Correspondence Gumbleton on double standards; gays, marriage & sacraments; & more...
GUMBLETON, (MOST REV.) THOMAS J. & McCAUSLAND, (REV.) JOHN L. & OVEIS, FRANK & HENDLEY, CLARK & GENTILINI, JOSEPH & LEA, JEFFREY & GIPSTEIN, RICHARD & FINK, JOHN F. & LORENZONI, (REV.) LARRY N. & Garvey, John & Woodward, Kenneth L.
Bishops' double standard Like the other letter writers in your September 12 issue, I am very pleased that you published the excellent article by Rembert Weak-land ("Looking Forward," August 15). I...
...Gay people, however, do...
...As always when Commonweal comments on matters Anglican, I found the perspective enlightening (Kenneth L. Woodward, "Courting Schism," September 12...
...Indeed, our bishop and several members of the standing committee (the highest elected diocesan authority) specifically directed voters to ignore any consideration except who, electors believed, would best serve our diocese as bishop...
...Rome is, well, like the Roman law tradition, proceeding from principle, more concerned with abstract coherence than particular accommodation...
...Not funny Kenneth L. Woodward's "Courting Schism" would be insulting if it weren't so funny...
...What the Diocese of New Hampshire's election process and the General Convention confirmation of the election both displayed, however, was our denomination's difficulty in utilizing careful studies and reports as guidance for acting in the Spirit...
...Lay and clergy delegates, as well as our bishops, made many references to these sources...
...It's diocesan bishops who are asked to submit their resignation at age seventy-five, a resignation which the pope may or may not accept...
...I also must note that none of my respondents seems concerned about the crisis the General Convention created for the archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican Communion...
...Reading them made me wonder if you still think straight, white males have the right to define other people on their behalf...
...The general banner under which the election was conducted was that the Holy Spirit would simply speak through the vote-a position which, as Wood-(Continued on page 4) (Continued from page 2) ward points out, is troublingly at odds with the official and traditional theology of Anglicanism...
...JOHN L. MCCAUSLAND Weare, N.H...
...Wrong Carroll The otherwise fine book review of David Gibson's The Coming Catholic Church ("All Is Not Lost," September 12) was marred by Dennis O'Brien's characterization of John Carroll as "the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence...
...My desire for union with God also includes my relationship with my partner...
...Bishops like Weak-land, Bernard Law, and many others who were guilty of grave mistakes, and even criminal actions, still function publicly...
...Even if the church only wants to call the union of heterosexuals a "marriage," it should not preclude blessing our same-sex relationships as holy and good for those who are gay...
...A gay Christian is as capable of special pleading as a straight Christian, and has no more-or less-authority to take on this difficult subject...
...It must also be said that if there is something genuinely sacramental in the union of a same-sex couple, it will be sacramental whether the church blesses it or not...
...Earlier this year, the theological committee of the House of Bishops produced a very good summary of these matters as they bear on the questions of sexuality in ordination and the blessing of relationships...
...Surely experience has long since taught the majority of delegates to the General Convention that a homosexual couple in a committed relationship can witness to Christian values every bit as well as a heterosexual one...
...We tend to be impatient with waiting, praying, and talking, and in the end leap to political determinations by majority vote...
...Meanwhile, with both Rome and Canterbury, one has to trust history to sort out what is of the Spirit and what is not...
...It is not a celebrated teaching these days, but there it is...
...Charles Carroll of Carrollton, John's cousin, had that distinction...
...My relationship is my primary vocation-my primary way to God...
...We can only hope that Voice of the Faithful and other lay groups will have the stamina to persist in their efforts to hold the bishops accountable and to bring structural reform to the church...
...Actually, modern Anglicans speak of four loci for theology, the Quadrilateral: Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience...
...REV...
...THOMAS J. GUMBLETON Detroit, Mich...
...They need to look for serious historical precedents, where the church went from one moral or doctrinal place to quite another, and engage them seriously...
