Finnish Church Ok's Prayers for Gay Couples

From Advocate,com

Finland's state church will permit a "prayer moment" for registered domestic partnerships, bringing religious leaders one step closer to recognizing gay relationships.


The General Synod, the Evangelical Lutheran Church's highest administrative body, issued a statement Friday saying it would allow clergy to minister to LGBT church members. A spokesman for the synold told Agence France-Presse that Lutheran ministers will have a choice as to whether they will perform the prayer with gay couples entering a legal partnership. Allowing of a prayer, however, does not constitute the church's blessing of same-sex relationships, or marriage equality.

Out Lesbian New Head of SF's Grace Cathedral

From the Bay Area Reporter
by Seth Hemmelgarn
s.hemmelgarn@ebar.com

An out lesbian has become the dean of San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, making her not just the first lesbian, but the first woman ever to head the church.

The Very Reverend Dr. Jane Shaw showed her humor when asked what exactly her duties are.

"I think I run the cathedral," she said. "I have oversight of everything that goes on here."

That includes presiding at services and overseeing a staff of about 80 people, including those who run the preschool and cathedral school. Shaw estimated about 800 people come to services at the cathedral each Sunday.

"I'm myself and people can take me as I am," said Shaw. "I'm many things, not just a lesbian, not just a woman. I'm an intellectual, I am a new immigrant in this country, I love music ... . I'm happy they called me to Grace Cathedral."

Shaw, 47, who holds a Ph.D. in history from UC Berkeley, previously served as dean of divinity at New College, Oxford University.

She was installed to her new position Saturday, November 6, becoming Grace Cathedral's eighth dean since it was founded in 1906. She follows Alan Jones, who was dean for 25 years until February 2009, when he retired from the position. Jones is now the cathedral's dean emeritus.

Shaw was named dean June 25, after being nominated by the Right Reverend Marc Handley Andrus, Episcopal bishop of California. The cathedral's board of trustees unanimously approved her nomination that day.

Heidi K. Zuhl, a Grace Cathedral spokeswoman, declined to state Shaw's salary.

In a phone interview this week, Shaw said she's building on Jones's legacy.
"He really made the cathedral very important in the city," she said.

She said she wants to make Grace a place "people absolutely come to for discussion of key ideas." The cathedral will re-launch its Forum program, a series of panel discussions and speakers, in 2011, said Shaw.

She hopes the church will keep working on social justice issues and continue outreach to people including seniors, people who are unemployed, residents of single-room occupancy hotels, and residents of the city's Bayview neighborhood.

Shaw also said, "I want to take a role in many communities," including the LGBT communities. She said she's "in the process of beginning to talk to people," although she hesitated to say what she'd do specifically because "it's important I hear what people need."

"I'm looking forward to talking to lots of people" in and out of the congregation, she said.

Shaw said that sometimes "inclusion" is "a codeword for LGBT, but there are other forms of inclusion too."

She added, "I hope we would have inclusion mean that we genuinely include everybody."

That hasn't always been the case with the Episcopal Church. There's been unhappiness in the church since at least the 1970s, when women were first allowed to be ordained as ministers. The national Episcopal Church has recently been supportive of gays, lesbians, and women, sparking rebellion from some churches.

The Episcopal Church, which had more than 2 million members in the United States as of 2008, is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

In 2003, openly gay Gene Robinson was elected as the bishop of New Hampshire. That helped lead to a call from some Anglican Church leaders for the Episcopalians to stop authorizing same-sex unions and stop allowing lesbians and gays to take high positions in the church.

Robinson announced over the weekend that he would retire as bishop in January 2013.

Asked about Robinson, Shaw said, "I think he'll go on working in all kinds of important ways in the Episcopal Church" and "I think his important voice will continue to be heard" even after he leaves his position.

She also said, "The Episcopal Church has taken the lead on inclusion, compared to the rest of the Anglican Communion, and that's fantastic, and of course we're going to keep building on that."

Shaw is domestic partners with Sarah Ogilvie.

Louise Brooks, a board member of the LGBT Episcopalian group Integrity, said she doesn't know Shaw personally, but she spoke favorably of Shaw's reputation.

"There's been very little press hoopla around the fact that [Shaw] is an open lesbian," and that "speaks to the fact of where the Episcopal church is today, that sexual orientation has little to do with the choice of people for this position," said Brooks.

She said Shaw "will be the voice of a different type of Christianity ... conveying a message that everyone is a beloved child of God, and that there is no asterisk that says 'unless you're gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.'"

