This is an electronic reproduction of The Voice of Integrity, the quarterly publication of Integrity, Inc., the lesbian and gay justice ministry of the Episcopal Church.  All materials except those reproduced from other sources are copyrighted by Integrity, Inc.  You may reproduce all original material herein if you state "Reproduced from the Winter, 1992 issue of The Voice of Integrity, the quarterly publication of Integrity, Inc., the lesbian and gay justice ministry of the Episcopal Church."

Material may not appear exactly as published since some changes were made after the document was transferred to desk top publishing format.

We encourage you to join Integrity.  We encourage non-Episcopalians and non-lesgay persons to join.  If you are a lesbian or gay Episcopalian and don't belong to Integrity, you're benefitting from all our work and we hope you'll strongly consider helping us by joining.  Individual annual membership $25, Couple's annual membership $40, Low income/student/sr. citizen $10.  Please mail check or money order to Integrity, Inc., P.O. Box 19561, Washington, DC 20036-0561.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Our Stories Wanted Again

Some Instructive Parallels

Excerpts From The Presiding Bishop's Address to Executive Council

AIDS Funeral:  It Can Happen Where You Live Too

Highlights Of Fall Board Of Directors Meeting

More On Integrity Of The Sierras

Nominating/Election Committee

Proposed By-Laws Changes

Disciples of Christ Narrowly Reject Pro-Gay President

It Could be Worse, We Could Be Baptists

Alternative Views of Gay Origins

Integrity Chaplain Attacked By KKK

Claudia's Column

Sing Us A New Song, But Not This One

Integrity Prayer Calendar

A Chilling Wind from Canada

Keeping Integrity's Patronal Feast:  St. Aelred of Rievaulx

Elizabeth Carl Appointed to Seminary Board

More Reaction To General Convention

Bill Buckley And Company Attack Integrity

Integrity Resolutions Which Passed, Sort of

Forward Movement Disavows Pro-Gay Issue

Chapter Contributions To General Convention Presence

A Gospel For Gay People

'Ex-Gays' Invade Church of England But Without Carey's Blessing

Finding Our Voice: Carter Hayward's Sermon At the Ordination

  of Barry Stopfel

Comments By Bishop Spong At Barry Stopfel's Ordination

German Church: Gay Sex Not Sinful

Boswell On Being Gay In The Church

1991 Dignity Convention

Peoria Dean Pleads Guilty, Resigns Over Child Pornography

President's Page:  A Rainbow of Diversity Under An Umbrella

  Of Sanctuary

Court Upholds Dignity Eviction

********************

Winter 1992

*The Voice of Integrity*

Volume 2, Number 1

Published by Integrity, Inc.

P.O. Box 19561

Washington, D.C. 20036-0561

Telephone 718-720-3054

Bruce Garner, President

R. Scott Helsel, Editor

Edgar Kim Byham, Publisher

Contributing Editors:

Claudia Windal, Louie Crew

Blair McFadden, Layout

Dorothy Gunn, Production

Editorial Office:  201-868-2485

PO Box 5202; NYC, NY 10185

Member Episcopal Communicators and Gay Lesbian Press Association

Copyright 1992

********************

IN MEMORIUM

JEROME PAUL ELIAS

1940-1991

Jerome Elias, Treasurer of Integrity/Houston, was murdered on  September 9.  We read constantly about increasing anti-gay violence, and a majority of us have suffered personally from it to some degree.  But being killed because of our sexual orientation is still a thought we suppress and distance from ourselves.  Now it has struck our own family.  Even those of us who have never met our "cousin" Jerome are personally affected by his death.  Jerome was found dead in his apartment.  To date the police have no clues, but it appears certain that it was a bias crime.

*O Creator of All, we pray to thee for those we love but now no longer see.  Grant them thy peace; let light perpetual shine upon them; and in thy loving wisdom and almighty power work in them the good purpose of they perfect will.  Through our Redeemer. Amen.*

********************

OUR STORIES WANTED AGAIN

      The Office of the Presiding Bishop and the Executive Council of the General Convention have issued a "Storytelling/Story Gathering Guide."  It states: "We are very much interested in the type of stories we know you can provide.  We warmly invite and encourage you to share these stories with us.  Are you involved in planning groups?  vestries?  mission committees?  evangelical teams?  social ministry?  Please use this form to tell us stories from those groups as well. ...  The entire Church is being asked to tell its stories - success, risk, failure, corporate, personal, all types of stories.  These stories will serve to guide the future of the Church."  To obtain a copy of the form, please contact: EPISCOPAL CHURCH CENTER, 815 Second Avenue, New York, New York 10017, 1-800-334-7626, Attn.:  Vernon R. Hazlewood, Planning Officer.

********************

*Integrity's President, Bruce Garner* of Atlanta, has been appointed to the National Church's Standing Commission on Human Affairs.  Not only is he the first lesgay person to serve on the General Convention interim body charged with oversight of lesgay issues, he is also the first openly lesgay person to serve on any standing commission of the Episcopal Church.

********************

SOME INSTRUCTIVE PARALLELS

by The Rev. Warner Traynham

"Gays and lesbians are the last minority to be harassed by the official church"

          John C. Bennett

      If someone were to ask you what the following list of groups had in common what would you respond?  The groups are: Jews, women, blacks, and gays?

      Each is or was an oppressed "minority."  Women of course are a numerical majority but like minorities they have been the victims of discrimination and marginalization.

      And if someone were to ask you what each of the groups had in common with respect to the church, what would you say?  One thing you could say would be that the church supported their oppression; that in each case, it identified biblical citations which reinforced society's prejudice against them and provided a "theological" rationale for that prejudice.

      It is my contention that homosexuality is not, in the first instance, a biblical or theological issue at all.  Like the other groups listed with it, it is an object of societal prejudice.  This prejudice has the same negative impact both to victim and victimizer which we associate with these other prejudices, therefore this prejudice has no real value to society.  In short, the biblical and theological issues are red herrings, rationalizations for prejudices arrived at for reasons having nothing to do with the Bible or theology.  The real issues are elsewhere.

      Every "minority group" is different and these are no exception.  The issue, in the case of the Jews is religion, in the case of women it is gender, in the case of blacks it is color and race, in the case of gays it is sexual orientation.  Each impacts society differently and the "majority" is of course different for each issue yet the patterns of oppression by the "majority" are remarkably similar.

      If one examines the three groups where a consensus has more or less been reached in the society and in the church, the results are I believe, instructive.  In each case, difference from the majority is clearly the focus of prejudice and it is admitted that fear and ignorance are the sources or motives for the oppression these groups experience.

      1.  Jesus and the first disciples were Jews.  The New Testament Church even debated whether or not gentiles had to become Jews, ie; undergo circumcision and keep the dietary laws, etc., in order to become Christians.  Initially, Christians were regarded as a Jewish sect.  It took some time for Christians to disassociate themselves from Judaism and from Jews sufficiently to forget their origins to the point where they could learn to hate their source and become anti-semitic.

      One can debate the origins.  Certainly Jews were regarded ambivalently by the Romans before Christ.  They were exempted from the Roman army because they would not recognize the Roman deities or fight on the Sabbath.  Strange and troublesome long before,in medieval Europe they appeared to be even stranger.  Rome was an amalgam of peoples and religions, one more hardly mattered.  Medieval Europe, except for the Moors who were finally driven out, was religiously one.  It was in such a context that the Jews seemed most strange and threatening.  Like the church, they were an international community but one that did not recognize Christ, indeed rejected him.  In a world accustomed to see difference as bad -- them and us -- if the church was on God's side,then the Jews must be on the devil's.  A perusal of scripture, especially the Gospel of John revealed that "the Jews took counsel against Jesus to put him to death."  Never mind that almost the entirety of scripture is by the Jews and about the Jews.  Never mind the Pauline struggle with the persistence of the Jews in a Christian context in the Epistle to the Romans.

      For centuries Jews were deprived of basic rights in Europe.  They were killed or forced to convert or driven out of whole kingdoms.  They were harried from pillar to post by Christians in the name of the King of love ostensibly because scripture said they killed Christ.

      Well, scripture does say that.  Why then do we not still give Jews the choice to convert or be burned as our ancestors did?  Not because scripture has changed, but because we have.  We have realized that the real reason we persecuted the Jews was because we believed they were evil and we believed that because they were different from us.  They rejected our good.  They worshipped differently, had different customs, spoke another tongue, did not celebrate our festivals, etc., and they persisted in that difference as if it had merit.

      Today we interpret the references to the hierarchy of Israel and their role in Jesus death, as applying universally to humanity and not merely to the Jews.  It is we, who, by making our historically conditioned perceptions absolute, kill Jesus over and over again in his people--in this case the Jews.

      An idol is conditional reality raised to the level of an absolute, unconditional good, a god.  The majority elevated their identity into an idol.  The idol was called Christianity.  To be a Christian was to be alright.  To be the opposite - a Jew - must then be all bad.  We equated God with Christianity so God was the opposite of the Jews and the Jews' enemy.

