Lesbigay issues at the 73rd General Convention
by Louie Crew, Chair of the Newark Deputation

Lesbigays typically take more risks than heterosexuals in sharing their faith stories: We risk increased stigma, and in some places we risk access to our families, employment and housing, just for having told others how Jesus is working in our lives.
The General Convention meeting in Denver July 5-14 has the opportunity to move the Episcopal Church beyond its current deadlock on homosexuality as a defining "issue." We desperately need to unite in common servant ministry to the many who will more likely believe that God loves them if they can see God change us to love one another.

Social crises do not disappear until they reach resolution with which most can agree to live. We do not get beyond crises if we delay action in the hope of appeasing one side or the other. Those who feel they are the victims of injustice can and should continue to importune until given justice.

In Denver we need to affirm the blessing of monogamous life commitments of lesbigay persons, and we need to call on the Standing Liturgical Commission to draft rites for use in the Book of Occasional Services. We also need to respect those who in good faith believe they cannot perform such liturgies, just as now no priest is required to marry any two people merely because they think they have a right to marriage.

In Denver, we need to establish an official way for parishes to declare themselves safe places for dialogue on lesbigay issues to continue. Lesbigays typically take more risks than heterosexuals in sharing their faith stories: We risk increased stigma, and in some places we risk access to our families, employment and housing, just for having told others how Jesus is working in our lives. Many parishes want a formal opportunity to proclaim welcome that lesbigays can trust.

In Denver we need to pass legislation now proposed to curb hate crimes, the victims of which are singled out merely because of who they are.

We need also to support Charles Bennison's (Bishop of Pennsylvania) resolution that calls for a study of the sin of heterosexism. Personal good will is an important start to redress the hatred and abuse that lesbigays have experienced in the name of Christ, but anyone who is blood kin to lesbigays must go farther to remove the special privileges systemically in place for heterosexuals. We need to as we would for family members: straight and lesbigay Christians are blood kin -- united in the blood of the Eucharist.

The elephant in the living room
At General Convention in 1997 a resolution calling for the blessing of same-sex unions came within one vote of passing in lay and clerical orders in the House of Deputies. In a move planned long before the convention and without reference to it, five dioceses left ECUSA immediately afterwards to form the new Province of the Caribbean. All five of those dioceses had voted against the blessing of same-sex unions. The arithmetic is clear: If the remaining deputations vote the same way in 2000 that they did in 1997, the rites would win by a significant margin.

An estimaged 43.8 percent of the deputies are new in Denver; 39 percent of the deputies were new in 1997. Neither conservatives nor liberals are claiming to have made major new inroads in recruiting deputies and in defeating the 'opposition' in the elections of deputies for 2000. Then why is not everyone conceding that the vote for same-sex unions will pass overwhelmingly this summer? Because we do not know the effect the Lambeth Conference and the Singapore consecrations will have on either House.

The Presiding Bishop has called for a "fallow time" and many in his House have indicated that they would like for us to have no vote on sexuality issues at this convention. Liberals counter that it is not fair to make lesbigays scapegoats for the issues that really divide us: Usury and divorce could just as easily be the presenting issues for our questions about the authority of Scripture, tradition and reason. Only the most radical of conservatives assert that the Lambeth resolutions have binding authority on the life of Episcopalians, and certainly few are likely to give that authority to earlier actions still on the book from Lambeth, such as this one:

"A further evil with which we have had to deal is of such a kind that it cannot be spoken of without repugnance. No one who values the purity of home life can contemplate without grave misgiving the existence of an evil which jeopardises that purity; no one who treasures the Christian ideal of marriage can condone the existence of habits which subvert some of the essential elements of that ideal. In view of the figures and facts which have been set before us, we cannot doubt that there is a widespread prevalence amongst our peoples of the practice of resorting to artificial means for the avoidance or prevention of childbearing. We have spoken of these practices and endeavoured to characterise them as they deserve, not only in their results, but in themselves; and we would appeal to the members of our own Churches to exert the whole force of their Christian character in condemnation of them." (Encyclical Letter of the Lambeth Conference 1908)
As of this writing the John Rodgers and Charles Murphy, the episcopi vagantes consecrated in Singapore as bishop-missionaries to the Episcopal Church, have not yet been invited to perform episcopal functions in any ECUSA diocese. I personally have invited them to come have dinner with Ernest and me at any time, and I urge that all of us sinners minister to them with respect and hospitality. While they are not ECUSA bishops, they serve God to the best of their understanding.
The Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music has offered resolutions that trouble both sides. Trying to move beyond the division and still give space to both "sides," The SCLM resolutions call for local option regarding both same-sex unions and the ordination of lesbigays. Lesbigays note that we already can ordain lesbigays; those who said we could not took Walter Righter to trial, and on May 15, 1996, he was acquitted. It would make no sense to resolve something now already upheld by the highest court in ECUSA's polity. Lesbigays note that we also already have local option with regard to same-sex blessings for any bishops who have the courage of their convictions: "Also, subject to the direction of the bishop, special devotions taken from this book, or from Holy Scripture, may be used when the needs of the congregation so require." (BCP, 13) Ninety-three bishops have now signed the 1994 Statement of Koinonia, which included the pledge: "But we also believe that those who know themselves to be gay or lesbian persons, and who do not choose to live alone, but forge relationships with partners of their choice that are faithful, monogamous, committed, life giving and holy are to be honored. We will continue to relate to these couples with our support, our pastoral care, our prayers and our recognitions, in whatever form is deemed appropriate, that God is indeed present in their life together."

Conservatives are not happy with the SCLM proposal either. They argue that local option gives an imprimatur that should never be given and that what is now done in a few places may well become normative as more people begin to do it.