...Our age is tin-eared where symbols are concerned, and the symbol of what male and female mean is central to this argument, and goes way beyond genital differences...
...JOHN F. FINK Indianapolis, Ind...
...I agree that Rome and Canterbury would both be better off with elements of the other's ecclesi-ology...
...This presents a particular difficulty for homosexual Christians, because it appears to mandate lifelong celibacy, while others may at least hope that their situation will allow them some day to marry...
...REV...
...john garvey The good fight Your editorial "The War on Terrorism" (September 12) was excellent...
...Prior to voting, no reference was made to the theological committee's report...
...A sacrament is an outward sign of God's grace in our lives...
...I just don't think they can witness to what the Bible means by marriage, which may be why so many Canadian same-sex couples do not want to marry...
...Her simple, profound story is all the retort that Woodward's article needs...
...The author replies: I thank Reverend McCausland for his background information regarding the search and election process in New Hampshire, which precluded theological considerations...
...The church cannot stop the Holy Spirit from loving us in our gay relationships...
...JEFFREY LEA Fairfax, Va...
...Publications like Commonweal must keep speaking out against the cynical, wrongheaded views that seem to be spreading across our land if we are to have any chance of reversing our current course...
...Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages...
...I would only add that to my ear, (Continued on page 28) CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 4) much of the General Convention debate was cast in the therapeutic idiom of tolerance and inclusive-ness-not exactly theological categories...
...If I read him right, Frank Oveis seems to think that the "floodtide of literature" on the Bible and homosexuality flows toward only one conclusion...
...The mystery of relationships is not just the "otherness" hidden behind the opposite sex's body parts, but the rich depth found in any given individual that we happen to encounter and develop an intimacy with-sexual or otherwise...
...I have found that nothing causes greater anger on the part of laypeo-ple and greater loss of credibility in episcopal leadership than this double standard...
...To go from this situation to blessing a gay marriage is quite a stretch, and the burden of proof, where an ancient tradition is concerned, is on those who want the change made...
...While what Christians may consider moral may change-slavery was once considered acceptable-the problem is that homosexual acts were canonically forbidden, in both the Eastern and Western Churches...
...And then I came across Suzanne Keen's article "Why I Left" in the same issue...
...Keep up the good work...
...We have a family life history, even if people like Garvey cannot fathom it...
...While this recommendation was not followed in the vote, the debate in Minneapolis amply mined the arguments this earlier work had articulated...
...I find it hard to be critical without offending someone, but it would help to know what exactly he finds offensive...
...Or perhaps it would be funny if it weren't so insulting...
...Joseph gentilini Hilliard, Ohio Listen to gay Christians Your recent issue had two essays dealing with gay people in the church ("Same-Sex Marriage" and "Courting Schism," September 12), neither of them written by a gay Christian...
...It says that everyone else, gay or straight, divorced, widowed or single, should be celibate...
...The Anglican vote I am an Episcopal priest of the Diocese of New Hampshire, which recently elected Canon V. Gene Robinson as its next bishop...
...clark hendley Canton, Conn...
...LARRY N. LORENZONI, SDB San Francisco, Calif...
...The author replies: The fact is that there is an ancient tradition, biblical and ecclesial, which insists that the only sexual activity the church can bless is between a man and a woman...
...richard gipstein Mystic, Conn...
...I would like to add a few points...
...Woodward also claims that "of the three pillars of Anglican theology-Scripture, tradition, and reason-none was invoked on behalf of bishop-elect Robinson...
...I, for one, am the spiritual offspring of a gay couple, who were themselves nurtured and taught by an even older childless couple...
...I take issue, however, with his argument that homosexual marriages cannot be sacramental because the mysterion, or "mystery," involved in marriage is dependent on "the differences between male and female, the ability to accept the depths and richness of that particular otherness, and the movement from lovemaking to new life...
...Here in the Diocese of New Hampshire the search and election process was constructed in a way that left no real opportunity for study or discussion of the sexuality issue by voting delegates...
...I don't think that is a fair assessment...