Bishop Gene Robinson Announces January 2013 Retirement Date

In his address at today's New Hampshire's diocesan convention, Bishop Gene Robinson announced he would retire as the 9th Bishop of New Hampshire in January 2013, saying:

"I wanted to make this announcement to you in person. While I might have delayed this announcement a few more months, I could not imagine doing so by letter. I have been in the Diocese of NewHampshire 35 years, the last 24 of which have been in a diocesan position. Our time together has always focused on "relationship," and I could not imagine changing this relationship without telling you so personally."

The full text of Bishop Robinson's address is available on the diocesan website.

"I make this announcement with nothing but praise and thanksgiving to God for having the privilege of serving you. While I know that I have not been God's perfect servant during this time, I will leave in early 2013 knowing that I have given this ministry my best efforts. YOU are, and will continue to be, the reason I have not only survived, but thrived, during this tumultuous time in the wider Church. New Hampshire is always the place I remain, simply, "the Bishop." This is the one place on earth where I am not "the gay Bishop."

Integrity joins with the Diocese of New Hampshire in celebrating the work and witness of Bishop Gene Robinson as we enter a time that is arguably the beginning-of-the-end-of-an-era. And we look forward to moving more fully into God's future, to a time when all the baptized are fully included in the Body of Christ!

Bishop Robinson is a profile in courage

An Editorial From the Concord, New Hamphire Monitor

 11/10/2010

Technically speaking, Gene Robinson is the spiritual leader only to New Hampshire Episcopalians, a relatively small population in a relatively small state. But since his consecration in 2003, he has stood as a worldwide challenge to discrimination, to violence rooted in bigotry, to go-slow liberalism that dares not rock the boat.

Robinson emerged as one of the bravest leaders of our time, but he didn't do it on his own. His New Hampshire flock, those who voted for his ascension to bishop, took an enormous risk - for themselves and for their global church. We are all the better for it.

Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the 77-million-member Anglican Communion, announced this weekend that he will retire in 2013. His tenure has been so relentlessly tumultuous that it is not hard to believe he's already thinking of retirement. Seven years on, the battles that his tenure sparked are nowhere near resolved. Yet he stands as a role model for those within and without the church who would put their very lives on the line for what they believe.

For Robinson, death threats were present from the beginning. When he was consecrated in Durham back in 2003, undercover police officers were part of the entourage. And it wasn't just his personal safety at risk. When Robinson became a bishop, it cracked a fault-line in his church wide open. Would all Anglicans embrace openly gay priests and bishops - or even female priests and bishops? The question was no longer hypothetical. The Americans who gave Robinson their blessing were at odds with more conservative branches of the church elsewhere in the world - and even here at home. Some U.S. congregations left the Episcopal Church and aligned themselves with bishops in Africa. The Anglican Church in North America was created as a conservative rival to the Episcopal Church.

To the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, leader of the Anglicans worldwide, Robinson presented a challenge to his ability to hold his church together. In 2008, he specifically did not invite Robinson to a once-a-decade meeting of the world's Anglican bishops. Robinson flew to England anyway, speaking at local churches while the other bishops convened. The next year, when Mary Glasspool - also openly gay - was elected bishop in California, Williams urged Episcopalian bishops not to seat her for the sake of unity.

If Robinson became a symbol of gay rights, he was also an advocate, using the stage that his position afforded him to push not just Episcopalians but all of us to treat each other with dignity and equal justice. In 2007, he was featured in a documentary about religion and homosexuality called For the Bible Tells Me So. In 2009, President-Elect Obama invited him to deliver a prayer at the Lincoln Memorial as part of his pre-inauguration ceremonies
.

Equal rights for gay men and lesbians remain tenuous around the globe, certainly, and in our country as well. The military's Don't Ask Don't Tell rule remains in place as squeamish politicians delay doing the right thing. Iowa voters last week ousted three judges who had ruled in favor of gay marriage. Here in New Hampshire, the gay marriage law is imperiled by newly elected politicians eager to reverse it. For progress to continue, brave leaders are needed. Robinson has shown the way.

Please send us your thoughts about what Bishop Robinson's ministry has meant to you. tvprod@earthlink.net

Integrity President David Norgard on the Resignation of Bishop Gene Robinson

It is with respect and affection that we receive and acknowledge the announcement of the retirement of the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2012. Bishop Robinson has been a true pioneer in the Episcopal Church and deserves both our admiration and our profound thanks for walking a path no one has taken before with courage and perseverance. As a gay man, as a priest of this Church, and as President of Integrity USA, I have been deeply honored to know him personally. More importantly however, his ministry has set an example that has inspired, comforted, and challenged more people of good will than he or any of us will likely ever be able to accurately estimate.