      The biblical texts cited against the Jews were the gospels, especially John.  They were Christ killers.  This form of prejudice we now call anti-semitism.  It is not the Jews who are the problem we have come to realize, it is anti-semitism; the fear and ignorance of the majority that make an idol of the Christian religion and demand the sacrifice of its opposite.

      2.  When did the subordination of women begin?  Primitive cultures usually assign different gender roles but they do not necessarily subordinate women to men as has been the case in the West.  Women were subordinate to men in Jewish society while in Roman society women were in some respects the equals of men.  Jesus himself fraternized with women contrary to rabbinic practice and was specifically criticized for it in the Gospel record.  The Apostle Paul seems rather double minded on the issue, in places saying women should be seen and not heard and at other times asserting that in Christ, being male or female made no difference.  That last insight got lost early in the life of the church.  The early bishops accepted stoic perspectives in these matters rather than Jewish ones.  While Jews subordinated women, every Jew was expected to marry.  Sex, they believed was God ordained.  The church fathers, following the stoics who exalted reason over the passions, exalted celibacy--using Jesus and Paul as examples.  St. Augustine, after Paul, the most formative figure in the early church, had a particularly difficult time reconciling his passion for women and his passion for God.  He came to see it as an either/or proposition and so, mutually exclusive.  That view was in the air and the church's leaders followed him.  Worse, they came to see women as temptresses.  Did not scripture say that it was through a women that sin entered the world?  Eve's weakness gave the devil an in and she seduced Adam.  All the evil in life could be laid at her door.  Alas, she was a necessity.  The race would perish without her, but her presence could destroy it as well and almost had.  Like a dangerous beast you could not do without, she was kept, but chained.

      Women after all are different.  They function, look and think differently.  They were not educated and accused of being ignorant.  They were given no or limited authority and accused of being incapable of exercising authority.  All of this emphasized their difference and left men with only half the race to compete with.

      Until quite recently humanity's knowledge of the reproductive process was rudimentary.  It was believed that women contributed nothing to the genetic make up of children functioning solely as incubators.  A man's child really was his and not theirs.  Semen after all could be seen but an egg could not.  Men gave life.  They were the 'generative principle,' women merely housed it.

      Fear of seduction and the power of sex, and ignorance of real physical function expressed itself in the male population as sexism.  Once again it was either/or.  Men were good, made in God's image.  Women were subordinate, derivatives, taken from Adams rib and bad or at least unreliable and seductive as Eve demonstrated.

      Woman was good only if separated from sex and fenced about, so the medieval image of the "good woman" is Mary ever Virgin.

      The origin myths of Genesis were the primary texts used to shore up this position.  They reflect rather than form it.  The Old and New Testament are full of the conviction that women should be seen and not heard because that was characteristic of Jewish society.

      The idol of course was maleness.  To be male was good.  To be female was bad.  The God and Father of Jesus Christ was a male.  The opposite was evil.  The creation chapters of Genesis ordained this subordination.  Those chapters proscribed it as woman's punishment for sin.  Now we understand these chapters to describe the results of sin.

      Once again, women are not the problem.  The fear and ignorance of the 'majority' that made an idol of maleness is the problem.  Women were suppressed, shunted aside stunted and trivialized and in this fashion used to shore up the idol.  In this manner they were sacrificed to maleness.

      3.  Blacks were first encountered in numbers by Europeans through the Moors of Spain who introduced black slavery into Europe.  Later, Portuguese traders brought black slaves to Europe and later to the colonies of the New World.  The most striking thing about blacks, in European eyes was their color.  It did not change with the climate like sun burn.  Secondly, they were encountered in large numbers by the Europeans of the New World as slaves.  How were Christians to justify keeping human beings as property?  How justify treating them so differently?  They justified it on the grounds that the blacks were different -- a different kind of life, a different kind of human being.  This was proven by the fact that they were different in color and culture.  They were not Christians, not one of them, and so could be treated differently.  Later their difference in culture was made an argument for their bondage.  By being enslaved, they could become exposed to the light of the gospel.  The color of blacks was so distinctive people sought a reason for it.  The church supplied that reason with an interpretation that mirrored the European response to it.  It was a curse.  The story was the so called "curse of Ham" in Genesis.  In it Noah passes out in a drunken stupor after the ark lands.  Ham sees his father and laughs.  His brothers behave better.  When Noah learns what happened he curses Canaan one of Ham's children.  The 18th and 19th century American church interpreted the color of blacks to be the curse.  Ham was taken by the Jews to be the progenitor of the Canaanites, Israel's rival in the land.  The actual curse of Noah on Canaan is to be a "hewer of wood and drawer of water for his brothers," an understandable wish of the conquerors of the land for its original inhabitants.  There is no reference to skin color, the Canaanites being as white as the Jews.  Nor is the curse on Ham.  Furthermore the curse is Noah's not God's.  Nor is it described as multigenerational.  As a justification for black slavery it is nonsensical.  Nevertheless Christians in the south used this story to justify that institution for more than two centuries.  They buttressed its use with the numerous references to slavery in the Old Testament and the New.  Once again they turned to Paul, who instructed slaves to obey their masters and sent one runaway back to his owner.

      They ignored the fact that the Noah story has nothing to do with blacks and that Paul's perspective was shaped by the expectation of the imminent end of the world which made social reform moot.

      That a tale like the curse of Canaan could serve this purpose is clear indication that the matter was determined before the biblical support was sought.  The real cause of the prejudice against blacks was fear of difference and ignorance of the unknown.  The desire to denigrate is reinforced by the realization that they had already treated blacks badly by enslaving them.  They had to justify their actions after the fact.

      The problem was not the minority group, but rather the fears of the majority which we call racism.  Once again the church was pressed into service to give a theological and biblical prop to prejudice arrived at from another source.

      The idol in this instance is whiteness.  Its opposite is blackness.  If it was good to be free, white and 21, it was bad to be enslaved, black and any age.

      Blacks were held in bondage for 300 years and legally discriminated against for a hundred more.  Blacks were regarded as inferior and as late as the 1850's the Supreme Court of the U.S. held that a black man had no rights a white man was bound to respect.

      The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ was white so black was evil and had either to be destroyed or kept in its place.  The havoc wreaked upon the black community as a result of the idol of race is known to all.

      In each of these instances fear and ignorance are the real motives for prejudice which is after all a form of control.  In each, we have come to realize, the problem lies not with the minority group, but with the majority's attitude toward them.  In each instance the response is not to what they do really, but to who they are.  In each instance some aspect of the majority has been made absolute and literally identified with good so the minority can be defined as bad.  In each instance the issue is seen as a dualism, black or white, good or evil and mutually exclusive.  In each instance the 'other' is seen as deviant from the norm, from what the majority is or is used to and that is equated with what God requires or has give.  Finally, in each instance the Bible and the church have been called in to sanction the majority's belief.

      4.  Homosexuality is no exception.  The Jews disapproved of homosexuality for various reasons.  It was associated with their enemies, the Canaanites who practiced homo and hetero -sexual prostitution in their religion.  It was non-procreative when the Jews sought to conquer the other inhabitants of Palestine by a combination of warfare and population growth.  For the Jews marriage and procreation became articles of faith essential to the expansion of a small people into a significant power.

      Later homosexuality was associated with the Greeks and the Romans who tolerated it and whom the Jews had reason to hate and distinguish themselves from since both people conquered them.  Paul shared the prevailing Jewish perspective in this area as he did with respect to women and slavery.  We do not know what Jesus thought because he is not recorded as having ever mentioned it.

      At times in antiquity homosexuality was approved.  At times it was disapproved of.  Interestingly, where women had lower status, gay people usually did too.  Some ancient cultures practiced anal rape by victorious soldiers on the losers as a form of humiliation.  The humiliation consisted of the fact that the losers were used like women who had a status and value inferior to men.

      At some point in the dark or middle ages, the antipathy to homosexuality began in Europe.  The early church as we know was suspicious of sex and penalized women as a result of that fear.  Sex threatened holiness because passion could override reason and reason was identified with God.  Sex was a necessary evil to be engaged in only for procreation, never for pleasure alone.  Where no children were possible sex was sinful.  Homosexuality was the quintessential form of sex without hope of procreation and therefore the example of sinful sex.  That and the fact that it compromised the male image, which we have seen in our discussion of sexism was an idol, seems to have been enough to earn it contempt in the West.  It was the opposite of what a real man or woman was.  It was therefore a threat to the idol of heterosexuality.  As with each other prejudice we have examined, the real problem, we are beginning to realize, is not with gay people but with the response -- called homophobia or heterosexism -- originated by straight people.

      Once again, the Bible and the church provided support.  The story of Sodom and Gomorrah was cited as the primary biblical justification buttressed by prohibitions in Leviticus and the New Testament Epistles.

