Matthai Chakko Kuruvila
San Francisco Chronicle Religion Writer
Sunday, September 30, 2007
On Sunday - the deadline set by church leaders for the Episcopal Church to
roll back support for same-sex unions - the U.S. church's presiding bishop
spoke unequivocally at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral that there would be
no retreat.
"All people - including gay and lesbian Christians and non-Christians - are
deserving of the fullest regard of the church," the Most Rev. Katherine
Jefferts Schori declared during an hourlong discussion before services.
"We're not going backward."
Jefferts Schori said these are the views of the church's bishops as well as
of its lay members - who have increasingly affirmed rights for same-sex
couples. As such, Jefferts Schori's comments served as the punctuation to a
historic day.
What will happen next is unknown. But a number of U.S. bishops on Friday
declared that they are unifying the scores of breakaway churches that view
homosexuality as sinful. They are seeking alternative oversight from
conservative leaders based abroad.
"A schism of sorts seems inevitable," said the Very Rev. Alan Jones, dean of
Grace Cathedral, who moderated the Sunday discussion with Jefferts Schori.
Anglican Communion leaders issued a communique in February for the U.S.
Episcopal Church's bishops to state by Sept. 30 that the church would not
authorize rites for same-sex unions or approve gay clergy as bishops.
Conservatives viewed it as an ultimatum. Some have suggested that the
Episcopal Church's price for noncompliance might be lesser status within the
77 million-member Anglican Communion, the body of churches whose roots are
in the Church of England.
The issue of whether gays and lesbians in committed relationships can have
their unions blessed by their churches may be the single most divisive issue
in U.S. Christianity today. Presbyterian, Methodist and Lutheran
denominations all are torn over the issue. But it plays out dramatically on
a global scale among Anglicans, who are the largest, most unified Protestant
body in the world.
Jefferts Schori and other Episcopal bishops believe the Anglican Communion
is defined by a tolerance for a wide set of beliefs. They believe the
communion should continue to minister to a variety of views.
"The pastor's job as shepherd is to mind the whole flock," Jefferts Schori
said, referring to a biblical parable of a shepherd who goes searching for
one lost sheep. "I am continually, prayerfully reminded of those who are
wandering off. The job of the church is to reach ever wider to include the
whole."
That Jefferts Schori would be in San Francisco on the deadline day was a
coincidence: She had accepted the invitation to come over a year ago, long
before the Anglican Communion's leaders issued the communique on same-sex
issues in February. But her views, the Episcopal Church's direction and the
setting all affirmed each other.
"It's an accident in some sense, but it's a blessed accident," Jefferts
Schori said in an interview about the significance of her speaking Sunday in
San Francisco.
The 27,000-member Diocese of California, based in San Francisco, has
ordained more gay and lesbian clergy than any other. Priests in the diocese
- which includes San Francisco, Marin, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa
counties and part of Santa Clara County - have blessed same-sex unions for
more than three decades.
Those practices, once on the margins of the Episcopal Church, have become
the mainstream.
The church's House of Bishops gathered in New Orleans last week to discuss
how to respond to the communique. They chose to maintain the status quo:
They would "exercise restraint" by not consecrating any gay, partnered
candidates for bishop, and they would not authorize "any public rites of
blessing of same-sex unions."
For conservatives, the statements were hollow because it allows priests to
privately bless same-sex unions.
"This is neither prohibition nor restraint," said a statement issued
Wednesday by the Right Rev. John-David Schofield, bishop for the
Fresno-based Diocese of San Joaquin. "It is simply turning a blind eye."
Conservative bishops and priests in the United States believe Anglican
leaders in Africa hold a truer understanding of Christ's teachings.
"The church in the West has lost its way," the Right Rev. Robert Duncan, the
bishop of Pittsburgh, said on Friday, in announcing the new coalition. "The
church in the 'Global South' is utterly clear about what it is to follow
Jesus Christ."
Jefferts Schori said on Sunday that she sees the path of Christ in a
different manner.
"Jesus hung out with people on the margins," she said. "He hung out with
people who were unacceptable to the Judaism of his time.
"He didn't spend a great deal of his time seeking to throw people out. My
sense of what it means to follow Jesus is to love the image of God in our
neighbors and respond to the needs of the image of God in our neighbors."
Jefferts Schori is skeptical of the fate of any breakaway churches or
diocese, saying Duncan's efforts would be the latest in a line of splinter
groups that failed.
"There's such a long history of splitting that it would be a sign of the
Spirit's movement if he were able to gather them into a coherent whole," she
said.
"American Protestantism is characterized, unfortunately, by the desire to
fracture," she said. "There's a piece to American character that we have to
have fully defined, black and white, precise understanding. And that's not a
terribly Anglican characteristic."
Many of those gathered Sunday applauded Jefferts Schori, saying they support
her views and believe that the direction of the church will ultimately lead
to full equality - having formal, authorized rites for same-sex unions.
But some view the current treatment of gays and lesbians as tantamount to
second-class status.
Christopher Hayes, 40, of San Francisco said he and his partner of 13 years
are in the planning stages of their same-sex union, a ceremony that will
take place in Grace Cathedral. But he feels frustrated by the state of
events.
"I want to hear that we're not satisfied with where we are right now," he
said.
Jefferts Schori said the time is not right - yet - for such a moment.
While some conservatives may leave because of the church's views, she said
others may be drawn to the fold.
"Decisions the church as a whole makes can open the door wider for people
who have not been part of a faith tradition or this part of Christianity.
... The church always is changing."
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