Throughout his entire episcopate and even before – stretching back to the intensely contested confirmation of his election at General Convention in 2003 – he has conducted himself toward supporters and detractors alike in a manner that can only be described as “consistently gracious engagement.” Unflagging in his chief am to preach the Gospel of a God who loves us all, he neither sought controversy nor shirked it for his own sake but has walked the path of a servant of the Gospel with unflagging devotion and diligence.

We at Integrity give thanks to the people of the Diocese of New Hampshire for sharing the ministry of this singular figure so generously with all of us over the past seven years and we again commend them for taking the bold and wise step they did when first electing him. As for the bishop, we pray for and wish him the best along whatever new path his journey of faith takes him, knowing full well that, as the Psalm says, “no good thing will God withhold from those who walk with integrity.” --The Rev, David Norgard

Our friend and colleague, Gene Robinson, the Bishop of New Hampshire, has and will continue to have great meaning to those of us in Integrity. If you'd like to send in thoughts or reflections on what his ministry has meant to you, we'll be happy to post your comments. Send them to Louise Brooks at tvprod@earthlink.net.

The Rev. Dr. Caroline Hall on "AAC Scare Tactics"

I was startled today to read that under the new Title IV disciplinary canon which will come into effect in July 2011,

if a clergy person is asked to officiate at a same-gender marriage or blessing, and cannot because he or she has theological and spiritual objections or concerns, if it is a matter of conscience, the offending clergy person can be charged and tried, and furthermore if a cleric confidant knows about the priest declining to do the service, and doesn't turn them in and report them, that cleric could also be charged and tried.

I learned this from David Anderson, President and CEO of the American Anglican Council and suffragan Bishop in the Province of Kenya.

When penning his remarks he apparently relied on a document titled, Title IV Revisions: Unmasked by C. Alan Runyan and Mark McCall, and published by the Anglican Communion Institute. I didn’t find anything in Title IV Revisions: Unmasked that even mentions same-gender marriages or blessings and I know for sure that they’re not mentioned in Title IV. Clergy are not required to marry every heterosexual couple who approaches them, let alone every gay couple.

Did David Anderson have a bad dream?

I would like to think this strange statement is the result of some unfortunate nightmare, but alas I have to think that Anderson is resorting to fear tactics. Particularly as he adds:

Bishops may be indicted if they refuse to sue congregations that wish to leave, charging them with failure to protect church property. I want our friends in the UK and the Global South especially to note this: the bishop will have to sue or he (or she) will be tried and deposed.

Anderson is missing a couple of key points here. First, “protecting church property” does not necessarily mean suing the congregation (or anyone else) and second there’s a long and circuitous route in the new Title IV from an initial complaint to a hearing.

Runyan and McCall make some cogent points about the new Title IV which should be discussed – have we given the bishop too much power? When there is an adversarial polarity between Bishop and the clergyperson facing discipline the answer may well be “yes”.

But Runyan and McCall have a fatalistic air about it all. They say that Title IV was rushed through Convention with inadequate discussion, the Rules of Order were not followed, and now the sky is falling in. Would someone in South Carolina please explain to them that they can bring resolutions to the next General Convention to change the rules, again.

Conservatives have done it before. Ask Bishop Wantland, who in 1994 proposed a resolution that radically reduced the consents needed to bring a bishop to trial. No-one really took much notice at the time, but it paved the way for Bishop Walter Righter to be brought to trial for ordaining an openly gay man.

Perhaps that’s why they’re so worried – conservatives having once or twice changed the rules to suit themselves they think there’s a conspiracy to make General Convention do the same.

The letter from Anderson appears in this week’s AAC email update which will soon be available here. It is, in my limited perspective, yet another attempt to scare the “orthodox” by disseminating lies.

I wonder whether lying in order to instill fear and gain power is a cause for discipline in the ACNA or the Church of Kenya?

 

The Rev. Dr. Caroline "Caro" Hall is priest-in-charge of St. Benedict's. Episcopal Church in Los Osos, California. She is former board member of Integrity USA and a frequent contributor to Walking With Integrity.

Louie's List

It was exactly seven years ago today the Holy Spirit and the Diocese of New Hampshire made a bishop out of V. Gene Robinson -- in a hockey arena in Durham, New Hampshire surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses ... along with a few media trucks and couple of security guards.

And since seven is such a nice biblical number we were casting about for ideas on how to celebrate this Happy Anniversary -- and we turned to Integrity founder Dr. Louie Crew for some inspiration.

"Let's look ahead to the NEXT seven years," said the always forward thinking Dr. Crew. And here's the result ... what we're calling "LOUIE'S LIST" of LGBT priests to keep-an-eye-on as the Holy Spirit continues to work and call forward the next generation of bishops for this church we love and serve.