      The story of Sodom may not be about sex at all.  It depends on the meaning of the Hebrew word translated "to know."  The issue is intellectual vs. carnal knowledge.  If it is about sex, it is not about homosexual love but homosexual rape - something most people gay or straight would disapprove of.  The focus of the story seems to be on a violation of the principles of hospitality.  That is how Jesus apparently understood it.  One author observes the irony that for centuries a story condemning inhospitality has been used to justify inhospitality to gays.

      Because the story represents Sodom and Gomorrah as destroyed by fire from heaven after this incident, the Emperor Justinian concluded that tolerance of homosexuality would lead to the destruction of the state so he made homosexuality a capital offence.

      Interestingly, the one place in the New Testament which clearly criticized homosexual behavior (Romans 1:19-27) is one in which Paul cites it as a result of idolatry.  If this argument is correct, it is Paul who with his countrymen shares the idols of maleness and heterosexuality.  His words illustrate the results of that idolatry in excluding one part of the human family from acceptance by the whole.  He makes his point, but rather differently than he intends.

      Until recently, and in some quarters it is still the case, people believed homosexual orientation to be a matter of choice and therefore perverse -- a willful rejection of heterosexuality, analogous to the medieval Christian's view of Judaism.  If it were a choice, it would not thereby be demonstrated to be wrong or bad.  But no reputable scientist or student of the phenomenon any longer believes it to be a choice.  While no one is sure how sexual orientation is established, it is clear that once established for the great majority, it is irreversible.  Gays, like women and blacks, are feared and hated for who they are not just for what they do.

      While it is no longer acceptable in the general society to hold Jews or women or blacks in contempt, while it is illegal to discriminate against these groups, it is still acceptable to hold gays in contempt and still legal to discriminate against people because of sexual orientation.  But the pattern of behavior in the society and the church with regard to them is the same as that with regard to these other groups.

      For the present, contempt and physical injury are still justified by intelligent people on bases substantially the same as those they previously cited for these other forms of prejudice.  Gay people in short continue to be sacrificed to the idols of the majority.

      As is the case with any deeply held prejudice, there is a lot of double talk and obfuscation.  Society is ostensibly being protected from some threat.  In fact the threat is not to society but to some particular idol society holds.  The real threat is usually not to what God expects but to what the majority is used to.

      Invariably, great social damage is forecast.  While change undoubtedly results from the abandonment of prejudice, those who abandon it seldom wish to reclaim it.  The oppressed minority group allowed to develop normally, is able to make a contribution to the larger society which that prejudice deprived it of.

      Certainly, the abandonment of irrational prejudice is a good of the gospel.  Certainly, the Christian faith stands against the making of idols, that is to say, the absolutizing of any aspect of human life, including the church itself, which then demands uncritical allegiance and takes on the reverence and inviolability due only to God.  Certainly the gospel stands against the idea of an in group and an out group.  Jesus died for all.  Certainly, our experience with the first three issues should persuade us that God is not the enemy of difference and that difference is not best understood in the context of dualisms - either/or, good or bad, or in the context of absolutes -- this is all bad, this is all good, but in the context of variety, of the richness of the divine will.

      As we once believed the exclusion, subjugation and attendant persecution or discrimination against Jews, women or blacks was necessary, ordained by scripture and warranted for the safeguarding of society.  We are now ashamed of that attitude and believe the succeeding inclusiveness to be a benefit, not only to the oppressed group but to the majority as well.  When we come to our senses I believe this win prove equally true of the gay issue.

-----

The Rev. Warner R. Traynham is the Rector of St. John's Church, Los Angeles.  He was a Deputy to General Convention and will be a featured speaker at Integrity's National Convention in July, 1992.

********************

EXCERPTS FROM THE PRESIDING BISHOP'S ADDRESS TO EXECUTIVE COUNCIL November 2, New York City

      During our time together yesterday I said a little bit about the wonderful mini-sabbatical Patti and I had following General  Convention.  One of the things that made it wonderful was that every day we took great blocks of time for morning prayer and meditation and for reading aloud.

      One of the books we read was a collection of meditations called "Invitations to Prayer" by a former Dean of Westminster, Eric Symes Abbott.  I would like to share one of them with you because it says something about life as a faith community, and specifically our life together -- just beginning -- as the new Executive Council.

      "We are all persons in the making and in a real sense we are  making and re-making one another.  But how often personal relationships are marred by hasty, partial or over-severe judgments.  We must help one another, not judge one another, and we must leave the final judgment to the divine patience.  One of the greatest promises in the New Testament is that we are accepted in the beloved.  Let us try to be the ministers  of acceptance."

      We are all "persons in the making."  My ministry has shown me the truth of that.  We do "make and remake" one another.  What  an awesome responsibility!  As we stomp about the landscape or wander aimlessly, we can easily tread on one another's souls.  We  must move with the greatest of care.  We are going to come to know one another in a special way over the next years.  I pray that we will move carefully and try to be ministers of acceptance.

      I would like to begin with some reflections about our time together in Phoenix, because where we have been will shape where we are going.

      Our 10 days in Phoenix affirmed a truth we already know: prayer and worship MUST be at the heart of Christian community.  I believe the daily Eucharist and Bible study transformed the General Convention.  I continue to hear stories of the small groups, the healing that took place, as we "made and remade" one another and as we were shaped by Christ.

      Phoenix also affirmed for me that this church has a strong center.  There is so much more that unites us than divides us.  The strength of that center -- the cohesiveness -- provides an environment where those who are pushing up against the edges on one issue or another can do so.  They can speak up.  They can share their perceptions and have them tested.  Through the struggles of faithful people, wrestling with issues, we discern the will of God.  And THIS, we know, is the Anglican way.

      Our General Convention showed us once again that we have VERY different ideas about how the church ought to be the church.  We have common understandings, fundamental teachings that are central to our faith.  We also have different ideas about how these teachings are to be lived out.  For example, some want the church to be a place of nurture and support for the faith journey.  And it IS that.  Some want the church to be the hands and feet of the cosmic Christ -- living out the values Jesus taught and exemplified.  And it IS that.  Some want the church to be the vehicle for proclaiming the faith once delivered.  And it surely is.  Some want the church to be a force in the formation of public policy, bringing the Christian perspective to the moral questions before us.  And it IS.  Jesus Christ calls his church to be all of these.  As individual Christians, we do not all put our emphasis in the same place.  And each of us shifts the emphasis during our Christian journey.  We must honor the different ways we live out the faith.  We must remember that all of these ways are needed and that each proclaims only a part of the Gospel.  Jesus Christ needs and uses all of us and wants us to support each other.  We, the baptized, are all ministers, and we carry out that ministry every day, where we are.  Therefore, a major piece of the ministry of a national church, of a presiding bishop, of an Executive Council is to inspire and empower individual Christians to carry out their ministry in faith, where they are, and in the knowledge that they are not alone. ...

      As I address the dynamics of our common life, I need to acknowledge that there are some saddened, troubled, and angry people who are part of our faith community.  Much of the anger is around the issue of sexuality, and particularly the ordination of gay and lesbian persons.  Those who believe that homosexuality is just plain wrong, according to Scripture, have incredible difficulty sitting still for their church arguing about when and how and under what circumstances.  That is to be expected.

      I am quite sure as I stand before you this morning that we are not going to settle the issue of how Scripture is to be interpreted any time soon.  I also know that people of good faith who take seriously the authority of Scripture have different convictions about homosexuality.  Further, I know that we are not being faithful to God as revealed in community if we each simply assume that we already have the whole truth and nothing at all to learn.

      This is not new thinking.  In 1922, a commission appointed by the archbishops of Canterbury and York said:  "In estimating the relative value of different portions of the Bible, the standard is the mind of Christ as unfolded in the experience of the church and appropriated by the individual Christian through his spirit."  The report notes along the way the efforts of St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas to help the faithful understand that we always struggle together to find the mind of Christ.  That charge to struggle together remains before us.

      It is not an easy thing to be in conversation with people who don't agree with our opinions.  But I intend to lead this church into a deeper dialogue around those issues the Gospel calls us to address.  We don't--any of us--have the whole truth.  And we all have a lot to learn.

      Another dynamic that has an effect on our faith community is the troubled and uncertain nature of our common life as a nation and a global village as we approach the millennium.  We each experience this uncertainty.  We have fears about our jobs, about what will become of us as we get older, about our children and what sort of future is before them, about our relationships, about the erosion in standards of ethical conduct for public officials and private persons.

       The uncertainty of our times makes many of our members look  to the church as a bedrock of stability, unchanged and unchanging.  But, let us remember, God did not promise there would be no change.  God promised to be with us THROUGH change, THROUGH uncertainty, through the flood, through the desert, and in the wilderness.

