These are the words of the Dean of the Cathedral of Southwark who felt compelled, and with good reason, to introduce the visiting preacher and presider of the Eucharist at the Cathedral's main service this last Sunday. An invitation to Bishop Katharine had been extended over a year ago. The Very Rev. Colin Slee went on to explain that he had not for a moment, in light of the recent events in the international Church, considered retracting her invitation.
It has been reported that the Archbishop of Canterbury asked the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America not to wear her mitre, the head covering of a bishop, and not to carry the universal symbol of a bishop's authority: the staff, or crozier. Bishop Katharine has not, to my knowledge, commented on the accuracy of this statement, but it was noted by those present that she carried, but did not don, her mitre, and her crozier was not in sight. Apparently, with the approaching Synod of the Church of England, where the consecration of women as bishops will be a major topic, Archbishop Williams did not want to fan any flames. It strikes me that, with knowledge of the legend of Nero's musical endeavors as most of Rome burned, for the Archbishop to concern himself with the accouterments of our Presiding Bishop while the Church of England, and indeed the entire Anglican Communion, is facing such a monumental change is a misguided waste of energy.
Returning to Dean Slee, it comes to mind that he represents those in the Church of England who understand that power and control are not the central issues of Christianity…rather, it is seeing each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.
It might be worth recounting, briefly, how we got to this point. I am aware that there are many who did not hear my sermon last Sunday, which attempted to do just that, and that several who were there asked afterward if I would put it in print, so they could consider my description with more time.
As I said in sermon last Sunday, we can trace the kind of controversy which now absorbs the energy of the Church back to its very beginnings, with the differences between the Churches in Jerusalem and those in what we now call Asia Minor. James, brother of Jesus and a Jewish/Christian (not the best term, but will have to do), on the one side and Paul, originally from Tarsus located in modern Turkey, on the other. Inclusion was the key issue then, too. The point of contention: did followers of Jesus first have to be practicing Jews?
We can now move a good deal closer to home. Culture and the Protestant Church have always been deeply intertwined. Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Queen Elizabeth I were all leaders in the European churches that broke away in the sixteenth century from Rome. Unlike Roman Catholics and most reform Churches (Anabaptists,Quakers, Mennonites), European Churches embraced a strong relationship between the culture and religion. Accordingly, it is not surprising that many in these Churches were at the forefront of the immense, worldwide societal changes of the middle 1960's.
Yet in the Episcopal Church of that time, ardently held opinions battled with each other. Spokesmen for the two “factions” were Bishop John Hines and Bishop Stephen Bayne, each a strong contender in the 1964 election for the new presiding bishop. Hines won and in many ways the die was cast. Bayne was a conservative Anglo-Catholic who had been a major voice in the futile attempt to persuade the House of Bishops to declare the Bishop of California, James Pike, a heretic. Hines, on the other hand, was a social liberal who fought for civil rights, the ordination of women, and equality for African Americans in the Church. (Episcopal seminaries in the south had been segregated until the middle 1950's.)
Thus began a very difficult time for the Episcopal Church. In the 1970's, controversy around women's ordination and changes in the Prayer Book shook both congregations and Church leadership. When I was in seminary in the 1980's, it was the use of inclusive language in worship that created stress. It was at the same time the issue of full inclusion of gay and lesbian people became important and divisive.
Many who had felt pushed by changes they could not stop were very upset about the prominence this discussion began to take on. With the election of Gene Robinson as the Bishop of New Hampshire and the ratification of his election by Church leadership at the General Convention in 2003, many conservative Episcopalians felt they could no longer, in good conscience, be part of the Church.
So they left, but in their leaving did several significant things. They courted, and aligned themselves with, conservative Anglicans in Africa. They decided, at least here in Virginia, to refuse to leave the church buildings in which they had worshiped, forcing a wrenching and costly showdown. More on that in a bit.
Now, with international involvement - the Churches in Nigeria, Uganda, and Rwanda - the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, got involved. Fearing that the Anglican Communion worldwide (WWAC) was in danger of falling apart, as the Churches in Canada and the U.S. were moving to bring gays and lesbians into full participation in the life of the Church, Archbishop Williams called a group of Anglican leaders together to create a document called the Windsor Report. The Report would both define what it was to be part of the WWAC and provide a way to move forward in the midst of all the angst.
It was during this time that nine of the 180 parishes in Virginia decided to leave the Episcopal Church. They found a "home" in several different Churches in Africa, with several American priests leaving the Episcopal Church to be ordained bishops in these new "homes." They then returned from Africa to lead other U.S. churches that had separated from the Episcopal Church. All this in direct violation of the Windsor Report. At the 2006 General Convention, the newly elected Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, asked for and received a vote that effectively became a moratorium on the election of gay, partnered priests to the episcopacy (a bishop). This moratorium was honored until after the General Convention of 2009. In the spring of 2010 the Diocese of Los Angeles elected The Rev. Mary Glasspool as Bishop Suffragan and the majority of the rest of the Church affirmed her in short order.
This has created real problems for the Archbishop of Canterbury. He has tried his hardest to maintain a status quo, although his reasons for doing so are not entirely clear. It is apparent that there are major differences in fundamental issues between Anglicans, not only across continents but also within the United States, Australia, Canada, and South Africa. That many such differences have existed in the past, and that the Church has survived these times, seems to escape the Archbishop and others who find the changes that are happening a threat.
This past week a letter was issued to scholars and other leaders in the Episcopal Church who have been involved in two ecumenical study groups. They were informed that their memberships were "discontinued." Other than Bishop Robinson's exclusion from the last Lambeth Conference (an every ten-year gathering of all the Bishops in the WWAC) in England, this is the first time to my knowledge that such a thing has happened. It has created something of a “constitutional crisis” in a group which has no constitution. We will have to wait and see what follows.
Getting back to the issues of the Diocese of Virginia. When the nine congregations voted to leave the Episcopal Church they also decided to lay claim to the church buildings, even though there is canon (church) law passed by the General Convention in the mid 1970's, and centuries of tradition in hierarchical churches (those lead by ordained bishops), to the contrary. Designating themselves the Anglican District of Virginia (ADV), a district of the Convocation of Anglican Nigerians in America (CANA), these congregations rested their claim on an 1867 Virginia statute that addressed property rights determined upon a division within a church or religious society.
The Diocese of Virginia eventually had to sue these churches for access to its property. Advocates for the Diocese argued that the 1867 statute did not apply to a hierarchical church. A circuit court judge agreed with ACV; the five-member Virginia Supreme Court agreed with the Diocese. There will now be a series of proceedings to establish rights in and to the property, essentially back to where we were two years ago.
Except we're not back where we were. In reality, the landscape is continuing to change. Civil jurisdictions such as the District of Columbia and the State of Iowa are changing their marriage laws. Conservative, nationally known lawyers are arguing before the California Supreme Court to repeal Proposition 8 (banning homosexual marriage). With increasing clarity and conviction, the rightful place of gay and lesbian folks, right here in the mix with everybody, is being more firmly established.
Our task now is to continue to move in the direction of full equality and inclusion. Which for many means finding a way to include those with whom we have struggled, and those who have kept silent.
Edwin Markham, a poet and educator in California in the late early 1900s, apparently knew a lot about being left out. He once wrote a poem called “Outwitted.” Indeed.
He drew a circle that shut me out--
Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!
