“A Generous Pastoral Response”

 

“A Generous Pastoral Response”

The Blessing of Same-Sex Relationships in the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama 

Last evening I had the privilege of meeting with the Bishops of the Diocese of Alabama, The Rt. Rev. Kee Sloan and The Rt. Rev. Santosh Marray, the clergy and the people of the Mountain Convocation of the Diocese of Alabama.  The Nave of the Church of the Resurrection in Gadsden Alabama was full of Episcopal Christians gathered to hear the plan put together by the bishops’ special committee to find “a way forward.”  The commission was made up of clergy and lay people on all sides of this issue, an issue which has been talked about and argued about and fought about for close to forty-five years. 

We began our time together with Evening Prayer and the renewal of our baptismal covenant, including our promise “to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being.” 

After our time of prayer together Bp. Sloan stated that our purpose was not to fight, that we had done enough of that already over the years with hurtful and harmful results to the church and many individuals within the church.  He shared that his purpose was not to change anyone’s mind, but to share with us a plan that would allow those parishes and priests who believed that this was a way to reach out to people in the name of a loving and holy God to do so, while at the same time allowing those parishes and priests who believe this is wrong for the church the right not to do so. Bishop Sloan was a wonderful role model for the church and for the vestry, rector conversations that will follow in our own parishes. 

 The context of prayer and loving acceptance made it possible for all to share their feelings, confident that we were all in a safe place.  All feelings and opinions were respected, even by those who disagreed with one speaker or another.  As Bishop Sloan said in the beginning, the time to fight is over, the time to open ourselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and to trust our fellow travelers is here.  All of us took to heart the evening’s reading from Paul’s first Letter to the Corinthians, “for now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.  Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.  And now faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” 

The highlight of the evening came when a young woman told of her marriage to another woman this past summer and of the Blessing of their union in an Episcopal Church a few months later.  Suddenly we all saw the human face of same-sex relationships in a young woman who grew up in the Episcopal Church, who loves her church and who is loved back by that church.  

Life is not easy, life is not simple and we do often see through a mirror dimly.  But, the same Holy Spirit who inspired the human authors of the Bible to share their experience of God for future generations will lead us “to see face to face. . .to know fully even as we have been fully known.”   

With last evening’s gathering as an example, and Bishop Sloan as a Role Model, I look forward to the conversation with Rector and Vestry at Christ Church, Albertville, as we seek God’s will for our part of God’s Glorious Kingdom.