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 \u201cin some places the church of tomorrow has come today\u201d\u009d and we should welcome it. Another young man who grappled with the Biblical witness concluded \u201cI do not believe that God addressed this issue.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
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 \u201d\u201c 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\u2019re too liberal don\u2019t leave the Church but people who leave because they are not accepted, leave the Church completely.<\/p>\n