Roughly six years after the consecration of a gay bishop triggered divisions in the Episcopal Church, clergy and lay leaders have recently voted to accept other gay or lesbian bishops and also to develop rites for same-sex marriages.
The landmark decisions have, in part, led to Oakland’s Rev. John Kirkley – a gay, married priest who leads a Mission District parish – being named a finalist to be a bishop in Los Angeles.
“We’re in a state of jubilation over this,” said Thomas Jackson, an Alameda resident who is president of Oasis California, an LGBT ministry sponsored by the Bay Area-based Episcopal Diocese of California. “This madness of having a time of restraining and sacrificing gay and lesbian people has passed.”
Yet the moves also threaten to further cleave a denomination at the center of global debates about sexuality and religion. Conservatives, who have a growing dominance in the global church, say they are increasingly alienated in the U.S. church and that biblical sanctity is at stake.
The Oasis seeks to make all ECUSA their own little desert.