We're offering Louie's List today in both celebration and expectation. Celebration of all that has been accomplished in these last seven years as The Episcopal Church continues to grow into the more inclusive Body of Christ we believe God is calling us to be. And expectation that God will continue to call the leaders we need to do the work we have been given to do.

Whether or not these servants of God are called to the episcopate is between them and the Holy Spirit ... and the dioceses that can and may call them into that vocation. But whether called or not, they're on Louie's List -- and that is something to rejoice and be glad in today!

LOUIE'S LIST:

Mark Asman
Michael Barlowe
Cynthia Black
Thomas Brown
Lee Crawford
Horace Griffin
Caroline Hall
Tobias Haller
Michael Hopkins
Elizabeth Kaeton
John Kirkley
Mark Kowalewski
Tracey Lind
Cameron Partridge
Altagracia Perez
Bonnie Perry
Katherine Ragsdale
Blake Rider
Susan Russell
Jason Samuel
Jane Shaw
Mac Thigpen
Winnie Varghese

And are there others?????

Uganda: Court issues an interim order restraining the "Rolling Stone"

Yesterday gay activists sued the Rolling Stone tabloid in Uganda. .....

Here's the press release:

The Ugandan Rolling Stone tabloid published an article entitled “100 Pictures of Uganda’s


Top Homos Leak” calling for “the hanging of homos” in Uganda in its issue of Vol.1, No.


5, 2 - 9 October, 2010. This article shows pictures of some of the 100 alleged homosexuals


and other Human Rights Activists, alongside their names and a description of their


professional jobs and private life, including where they live or work.


The publication has affected the day to day lives of the individuals mentioned and the


Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender [LGBTI] community as a whole. Therefore


Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender human rights activists have taken the tabloid to


the High court.


Through this litigation the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community is seeking


to bring to an end the violations. They will also educate and raise awareness that everyone


in this society deserves and should be protected by the government and the law irrespective


of race, age, color, tribe, creed, sexual orientation and gender identity.


We call on;


1. The MEDIA to immediately desist from using press freedom to incite violence


against any person.


2. The Government of Uganda to intervene immediately and take all appropriate


measures to put an end to this blatant incitement to public violence against a


particular group of citizens.


3. The Government of Uganda should recognize and seize the opportunity to ensure


the protection of human rights, which is entrusted to its authority, and uphold the


Ugandan Constitution as well as the international and regional Human Rights


Instruments to which Uganda is a signatory.


For further information please contact:


Frank Mugisha - fmugisha@sexualminoritiesuganda.org
 
Today an interim restraining order was issued.  Today activists spoke truth to power and the courts supported them. Pray that the order will stand the stand up long term. Pray human rights will prevail.

A Reflection from Integrity Executive Director Max Niedzwiecki

Halloween – An Episcopal Holiday?

This Sunday, October 31st is Halloween. It is our national holiday for fear. It’s a time when many of us face our fears in a fake sort of way and try to have fun with it. For many LGBT folks, it's a day free of fear. It's a day when drag is mainstream and it's okay to be different.

Being different on other days sometimes creates fear. “Homophobia” is all about fear. Those who discriminate against LGBT people are “homophobic” – they’re afraid of us. Honestly, I have trouble with this word. I'm not scarey, I would rather other people not see me as scary, but I can’t control what other people feel. Feelings of fear are the major reasons that people discriminate against us and other people who are “different.” The important work we do at Integrity is to insist that LGBT persons are treated with the same respect as everyone else.

That respect needs to extend to ourselves as well. “Homophobia” also has a second meaning: not fear and discrimination against other people, but against ourselves. The recent teen suicides have been reminders, as if we needed it, that internalized homophobia can be deadly.

My wish for everyone who reads this is that on Sunday, October 31st we face our fears in a way that goes beyond the typical Halloween hoopla. It’s OK if you want to go to church with a fake arrow through your head (tell your Rector I said so), but I hope that during our time together in worship we can also accept the Grace we need to face our fears in a healthy and truthful way.

For me, facing truth and overcoming fear are big parts of being an Episcopalian. At our best, we seek God’s truth and follow it, leaving behind the fears that motivate so much of our prejudice and self-loathing, even when those fears are deeply embedded in our culture. As Jesus himself said, being a Christian is a path to liberation: “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” (John 8:31-32)

The Episcopal Church’s progress on full inclusion for all people is a testament to our growing commitment to finding and following God’s truth, and turning our backs on fear. Let’s celebrate that, and commit to keeping the momentum going, this Halloween and beyond.

Anti-Homosexual Bill to be Proposed by Bishop in Congo

This was posted by the Association for Women's Rights in Development

A Democratic Republic of Congo bishop and lawmaker said Monday he had put forward a bill that would make homosexuality a punishable offence, as being gay was an “abomination”.


“We would like the law to punish homosexuality, bestiality and necrophilia. Morally, homosexuality is a deviation, and spiritually, it is an abomination,” pentecostal bishop, Ejiba Yamapiale told global news agency, AFP.

The bill comprises seven articles including imprisonment and fines for homosexuals, and will be debated by the National Assembly's committee on society and culture.

“We have proposed this law to moralise our society,” said Yamapiale, who leads the Pentecostal Church of Saviours in the capital Kinshasa.

“As Africans, we know that there is polygamy but there must not be men who sleep with other men, with animals or corpses,” he said.

“It is necessary to punish these unnatural practices, which do not fit with our values,” he said.

Homophobia is widespread across Africa. The law put forward by Yamapiale echoes similar anti-gay legislation in Uganda, while last year two Malawian men were jailed after staging the country's first gay wedding.

Homosexuality is also outlawed in Cameroon and punishable by prison terms.

In August, African Anglican bishops voiced their strong disapproval of homosexuality at a meeting attended by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

October 25 2010

In support of our Global Transgender Community..................

Integrity Joins TransEpiscopal and Other International Rights Groups in Support of Transgender Activists in Turkey

Here is the story from the Associated Press:

International rights groups on Monday urged Turkey to drop criminal charges against five transgender rights activists and encouraged authorities to investigate the police treatment of the case.

Police stopped the five in May, accused them being prostitutes and beat them up, according to the Ankara-based transgender rights group, Pembe Hayat, or Pink Life.

The five go on trial on Oct. 21 on charges of resisting police and face a maximum three years in prison .

Five international human rights and gay rights organizations, including the New York-based Human Rights Watch, said in a joint letter to Turkey's Interior and Justice ministers that the police officers should be held accountable. Police would not comment on the case.

The rights group called for an end to violence against transvestites and transsexuals in Turkey and asked that the government enact laws to protect gays and lesbians against discrimination.

Human rights advocates say gays and lesbians suffer frequent discrimination and abuse despite human rights reforms enacted in line with Turkey's bid to join the European Union.

Many transgender people escape Turkey's conservative towns and villages for more tolerant cities like Istanbul and Ankara. But many still encounter hostility and discrimination and, unable to get jobs, turn to prostitution.

About a dozen transgender people, most of them sex workers, have been killed in Turkey over the past few years in attacks activists have described as hate crimes. They claim authorities and police remain unsympathetic and fail to adequately investigate the murders.

Read the rest of the story here:

The Rev. Cameron Partridge of TransEpiscopal has this to say:


"We stand in complete solidarity with the five transgender activists as they go on trial in Turkey.  We pray for their release, for the recognition of their human dignity, and that those who have treated these women in such a dehumanizing way would be held accountable for their actions.  As we move toward Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20, when communities around the world remember those who have died because of their gender identity or expression, we work to transform cultures of violence into spacious communities in which all of us can be who we are."



Please join TransEpiscopal, Integrity and other major international human rights organizations by expressing your concerns to the two Turkish Ministers:


Mr. Sadullah Ergin
Ministry of Justice
Address: 06659 Kizilay, Ankara, Turkey
Fax: +90 312 419 33 70
E-Mail: sadullahergin@adalet.gov.tr, iydb@adalet.gov.tr


Mr. Beşir Atalay 
Ministry of the Interior
Address: T.C. İcisleri Bakanlığı, Bakanlıklar, Ankara, TurkeyTel: +90 312 422 40 22
E-Mail: besir.atalay@icisleri.gov.tr; ozelkalem@icisleri.gov.tr

Bishop Christopher, under threat, returns to the USA

From Albert Ogle, Integrity VP of International Affairs...............

When Bishop Christopher Senyonjo’s picture showed up on the front page of a Ugandan paper under the headline, “100 Top Homos - hang them,” Integrity supporters of the bishop and his work  became ever more concerned about the growing climate of homophobia in Uganda.

Other LGBT leaders were also targeted and Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) has been providing emergency counseling and shelter for some of the victims of this latest wave of public violence.

The inflammatory story in “Rolling Stone” (no connection to the USA version) was published just as I returned from a visit to Uganda with Pastor Joseph Tolton of The Fellowship in New York. I quickly made contact with the bishop and his staff.  So far, they are all safe and are asking for our prayers. I now try to communicate with him on a daily basis.

Our trip to Uganda was very productive and informative.  Organizers in Uganda, including Integrity Uganda,  have formed a Civil Society Coalition of 34 partner organizations..  This coalition successfully challenged the “Rolling Stone” in Ugandan courts and it was mandated to close its doors.  The coalition will also consider additional legal strategies and will make all legal resources available to stop this latest phase of the anti-gay witch hunt which appears to have support from some American based churches.

