The polls by the Pew Forum for Religion and Public Life provided crucial background to why North American Anglicans have been among those leading the cause for homosexual rights — and why they’re at loggerheads with evangelicals. The Pew Forum polls also helped explain the headline-making vote last week by a solid majority of Episcopalians (as Anglicans are known in the U.S.) to formally allow the ordination of homosexuals.

The issue had been disturbing some of the world’s 75 million Anglicans since 2003, when openly gay cleric Gene Robinson was elected the Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire.

The Pew Forum found seven out of 10 U.S. Episcopalians/Anglicans believe society should accept homosexuality as a way of life.

That compares to only 50 per cent support among the general U.S. population.

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Integrity is delighted that The Episcopal Church has opened the way for dioceses like Minnesota to field the best possible slate of candidates for the episcopate. “We hope that other dioceses will recognize that “discern for all people” really means ALL” said Russell, “and that the actions of our General Convention will put a sad chapter of discrimination against the LGBT baptized behind us.”

Read it all and note that I say the slate is preliminary because there is a petition process so there could be other nominees before the election in late October this year.

Word came recently that the Episcopal Church national convention plans to affirm gay and lesbian clergy. Some celebrated, while others recoiled. The public pondered.

From the sidelines I say, “Hooray for the steady progress of God’s holy spirit.”

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From here:

We as a search committee feel confident about our process which was thorough and intentional, and in which we listened intently for the Holy Spirit. The discernment process we followed is fully outlined here. We acted in full accordance with the Constitution and Canons of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of Minnesota.

We fully stand behind each of these candidates as possessing extraordinary gifts for episcopal ministry. We also see each of them being a good fit for our diocese, bringing a variety of delightful and profound gifts to share at this stage in our life together.

The three candidates are:

The Rev. Mariann Budde Rector, St John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota;

The Rev. Bonnie Perry Rector, All Saints Episcopal Church in Chicago, Illinois;

The Rev. Brian Prior Rector, Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Spokane Valley, Washington.

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My own denomination, the Episcopal Church, has had a long and difficult struggle with the issue of same-gender marriage. It is a struggle that I am saddened to say is a dividing force in the worldwide Anglican Communion. However, as sad as that makes me, I am not willing to see us back down from our support for LGBT equality.

Regardless of what my church decides or what any other faith tradition in this country decides, it is long past time for our government to recognize same-gender marriage as a civil right.

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In December 2006, members of the original congregation split from St. John’s Episcopal Church as part of a larger national break by conservative congregations over same-sex blessings, ordination of a gay bishop and the authority of Scripture. The breakaway St. John’s Anglican Church continued meeting in the church, an 1890 shingled sanctuary and rectory.

The remaining Episcopal members re-formed under the Rev. Norman Cram, who came out of retirement to conduct services ”” first in a parishioner’s living room and later at Elim Lutheran Church.

A settlement recently was reached with St. John’s Anglican congregation after a unanimous California Supreme Court ruling involving churches in a similar situation in Southern California.

“To be back home means we can reach outside of our border to the community of Petaluma,” said Cram. “Currently, we have been exploring areas in which there are vacuums in ministry.”

“I think the congregation is counting on us to provide an atmosphere of love and acceptance, as well as a message of hope during these tough times,” he added. “There have been rapid changes in our culture, and we think we can provide a safe place for all people wishing to worship.”

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[Bishop Ted] Gulick contended that the 2006 “restraint” pledge remains in effect.

“The moratorium would end at such a time as the Episcopal Church elected a gay or lesbian individual in a partnered relationship to be a bishop, and then consecrated him or her,” Gulick said.

If a diocese did so, bishops and diocesan committees would have to confirm the vote. Gulick said he would carefully weigh the candidate’s faith and “what gifts in ministry they have demonstrated.”

“But then I would also have to in my own prayerful concern take the impact of this on the community into my own discernment,” he added. That impact, Gulick said, was a key reason he recently voted not to approve the ordination of Northern Michigan Bishop-elect Kevin Thew Forrester.

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Read it all (24 page pdf).

The row is about the authority of Scripture which declares the practice of homosexuality to be a sin. Resolution 1.10 (1998 Lambeth Conference) rejected “homosexual practice as incompatible with Scripture”. The resolution “recognises that there are members of the Church who experience themselves as having a homosexual orientation…seeking”¦
pastoral care, moral direction of the Church and God’s transforming power for the living of their lives and the ordering of their relationships”. The clear implication is that these are not practising homosexuals, but “believing and faithful persons”””they believe in the teaching of Scripture and they are faithful to it. The opposition to the blessing of same-sex unions is that such an enterprise would be the blessing of sin, or what Jim Packer has called the ”˜sanctification of sin’.

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At St. James Episcopal Church in Bowie, children are free to roam during services, and they often amble up to the altar and hold the priest’s hand.

At St. George’s Episcopal, three miles down Lanham Severn Road in Glenn Dale, the congregation is an eclectic, quirky collective of straight and gay men and women of various races.

Neither Episcopal parish in northern Prince George’s County wants to sacrifice the factors that make it special. But against the backdrop of the recession, which has tightened parishioners’ pockets and diminished the value of the church’s national endowments, banding together has emerged as the only viable option for the survival of St. James, the smaller of the two churches with just 38 parishioners.

When that became clear to the Rev. Anne-Marie Jeffery, St. James’s rector (the Episcopal equivalent of a pastor), she reached out to St. George’s. Since April, the two parishes have been exploring a merger by having integrated services mostly at St. George’s, which is more modern and has a following of about 70.

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British Quakers agreed Friday to celebrate gay marriages and called on the government to recognise same-sex unions as legally valid.

At the religious group’s yearly meeting in York, the Quakers in Britain said they would ask the government to change the law to allow them to register same-sex marriages in the same way as heterosexual ones.

Gay rights campaigners said it was a “trail-blazing decision” after the issue of homosexual unions had opened deep divisions in other faiths.

Since 2005 same sex couples have been able to enter into civil partnerships in Britain which, while giving gay relationships legal status, are not considered a marriage.

The Quakers agreed “to treat same sex committed relationships in the same way as opposite sex marriages, reaffirming our central insight that marriage is the Lord’s work and we are but witnesses,” they said in a statement.

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My new acquaintance, a self-described traditional Christian who has issues with the ordination of women (never mind gays and lesbians), shook his head. From his perspective, the Episcopal Church is out of touch with the majority and has failed to recognize its place in the world.

I would argue that Episcopalians, who number around 2 million in a worldwide church of 80 million, are acutely aware of their place on the global Christian stage….

Episcopalians know [about the global Church shift from North to South]. Whatever their views on sexuality, they speak passionately about the importance of preserving relations and avoiding a major schism.

The question then becomes how to balance the desire to remain in communion with the desire to be fully inclusive of gay and lesbian members.

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