      A development in our common life, which I believe is based on some of the dynamics I have just mentioned, is very troubling to me.  Driven by both upset at some of the issues that we are addressing, particularly sexuality, and also by the difficult economic times, there are those who feel that withholding funds from the national church program is an appropriate response.  This, to me, is not what the church is all about.  It is not what good stewardship is all about.  It is not what living together in a faith community is all about.  I hope and pray that those who have considered such a response will have second thoughts.  I believe we have a sacred responsibility as members of this church to meet as best we can our common responsibility while we work out together how we are to serve Christ. ...

      In Phoenix I spoke to the General Convention of my visions for our church.  After a summer of thought and prayer I am more clear than ever that we are on the right path.  I am more clear than ever that God is leading us.  I am more clear than ever that God will continue to be with us, as we work and pray and, with joy and steadfastness, carry out God's holy will. ...

      I would like to close with the words of a woman in a religious order on the holy island of Iona, Sister Dorothy Stella.  She said:

      "A vision without a task is a dream.

      A task without a vision is drudgery.

      When we have a vision and a task--it is the hope of the world."

      My friends, I think this says something about what it means to be one of the saints of God.  We have a vision -- a very clear and challenging vision.  We have a task, a very large task.  And we -- members of one fellowship in the mystical body of Christ the Lord -- are the hope of the world.  Let us be about God's plans for us.

-----

Courtesy of Episcopal News Service

********************

AIDS FUNERAL:

IT CAN HAPPEN WHERE YOU LIVE TOO

by Jim Collie

      I attended a funeral Tuesday, another AIDS death.  But in the grace of God another birth as well.  It was held at the First Church of the Nazarene in my community -- very much an established congregation of that tradition here, strong in the community and in the denomination.

      It was exceptional, because Richard had been rejected by his congregation, years before.  His call to ministry had been denied by the Nazarene seminary, and they had forced him out.  He had risen to a position of responsibility in the Dean of Students office at a Nazarene College until his 'secret' got out.  No hanky panky with students, no videos or pictures or magazines -- just gay.  Terminated.  Bitter, angry at God, at his church.  Betrayed.

      Richard was diagnosed HIV positive and chose to find his ministry within that community.  Eighteen months ago the Oklahoma congregation that had driven him out in disgrace when he was a student in their midst asked him to come tell the Sunday morning congregation of his experiences.  Frail, accompanied by his mother and aunt, Nazarene ladies of the old school, walking with a cane and pausing often, he addressed the 2,000 member congregation.  He asked for their forgiveness for the years of bitterness and hate he had directed at God and at his church.   And he told them he forgave them for what that congregation had done to him as a young man.

      Last year Richard was the "Volunteer of the Year" for the Community Outreach center.  He was one of the Food Pantry folks -- he directed the process that used the enormous savings in store and merchant coupons to increase the buying power of the center.   Even when he was unable to eat, Richard had all his neighbors bringing him the Thursday papers to clip the food coupons for the Food Pantry.  

      Richard had asked me to teach a Bible study for HIV/AIDS folks.  He became too frail to organize one more thing and that idea slipped away.  He felt strongly that HIV/AIDS folk have some very real questions about scripture that don't get handled in many church Bible studies.

      We stood around after the service, before the trip to the cemetery, telling each other we had been in too many of these funerals.  Liz was there.  She had just buried her husband, Wally, who had died with AIDS -- she was dry-eyed, maintaining composure with every ounce of her strength.  Barbara, an elder in my church, who is in her sixth year of leading an AIDS support group -- struggling for control for the first time in years of attending funerals like this one.  Sandy, wife of the GOP candidate who tried and failed for Jim Wright's congressional seat, a food pantry volunteer with Richard at the Outreach Center, and Mike and Eddie and Geoffrey and all the support group guys -- all of us saying that we're not too sure we can do this many more times.

      Except this one was a victory of sorts, a birth in the midst of death.  Here we were at the Nazarene Church, with the new pastor of the congregation actually glad to be there, and a Cumberland Presbyterian lady preacher and a high church Episcopal hospital chaplain participating in the service.  Richard's hospice nurse was a Catholic priest, and Geoffrey, a Mormon, was one of the pall bearers.  But most of all we didn't glide over anything in the service.  The prayers and preachers all said the word AIDS (the Fort Worth Star Telegram will still not use the word) -- and spoke of God's marvelous gift of life to Richard in the midst of his terrible struggle with death -- and spoke of the gifts of life Richard shared with all of us:  the honesty of his anger at God and most of all the gift of forgiveness.

      Maybe we were crying because it was so nice to go to a funeral and not have heart-felt grief compounded by lies.

      And if this can happen in Arlington, TX, in a Nazarene Church, in the heart of Southern Baptist country, it can happen where you live too.  Thanks be to God.

-----

This article first appeared in "More Light Update," the newsletter of Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns, April, 1991.

********************

*THE NATIONAL AIDS MEMORIAL*

AT THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE

112th Street & Amsterdam Ave NYC

*Integrity New York* helped to found the Memorial in the fall of 1985, and it has been one of our major outreach ministries.  The Memorial's motto has been "To honor the dead by serving the living."  *The Book of Remembrance*, which we understand as a "liturgical Quilt," has more than 4,000 names of those who have died of HIV related causes.  Since 1986 we have given out small grants to organizations fighting AIDS and its effects totalling more than $50,000.

*Integrity New York* would like to invite you to send in names to the National AIDS Memorial using the form below.  You do not have to send a contribution to have a name enrolled in *The Book of Remembrance*.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

SEND COMPLETED FORM TO:  The National AIDS Memorial

                         P.O. Box 5202

                         New York, NY 10185

Please inscribe the following names in "The Book of Remembrance"

1. __________________________________________________

2. __________________________________________________

3. __________________________________________________

4. __________________________________________________

5. __________________________________________________

I enclose a contribution of $ ________

Name ___________________________________________________________

         (Title)   First name         MI        Last name

Address ________________________________________________________

            street                               apt. #

City ______________________________ State _______  Zip _________

********************

HIGHLIGHTS OF FALL BOARD OF DIRECTORS' MEETING

by Loudene "Gil" Grady, Secretary

      Your Board of Directors met over the weekend of October 11-13 at St. Margaret's Retreat Center near Mendham, New Jersey.   Early Saturday morning we looked at the proposed agenda, made some minor adjustments and heard Bruce Garner pronounce, "We can get through this easily by Sunday afternoon."  Sunday night around 8:30 p.m. a gentle nun came along to ask how much longer we'd be so they could close the building.  I mention this, not so much to impress you with our diligence, but to let you know we really work hard when we are together.

ACTIONS TAKEN:

      Three Chapters-in-Formation were certified as full chapters:

Integrity of the Sierras, Integrity/Middle Tennessee, and Integrity/Brooklyn.  Integrity/Berkshire's Chapter-in-Formation status was extended for one year.

      Three chapters were decertified since they were no longer meeting:  Integrity/Harrisburg, Integrity/Ann Arbor, and Integrity/Spokane.

      The special Board positions for Director of Communications and Director of Development were extended until the conclusion of the fall 1992 Board meeting.  Kim Byham was named to continue as the former, and Dorothy Beattie, currently Western Regional Vice President, will replace Paul Woodrum as Director of Development.

      Scott Helsel was confirmed to continue as Executive Secretary through the end of 1992.  In recognition of his service the board voted Scott a token increase in salary. 

REGIONAL REPORTS

      The status of each local chapters was reviewed by its Regional Vice President.  Common concerns ran through these reports including chapter burn-out, how to get more women involved, and that big city chapters are not flourishing.

1992 CHAPTER QUESTIONNAIRE 

      A requirement of the National By-laws, questionnaires will be sent to all chapters in December to be returned by February.  This is the same procedure as last year.  *All chapters must submit a completed Questionnaire!*

INTEGRITY CONTACT GROUPS -- PILOT PROJECT

      A two year trial project was instituted to allow groups of Integrity members to meet and serve in areas where a chapter does not seem viable.  Contact Groups will be made up of three or more Integrity members who have no immediate goal of becoming a full chapter but wish to meet regularly.

      Requirements:  1) three or more current Integrity members with one person designated as the contact person; 2) a permanent mailing address (not a home); and 3) complete a simplified annual report giving meeting times and information about activities, group address, and address of contact person.

      National Responsibilities to Contact Group:  1) list group in national directory and 2) Regional Vice President contact group regularly as with regular chapters.  A Vice President may request a strong nearby chapter to take on the contact group as a mission.

      For further details and special procedures related to this Project, contact your Regional Vice President.

TASK FORCE ON CHAPTER DEVELOPMENT

       A new committee is in place, chaired by Bryant Hudson (Integrity/Dallas).  Committee members are Jim Goodell (Integrity/El Camino Real), Sharon McDonald (Midwest At-Large), and Scott Helsel (Integrity/New York).  Regional Vice Presidents will serve as consultants.

      The purpose of this task force is to explore the needs of chapters and chapter officers as they work to live out their ministry within their Dioceses and to develop resources and mechanisms to meet those needs.  Watch and listen for further information on the work of this task force.