Conservatives and liberals alike join to call for a vote that would get us beyond this division rather than keep us poised to continue this argument ad nauseum. Those consecrated in Singapore have said that the Episcopal Church as it now exists is too corrupt and can be reformed only by abandoning it and fleeing into other Anglican jurisdictions, serving here as missionaries representing what they believe to be the true and uncorrupted form of the Anglican faith.
Liberals also decry the pleas for delay. As much as I care about the need to bring justice to lesbigay people, I personally would support a delay if I thought that it had a chance of holding us together more securely. Justice to lesbigays is not for me the cutting edge of my faith. There are many other crises and needs equally compelling, and none more so than loving God and joining with all others, including those with whom I disagree, to bring news genuinely good to a world spiritually starved.

But I do believe that delaying a decision on the lesbigay issues before us will merely keep them at the front burner, where they will continue to vitiate our common ministry.

Lambeth did indeed up the ante by reminding us that what we do here is not isolated from the rest of the world, that we are indeed one world and accountable to one another. I am appalled by the ignorance of liberals that Lambeth has brought out for all the world to see. Anyone who was surprised by the position on homosexuality held by the bishops in the Global South merely did not know the church in those areas and did not realize the enormous gift for all of us by those who brought Christianity to them -- mainly good conservative Christians of strong faith. It is not clear whether any part of the Anglican Communion can expel another province from the Communion as First Promise and those who promoted the Singapore consecrations have requested. I argue that even if ECUSA were to be expelled from the Communion we should continue to contribute even more generously to those who have expelled us, because the money that we give is not our money, but God's money. We enjoy vastly more of the world's resources than most other parts of the Communion. God is doing wondrous things in the lives of Christians in the Global South, and we have much to learn from them about faith in the midst of appalling adversity. As a gay Christian I frequently find myself nourished much more by the witness of African and Asian Christians than I do in the more comfortable pews to which I am accustomed.

Nor do I hear others in the communion speaking in the one voice their bishops used at Lambeth. I have visited Africa twice in the last 18 months, and on both occasions I found lay and clergy alike open to dialogue with me as a gay Christian. Khotso Makhulu, Archbishop of Church of the Province of Central Africa, sought me out at the World Council of Churches and before a crowd of witnesses apologized for Lambeth, saying that there is no way that he can possibly understand the pain that Lambeth has brought to me and to my communiy, but he wanted to assure me that it grieves him terribly. "The Bible is not meant to be a weapon," he said.
On another trip to Mozambique I asked a bishop whether he had ever heard the testimony of a lesbigay Christian. He had not, but graciously consented to hear mine. He had voted against lesbigays at Lambeth without ever having had such an opportunity, as had dozens. In time he will have that opportunity for lesbigay Christians whom I met in his own diocese. I cannot give much credence to the negative judgment at Lambeth because it was so clearly uninformed; but I rejoice that the bishops at Lambeth committed themselves to be open to hearing the testimonies of lesbigay Christians. I believe that Lambeth gave a great gift to the whole communion by putting these conversations on the agenda: Otherwise, how else will people learn of the transforming power of God at work in the lives of lesbigay Christians? The bishops at Lambeth were wrong to fall into loud cheers of "V I C T O R Y" and hisses; but if we gave up on every Christian who has ever fallen into hubris when we found ourselves for the first time in a new majority, there would be no Christians left.

In Singapore and later, in Aporto, Portugal, when several primates scolded the Episcopal Church, they may have given a blessing that they did not anticipate: In pushing their power to the limits they have revealed that there are limits. The power that anyone enjoys comes most importantly by the consent of the people under that power. Not even the most efficient dictator can govern well because he can never sleep secure. Primates have no binding power outside their own jurisdictions, and moral power comes more by love and patience than by bullying. Since the first General Convention in 1785 the Episcopal Church has been governed equally by lay and clergy. In demanding that our primate take actions to restrain us, they have opened for all their own people to see a more democratic structure than many parts of the communion enjoy: Our primate cannot order us around, nor has he tried. It would be inappropriate for him as primate to take up the charge to lead the way for the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of gays as he did while Bishop of Chicago, but in no way can he stop General Convention from doing so if that is our will, and no one expects him to go back on his personal commitments to a more inclusive church.

I was privileged to meet for dinner one evening in NYC two archbishops, Maurice Sinclair and Harry Goodhew, as well as bishops representing the Archibishop of Uganda and Tanzania. They had come to this country because of our primate's invitation to "come and see" the people of the Episcopal Church. With me were five lesbigay clergy. Each of us told about Jesus' work in our lives. The clergy described their ministries, most of them not focused at all on lesbigay people. In their response our visitors referred to nothing that we had said, but gave us material they had prepared in advance to witness to the menace that we pose for the whole Communion. By my watch they talked much longer than we had. They did not at all resemble the gentleness and kindness of the hundreds of Asians and Africans who had flocked to the more than 50 discussion sessions that lesbigay Christians had conducted at the World Council of Churches.

Gays and lesbians are the canary in the coal mine. If the canary can remain alive, others know that there are no toxic fumes, that the mine is safe. Thousands, including many who do not care much about lesbigays either way, are watching how the church responds to lesbigays to determine whether the church might also be safe for them. When my Samaritan ancestor left the well, she did not shout, "He told me all about my sin!" but rather, "He told me everything I ever did!" Jesus responded not to her sin but to her thirst. General Convention has a marvelous opportunity to drink from Samaritan Wells.

Louie Crew is a member of the board of the Episcopal Church Publishing Company, the owner of The Witness.