatory article to the state constitution, and had voted against the proposed amendment. What last month's vote showed, was that that majority had become overwhelming, "super," 75%+1. In the past three years there is no evidence in Massachusetts that the expansion of marriage has weakened the right of heterosexuals to marry or prevented the strengthening of heterosexualcivil marriage by individuals, organizations or government; or forced religious institutions to change their views on who they should "marry."


The public schools in Boston were first integrated in the 1850's--on September 3, 1855--after a long controversy. Reflecting on that successful struggle, one of its leaders, William C. Nell said, "And since the 3d of September to the present time, the sun, moon and stars are regular in their courses! No orb has proved so eccentric as to shoot madly from its sphere in consequence, and the State House on Beacon Hill, and old Faneuil Hall, remain as firm on their bases as ever."


Theodore Parker taught 19th c. Bostonians to, "Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice. Things refuse to be mismanaged long."

Or as Martin Luther King, Jr. rephrased it, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

On May 16, 2004, I made this prediction: "The sun will rise tomorrow, and the milk will not curdle!" I was right about the first; and about the second, what goes on in people's refrigerators...

Washington Post supports same sex marriage

The Sky Isn't Falling
Experience may be trumping hysteria over gay marriage.
Thursday, July 5, 2007

WHEN THE high court of Massachusetts ruled in 2003 that the commonwealth's constitution gave same-sex couples the right to marry, detractors railed against "activist judges" who were "imposing" their will on the people. Only the people, through their elected representatives, should decide something so fundamental, they said. Thus began an effort to amend Massachusetts's constitution by referendum to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Four years and about 10,000 same-sex marriages later, here's what the people have said: never mind.

Read it all here

Church pours scorn on love

Jul 03, 2007 04:30 AM
Mark Abley
Toronto Star

A small miracle occurred two days ago across the nation: Hundreds of gay and lesbian Anglicans showed up to worship in churches that had just scorned them.

I know, that's not the official story. The official story is that by a narrow margin, the bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada voted to make it impossible for any parish in the country to bless same-sex couples. Warships and hamsters can be blessed, but not a loving pair of women or men.

The closeness of the Winnipeg vote inspired a lot of huffing and puffing about "pastoral generosity" – although Bishop Larry Robertson, more forthright than your average Anglican leader, promptly announced: "I don't and cannot accept homosexual behaviour."

Among traditional-minded Anglicans, the typical response to the vote was nervous relief. Their fear that the issue remains unsettled is understandable. But last week their blogs and websites also featured a smattering of hateful rhetoric of the kind that makes me wonder why I remained a church member for much of my adult life.

snip

In the face of such fulminations, most gay and lesbian members of the church kept their heads down last week. On Sunday they faithfully trooped into the uncomfortable pews. They still appear to believe their time will come.

I wonder how long they'll have to wait.

Click here to read the entire op-ed piece.

Breaking News: Another Los Angeles Property Ruling

Just received via email from a local press contact off the LAT newswire:

EPISCOPAL - A Los Angeles Superior Court judge rules that the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles is the rightful owner of the buildings and other property of a conservative La Crescenta congregation that broke away from the diocese last year. The decision against St. Luke's of the Mountains comes barely a week after an appeals court panel in Orange County ruled in favor of the six-county Los Angeles diocese in a similar property dispute with three other local churches.

More to follow ... I'm sure!

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UPDATE: From a Diocese of Los Angeles Media Alert

Los Angeles Diocese prevails again in parish property dispute

LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ruled today that The Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles are entitled to the property of St. Luke's of the Mountains Parish in La Crescenta, California.

The decision comes on the heels of the landmark opinion last week from the California Court of Appeal which unanimously upheld claims by the Diocese of Los Angeles and the national office of The Episcopal Church to the property of three separate parishes whose leaders and members left the Episcopal Church in 2004.

The Diocese of Los Angeles encompasses the Counties of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Orange, and a portion of Riverside County, under the ecclesiastical authority of its Bishop Diocesan, the Right Reverend J. Jon Bruno.

In February 2006, St. Luke's severed its relationship with the Episcopal Church and the Diocese, placing itself under the jurisdiction of a conservative Anglican bishop in Uganda. The departing members claimed they were entitled to take parish property away from The Episcopal Church and the Diocese. The Diocese, citing church canons which place all parish property in trust for The Episcopal Church and the Diocese, asserted it was entitled to retain the property. Litigation followed.