CONVENTION 1992 - JULY 9-12 - HOUSTON, TEXAS - MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

      The Rt. Rev. Edmond Browning, Presiding Bishop, will be with you - a FIRST.  The theme will be "All God's Children."

      Integrity/Houston is hard at work.  The general Diocesan climate is not an open, positive one.  Our brothers and sisters are creating a special place for us.  They look forward to your presence to make that place real.  Plan now to be in Houston and help celebrate our presence there.

      There will be special Eucharists, outstanding speakers and multiple workshops on topics of particular interest to each of us.

      AWARDS - From the nominations submitted the Board selected the recipient of the Louie Crew award for outstanding service to Integrity.  The selection will be announced at the Convention.  K. Byham, Director of Communications, with other special consultants will select the winners in the chapter newsletter competition.

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS, SPECIAL COMMITTEES, AND PEOPLE  

      CHRISTIAN LESBIANS OUT TOGETHER (CLOUT)  Networking with this group is important.  A representative to their next meeting will be appointed.

      THE REV. VIRGINIA HERRING, founder of Integrity/Charlotte, is an object of Ku Klux Klan activity due to her association with Integrity.  She is engaged in legal action against the Klan at this time.  Board approved $200 to help with fees.  The Regional Vice Presidents set forth $50 each from their budgets for this purpose.

      THE COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN [Interim Body of National Church] TASK FORCE ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN.  Dorothy Beattie attended the first meeting of this group which is established in response to General Convention Resolution B-052 to look at clergy violence.  The committee discussed at length how to get issues of violence against women into the church - national through to local.  A paper will be forthcoming.  Dealing with this issue is perhaps the most important thing the church will do in the next decade.

PUBLICATIONS

      "A Book of Revelations" is available only through bookstores at this time.

      Integrity Brochures - New ones were printed and distributed at the General Convention and are available through S. Helsel.

      Integrity Directory - A 1992 edition is forthcoming with up-to-date information.  They will be distributed one copy to a chapter with others available on request.

      Integrity Handbook containing national by-laws and other relevant information will be coming in 1992.

1992 BUDGET APPROVED

      Based on an estimated income of $92,963 from Interest, Contributions, Dues, Pledges and sale of materials, the following percentages reflect how the funds will be expended.  This figure includes funds set aside for Regional expenses and program.

      *1992 Budgeted Expense*

General Convention 8%    Consultants 15%

Data Processing 2%       Committees 3%

Dues 1%                  Advertising 5%

Postage 8%               Travel 15%

Printing 36%             Phone 1%

      *1992 Regional Budget by Category*

Chapter Development 43%

Travel 31%

Phone 5%

Postage 8%

Printing/Office 14%

      *1992 Program Budget* (not including Regional Expenses)

Administration 21%

Development 30%

Coalition 19%

Public Education 30%

      Gloom turned to bloom at the end of the General Convention.

Thanks to your generosity, the current cash on hand reflects a positive balance.

POSTSCRIPT

      The Integrity Board met with the Presiding Bishop on Monday, October 14, following the conclusion of the Board meeting.

      This second meeting served as a follow-up to the General Convention and revolved around some of the roles Integrity could take to implement the actions of that body as well as some inquiries into what the national church is doing in this regard.  The Bishop's presence at our own 1992 Convention was also a highlight of our discussion.  It might be said he seemed pleased to have this opportunity to meet and celebrate with us in his home state.

********************

MORE ON INTEGRITY OF THE SIERRAS

Integrity of the Sierras was formed only last summer in the tiny town of San Andreas, California, population under 2000.  They were certified as an official Integrity chapter in October and now have 31 members.  Although banned from meeting on church property in the Diocese of the San Joaquin, they have just announced that they will form a mission group in the southern end of the diocese, in Bakersfield.

*A Meeting with Bishop Schofield*

by Brian Jones, Convener, Integrity of the Sierras

      On September 10, 1991, Ian Snider, our Chapter Treasurer, and I met with Bishop Schofield at his office in Fresno.  The meeting was a total joke!  What was supposed to be a private meeting between the Bishop and us turned out to have nine witnesses for the Bishop's benefit.  Prior to our meeting, the Bishop had met with the deanery leadership, and chose to let these men sit in on our meeting.  They didn't speak at any point;  the Bishop totally controlled the conversation.  We got a ten minute lecture on how evil Integrity, Inc. is and another thirty minutes on sexual behavior and how we should all be celibate as is the Bishop.  He made it perfectly clear that Integrity would never be accepted in this diocese, no matter how charitable the work is that we do.

      Bishop John-David Schofield is not the loving Christian person he projects himself as being in public.  He should get an Academy Award for his acting ability.  The Bishop wears the mask of a Christian in public, and that is what most Episcopalians see when they see him.  If you cross the Bishop or disagree with him, then you see the real Bishop Schofield for what he is:  sneaky, underhanded and, in general, not a very nice person.  One of the impressions I got of the Bishop at this meeting was that he is self-loathing and resents gay people who are comfortable with themselves.  I got the impression that he wants us to go back into the closet and hate ourselves in the same manner that he hates himself.  If I have gotten anything out of life it is this:  God does not create junk!  God created me as a gay man, and I'll be damned if I'm going to become self-loathing in the name of Jesus to justify a self-destructive need that the Bishop has.  Integrity need no longer worry about what Bishop John-David Schofield thinks; he made himself clear enough on how he feels about us and I say to you out there, Bishop Schofield isn't worth the dust on our shoes.  I don't respect anyone who tries to make me feel less than himself.  As usual, Integrity will go on; we have to and we will grow as an organization, with the power of God's love and support from our brothers and sisters in the community.

*At Diocesan Convention*

by Brian Jones

      For me, Diocesan Convention in October was a positive experience.  Integrity of the Sierras had applied for a booth in the exhibit hall with the other church organizations, but our application was denied by Bishop Schofield.  It worked out to our benefit to instead have our booth outside on the sidewalk in front of St. Paul's Church, Bakersfield.  We had several people, both clergy and laity, visit us and take pamphlets and buttons, which they wore both days of convention.  The support was overwhelming.

      On Saturday, someone at the Convention called the police to have us arrested.  It backfired!  The Rev. Robert E. Fosse, Rector of St. Paul's, graciously decided to move us in front of the parish hall on church property.  While the police were there (we did, of course, have a permit from the city) several people from the Convention gathered around our booth and stood there, and some of them even started singing with us.  One of the moderate priests came up to me at that point and said, "If you're removed, the moderate priests in this diocese will walk with you."  That, to me, made all the difference in the world.  Finally a group of priests were willing to take a stand for us.  That made me truly feel that there is love and support for us out there.

      Another priest told me at the end of Convention that he and others were pleased with our behavior, that we were not like ACT-UP, as they had been led to believe.  I told them we were a Christian group and ACT-Up is not, and thus behavior that would be appropriate for them wouldn't necessarily be appropriate for us.  We even had a few Episcopal Synod of America members come to our booth and calmly discuss their differences with us.  We did have some common ground and I trust we gave them some food for thought.

      The best thing about Convention was that there were representatives from every church in the diocese and Integrity was able to give them all the same accurate information in one place.  The only thing that bothered me about Convention was that Bishop Schofield appointed a committee to study human sexuality, specifically homosexuality, and there was not one gay or lesbian person appointed to that committee.  Is that fair? 

*From a Heterosexual Member of Integrity of the Sierra*

by Joyce Mandeville

      I have been asking myself lately why I have become active in gay rights issues.  Although I've always supported gay rights issues as a straight I didn't feel compelled to put my energies into the movement until very recently.  As a member of the Bishop's committee at St. Matthew's, San Andreas, I was one of the first to know of Fr. Woody Peabody being called before  Bishop Schofield about the issue of Integrity.  First of all, I couldn't believe that this was happening in this day and, secondly, I became angrier than I could recall being in years.  I also felt a sense of betrayal.  This was not the church I knew or the fine liberal traditions I wanted to pass on to my children.  I want to see my children, grandchildren, and even my great-grandchildren growing in the love and the freedom of the church.  I want to know they will be accepted for themselves and their desire to know God, not rejected if they fall too far from convention.  I want to show others that Integrity includes a broad cross-section of the church and I want our gay and lesbian members to know they haven't been abandoned.  I also felt very drawn to Brian Jones.  His sense of mission, his willingness to build bridges under attack, and his humor are all things I wanted to support and aid if I could.  I would like to thank all the members of Integrity for including my family in yours.

-----

The first and third of these articles are taken from the October, 1991 issue of *The St. Aelred Gazette*, newsletter of Integrity of the Sierras.  The second article is from the November, 1991 issue.

********************

NOMINATING/ELECTION COMMITTEE

Nominations for President, Secretary, Treasurer and four Regional Vice Presidents are being sought.  Nominations must be submitted no later than March 1, 1992.  Please submit nominations to the Nominating Committee:

Midwest Region:

Dr. Sharon McDonald

6001 11th Avenue South

Minneapolis, MN 55417

Northeast Region:

Mr. Hansheinrich Franzen

P.O. Box 666

LaGrangeville, NY  12570-0666

Southern Region:

Ms. Jennie Johnson

Austin, TX

Western Region:

No Representative at Press Time.  Please send nominations to another members of the committee.

