Tag: Protestant Clergy

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LGBTQ+ church leaders share reflections on service

LEAD WITH LOVE: The Rev. Sarah Hulbert, dean at The Cathedral of All Souls in Biltmore Village, says those who aren’t welcoming LGBTQ+ parishoners with open arms are missing God’s greatest commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself.

by Greg Parlier

The Rev. Sarah Hurlbert says she can understand why some fellow members of the LGBTQ+ community never want to step foot in a church.

“Why would you want to be a part of a religious group that has oppressed folks?” she concedes.

But Hurlbert, who identifies as bisexual, says the same God that made her who she is also called her to the priesthood. She is disappointed in those who use the Bible to discriminate against minority communities because of what she says is an improper conflation of politics and Christian teachings.

“The more you study, the more you realize a lot of what’s being preached out there as the Gospel is not true,” she asserts. “And a lot of it is this cultural conservatism, and they’ve gotten the Bible and the flag and the Constitution all mixed up. And so it’s important for us to be in the public square, not proclaiming a political party.”

For Hurlbert, there are two primary commandments given by God to guide human life.

“Love God above everything else; love your neighbor as yourself. Outside of that, we have created all these things, all these hoops that people have to jump through, none of it’s Gospel. So what Jesus came to say was a pretty simple message that we’ve managed to really, really make hard.”

Hurlbert joined The Cathedral of All Souls in Biltmore Village as dean in 2022. It is part of the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina, which, she says, has been on the forefront of expanding acceptance in the Episcopal church, one of the first Christian denominations to officially allow openly LGBTQ+ ministers in its leadership.

While the national Episcopal leaders voted to make the church “fully inclusive” in 1976, it was 2009 before they passed a resolution officially allowing the ordination of LGBTQ+ bishops, and there wasn’t full support for same-sex marriage until 2015, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

At All Souls in the 1980s, the Rev. Neil Zabriskie was on the leading edge, challenging the WNC diocese to “begin facilitating conversations around human sexuality as well as becoming a welcoming and safe church for gay and lesbian persons,” according to All Souls’ website.

That conversation continued into the next decade, and today, the Rev. José A. McLoughlin, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina, says it’s his goal to welcome and earnestly include everyone, regardless of background.

“In a world where division persists, we hope that our commitment to being open and affirming is an example of the transformative power of love,” he says. “We hope also to be a living example of a church where everyone is not only accepted but fully embraced for who they are and that each person can find belonging that leads to full flourishing in the divine light of love.”

Coming out in the church

The Rev. David Eck, who is gay, did not hide who he was from his congregation when he became pastor of Abiding Savior Lutheran Church in Fairview in 1993. That was a risky move at the time.

“I think early on a lot of us sort of flew under the radar,” he says. “In my denomination, I would have been fired had the bishop known.”

OPEN BOOK: The Rev. David Eck has been leading Abiding Savior Lutheran Church in Fairview for about 30 years and was always open with his congregation about his sexual orientation.

It wasn’t until 2009 that the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, of which Abiding Savior is a member, voted to allow gay and lesbian clergy to serve openly, he says.

“I would perform all the unions for couples before it was legal to actually marry folks,” Eck says. “And my congregation was supportive of that. And so, you know, we’ve just been sort of quietly affirming a wide diversity of people.”

When Eck did come out to the bishop and his colleagues from other churches, he was the only openly gay Lutheran pastor in the state, but that was less important to him than worship and community outreach.

“Those who know me well weren’t surprised,” he recalls. “Some folks, you know, just can’t seem to get beyond that prejudice. I had to part ways with some people, and there are pastors in the community that won’t work with me. It just is what it is.”

Hurlbert’s journey to the church and self-acceptance went through Broadway. After being raised in the Episcopal church in Central Florida, she moved to New York City, where she worked backstage in Broadway theaters and attended an Episcopal church she liked. But something was unsettled. She met a few women who were ordained in the church and eventually started to realize what she needed to do.