The ruling today by Judge John Shepard Wiley, Jr. follows the recent appellate opinion and confirms Bishop Bruno's conviction that parish property cannot be taken away from the larger church by departing members.

"We're very pleased with this decision today," said Bishop Bruno. "We are a people of reconciliation, and our major concern is for the people of St. Luke's, and how to bring them back into relationship with the Diocese of Los Angeles if they wish. We will pray for them. I hope they will pray for us."

Holme Roberts & Owen partner, John R. Shiner, Chancellor of the Diocese and its attorney in the litigation, called the ruling "another important step to dispel any notion that local congregations of a hierarchical church may leave the larger church and take property with them."

Robinson redux

By Bruce C. Steele
From The Advocate
July 17, 2007

"I thought three months after my election and consecration I would be old news," says the Reverend V. Gene Robinson, the Episcopal Church’s New Hampshire bishop—and the first openly gay person to hold such a post in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

But four years after his election, Robinson—and the issue of homosexuality in the Anglican world—is more in the news than ever. The new convocation headed by Peter Akinola is just one development. By September 30, Episcopal leaders have been asked by their colleagues around the world to repudiate the blessing of same-sex unions and to promise not to ordain more openly gay bishops.

Click here to read the interview.

Akinola's power play

By Kerry Eleveld
From The Advocate
July 17, 2007

The pews of Hylton Memorial Chapel in Woodbridge, Va., were alive with the spirit of an authentic revival on May 5. Alternately dancing, raising hands to the heavens, and bowing in prayer, roughly 1,500 worshippers witnessed the marriage between the Church of Nigeria and the recently formed Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA), a group of about 30 Anglican congregations scattered about the United States that have formally broken away from the Anglican Communion’s American branch, the Episcopal Church USA.

Peter Akinola, the archbishop of Nigeria, had come to Virginia to preside over the installation of the convocation’s leader, Bishop Martyn Minns. Decked out in a regal gold robe and miter, Archbishop Akinola exited the sanctuary at the end of the ceremony smiling, jubilant—singing the words of the recessional with his entourage of 10 or so trailing behind. For a gay reporter covering the event, it was a rare glimpse—a chance encounter—and I found myself fixated, studying him in not so subtle a way. He spotted me within moments. I clearly wasn’t there to celebrate. His smile dropped, his song fell away, and he walked on by.

The union between Peter Akinola and Martyn Minns was inaugurated in the summer of 2003 when a majority of 107 Episcopal bishops voted to approve the consecration of

V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as bishop of New Hampshire. Leading up to the vote, a growing number of evangelically inspired Episcopal conservatives had been voicing their displeasure with the direction of the Episcopal Church, but few as loudly as the congregation of Truro Church in Fairfax, Va., headed by then–Rev. Minns. Seven leading bishops from Asia, Africa, and Australia met with Minns and about 50 conservative Episcopal bishops in Fairfax and issued a statement saying Robinson’s confirmation could “precipitate a dramatic realignment of the church.” After Robinson’s installation, Akinola officially cut ties with the Episcopal Church, stopped accepting its donations, and, in a 2006 ceremony held in Nigeria, elevated Minns to the rank of missionary bishop.

Click here to read the rest. Includes quotes from Davis Mac-Iyalla.

"Hang in there with us. We're going to get this right"

[ENS, ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico] House of Deputies President Bonnie Anderson told more than 275 people gathered June 30 in the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande to both be prepared and to stay calm amid the current tensions in the diocese, the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion.

"Keep your eyes on the prize, which is the reconciliation of the world through Jesus Christ, whom we love more than life itself," Anderson told the meeting at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church. "And keep calm."

People from 21 of the diocese's 60 congregations attended the afternoon meeting sponsored by Episcopalians for the Future in the Diocese of the Rio Grande, which included presentations by Anderson and her chancellor, Sally Johnson, and a question-and-answer period. Those sessions were interspersed with hymns, prayers and a period of silent reflection.

One attendee, Dennis Prichard, the bishop's warden at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Belen, New Mexico, said afterward that if Episcopalians heeded Anderson's reminder of Jesus' call for people to love one another "we would not be in the place we're in."

The Rev. Tom Woodward, a retired Episcopal priest who attends St. Bede's Episcopal Church in Santa Fe where he serves a treasurer, called the meeting a "rallying point" and a chance for people to share the "basic joy of being Episcopalians and not have to apologize for it."

Anderson drew applause when she promised that "the leadership of the Episcopal Church will never leave you alone, remember that."

Read the rest here