Their slate will be completed by April l and the election will be held May 1-15, 1992. 

PROPOSED BY-LAWS CHANGES

Two proposed revisions were approved unanimously by the Board.  These changes will be voted on by the membership in the spring election.

1)  An Article 5 would be added to Chapter l, Membership.  That article would provide the option for related organizations, such as diocesan lesbian/gay ministries, to affiliate with Integrity.  This would not mandate such affiliation nor the exact form it would take, but it would give the Board flexibility to establish such a relationship.

2)  Article 8, Chapter 2, Sections 1, 2 and 3 would be amended to change the term of office of Regional Vice Presidents to two years.  This will avoid annual elections.  This change was originally proposed as part of the major by-law revisions of 1990, but was deleted by the Board.  On further reflection, the Board reversed itself and recommends this amendment.

In the Proposed Revisions which follow, *Additions are bold* and [Deletions] are bracketed.

THE BYLAWS OF INTEGRITY, INCORPORATED

                         Draft Revisions

CHAPTER 1.  MEMBERSHIP

*Add a new:

*ARTICLE 5. ... AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS*

      *The Board of Directors may establish provisions for the affiliation with Integrity, Inc. of other organizations which support the purposes of Integrity, Inc. as set forth in the Preamble.*

CHAPTER 2.  BOARD OF DIRECTORS.

Amend:

ARTICLE 8. ...  ELECTIONS OF OFFICERS.

Section 1.  Terms of Office.

            The President, the Secretary, [and] the Treasurer, *and the Regional Vice-Presidents* shall take office on the last Sunday in June *of even-numbered years* or immediately upon their election, whichever is later in the calendar year, and shall serve for two years or until their successors are elected.  [The Regional Vice-President shall take office on the last Sunday in June or immediately upon their election, whichever is later in the calendar year, and shall serve for one year or until their successors are elected.]

Section 2.  Time and Manner of Election.

            Officers shall be elected by a majority vote of the members in a preferential ballot-by-mail, returned in timely fashion.  Balloting for the election of Officers shall occur between May 1 and May 30 each *even-numbered* year, in accordance with the provisions of this Article.

Section 3.  Nominations.

            A.  A Nominating Committee, consisting of one representative of each Region, shall be appointed each year by the President not later than November 1 *in odd-numbered years*.  In years in which a National Convention precedes the appointment of the Nominating Committee, the President shall act upon the advice of the members assembled at the Convention by Region.  In years when there is no convention preceding the election of Officers, the President shall appoint a Nominating Committee in consultation with the respective Regional Vice President.  The members of the Nominating Committee shall designate a chairperson.

*It is proposed that the amendments become effective prior to the installation of new Regional Vice Presidents and, if approved, that those elected this spring will serve two-year terms.*

*EFFECTIVE:  June 15, 1992.*

********************

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST NARROWLY REJECT PRO-GAY PRESIDENT

by Kim Byham

      On October 29, the General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) narrowly rejected the Rev. Michael Kinnamon's nomination as head of the denomination after Kinnamon said congregations should be free to ordain sexually active lesbians and gay men.  It was the first time in the 1.1-million-member church's history that a nominee for General Minister and President had failed to secure the required two-thirds majority.  Kinnamon, Dean of the Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky, won 65.1 percent of the 5,651 votes cast by delegates, meeting in Tulsa, OK.

      After the ballot he insisted that the  vote was not a referendum on how the Bible should be interpreted.  "Our tradition has never been literalist," he said.  During the  nomination debate, Kinnamon had come under fire for allegedly  "reflecting the humanistic philosophies that are rampant in the church today."  The church's Administrative Committee appointed the Rev. C. William Nichols as Acting General Minister and President to serve until the next General Assembly convenes in 1993.

      Immediately after Nichols was presented as Acting President, the church delegates approved a resolution to conduct a two-year period of reflection on the ordination of lesbians and gay men.  Because of the study, Nichols declined to give his views, saying only he would try to "effect some understanding and agreement on this issue.  Many people have suffered over it," Nichols said. "We need a time of reflection and research.  There is a need to remind ourselves of who we are and why we are a church."

      The church, based in Indianapolis, was founded on the American frontier in the early 19th century to surmount divisions among Christian denominations by concentrating on what its first leaders considered essential beliefs and tolerating differences on other matters.  It is the only mainline denomination which originated in the United States.

      The church's 36 regional units in the United States and Canada, along with local congregations, determine fitness for ordination.  Some regions prohibit the ordination of gay men and lesbians; others leave the matter up to individual congregations.

      Dr. Kinnamon was nominated by the Administrative Committee last February and was endorsed by the church's 164-member General Board in July.  Some church officials initially thought that Dr. Kinnamon's credentials as a theological leader rather than an advocate of political or social causes would prove reassuring to the denomination's traditionalist members.  Hailed by supporters as a brilliant theologian, prolific writer, forceful preacher and an ecumenical leader who is deeply committed to Disciples' traditions, the 42-year-old dean had been chosen from 97 candidates during a long selection process.

      But by spring, his candidacy had met opposition from some church members, who said his views on homosexuality denied the authority of the Bible.  The lead was taken by Disciple Renewal, a group organized by Floyd Legler, an Indiana trucking executive.  Mr. Legler circulated a statement saying:  "We believe homosexual behavior is a sin.  We do not want a leader who refutes orthodox Christian doctrine and the primacy of the Bible as a Christian's guide."  "He feels that homosexual behavior is acceptable before God, and that's not true," Legler said in an interview.

      Concerns were heightened by the ordination in May of an openly gay member of GLAD -- Gay, Lesbian and Affirming Disciples -- at Park Avenue Christian Church in New York.  Dr. Kinnamon openly proclaimed that he is a member of GLAD.

      Answering questions from delegates, Dr. Kinnamon argued that the Bible did not offer a blanket condemnation of homosexual acts and that Christians should support gay and lesbian persons, particularly at a time when they were the victims of hate crimes.  "Homosexuality is by no stretch of the imagination a major biblical theme.  There are five or six references, and some of them have been misinterpreted," he said.  Asked his own position, he said, "I think to be honest, I would advocate ordination of any persons called of God, whether heterosexual or homosexual, who are prepared to carry out the tasks of ministry."

      After his defeat, Dr. Kinnamon praised the church for carrying out "a churchwide theological conversation," and called for reconciliation.  "I am no less excited about the future of this church and no less committed to being a part of that future than I was an hour ago or a month ago," he told the gathering.

********************

IT COULD BE WORSE, WE COULD BE BAPTISTS

      "A Statement of Concern Addressing Homosexuality and the Church" was affirmed by a vote of 1,124 to 539 with 46 abstentions at the biennial meeting of the American Baptist Churches in June.  The American Baptists are the less conservative "northern Baptists."  The statement read:  "We do not accept the homosexual lifestyle, homosexual marriage, ordination of homosexual clergy or establishment of 'gay churches' or 'gay caucuses.'"  A different statement, developed in response to the anti-gay statement, was defeated 1,026 to 534 with 44 abstentions.  Entitled "Let Us Learn to Love One Another," it called on delegates to "learn more about our sexuality, its responsible expression and God's gift of sexuality in others," "to discover avenues of healing" and to refrain from acting, speaking, voting on or embracing statements "that might express bigotry or might be based upon our cultural values rather than the values of Jesus."

      Also present at the Charleston, WV convention was the denomination's lesgay caucus, American Baptists Concerned, which had a booth and drew angry reactions from many delegates.  In response to this Daniel Weiss, General Secretary of the American Baptist Churches, wrote a letter in which he said:  "I am saddened that controversy over some groups in the exhibit area of the Convention has been given such high publicity."  Speaking of American Baptists Concerned, Weiss said:  "This organization is made up of members of American Baptist Churches across the country who are concerned about the gay and lesbian people who are part of the American Baptist family. ... American Baptists Concerned is not an outside group of agitators.  They are our 'sons' and 'daughters.'  They have grown up, come to know Christ as savior, and been baptized in our ABC churches.  Many of them are the children of devout and committed American Baptist clergy and lay people. ... From our very beginnings, we have been champions of the rights of people to express minority or unpopular viewpoints.  Since there are many things distributed, sold and said at every biennial that do no necessarily reflect the official positions of the ABC/USA, the issue at hand is less what is said than the essential right of American Baptists to say them. ..."

********************

ALTERNATIVE VIEWS OF GAY ORIGINS

This article is reprinted from *The Christian Challenge*, October, 1991.  *The Christian Challenge* is the magazine of the schismatic Anglicans.

      A recently, widely publicized study which seems to lend support to the claim that male homosexuality is biologically determined has prompted mixed reactions from organizations directed at gays, as well as about how the study may affect the ongoing discussion of sexuality issues within the Episcopal Church.