“Something was being stirred up,” she says of her decision to go to seminary. “I took my time and told God a lot of times that God was wrong. And then I did some real conversation in spiritual direction with clergy, and I finally came to realize, yep, this is what’s happening.”

It wasn’t until she was out of seminary and in the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, where there were lots of other LGBTQ+ clergy, that she came out. By that time, in 2014, the church was much more accepting, making her transition to being open much easier than if she had come out during seminary.

Part of her delay to accept her own sexuality had to do with cultural norms around female relationships, Hurlbert says. There is a cultural acceptance that female relationships take many forms, so early on she was led to believe that certain feelings she was having were just a type of platonic female friendship. Later, when she entered the church, she fought the urge to get swallowed up by her ministry, not allowing herself to be loved by someone because she was so consumed by her duties caring for her congregation.

Eventually, she fell in love with her now-wife, Dee Hurlbert.

LGBTQ+ leadership

For Jesse Nelson, who is gay, the presence of LGBTQ+ leaders in the church is important to fostering a welcoming environment, especially with so much divisive rhetoric coming from segments of the Christian community.

“At the end of the day, you can’t be accepting of LGBTQ+ folks as a church and not accept them into leadership,” he argues. “To me, that’s just not possible. If you’re doing that, you’re playing a game that’s causing confusion.”

Nelson grew up in an evangelical Baptist church in Cashiers but began participating in a local Catholic church because it was a little more socially progressive, he says.

He moved to the Waynesville area about four years ago to help take care of his ailing grandfather and wound up joining Grace Church in the Mountains, an Episcopal church in town, because he liked the way the congregation preached “radical love.”

“They take ‘love God’ and ‘love your neighbor’ very seriously. I think that, for me, that’s pretty important to spiritual life,” he says.

Now, Nelson hosts “joyful fellowship events” for members of the church to share in their experiences as members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Hurlbert says it’s vital for church leaders to actively show the wider community love and acceptance, through word and action, especially in the face of hateful rhetoric that is also being attributed to the Bible.

“I preach to our folks that we’ve got to be out there because there are young people growing up in this far-right Christian nationalism that know in their heart that something’s wrong, but they have nothing that they can go to,” she says. “They don’t even know that there’s a place where you can go and be gay and Christian. For a lot of people, it’s a matter of life and death for us to just be out there and be who we are.”

For Nelson, integrating LGBTQ+ people into the church is the only way to build a community that resembles the one taught by Scripture.

“The point of Christianity to me is to grow in love and understanding, and to build peaceful, loving communities,” he says. “And to do that, I think you have to be accepting of the LGBTQ+ community. Not just tolerate it, but you know, integrate it into spiritual life. Because yeah, it is part of our life experience. So it is sacred.”

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Church of England backs plans for trial blessings of same-sex weddings

— General Synod’s narrow vote in favour means services to celebrate gay marriages could be held within weeks

Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, backed the amendment to offer blessings to same-sex weddings on a trial period.

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Dedicated church services to bless the weddings of same-sex couples could be held within weeks, after a narrow vote at the Church of England ruling body.

The General Synod backed a plan to hold standalone services of blessings for same-sex couples on a trial basis.

It means that gay Christians will be able to invite family and friends to a special service, which could be held on Saturdays, to bless and celebrate their weddings. Music, readings, confetti and other features would mean such services could look very similar to a standard church wedding.

The proposal for standalone services on a trial basis came in an amendment to a motion that noted progress made by bishops on the divisive issues of sexuality, known within the C of E as Living in Love and Faith. The amendment scraped through by one vote; the amended motion passed by 227 votes to 203.

Steven Croft, the bishop of Oxford, who proposed the amendment, said the “experimental” standalone services would be voluntary and no member of the clergy would be obliged to offer such services.

Last month, bishops agreed to commend special prayers of blessing for same-sex couples for use in existing church services. These are likely to begin before Christmas.

