“Coming so soon after the slate announced by the Diocese of Minnesota,” said Integrity President Reverend Susan Russell in a written statement, “today’s announcement by the Diocese of Los Angeles is another sign that the ‘season of fasting’ at the expense of the vocations of gays and lesbians in the Episcopal Church is at an end.”
Reached by phone, Russell added, “for Minnesota and California to move so quickly after our convention, what they are doing is signaling that the resolution that we passed in Anaheim is not just a resolution but reality. The Episcopal Church is in a place where it is able to be broadly inclusive. That is good news not only for the diocese, but also the whole church.”
Integrity is an Episcopalian LGBT advocacy group.
Meanwhile, what can be said of the three candidates?
“He’s a great pastor and we’ll be sorry to lose him,” said Sarah Lawton, senior warden, a St. John’s lay leadership position, referring to Kirkley.
This is priceless: “for Minnesota and California to move so quickly after our convention . . . ”
Yeh — who’d a thunk it??? It’s so shocking . . . why . . . one would have thought they were hard at work on these candidates what . . . five, six, seven months earlier!
But instead, these two dioceses sprang into action and quickly announced the gays and lesbians mere weeks after the convention!!! How’s that for quick courageous action???!!!!
[roll eyes]
I mean I can get Russell trying to psyche some people out some of the time, and artificial and affected works sometimes I suppose, but really . . . one has to wonder who her audience is? I suppose it’s the ignorant and uninformed non-Christian who can take away some sort of imagined “quick work” by two Episcopal dioceses so that Russell can foster the long-cherished and hoped-for illusion of momentum that gay activists so often seek to promote.
Maybe that’s the right way to go — certainly credibility amongst Christians is not something that Russell should waste time pursuing anyway. But still . . . to pretend as if two dioceses sprang into action weeks after Convention and rustled up some gay clergy to nominate for bishop is really pretty brazen.
Well, Sarah, it wasn’t like anyone was going out on a limb predicting that GC09 would gut what little hesitation B033 might have introduced into the process of turning TEC into the Castro District with vestments.