      In late August--shortly after the Episcopal General Convention tangled with the homosexuality issue--it was reported that a study done by Simon LeVay, a neuroscientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, found that a cluster of cells in a homosexual's hypothalamus--the part of the brain governing sex drive--typically resembles a woman's rather than a heterosexual male's.  It showed that this region of the hypothalamus was "more than twice as large in the heterosexual men as in the women ... and homosexual men," according to *The Washington Times*.

      The finding gives credence to the frequent claim of homosexuals that their orientation is biologically based rather than the result of some combination of upbringing, choice and/or environment.

      But the study, though viewed by other scientists as having real merit, is seen as inconclusive, even by LeVay himself, due to questions arising from the means by which the study was conducted and its limited findings.  LeVay reportedly compared the brains of 19 homosexual men who had died of AIDS with the brains of 16 heterosexual men, six of whom were intravenous drug abusers who died of AIDS.  Six heterosexual women also were included in the test, one of whom had died of AIDS, though evidently these were not used comparatively to produce any findings about lesbians.

      Questions about the study focus not only on the particular control group used but include whether the findings could have been affected by the disease AIDS or by drugs, whether the brain structure could have been affected by homosexual behavior rather than the other way around, and the lack of data to determine when the differing condition of the hypothalamus came into being--whether it was present at birth or developed later.

      If there's a difference in the brains, the study "doesn't tell you how, when or why it got there," said Dr. John Money, professor of medical psychology at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and an expert on sexual disorders.

      But for the moment the findings represent the second report of a "difference between the brains of homosexuals and heterosexuals ... though the first to find such a difference in the hypothalamus," said Marcia Barinaga a correspondent for Science magazine, in which the report of LeVay's study appeared.  "That connection raises the possibility that this difference not only correlates with homosexuality but may also play a role in causing it."

Reactions from Integrity, Regeneration

      But while the LeVay study has brought a certain amount of reinforcement to the claims of homosexuals, it has also brought a measure of anxiety and resentment--because of indications in news reports that the condition, if it *is* biologically based, might be viewed as an abnormality which could be treatable.

      Robert Bray, spokesman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, was quoted as saying that "used ethically, this information, combined with other data, could help prove what we have known all along: that homosexuality is not a choice,"  But he expressed concern that there might be "calls from homosexual opponents to 'cure' gays ... by changing their biological makeup."  He said the group's response would be "Why fix something when it's not broken?"

      "People already think we're ill.  This is all they need to jump on a bandwagon and say we have some kind of brain deformity," Gene Riendel, 43, a volunteer office worker at a San Francisco-area Metropolitan Community Church, was quoted as saying.  "I feel that my lifestyle is the way I was created by my maker.  This is the way God made me.  I'm satisfied and happy with it.  Those who aren't, that's their issue to deal with."

      But the *Times* article indicated that the Rev. Louis Sheldon, head of the California-based Traditional Values Coalition, thought homosexuals should seek any cure available for their own good.  "The problem with homosexuals is that they have multiple sex partners and engage in high risk sexual behavior.  The consequences of anal and oral copulation are high health risks.   The body parts don't fit."

      Kim Byham, communications director and former president of Integrity, told *TCC* he felt the Episcopal homosexual group would be unlikely to concentrate on the study because "I think most people who are gay and lesbian knew [of the biological basis for homosexuality] ... from their own experience."  It is something "pretty innate," he continued.  "It merely confirms what we thought."  Rather, he said, "it's surely the fundamentalists and others who are anti-gay who are going to have to do some thinking about these developments." 

      Still, Byham, speaking personally, said he felt further testing and peer review were needed in relation to the LeVay findings.  "But that's true of everything when it first comes out," he added.

      Byham also rejected the idea that homosexuality is an abnormality or aberration, and questioned whether any medical correction which may be possible is necessarily right.  "We've known it's possible to change a man into a woman for years," he said.  "Does that make it right or desirable [just because] sex changes are possible?  Does that all of a sudden mean it's something that should be done? ... As Christians we would want to ask more than just if it's possible.

      Homosexuality, in Byham's view, is "more comparable to a natural variation ... like some people being left-handed or [having a particular eye color]," and is "God-given ... just like there are different species of birds and other animals ... .  It is not comparable to being born with a severe birth defect ... .  To try to thwart that--it's like the old thing of forcing people to be right-handed.  But was that good for that person ... for society ... was that God's plan?  I would say no to all three of those.  That may sound presumptuous but I just don't see that changing a natural pattern of society would be a desirable thing."

      Byham believes no contravention of Scripture is implied in his views because of newer interpretations and insights or pertinent passages offered by modern scholarship.

      Moreover, he claimed that all attempts up to now to change sexual orientation have failed.  Though he said he is "a great believer in the power of God's healing," Byham denies that there has ever been a documented case of a homosexual "cure."  Eventually all those who supposedly overcome their homosexuality admit they still have some of the old desires, he asserted.  All that's changed, he said, is their activity, not their basic makeup.

      Byham said he thought the LeVay study had the potential to affect deliberations on the homosexual issue in the Episcopal Church "if it becomes widely known ... .  I have said for years that once we got over the false claim that homosexuality is a matter of choice that the Episcopal Church would change almost immediately."

      But he added he hoped the church's continuing discussions would focus not just on homosexuality, but on sexuality in general.  "We are in a position in which at least 90 percent of couples being married in the Episcopal Church are living together" beforehand, he said.  "Nobody says anything about that."

      On the other side of the spectrum, Alan Medinger, head of the homosexual healing ministry Regeneration, said the possibility of biological factors in homosexuality could not be excluded, but that it should not change the church's basic approach to the condition.

      "I don't think we can, biblically or any other way, totally [discount] the possibility that there can be biological contributors to homosexuality or to a vulnerability to it," said Medinger, who himself claims he was healed of homosexual by God more than 15 years ago.  Yet, he said, "there's all sorts of disorders and birth defects that are not God's will, but they happen."

      Moreover, "This one study could hardly be conclusive, and Dr. LeVay himself said it is not.  They don't know how many changes take place in our brain from other causes during its life.

      "But if this test were to be made credible, and it was determined that there was a biological contributing factor, I don't think that should change the Church's approach to homosexuality.  It might change [Regeneration's] a bit [in treating homosexuality].  Most men are born natural adulterers, but we still believe that it is to be resisted" in light of God's law, which Medinger believes has been given for the best welfare and happiness of humanity and not to be arbitrary.

      Homosexuality is "not just a quirk, like left-handedness," Medinger said.  "Our bodies were created to be heterosexual, if we can't function that way, it's a disorder."

      Asked about plans following the recent Episcopal General Convention, Medinger said Regeneration will be focusing in the immediate future on parts of its ministry neglected while attention was given to convention's sexuality debate in Phoenix--mainly helping individuals and keeping treatment programs going.

      Medinger expressed no surprise that the convention--having adopted a compromise sexuality resolution which affirms traditional church stands on sexual behavior but will not prevent local actions to change them--refused to endorse his homosexual healing ministry.  Politically, liberals were so much stronger than in the past at the convention, he said.  "On the other hand, the believers, conservative people, were much stronger also, but not politically--more [in the way of] knowing what they are about."  There was more despair among conservatives at the last convention, but this time Medinger noted greater spiritual confidence and sense of identify among them.

      But he said he did not see much hope ultimately for the direction of the Episcopal Church "unless the Lord intervenes.  All the processes are negative," he said, citing particularly discouraging trends in seminaries and among bishops: 14 of the last 15 bishops consecrated, for example, voted against the unsuccessful "Frey amendment" which would have given explicit expression to the expectation that clergy refrain from sex outside marriage.  "The whole political process is the realm of the liberals.  They're better at it.  We ... don't have the heart for that" because "we see things in terms of our relationship to Jesus Christ."

********************

INTEGRITY CHAPLAIN ATTACKED BY KKK

*A Letter to the Clergy of the Diocese of North Carolina from the Suffragan Bishop*

                                                August 26, 1991

Dear Friends:

      I have become aware of an attack on one of our clergy by the Klan and those who respond to their message of hate.  I'd like to share the information with you and ask for your help.

      The Rev. Virginia Herring, the assistant at St. Luke's, Salisbury, was the recent recipient of a number of hate calls.  They came from people who had gotten her name from a Ku Klux Klan taped message.

      The Klan, operating out of Huntersville, has a weekly phone message for anyone willing to dial 704-875-0514.  I would advise each one of you to call that number and listen to the hateful racist message that seems to be appealing to more and more people.

      Ginny got singled out by the Klan because of her visibility around AIDS and her support of gay men and lesbians.  Because of that, she was called "a whore of satan" and the Episcopal Church "a tool of the devil" on one of the taped messages.  Her phone number was given on the tape, and a number of people have been calling her at home with harassing messages.

      Ginny has seen a lawyer and is determined to fight back through a legal suit.  She has received, as well, the encouragement of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Montgomery, Alabama.

