At the other end of the age spectrum, Bishop Shaw of Massachusetts said that Episcopal high school students had told him they could not invite their friends to a church which did not welcome everyone. Sam Gough, who attended in 2006 as part of the official youth presence but is present this year as a deputy for Massachusetts, said “in some places the church of tomorrow has come today” and we should welcome it. Another young man who grappled with the Biblical witness concluded “I do not believe that God addressed this issue.”
Janie Donohue from Connecticut told us that most of her friends and family are not Christian but when marriage became a possibility of same-sex couples, they turned to her to celebrate their weddings. She found it difficult to explain the canons and had to emphasize that God is not the Church ”“ a rejection by the Church is not a rejection by God. Janie is a partnered lesbian about to become a mom and her friends cannot understand why she will not get civilly married in order to provide legal protection for her child, but as an Episcopal priest she wants her marriage blessed by the faith community. She reminded us that people who leave because they think we’re too liberal don’t leave the Church but people who leave because they are not accepted, leave the Church completely.
[blockquote]Transgender experience explained to General Convention Committee
The World Mission Committee got a quick lesson Wednesday evening on what transgender means, and the difference between “transgender” and “sexual orientation” from Integrity’s own Rev. Cameron Partridge. At a hearing on two resolutions designed to outlaw discrimination against people based on “gender identity or expression of gender identity,” Cameron confidently fielded questions from the committee. Several trans people (both clergy and lay) testified to the importance of making sure the church is fully inclusive of every shade of trans person.
Deacon Vicki Gray hit it on the head when she said “bring transgendered is a baptismal thing” and pointed out the analogy between transitioning and baptism which moves us from one state to another. We are all ministers by our baptism she proclaimed, and none should be excluded from ministry.[/blockquote]
OK. For the purpose of clarity I hope these resolutions and canon changes pass.
“…cannot understand why she will not get civilly married in order to provide legal protection for her child”
What “legal protection” is she referring to?
So according to this first hand report, about 30 people spoke in favor of passing B012, and NOT A SINGLE PERSON argued against it, altough one committee member urged caution. A very interesting anecdote.
David Handy+
If this resolution passes both houses does it mean that TEC has officially approved same-sex marriages? That’s how I read it.
If the GLBT theology is such a gift to the church, then why is TEC not bursting at the seems with growth? Bishop Shaw claims that [i]Episcopal high school students had told him they could not invite their friends to a church which did not welcome everyone.[/i] But, he just watched 100,000 or so be driven out of TEC and into the arms of ACNA (not including those that have departed the Anglican expression of Christianity in the US over the last six years). I could understand the confusion on his part if the church had enough gains to offset its losses, but now he is a bishop in a church with some 450,000 worshippers any given weekend.
And who does not want GLBT’s and everyone else going to church? All Christians are called to be inclusive. The real question is whether the church can bless a behavior for which Scripture claims He died.
If “God is not the church,” then why so much pressure to make the church jump through these LGBT hoops?
Bp. Shaw? Those “young people” ain’t comin’ to a spiritually empty, bureaucratic, legalistic old church, even with LGBT rituals.
If you all are so “spiritual”, drop the fancy titles, robes, rituals, money and property, and have the “integrity” to live out your LGBT fascination without pretending it is any more than that.
Of course they are strikingly mistaken. But then again, the author’s argument is essentially that TEC should establish theology by testing the cultural wind:
“We don’t need an episcopal Weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
😉