“It’s the benefit of Anglicanism to me. We’ve got everything from the arch-conservative to the arch-liberal,” said the Rev. Lou Scales, of The Church of Our Savior, on Columbia Road in Martinez.
A few years ago, The Church of Our Savior held an event titled “A Discussion With Gay and Lesbian Episcopalians,” and has hired a senior warden who is gay.
“That kind of preference is incidental to us,” the Rev. Scales said.
It isn’t as incidental for others, said the Rev. Richard Sanders, the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, on Reynolds Street. “There are people who have left St. Paul’s on this issue — both because we’re not liberal enough and not conservative enough.”
The issue, he said, is clearly divisive.
“It has affected us here at St. Paul’s, locally, regionally, nationally and internationally,” the Rev. Sanders said. “It’s a terribly devastating thing for me. I grew up in this church. This crisis, and this issue, has been very hurtful.”
The Rev. Fain agreed.
“Living with the ambiguity and the tensions has been very challenging,” he said. “Some of us have the concern that this is drawing us away from our main mission.”
The Rev. Sanders said that although the issue is important to him and to the people of St. Paul’s, “it’s not our priority here.”
“We’re focused on showing the love of Christ to the world,” he said.
Perhaps, the Rev. Scales said, that’s best done “by still gathering at the table, both in spite of and because of our differences.”
So, we get a report from the trenches.
Are same-sex blessings being performed in this diocese? Does this diocese have any openly homosexual clergy?
Does this diocese have an Integrity chapter? Does it have a healing ministry for persons with same-sex attraction or who are practicing homosexuals who feel called to change?
As a former memeber of this diocese, I am not aware of any public SSBs. There is an Integrity chapter which gets a lot of press. There have been endless dialogues. The bishop voted against VGR and I think, KJS. The diocese exists to provide a refuge from fundamentalism in rurual areas although this does not appear in the mission statement. Approximately half of the congregations are small missions, some for over a hundred years. The small church gets a lot of press for the reason staed above.
Does that mean that SSBs are happening in private?
I do not believe that Bishop Louttit is allowing any SSBs to take place n his Diocese. As a former member of the Diocese of Georgia, they have taken a stand that there will be no gay clergy – however Bishop Louttit has announced his retirement and who knows who will be the next bishop of Georgia and where they will be in regards to the issue. I have many close friends still in this diocese. Pray for the Diocese of Georgia.