      I have been in contact with Ginny about how we can stand with her against this attack, an attack not only on her but the entire Episcopal Church.  We can give her our support through our prayers, attentive presence to Ginny, and some financial help to pay legal fees.

      Because Ginny will need good legal assistance she will need money.  One way to do that would be to support a fund, administered from my discretionary account, to meet the legal needs.  Checks may be sent to me and made payable to "Suffragan Bishop Disc Fund."  A designated gift for this purpose will not be tax deductible to the donor.

      At the 1986 Diocesan Convention, we passed a strong resolution pertaining to the activities of the Klan.  It speaks to our concern for Ginny and the rise of racism and hate activity throughout our nation.

      This may well be a good time to educate around this issue among the parishes and missions of the Diocese.  The Klan must be exposed for the racism they embody.  I hope you will share the information with the lay people you serve.

      At the recent General Convention in Phoenix, Episcopalians were called upon to face the growing racism in our midst.  Here is a very visible and tangible example of racism.  I hope that you will take this opportunity to resist it and support our sister.

Faithfully,

Huntington Williams, Jr.

*A Letter from Virginia Herring to the Presiding Bishop*

                                         September 17, 1991

Most Rev. Sir:

      I enclose a copy of Bishop Williams' recent letter to our diocese regarding a lawsuit in which I am involved.  His letter explains the details of my situation succinctly.

      I write to apprise you of the situation, and to ask for your prayers and support.  The work of Integrity in Charlotte, NC has been small, but important.  The gay community here suffers much at the hands of Christians of less tolerant congregations.  It is criminal for them also to be attacked by such a group as the KKK.  This tape message line which published my name and phone number has a different "message" each week.  Most are primarily racial, with a few slurs thrown in for women, gays, and "foreigners."  The phone number is simply a local one, which means that children and young teens can access this outpouring of hatred easily.  I hope to expose this obscenity and end its presence in my community.  Surely this is part of the church's fight against a resurgence of racism in our society.

      I am most grateful to Bishop Williams for his strong support.  Hopefully, raising this issue publicly will help educate our people to the ongoing presence of this particular brand of evil.  Certainly the bishop's letter has already opened some eyes here in our own diocese.

      Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

The Rev. Virginia Herring

********************

"HOW TO FORM AN INTEGRITY CHAPTER" COMMENDED

*The Big Gay Book* "A Man's Survival Guide for the 90's" by John Preston, just published and available everywhere, includes the following item in its section on religious organizations:

"Integrity, the gay Episcopal organization, has a publication on how to form an Integrity chapter.  The lessons and advice are applicable to anyone wanting to start a local denominational organization.  For a copy, write to Integrity, Inc..."

********************

*CLAUDIA'S COLUMN*

I heard whispering

Like the flow of wind from mouth to mouth

That under each arm pit I am marked,

The size of an open hand.

     But in childhood I learned

     Through cruel heavy winks, how instinctively to hide.

What was it I so naively wrapped with rags,

And hidden, dragged through dark months and years?

     In these concealing rags, I had hid my heart,

     When re-found it was sorely bruised

     Shrivelled red from stigma I sought to lose.

Without some fresh exposure, my songs would end in lies'

Tightly bound bruises but increase the inner plight.

     Who marked my sides?  For what unknown cause?

     Why such a brand upon my very self and soul?

     Even today my ebbing thoughts,

     So pale and cold, transparent as glass,

     Hold me awake.

          --"Let Come the Day to Say 'Once it was So'"

      Several weeks ago my partner and I were fishing.  As the sun began to set and we pulled up anchor, we became aware of a boat with mechanical problems unable to return to shore.  As we approached this large recreational boat and its crew of five family members, we asked if we could put our 12 foot fishing boat to the test and tow them.  The scene is best left to the imagination as we secured their boat to ours and headed nearly two miles to their boat landing.  As we began, I turned to Susan and asked, "Honey, do you imagine this would be considered a homosexual act?"

      Our conversation later that evening raised the question of what is meant by "homosexual acts."  "Who marked our (actions)?  For what unknown cause?"  A theology has evolved around the process of naming:  people, places, objects, and actions, dating back as far as Adam in the Garden of Eden.  Naming implies not only being given a designation, but also being kept in control by the one who has assigned the name.  Thus, the name "homosexual acts" given by non-lesbian and gay persons, implies a means of control over our lives and actions.  This disparaging label caused many of us "Through cruel heavy winks, how instinctively to hide....  In these concealing rags, (we) hid our hearts, when re-found (they) were sorely bruised.  Shrivelled red from stigma (we) sought to lose."

      What was it "we so naively wrapped with rags, and hidden, dragged through dark months and years?"  What are "homosexual acts?"  Imagine for a moment, a dozen gay men and lesbians gathered at the open grave of a friend as the Rabbi solemnly reminds them of their duty as friends and mourners to fill in that grave.  Each one present places several shovelfuls of earth on top of the lowered casket.  Many of those same people then assume the responsibility of reciting the mourner's Kaddish every day for the next eleven months in memory of the one who has died.

      Consider also a lesbian who teaches high school.  One of her students is visually impaired and unable to read the standard text.  This teacher regularly has class material copied and enlarged on her way home from school because the school copy machine does not have enlargement capacity.

      Remember the countless life partners sitting at the bedsides of their sick and dying partners; holding hands, speaking words of comfort and encouragement, listening to fears, frustrations, and witnessing pain and sorrow.

      Imagine a gay male couple traveling to another state where one of them has been called to a new job.  For hours on end, they drive around the city stopping at open houses and looking for just the right place to settle and begin a new phase of life and relationship.

      All of these, my sisters and brothers, are "homosexual acts."  Those who seek to control us, for the most part only intend to label our intimate sexual acts as "homosexual" as if they are to be despised and rejected as sinful and worthless.  The reality is that all of these are "homosexual acts" because they are actions of gay and lesbian persons.  Rather than sinful and worthless, they are giving, caring, and loving actions (as is most of our intimate sexual activity).

      "Without some fresh exposure, (our) songs would end in lies, tightly bound bruises but increase the inner plight."  How do you and I as lesbians and gay men expose our bruises not only that healing might begin but that no further bruising need be hidden.  The answer, my sisters and brothers, is found within the very name of our organization.  "Integrity: 'the quality of state of being complete or undivided'" (Webster).

      Terms such as "homosexual acts" are meant to divide; to set one group of people against another.  Rather than having "our songs end in lies" let us reclaim our integrity by openness and acknowledgement of who we are and claim our "homosexual acts."  Doing so need not be blatant declarations of our sexual orientation.  It may, rather, take the form of reference to "my partner" or use of the terms gay/lesbian in conversation, or wearing an Integrity membership in, a pink triangle, or lambda on a lapel.  The possibilities of reclaiming our integrity are only limited by the number of us determined to do so.

      We must totally reclaim our integrity.  This necessitates doing so both in the heterosexual community as well as our own.  I heard a wonderful story of this last week that illustrates this well.  Two teachers met one another in a city high school.  Neither had ever acknowledged their homosexuality to the other, yet each "suspected" the other.  George approached Nancy as she stood outside her classroom and asked, "What are you doing here?  Are you the homecoming queen?"  "No," she replied, "Are you?"  Both understood the implication of "Queen" and appreciated no longer needing to hide their identities with one another.  In fact, George was so relieved by his new found integrity that he continued, "I hope you can attend my organ recital on Sunday, I'll be wearing my taffeta!!"  This was the beginning of the "fresh exposure" and honesty necessary in healing the bruises incurred by each of them in silence and hiding.  Our individual experiences need not be so dramatic nor our comments so overt.  The only necessary element to regaining our integrity is honesty: both with ourselves and others.

      Let us begin this new triennium of the Church with the determination to proudly acknowledge our homosexual acts in order to reclaim our integrity.

********************

*SING US A NEW SONG, BUT NOT THIS ONE*

The following song was discovered by an Integrity/Houston member during one of their meetings at Autrey House.  Autrey House serves as the Episcopal Chaplaincy at Rice University in Houston, Texas and this song was in a songbook used in that ministry.

Gentle Jesus meek and mild,

Came to earth though heaven's child

He taught peace and turned the other cheek

But our God ain't no pansy.

For He has cast down many great Kings

And crushed the hairy heads of his enemies

Like Sihon king of the Amorites and Og

A faithful God and tender dad. 

He weeps with us when times are bad

But watch out for our Great God's wrath

Cause our God ain't no pansy.

Ask Pharaoh, Sodom, Og or Al. 

Elymas, or Annani -

Ask Saphira, Baal or Jezebel 

No our God ain't no pansy.

********************

INTEGRITY PRAYER CALENDAR

The Integrity Prayer Cycle, originated by The Rev. L. Paul Woodrum and updated by Kim Byham, is commended for private as well as public, liturgical use.  The red or black letter day governing the dates is indicated in parentheses.

JANUARY: