Episcopal “gayness” is a symptom, not the cause.
I was raised (dragged up) in the Episcopal Church. My parents had me enter the confirmation process and I was confirmed in the church. I chose to become an acolyte which was a challenge for the good Fathers of my church for I was an imp.
I found solace in the church at a temptuous (it is a word in my dictionary) time of raging hormones evident in most young men. My impishness had grown in scope and no longer was it considered cute, so I was packed off to military school where the church became even more important to me. The military regime of the school was really chaffing my shorts and the attendance and study associated with the church was not only invigorating, but was also a freeing respite from the stifling daily routine.
The Episcopal Church changed my life for the better.
Our Sunday mass, held in the church, was long and very public with the entire cadet corp. I found Wednesday evening mass, only for those confirmed in a smaller chapel, to be more intimate and rewarding. My weekly confession was very trying for all concerned.
The Episcopal Father in charge of me was younger priest, a true inspiration and a positive governor on my racing motor. He and his wife would have picnics on their lawn for us acolytes on many Sunday afternoons when it was warm. He was a father figure and a Father to me. As I am now, I still think of his advice often. I also remember that he gave me more punishment whacks than any other cadet in the Company.
I was married in the Episcopal Church. The Church had a problem when we asked for a “28 Prayer Book” wedding service. The older 1928 Prayer Book had been a victim of the Episcopal Church’s Vatican 2-lite purge of its history for a bold new path not only in the church’s liturgy, but also its daily practice of God’s word. My marriage was the first time, as an adult, that I had to face the diverging paths my church and I were taking.
Today, the Episcopal Church wears the face of being the “gay church” and the church is losing membership at an alarming rate. The church has a gay Bishop, a history of acceptance of the gay lifestyle, and now ex-Governor “gay American” McGreevy, the self confessed “devout catholic”, is using the Episcopal Church for part of his rehabilitation and the Episcopal Church is his willing conspirator.
The problem of the Episcopal Church is not its “gayness”, the problem is the church’s conscious switch from religion to social movement as witnessed by the church’s “gayness”. As a young man, I saw it during the Vietnam War as the church preached its anti-war politics from the pulpit instead of giving succor and spiritual guidance to those suffering from the war, both participants and those opposed. While living in Washington, DC I sadly went to a memorial service for one of my sisters at the National Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. The celebration of her life was held in her favorite place, the Bethlehem Chapel in the crypt. As my wife and I walked towards the crypt stairs, we were visually accosted by large images of AIDS victims hanging throughout the nave and the transept. In the images and the writings, only our national sin of not caring enough was addressed, not the sin that brought the need for these images.
The Episcopal Church, as a social movement, cannot invoke the “hate the sin/love the sinner” rule because that is a rule used in religion where God’s judgment and laws exist. Instead of ministering to the disaffected, the church’s appalling need for public acceptance and applause from the public has taken it far from its role of ministering the word of God.
The Episcopal's McGreevys are only a symptom and not the cause for my leaving the Episcopal Church. That and the fact that the Episcopal Church cannot see itself in the mirror. That has left a hole in my heart.