Bishops also agreed last month to begin a two-year process of authorising special standalone services under canon law.

The proposal for trial standalone services means they can begin at the same time as the process of permanent authorisation is under way.

In a joint statement, Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, and Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York – who backed the amendment, said: “We have heard loud and clear, through an extensive debate over two days, the depth of feeling across the church on these hugely important questions.

“While this motion was passed, narrowly, we do not underestimate the depth of feeling and will reflect on all that we have heard as we seek to move forward together.”

Sarah Mullally, the bishop of London and co-chair of the Living in Love and Faith steering group, said: “The truth is – and as we have seen again today – that the Church of England is not of one mind on questions of sexuality and marriage.”

Bishops would now “consider how best to implement” the synod’s decision, she added.

Jayne Ozanne, a campaigner for equal marriage within the C of E, said the decision offered “tiny scraps of hope to LGBT+ people”.

She added: “The C of E remains deeply homophobic, whatever bishops and archbishops may say. I fear that much of the nation will judge the C of E as being abusive, hypocritical and unloving – they are, sadly, correct.”

Daniel Matovu, a barrister and a lay member of the synod, told members that the proposal was “contrary to and wholly inconsistent with God’s word”. He said the Bible made it clear that a male who sleeps with another male cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

The synod voted against a series of amendments seen by pro-LGBTQ+ campaigners as seeking further delay on the C of E’s glacial moves towards marriage equality. The church has been trying to avoid a split between progressives and traditionalists on the issues for more than 20 years.

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Over 40 bishops back bid to allow priests in same-sex marriages ‘without delay’

— The guidance has already existed in draft form but delays are ongoing due to “further work” being needed

Canterbury Cathedral

By Charlotte Manning

A group of 44 bishops have expressed hope guidance allowing priests to be in same-sex marriages will be issued “without delay”.

During a public statement made on Wednesday (1 November), the bishops made clear their overwhelming support of the issue.

According to The Church Times, the guidance has existed in draft form but delays are ongoing due to “further work” being needed.

Last month, a group of 12 bishops publicly dissented from a decision to commend blessings for same-sex couples.

“We long for the day when LGBTQIA+ people will know themselves to be unquestionably included in the life and all ministries of our Church”

However, progress appears to be close as the new group, who have backed guidance allowing same-sex marriages for priests, shared an open letter.

They wrote that they “recognise the complexities of the Pastoral Guidance in relation to ministry”.

But the 15 diocesan bishops and 29 suffragans say there is “also the need for a swift end to the current uncertainty for LGBTQIA+ clergy and ordinands”.

The group adds: “We look forward to Guidance being issued without delay that includes the removal of all restrictions on clergy entering same-sex civil marriages, and on bishops’ ordaining and licensing such clergy, as well as granting permissions to officiate.”

The same publication reported last week that such guidance existed in draft form, but that the House of Bishops had voted to delay its implementation for “further work” (News, 27 October).

In a statement, the 44 bishops stated that they were looking forward to the House of Bishops’ “refining, commending and issuing the Prayers of Love and Faith, such that the final version should not be contrary to or indicative of a departure from the doctrine of the Church of England”.

“We look forward to Guidance being issued without delay”

They went on to add: “We know that we will not all agree, but it is our longing that we will find a way that will recognise and honour our different perspectives and the gift we are to each other within the life of the Church of England, such that no one is expected to act against their conscience or theological conviction.”

They concluded: “In all of this we long for the day when LGBTQIA+ people will know themselves to be unquestionably included in the life and all ministries of our Church, and the contributions of each one of us fully accepted and celebrated as simply the offering of a fellow Christian.”

Earlier this year, Church of England bishops refused to allow priests to marry same-sex couples.

This came after a five-year consultation on the issue called Living in Love and Faith.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in England and Wales since 2013 yet the Church hasn’t followed suit in changing its doctrine: that marriage can be only between a man and a woman.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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Americans are leaving church behind.

