We live in a changing world.
The reality is that the world has been changing ever since the creation. If you look at the creation stories, God created and the next day created again. New realities always emerged out of chaos.
For the past few General Conventions, Deputies and Bishops have been trapped in trying to live into new realities. The days of being the “chosen frozen,” the “elite,” “Republican” and “WASPS” were long gone. Instead, our Church was declining in those areas and growing rapidly in all other areas.
Since the 1970’s, we started to address issues of justice trying to open our doors to more and more, living into a new reality of radical welcome as an outpouring of our Baptismal Covenant. Sadly, with the election of V. Gene Robinson as Bishop in 2003 and the election of Katharine as the Presiding Bishop in 2006 combined with the Anglican Communion demands for the Church to no longer consent to the ordinations of openly gay individuals to the episcopate, we started, as a Church, to backtrack in the areas of new realities. Our church stopped growing and rapidly declined. Whereas, during the 1980’s, we were growing.
Following 2006, four Episcopal Diocese have attempted to leave (ok, it might be argued that they have left) the Episcopal Church. Parishes have left. Priests have left. What has been left have been bishops, priests, deacons and laity who desire to live more fully into the new realities we face.
From the beginning of this General Convention, there has been a palpable shift in the energy of deputations and bishops. Vote after vote, the house, even with its vocal minority, is moving back into being a church committed to living fully into the Gospel of love of all individuals. A new reality has been set and today’s actions prove just that.
During today’s debates, the House of Deputies worked on issues of just war, evangelism, environmental responsibility and even adding gender identity or expression to the Canon of Ordination which would not make those areas impediments towards entering the discernment process.
(On an aside, the resolution, C061 amended, not only added gender identity or expression to the Canons, it rewrote the Canon to be very explicit that all the baptized are eligible to entering any discernment process for ministry regardless of a list of criteria. Additionally, these individuals may not be stopped in the process due to said reasons. The Resolution, brought to the floor, stated:
Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That Title III, Canon 1, Sec. 2 of the Canons of the Episcopal Church is hereby amended to read as follows: No personnone All baptized persons noneshall be deniednone have full noneaccess to the discernment process for any ministry in this Churchnone, lay or ordained, in this Churchnone except as otherwise provided by these Canons. No person shall be denied access or have his or her discernment process terminated nonebecause of race, color, ethnic origin, national origin, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expressionnone ,disabilities or age, except as otherwise provided by these Canons. No right to licensing, ordination, or election is hereby established.
For me, this language was so important. It wasn’t only important to my transgendered sisters and brothers, it was important to the Church and to my own understanding of baptism which brought me to the Church in the first place.
Thus, I quickly scribed some verbiage and got in queue to speak. Three individuals, including a transgendered man, spoke eloquently. Then, someone from the far “right” stood to amend the resolution to delete the term “expression.” It was seconded and the amender spoke to it.
President Anderson asked if anyone at the microphones wanted to speak against the amendment. Knowing it was my only change to speak, I waved my hand and began to speak against the amendment and then for the original resolution based upon what I had already wrote. I ended by saying that as a younger priest in the Church, it is our understanding of baptism and full inclusion that brought me to the Church and it is what is bringing others to the Church.
A motion was made to vote on the amendment, which failed, and then a vote by orders happened. We don’t have the tally yet, but I think C061 will be passed along to the House of Bishops. God-willing, it will pass in that House.
I felt privilege to add my voice to the debate and was thanked profusely by the transgendered community for being willing to stand for them.)
Many new realities happened today. Of all the new realities one was the biggest. The House of Bishops voted to pass D025 with two amendments. The bishops voted 99 – 45, with two abstentions, to move it back to the House of Deputies for consent. The resolution was modified in the fourth resolve (see previous post), to state: “and that God’s call to the ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church is a mystery which the church attempts to discern for all people” after the words “to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church” and deleted “which call is tested.” Additionally, they made a clarifying statement about the constituent churches of the Anglican Communion. In other words, the attempted new Province in America will not be one that we consider as a place to look for consensus.
What will happen now is that the resolution will move back to the House of Deputies for Concurrence. This will happen as amended and we will then have a concurring resolution and it will be enacted immediately. The bar to gays and lesbians to the episcopate will once again be removed.
We still have much work to do. But, today, of all days, I give thanks for this new reality – or, perhaps it is living back into an old reality. We truly are a Church committed the inclusion of all the baptized.
Copyright © 2009 The Very Rev. Christopher D. Hofer