The big news of the day is that the House of Deputies approved resolution D025, a response to B033, the resolution passed at General Convention in 2006 that placed a moratorium on the election of gay bishops.
Sorry to boggle you with all that convention-ese of resolution names and numbers.
I think it’s important to point out what this resolution does and doesn’t do, before we all start wringing our hands and doing the Chicken Little thing. The sky has not fallen. Even one of the deputies who crafted the bill said, “This is not a great leap forward.”
The bill reaffirms the continued participation of the Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion. It encourages us to be involved in work throughout the communion, and it reaffirms the financial support of the Episcopal Church for the Anglican Communion. (These are some of the very deliberate steps toward reconciliation that I’ve talked about in earlier posts. The “bonds of affection” with our brothers and sisters around the Communion are important.)
The resolution also recognizes that same-sex relationships represent fidelity and holy love. It recognizes that gays and lesbians in same-sex relationships have exercised ministry in the church.
It acknowledges that God has called and may call any individual in the church to any ordained ministry in the church, in accordance with the discernment process set forth in our Constitution and Canons. This one’s important. No parish is going to be forced to call a gay rector. No diocese is going to be forced to elect a gay bishop. As anyone who has ever served on a search committee knows, we have lengthy and painstaking discernment processes to determine who it is God is calling to be our next spiritual leader. And in the case of bishops, Standing Committees and bishops will still have to decide whether to approve the election of every bishop. (The church jargon here is “giving their consents.”)
Essentially, this resolution is saying that our Constitution and Canons carry greater weight than a General Convention resolution. And our canons already say we don’t discriminate.
The resolution also acknowledges that the Anglican Communion is not of one mind on these matters. This is hard. We’re all not in the same place on this. Reasonable, prayerful, committed Christians can disagree. My mother and I don’t agree on this. We’ve agreed to keep loving each other anyway.
The approval was by a margin of more than 2 to 1 in both the clergy and the lay orders. When the results were announced, the rules of the House of Deputies were in place, so there was no applause, no cheering.
What now? Well, only the House of Deputies has passed this resolution. It goes next to the House of Bishops. Some people are speculating that they’ll take a more conservative view than the Deputies. In the next few days Convention will take up a number of other measures relating to human sexuality and same-sex blessings. Sunday’s vote certainly showed the mind of the House. Now it will be interesting to see whether that 2-to-1 margin holds as the week unfolds. At 7:30 Monday morning I’ll be at a hearing on some of those resolutions yet to come.
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The Rev. Frank Wade, chaplain to the House of Deputies, has been grounding us in prayer at the start and end of every legislative session. On Saturday, he observed, “Christianity is a verb. It is something we do. We call ourselves followers of Jesus because Jesus was going somewhere. If that weren’t the case, we’d have to say that we’re ‘attached to Jesus’ or ‘stacked next to Jesus’ or ‘filed under Jesus.’ ”
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At a Sunday morning breakfast sponsored by the Episcopal Women’s Caucus, president Elizabeth Kaeton remarked that “members of the Episcopal Church Women wear white gloves. We wear boxing gloves.” (The caucus advocates to advance the role of women, particularly clergy, in the church, and supports progressive causes.) Later Elizabeth Habecker, vice president of the Episcopal Church Women, stepped to the microphone with this correction: “We don’t wear white gloves, we wear work gloves!”
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How You Know You’re in California: Fellow deputy Roger Schwenke and I grabbed a sub at the Subway a block from the hotel at lunchtime today. (Ah, the glamorous life of a conventioneer.) We discovered some differences from the fare that’s offered at the Subways in Southwest Florida. Here, you can order jalapeno-and-cheese bread, and for a slight up charge you can add avocadoes to your sandwich. How California is that? — Judy Stark
General Convention Journal 
Hi Judy –
Thanks for the terrific job of blogging! You make me feel like I am right there with you – informative, personal, and interesting.
Today was the first time I checked your blog – now I plan to check every day until Convention ends.
Thank you for being there for us.
Jody
Am enjoying your blog. Hang in there the fun’s just beginning. R+
Lambeth 1.10 was overwhelmingly approved in 1998 (including by the American delegation). That statement has been reaffirmed to be the present position of the Anglican Communion in pretty much every meeting, including the most recent Lambeth Conference. The HoD action is an in-your-face, we’ll do as we please puerile statement.
I applaud the H of D decision. We need to move forward. It is not an in your face statement, it is the voice of the ECUSA and the voice of what is right and what is social justice. Homophobia no more.