Earlier this week the Rt. Rev, Mark Sisk, Bishop of New York, wrote a private letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury expressing his concern that Bishop Senyonjo had been so publically targeted in the newspaper. Sadly, the Archbishop has remained silent on this.  Instead, he voiced his concern about the election and consecration of Mary Douglas Glasspool as Bishop Suffragan in the Dioxese of Los Angeles. Here's what he had to say:

“The decision of the American Church to go forward, as it has, with the ordination of a lesbian bishop has, I think, set us back. At the moment I'm not certain how we will approach the next primates' meeting, but regrettably some of the progress that I believe we had made has not remained steady. Alongside that, and I think this is important, while the institutions of the Communion struggle, in many ways the mutual life of the Communion, the life of exchange and co-operation between different parts of our Anglican family, is quite strong and perhaps getting stronger. It's a paradox”. 

Yes, well, here's what I find as a paradox:  that a photograph of heterosexual bishop of the Anglican Church of Uganda appears on the front cover of a magazine with the headline: "Hang Them" without any outrage from his fellow bishops. This story made international news, was reported on CNN, in the UK and in the Washington Post, yet,  no-one within Anglican Church leadership circles rose to his defense, except Bishop Sisk.

Regardless of his lack of church support, Bishop Christopher continues to preach an inclusive gospel of a loving God to everyone, including his enemies. Please keep him and his persecuted community in your prayers. Write to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Let him know of your support for Bishop Christopher and ask him to join all of us in respecting the dignity of every human being.

You will also have another opportunity to support the brave bishop and his work. Bishop Christopher will soon  return to the United States along with his wife Mary (an equally brave and courageous leader who has watched their beloved Church of Uganda’s behavior towards her family). They will arrive in  California on November

14^th and will be visiting New Orleans (December 5^th at St. Anne’s) Atlanta (St. Bartholomew’s on December 12^th) and will have two consultative meetings in New York and Washington DC around immigration and asylum issues for the USA around LGBT people. For more information on his visit and an update on the difficult legal situation he and his friends are facing, stay posted or join his Facebook page.

Call to Action: Pass on this blessing for those who are being bullied

A Blessing For Those Who Are Being Bullied


If you are a GLBT boy or girl, man or woman, who is being bullied, then this blessing is for you. Carry it with you. Keep it near you at all times. Let it shield you from all harm. Let it be a light through any darkness as you find your path to the dignity and respect you deserve as a child of God.

My Name Is ______________________.
What ever others may try to call me, My Name Is ______________________.
God knows me by My Name because God gave me life.God calls me by My Name because God has a purpose for my life.God remembers My Name because God loves me just as I am.
Therefore I will not be afraid. I will not be intimidated. I will not be denied my dignity. I will not harm myself.
I will not be called by any other name than My Name.
My Name is _______________________.
And I am beautiful and precious in the eyes of the Lord.


This blessing was written by the Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, a Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Print this out on a card and hand out to any LGBT youth who may someday find themselves at risk.

A Must Read: SCLM Visits Province I

Liturgy and Music commission hears call for openness, equality for same-gender couples



From Episcopal News Online

Ministering in the "middle of this cauldron of multicultural activity" that is Harvard Square, the Rev. Joseph Robinson, rector of Christ Church Cambridge in the Diocese of Massachusetts says he wants to be able to welcome everyone, including same-gender couples who want their relationships blessed.


"And what they're asking of me is that it's the same for everyone, that it's done with intention, truthfulness and that it begins with the words 'dearly beloved,'" Robinson told the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music Oct. 19 during a hearing here. "It needs to sound like something that's recognizable."

"Whatever we do, whatever we offer our people, let it be eloquent, let it be truthful, let it be prayer and let it be common because those are the things which are the strengths of our church," Robinson added.

Robinson comments came as SCLM met for five hours with representatives of Province I to hear about their experience with same-gender blessings.

In all, the commission devoted a day and a half of its Oct. 18-20 meeting to work on General Convention Resolution C056 which authorized it to work in conjunction with the House of Bishops to collect and develop theological resources and liturgies for blessing same-gender relationships. The commission is to report to the 77th General Convention in 2012 in Indianapolis.

"It will be up to the General Convention [to decide] what to do with those resources," the Rev. Ruth Meyers, SCLM chair and Hodges-Haynes professor of liturgics at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, told the commission Oct. 19 before the hearing began.

C056 said that bishops, "particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church." The SCLM hearing was meant to hear how a group of Episcopalians, most of whom live in civil jurisdictions that recognize same-gender unions in some way, provide that pastoral response.