— They’re giving up a lot more than faith.

By Paul Wesslund

Three times in the past six years our pastor has acted out a small drama during his weekly sermon. “This is not the church,” he’ll say, crossing his arms over his chest. Then, unclenching and spreading his arms wide, “This is the church.”

Each reenactment of this open and welcoming gesture strikes me as the kind of message people need to hear, outside as well as inside our stained glass windows. Yet record numbers of Americans have quit going to church. Studies and personal stories describe people either leaving churches or just drifting away for reasons like being too busy or disagreeing on social issues.

The odd thing is that these former churchgoers seem to be searching for some kind of community, and affirmation that love and compassion are good things. It’s odd because in my experience that’s what church offers.

And my experience is not a sugarcoating of reality. I attend a United Methodist Church in Kentucky, where over the past three years nearly half of the Methodist churches in the state left the denomination. Their reasons for disaffiliating were popularly described as based on objections to the ordination of gay clergy and to holding same-sex weddings in the church.

But it’s more complicated than that. After all, while there’s been a lot of internal debate over those issues, the United Methodist Church still does not allow gay weddings or clergy.

Instead, the disaffiliations have more to do with the divisiveness and tribalism plaguing other parts of society. We no longer want to be around people who might be different from us.

The blessing of the quilts takes place at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Louisville, KY in March of 2020. Members of the congregation sewed quilts for Project Linus, which provides handmade blankets to children who are seriously ill, traumatized or in need.

Americans are dechurching in droves. What are they leaving behind?

I attended the Kentucky United Methodist Annual Conference this year where disaffiliations were approved for the last wave of the more than 300 churches that left our conference. At the meeting I sensed the hundreds of remaining delegates going through the classic stages of grief, including depression and acceptance. It’s a denomination figuring out how to navigate a new world, working hard at keeping hope alive.

My home church in Louisville is on a parallel path. Attendance is trending back up after COVID. We now livestream Sunday services. The coffee shop where I volunteer is getting back to its lively self. Over the past few years I know of people who have left because our church is too liberal, others because it’s too conservative.

Much of the current commentary on church attendance refers to the new book, The Great Dechurching by Jim Davis and Michael Graham. It takes a deep dive into surveys about why so many have stopped going to church. The studies found plenty of reasons, from wanting to sleep in after being kept awake by a new baby to attending brunch with friends.

Other widely-reported reasons cut even deeper – the widespread child abuse in the Catholic church, use of the Bible to score political points and the too-frequent requests for money.

The reasons are understandable, relatable and even logical. But they don’t take into account the unique combination of what a church can offer that addresses what a lot of people say they’re searching for: friends, and being a part of something larger than themselves.

The U.S. Surgeon General issued a report this year on loneliness and isolation, comparing its health effects to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. He created the report, he says, after Americans repeatedly told him they feel invisible and insignificant. That’s a condition every church seeks to address, however imperfectly.

We overlook defects in other parts of our lives. Who hasn’t had a less-than-perfect experience at what is still their favorite restaurant? Or stayed loyal to their team despite a series of boneheaded plays?

I deliberately chose to stay a United Methodist despite strongly disagreeing with its prohibition of gay ministers and same-sex church weddings. The God I worship loves everyone the same.

Bishop Fairley:There is more to United Methodists than the debate over human sexuality.

My conflict with Methodist church has become an act of faith

Remaining in the church for me was never a serious question. On the one hand there was this difference over a divisive issue. On the other was a wide-ranging mixture of reason and emotion. I grew up with the habit and tradition that Sunday mornings were for church. Each week I get to listen to choral and organ music I don’t hear anywhere else. I see a group of friends who gather on a moment’s notice for family celebrations or tragedies, to bring food and just to be there. I get to know that I’m part of a community that regularly helps build Habitat for Humanity houses. The children’s choir gave my daughter a strong music education from kindergarten through 12th grade.