...MOST REV...
...They found a lack of consensus in the church on how to apply these sources of authority and recommended that the church not move forward with either the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals or the blessing of same-sex unions...
...I fear they will be leaving a terrible legacy to our children...
...No one has yet found the perfect system, if there is one...
...As Schilling shows, Rome tends to use theology as a cloak for decisions which are actually political...
...And the movement of lovemaking to new life is something that homosexual men and women do experience, even if Garvey does not have the lovemaking vocabulary to understand it...
...Zero tolerance" has been the cruel response rendered to priests by the bishops, while bishops escape such penalties even though it was they who constantly hid the grave problems by secretly moving guilty priests from one place to another...
...These leave our body at least temporarily frayed...
...Garvey may see the "mystery" of marriage as the privilege of only heterosexual couples capable of having children-which, incidentally, leaves a lot of his straight brothers and sisters out of this particular sacrament of God's love-but he fails to recognize that new life can be generated from a relationship in ways other than impregnating women...
...The Anglican Church is like the English common law, proceeding pastorally on a case-by-case basis, with appeal to authority tempered by the facts of the day...
...It was a very concise and truthful summary of the dismal mess our current administration has made of our foreign policy...
...I was to some degree encouraged by John Garvey's tone regarding same-sex couples...
...I'm surprised that error made it past the editors...
...For those who have read the floodtide of biblical scholarship on this issue that has ensued, no debate is necessary...
...On the other hand, priests sometimes guilty of far less grave actions, some of which were single incidents and many years ago, are forced to resign, are not allowed to publicly celebrate Mass, or even to appear in clerical attire...
...Could we but find a way to marry the two, the result might be better than our presently separate parts...
...Woodward's point could also apply to the subject of Timothy P. Schilling's article in the same issue, "When Bishops Disagree," dealing with the Hunthausen affair...
...KENNETH L. WOODWARD Same-sex marriage I read with sadness John Garvey's article "Same-Sex Marriage: Can It Be a Sacrament...
...Remember experience In chiding the General Convention of the Episcopal Church for allowing "Scripture and tradition [to take] a back seat to congregational politics" and deciding "a theological issue by avoiding a serious theological debate," Kenneth L. Woodward overlooks the fact that Episcopalians and other Christians have been wrestling with the biblical teaching on homosexuality at least since the appearance of Derrick Sherwin Bailey's landmark book, Homosexuality in the Western Christian Tradition, published in 1955...
...But what I cannot accept is the double standard we are following at the present time...
...The difference in the Hunthausen case is that the politics were not open and democratic, and thus perhaps were more subject to abuse...
...But then that may be a typical "Roman" reaction, given my tradition's very organic notion of the body of Christ as visible as well as mystical...
...Having been in a same-sex committed relationship for twenty-two years, I can say that it has been a sacrament to me...
...First, it is not completely true that in confirming Canon Robinson's election the General Convention acted without reference to the Anglican hallmarks of Scripture, tradition, or reason...
...Moreover, I do not doubt that homosexual couples can witness to "Christian values"-so can unmarried heterosexual couples...
...If Clark Hendley feels insulted, so be it...
...We Anglicans are not alone, however, in finding it hard to integrate our sources of theological authority with our actual ecclesiology...
...I agree that "we cannot afford to lose the benefit of his wisdom and experience...
...I can't recall another Commonweal article that so ridiculed another Christian tradition-or one that so relied on generalization and exaggeration to make a point...
...This has nothing to do with the tired white male rhetoric (there are plenty of black and Asian women who would agree with me...
...That is, if tradition matters at all, and if it doesn't, neither Catholicism nor Orthodoxy is the church for you...
...frank oveis New York, N.Y...
...Voting age Before his insightful article ("We the People of God," September 12) is published as a chapter of a forthcoming book, Bruce Russett should change a factually incorrect statement that managed to escape his critical eye: cardinals lose their right to elect a pope when they reach the age of eighty, not seventy-five...
Vol. 130 • October 2003 • No. 17