Same-gender couples can marry in Connecticut (Province I), Iowa (Province VI), Massachusetts (Province I), New Hampshire (Province I), Vermont (Province I) and Washington, D.C. (Province II). Meyers told ENS that the commission wanted to hear from Province I Episcopalians because they have been leaders in the church's pastoral response to the needs of same-gender couples. Included in that response is a collection of pastoral resources the province published in October 2008.

An increasing number of other Episcopal Church dioceses, both where the civil jurisdiction gives same-gender unions some level of legal recognition and where they do not, allow clergy to bless those unions.

During the hearing, many of the more than 30 Episcopalians -- some of whom have been involved in blessing same-gender unions, sometimes for decades -- told the SCLM that they want to see the church treat such unions equally and with the same openness that it treats heterosexual marriage.

"I want to bring this out of the shadows so that we don't continue some kind of ecclesiastical version of don't ask, don't tell," Diocese of Maine Bishop Stephen Lane said, telling the commission that his acceptance of same-gender blessings comes from his understanding of the Baptismal Covenant.

"I think it is heretical and immoral to have different standards for different groups of baptized people," he said, adding that he fears the church will "lose its nerve" and settle for something that is "separate but equal."

The Rev. Rob Hirschfeld, rector of Grace Church Amherst, Massachusetts, told the commission about blessing the union of two military women who were teaching at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Diocese of Western Massachusetts Bishop Gordon Scruton does not allow priests to bless such unions and so, Hirschfeld said, "it was don't ask, don't tell for them and it was don't ask, don't tell for me."

The 30-minute diocesan presentations involved lay people, deacons, priests, bishops, and same-gender couples who have had their unions blessed by the church. The delegations were encouraged to bring service leaflets from the blessing of same-gender unions and other materials that clergy have used to work with couples and congregations to prepare for such blessings.

As Vince Edwards of the Diocese of Connecticut told the commission about the experience of having his relationship with Rodney Ayers blessed, he said he wanted to remind the members about what he saw as the bottom line of the decisions they faced.

"All the words we write, all the things we print, all the meetings we have, it is actually all about love," he said.

Stories of waiting for the Episcopal Church to act figured prominently in the testimony.

The Rev. Meredyth Ward, priest-in-charge of Church of the Epiphany in Wilbraham in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, told the commission that in 2004 she was part of the diocese's first official study of same-gender blessings. After nearly two years, she said, none of the group's position papers or proposed rites were able to be published.

"I love my bishop dearly; he is a good man, but he is waiting for the wider church to act before he will and he will not give us permission to do anything that you all and General Convention does not authorize," she said of Scruton. "We're here to plead with you to act because we are waiting and we are, quite frankly, tired of asking permission for something that we know to be morally right."

The last witness, Chris Rivers, a professor of French at Mount Holyoke College in Western Massachusetts, told a common story of having his same-gender relationship sanctioned in three different civil jurisdictions to preserve his and his partner's legal rights.

"We've been married three times now. I'm waiting for the fourth because the one that I really want is the Episcopal Church," he said. "I want the Book of Common Prayer … I want those words and I want it in this church and I want it now."

SCLM has a year to go before it has to decide on the substance of its report that will be included in the so-called Blue Book collection of reports to 2012 General Convention. Meyers said that the commission currently envisions that the material that it will present to convention will include one or more essays "that provide theological foundations for this work," one or more rites, pastoral resources to assist clergy and others who prepare couples for blessings, teaching resources for congregations wanting to discern whether they will offer blessings and "some sort of guidance" for bishops and clergy for addressing the legal issues in the various civil contexts in which the church operates.

"We may also be looking at proposed canon changes, given the various civil contexts," she added, explaining that the current canons say (in Title I.18.1) that the clergy will follow the laws of the church and the laws of the state when officiating at a marriage. Thus, those two sets of laws "are now in conflict" in places that allow civil marriage of same-gender couples, she noted. Meyers said that the SCLM is consulting with the Standing Commission on Constitution and Canons about possible canon changes that might be proposed.

Between now and the October 2011 meeting when SCLM finalizes its Blue Book report, the commission plans what it is calling a "church-wide consultation" in Atlanta March 18-19 that will include one lay and one clergy deputy from each diocese. Meyers said the commission will present its work to date and ask for feedback from the participants.

The commission will continue to report on its progress to the House of Bishops and consult with the bishops, Meyers said. She and others associated with the SCLM's work on C056 met with the bishops in Phoenix on Sept. 18.

