Proper 14 B

Aug. 9, 2009
The Rev. Susan J. Latimer

About a week ago the 35th anniversary of the ordination of women to the priesthood passed by with little notice. That in itself is remarkable – given that at the time many people saw the opening of ordination to women as the end of the Episcopal Church. All sorts of dire predictions were made – many of the same things that were said at the consecration of the first woman bishop, Barbara Harris, in 1990, and again about the first openly gay bishop of our church, Gene Robinson, who was consecrated in 1993.

The Church moves forward slowly – but after 35 years of ordination we now have a handful of women bishops and the first woman presiding bishop in the history of the Anglican Communion.

The past three General Conventions have been remarkable. Each time I have rejoiced at the movement forward. Each time I have been so proud to be an Episcopalian. 2003 saw the acceptance of Gene Robinson’s election as Bishop of New Hampshire. 2006 saw the election of Katherine Jefferts-Schori as Presiding Bishop.

Again this year at the General Convention history was made in the struggle and movement towards full inclusion for all the baptized – regardless of sexual orientation. Although the issues and the resolutions are complex and a sermon is not the best way to deal with them, I have decided to do a general sermon about this year’s General Convention. The details, and time for questions and answers, will come later – today at the SAGA meeting after the 10:30 service, and also at another gathering in the fall.

First a little history from the story of women’s ordination. I have been ordained for 17 years – half of the time that women have been ordained in our church. Although women’s ordination was allowed by action of General Convention in 1976, for a time there remained many bishops in the church who refused to ordain women. My own home Diocese of San Diego had one such bishop. And so I was in graduate school before I met a woman priest, at All Saints’ Pasadena in the Diocese of Los Angeles, in 1982.

I imagine that most of you can remember the first time you saw a woman celebrate the Eucharist, or the first time that you met a woman priest.

The exception to that would be some of our youngest members.

When I became Rector of St. Mark’s in Maine, our son Hugh was only 3 ½ . Our Bishop in Maine was a woman also. In our congregation was a wonderful retired priest in his 80’s who taught in the Sunday school and was Hugh’s teacher. His name was Frank Baker. One day I asked Frank to celebrate the Wednesday Eucharist for me so I could go to the Mother’s Day event at Hugh’s pre-school. When I told Hugh that, he said, “I didn’t know that men could be priests!!”

Slowly most of the bishops of our church moved to ordain women.

I don’t know what year the bishop of West Virginia began ordaining women – perhaps some of you do. By the year 2000, however, there were 4 Dioceses of our church where the bishops still refused to ordain women.

At least one of those bishops has since left the Episcopal church entirely.

His Diocese, San Joaquin, in Central California, is in re-organization, and women will be ordained there soon. As I said, the Church, as a whole, moves forward slowly on issues of inclusion.

So now to this year’s convention and the historic resolutions – D025 and C 056. For the first time, the convention has passed a resolution ( D025 ) stating clearly that all orders of ministry are open to gay and lesbian people, whether they are single or in committed relationships. The immediate effect of this is that it is again possible for an openly gay or lesbian priest to be elected and confirmed as Bishop of a Diocese. Last week, two Dioceses announced their slate of candidates for bishop elections, both of which include at least one gay or lesbian priest.

C056, the other ground-breaking resolution, calls for the study and gathering of liturgies for the blessing of same gender relationships.

It also authorizes bishops to authorize the blessing of same-gender relationships in their own Dioceses, while it recognizes that the Episcopal church is not of one mind on matters of human sexuality.

It remains to be seen what the effect of these two resolutions will be in our own Diocese.

From the letter of Paul to the Ephesians:
“ So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger…. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

General Convention 2009 was characterized by truth-telling and care for all the baptized. Paul would be proud! Truth-telling in this case, consists in being clear to ourselves and to the Anglican communion as to the identity and practices of our church:

Our Church includes gay and lesbian clergy and bishops (some “out, some not ).
We have many same-gender relationships among the baptized that model the ideals of the marriage relationship: “lifelong committed relationships characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God”

Our Church is not of one mind on the issues of human sexuality.

The process of careful discernment, listening to all voices ( with particular care to listen to those in the minority ) and consensus-building throughout the last several General Conventions makes the passage of these two resolutions by overwhelming majorities even more positive, if that were possible.
We are now leading the major Christian denominations in our embrace of all the baptized.

So where is God in all of this?
I see God in the lives of our lgbt folks who have continued to witness to the power of God in their lives, and have continued to hang in with a church that has been slow in moving to full inclusion.

I see God and the movement of the Holy Spirit in the work of the past three General Conventions – work towards full inclusion of all the baptized, and towards care for the poorest of the poor in our world.

I see God at work in this congregation – in our wonderful diversity, and in our struggle to be a faithful witness to our Diocese.

Yes, our Church moves very slowly. But after this General Convention, I am again so proud to be an Episcopalian. And I pray that it will not be long before the actions of this General Convention result in full inclusion for all, across all the Dioceses of our great Church.