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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 2, 1996)
Just out T fe b ru a ry 2 , 199 6 ▼ 13 Febru ary S w eetheart Special RELIGION Save 2 0 % on Custom Framing Flaming faggots (Picture This Framina Gallery w ill help you create those perfect picture fi frames and you w ill save 2 0 % on your complete project.) Y < The ordainment of “practicing” homosexual priests may lead the U.S. Episcopal Church to its second trial of heresy in 300 years ▼ ^Picture This’ FRAMING GALLERY by Bob Roehr eresy. The word conjures images of medieval woodcuts, of anguished sin ners tied to stakes while purifying tongues of flame lap from stacked faggots. So why then is the Episcopal Church, one of the most progressive mainline denominations, about to stage only the second heresy trial in its 300-year history in the United States? Two words: flaming faggots. Conservatives within the church are using the ordination of “prac ticing homosexuals” as a wedge issue against their opponents. The Rev. Barry Stopfel is the object conserva tives would like to smite down. He is pastor of St. George’s, a prototypical Episcopal-looking stone church in the New Jersey suburb of Maplewood. He is not looking for controversy; he just wants to be a good priest. A priest’s being gay, in and of itself, isn’t a problem for the Episcopal Church. A 1976 resolu tion by the General Conven tion, a governing body of the chuch, declared that “all persons are chi ldren of God.” Today more than a hundred openly gay or lesbian people serve as priests. No, the problem is that the middle-aged Stopfel is presumed to be a "practic ing” homosexual. He and Will Leckie have been to gether since they met in seminary a decade ago. Leckie is an ordained minis ter of the United Church of Christ. The Episcopal Church discourages sex outside of marriage. The Catch-22 is that it doesn’t recognize gay marriages—yet. A group is studying that question and may possibly recommend the blessing of same-sex unions to the General Convention that meets in 1997. The conservatives can’t go after Stopfel. His parish adores him. Within the church hierarchy, he is accountable only to the bishop of Newark, John Spong, who is one of the church’s most steadfast supporters of gay men and lesbians. So they aimed their wrath at Walter C. Righter, the retired bishop of Iowa. It was Righter who ordained Stopfel as a deacon, the preliminary step to priesthood, in 1990, when he was assistant bishop in the Diocese of Newark. Ten traditionalist bishops moved in January 1995. They filed what is called a “presentment” demanding Righter be tried before the Court for the Trial of a Bishop for violation of church law. “Simply put, we are convinced that the Episco pal Church clearly teaches that it is not lawful or appropriate to knowingly ordain a practicing ho mosexual,” wrote William C. Wantland, bishop of Au Claire, Wis., in his letter for the 10. The position is eerily reminiscent of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the policy which bans gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military. Nei ther objects to theoretical homosexual persons, so long as they remain celibate and quiet, denying basic aspects of their humanity. The traditionalists have called Righter’s ac tions a “breakdown of authority” and vowed to “bring to trial all those who have knowingly vio H lated the teaching of the church.” That list includes sitting bishops in Chicago, Washington, Newark and other large dioceses. The 10 convinced a quarter of their nearly 300 fellow bishops to sign on. Righter sees the charges as “harassment, not of me, but of the church.” He notes that both the House of Bishops and the General Convention rejected motions to censure him over the ordina tion. James M. Stanton is bishop of Dallas and spokesman for those bringing the charges. He argues that “every Convention in the last 20 years has passed some kind of resolution reaffirming the traditional teaching of marriage and marital fidel ity.” By that token, he charges, practicing homo sexuals are in violation of church doctrine and shouldn’t be ordained. Kim Byham, spokesman for the Righter fac tion, disagrees. The former national president of Integrity, an organization of gay and lesbian Episcopalians, points to a canon adopted by the General Convention in 1994. It prohibits discrimina tion in the selection process for ordination and specifically includes “sexual orientation.” Furthermore, says Byham, the 1994 convention consid ered a moratorium on the or dination of homosexuals, but ^ rejected that proposal by a 4- 0 1 margin. R. William Franklin sees the issue as “very important” to the church because it has "a proportionally large gay and lesbian population,” and seemingly has had for a long period of time. Franklin, professor of church history at the General Theological Seminary, the national seminary of the Epis copal Church, cites a book published last year, Boston Bohemiaby Douglass Shand-Tucci. It docu ments a gay subculture in the Episcopal Church in Boston in the 1890s. Then, in the 1950s, began “the much broader issue of the church absorbing cultural change,” Franklin explains. Race came first, then ordination of women and, over the last 20 years, issues sur rounding sexuality. “The question now,” Franklin says, “is that gay and lesbian people would like to live open lives. Conservatives say that is not possible.” The very act of seeking the trial came as a shock to many. The only previous trial for heresy was in 1924, when a retired bishop of Arkansas “con verted” and began preaching that communism had superseded Christianity. The Episcopal Church “tends to work these issues out through the elective process of conven tions,” says Franldin. “What this conservative group has done is try to pre-empt that by forcing a trial, which is not in our tradition.” He sees “old-line Episcopalians reacting nega tively because they see it as not Episcopalian.” Perhaps the issue will be sorted out somewhat on Feb. 27, when the court meets in Wilmington, Del. Six hours of argument are scheduled on church doctrine. 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