To assist in it its work, SCLM has established three task groups to focus on, respectively, liturgical resources, pastoral counseling and teaching resources, and theological resources. The commission also has established a blog and e-mail inbox (sclm@episcopalchurch.org) for comments and reflections. Also, the pastoral counseling and teaching resources task force is inviting Episcopalians to share their approaches, models, resources and any other reflection via a survey here.

C056 also called on the commission and the House of Bishops to invite theological reflection from throughout the Anglican Communion. The commission is discussing a meeting in an Episcopal Church diocese outside of the United States at which Anglicans from elsewhere in the communion would be invited to learn about its work. Some members of the SCLM also will report on its work during the International Anglican Liturgical Consultation Aug. 1-6, 2011 in Canterbury, England.



-- The Rev. Mary Frances Schjonberg is a national correspondent for the Episcopal News Service and editor of Episcopal News Monthly and Episcopal News Quarterly.

Stigma and the LGBT Suicides -- a View from Harvard

A week ago today I made my way from the Episcopal Chaplaincy building on Garden Street, through the chill evening to Harvard’s Memorial Church. As I rounded the corner by University Hall, the light of over two hundred candles flickered ahead of me on the steps that face Widener Library, the same steps from which the liturgics of commencement are enacted every spring. This was a vigil to mark, cry out against and be galvanized by the recent rash of LGBT suicides across the United States over the last several weeks. This series of events, and the unprecedented public conversation that has circled about them, has been devastating to many in the Harvard community, particularly LGBT and allied students.

I came to this vigil to represent the Episcopal Chaplaincy (as indeed Episcopal Chaplains across the country have been responding to this rash of violence), which was one of several co-sponsors of the event, and to reach out to LGBT students across the University at this difficult time, letting them know that they are not alone. Voices of people of faith too often stoke the broader cultural dynamics of violence at the root of all of this, and it felt important to be visible as an Episcopal priest standing against that violence. I was also present as a Lecturer currently teaching—and having previously taught—a number of LGBT students deeply impacted by the rash of suicides. Though I’m not sure how many other chaplains were present (there was at least one other), I know I was far from the only professor or staff member there, and that sense of institutional solidarity and support moved me.

But it was also personally important to me to be there as someone who has experienced that broader culture of violence as a member of the LGBT community. Following the example of previous speakers, I spoke in the brief open mic period at the end of the vigil of coming out. In my case, I explained, I happen to have come out twice—first, my sophomore year of college as gay, and then in graduate school as a transgender man (I transitioned from female to male in 2002). I spoke of the importance of community, real community based on authentic relationships, and how important it is right now to reach out to one another across the borders—particularly of faith traditions — that too often separate us.

Two days before the vigil, the combination of the Sunday lectionary readings and the rash of suicides already had me thinking about what it was like to be a young person struggling with the intersection of faith and social stigma. The theme of leprosy in the readings inspired me to open my sermon with a story of how, when I was in fifth grade, I stumbled upon a library book, Damien, the Leper Priest about Damien de Veuster, a Roman Catholic priest (recently included in the new collection Holy Women and Holy Men) who had served a community living with what is now called Hansen’s Disease. Damien went to this shunned community, fought bureaucrats to get them basic living supplies, built them a physical infrastructure (water supply, housing, etc), bound up their wounds, worked to de-stigmatize the disease, and ultimately contracted it himself, dying as a “leper among lepers.” This was the one book report I did that year that really meant something to me. There was something about the shape of Damien’s ministry in relation to the dynamics of social stigma that rocked my ten-year-old world. It didn’t hurt that as a gender nonconforming kid, stigma was very familiar to me.

The intersection of stigma and faith emerged in another recent Harvard event, a Divinity School panel entitled “Queer Youth and Religious Debates Over Sexuality." When I arrived, I was struck first of all by the Harvard police who stood guard at the doors to the room where the panel was held. Even in its absence, this visible reminder of potential disruption felt overbearing; I could feel it actually raising my heart rate as I listened. While all the remarks were moving, I was struck particularly by those of Professor Mark Jordan who spoke of how “the fights about [LGBT youth] often try to claim them for one camp or another — either religious or queer, but rarely both.” This is one of the peculiar challenges for those of us who are indeed, and have long been, both.

And so as this moment of grief and anger— here at Harvard and far beyond—begins to fade from media coverage, we must refuse to forget this episode. I don’t want any of us, whatever our age, sexual orientation, or gender identity, to lose sight of the violence—psychic and physical-- that underlies and emerges from the workings of stigma in all its forms. I'm particularly cheered to read the several statements that communities and individuals across the Episcopal Church have made (see Episcopal Cafe for a collection of them)-- reading them makes me grateful for the support I received as a young person, and galvanized to continue extending that support here and now.

Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge
Interim Episcopal Chaplain, Harvard University