The resolution also recognizes that “same-sex relationships represent… holy love.” As an attorney who regularly drafts legislation I recognize that thus language is so vague and imprecise it could mean so many things. There are different forms of holy love. If by love we mean what C.S. Lewis calls “affection” (storge, στοργή) of course anyone could agree. If we mean friendship (philia, φιλία) certainly same sex relationships represent this form of holy love. If we are talking about (agapē, ἀγάπη) then no one could legitimately complain. I suspect, however, that what is behind the “holy love” language is going to be interpreted as Eros (ἔρως) erotic or sexual love. That is how people will read it. I think people on the minority side of the 2 to 1 divide have reason for concern due to this fact alone. It is interesting to me that if someone sees the larger picture of this issue within the Anglican Communion and desires to be sensitive to the issues within that relationship they are automatically labeled a homophobe. I truly believe that if you remove that vague but potentially inflammatory language you still get to the same end result by merely standing on the language: “that God has called and may call any individual in the church to any ordained ministry in the church, in accordance with the discernment process set forth in our Constitution and Canons.” If you are right that the now minority voice is still valued then we have to be sensitive to the real and deep pain and conflict that the “holy love” language will cause. Some may think that every person who believes that a non-celibate homosexual relationship violates Biblical laws is a homophobe but those people would be wrong. I pray that the House of Bishops listens carefully to not only the narrow need and desire of the American church but is also sensitive to the expressed desire to stay in communion with the larger Anglican body. I pray there is no further splintering and fragmentation as a result of this convention. I sincerely ask God to guide the House of Bishops into a solution that allows both branches to grow up together in parallel paths but still connected to the same vine. As a wise person once said then “that which is of God can and will flourish, and that which is not of God will wither and die” but then we are not the judge God is.
“As a wise person once said then ‘that which is of God can and will flourish, and that which is not of God will wither and die’ but then we are not the judge God is.”
That “wise person” was Gamaliel, Paul’s teacher, talking about the early Christian Church. None could argue that the Church flourished from very humble beginnings.
In contrast, the Episcopal denomination is now vying with the UCC for the fastest declining. Last year the TEC “won.” This year, the UCC did. Next year, the TEC will regain the number one status when the exiting of the four dioceses is taken into account. People commonly say, “Even the Southern Baptists are declining.” The SBC lost 0.25% and has 16 million – basically statistically unchanged. In contrast, the TEC has only 2.1 million and is losing members at a rate 10 times faster.
Now 90% of churches report significant conflict with the number one cause the role of homosexuals in the church. The average parish size is now 69 which is quite close to the edge of viability. Thus, the one should expect a huge number of churches to slip into non-viability due to this decision.
let’s blame the gays! it really is easy, isn’t it.
It’s a(nother) symptom of a deeper problem: lack of fidelity to the Gospel. *That’s* why TEC is dying.
Thank you to all those at Convention! There has been struggle and there will continue to be struggle but we are showing signs that we can agree to disagree. If only small glimmers, the eyes of my heart can see it.
I rejoice at the passage of D025, pray that the House of Bishops prayerfully consider it, that God leads them to pass it, and we can live in communion with it.
Earlier in the Convention there was discussion about how far we have to go to repent for slavery. Let’s not put ourselves in the same position of having to ask forgiveness from our gay / lesbian brothers / sisters and repent of our discrimination.
I would so love to see us get on with the work of Christ by exciting the parishioners in the pews. Christ spoke more about divorce than homosexuality. B033 along with D025 give parishes authorities and tools to make clear decisions that are right for their parishes / diocese. That’s a job well done.
John –
“Fire? What fire?” – said the arsonist.
I imagine Jesus is weeping for his church gone astray, and feeling his stomach churn as he realizes that spewing comes next. You are not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. His call to you is to be zealous and repent.
“Christ spoke more about divorce than homosexuality.”
Making it even more scandalous that the bishop of Northern California has been divorced twice and married thrice. (And let’s just not talk about the retired but still in good standing bishop of Utah, Otis Charles, who between him and his husband had five previous marriages. So much for being “above reproach.”)
So we compound the scandal by adding a host of clergy having sexual relations outside of Christian marriage?
i for one welcome this and i hope you all take it further. no more dishonesty and no more fence sitting, in some extreme circumstances divorce is necessary. i look forward with interest in twenty years (if i am still on this earth)to see how much more of the Bible has been rendered irrelevent by liberals. Those pesky commandments….they just don’t ‘feel’ right…
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