So I choose to stay because no person – or institution – is perfect. Because leaving a more diverse group of thinkers and believers for people who are closer to being exactly like me seems sad – and even wrong – because it would just contribute to today’s tendency to listen only to ourselves.

My disagreement with one of the church’s policies didn’t drive me away – the opposite happened.

I’m not the sort to just paper over differences like LGBTQ+ rights. So I helped organize a group of church members to hold forums on the issue, to let people know that at next year’s United Methodist General Conference there could be a vote to change those policies. We also branched into environmental action, supporting the city council’s renewable energy resolution. Our group has supported racial justice programs.

My conflict has become an act of faith.

A church’s hold on people doesn’t come with the drama of watching a sport or offer a dinner menu. It’s bigger than that. I can’t help but feel that both the church and its former members are wandering around looking for each other.

Maybe they’ll meet again.

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Loving disagreement and synodality – within and beyond Catholicism

Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience in St Peter’s Square, at the Vatican last week as Synod preparations continue.

By Christopher Landau

Watching the development of synodality within the Catholic Church is fascinating from an Anglican perspective. My first encounter with the Church of England’s General Synod was twenty years ago, when, as a junior BBC News producer, I happened to be present as the gay rights activist Peter Tatchell disrupted the proceedings alongside fellow campaigners. It became a memorable synod, for all the wrong reasons.

I have little doubt that some Anglicans’ ambivalence about our own mixed experience of synodical government means that developments in Rome are being viewed with more than a raised eyebrow.

What has fascinated me, in part, is the tone of some of the social media debates ahead of the Roman Synod. It is perhaps reassuring to realise that Anglican Twitter (of which I am reasonably familiar) shares similarly dysfunctional and corrosive attitudes to those which are seemingly widespread in Catholic social media discourse. Though I am reminded by one friend that Methodist Facebook is worst of all…

I left journalism to train for Anglican ministry, and along the way resumed theological study, considering the specific question of the ethics of Christian disagreement. In essence, I wondered why a faith grounded in love of neighbour found the active pursuit of that neighbour-love within the church so problematic.

Official Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission documents are surprisingly candid and illustrative in this regard. The 1994 ARCIC report, Life In Christ: Morals, Communion And The Church is fascinating on the reality of difference between the two communions, and the particular challenge of mutual caricature. Untruthful prejudices are confronted:

It is not true that the Roman Catholic Church has predetermined answers to every moral question, while the Anglican Church has no answers at all. It is not true that Roman Catholics always agree on moral issues, nor that Anglicans never agree. It is not true that Anglican ethics is pragmatic and unprincipled, while Roman Catholic moral theology is principled but abstract. It is not true that Roman Catholics are always more careful of the institution in their concern for the common good, while Anglicans disregard the common good in their concern for the individual. It is not true that Roman Catholic moral teaching is legalistic, while Anglican moral teaching is utilitarian. Caricature, we may grant, is never totally contrived; but caricature it remains.

For me, the enduring question is why Christians of all denominations remain so ready to assume the worst of each other, and broadcast that fact, whether on social or traditional media. The notion exemplified by Jesus’ words in John 13:35, that the mutual love within the church is itself an attractive missionary sign to those beyond it, seems remote.

And yet the New Testament is candid and consistent in its repeated calls towards the maintenance of loving unity within the body of Christ. Of course this doesn’t mean hard questions should not be faced, particularly when orthodoxy is at stake, but what repeatedly strikes me is the way in which this call to unity falls down the list of ecclesial priorities, despite the consistent urging found within both the Gospels and other New Testament narratives.

Within my own work, the contrast set out by St Paul between the fruit of the Spirit and the acts of the flesh is illustrative. Although, perhaps understandably, attention often focusses on the “big ticket” sins outlined in Galatians chapter 5, it is striking that several of the fleshly characteristics relate precisely to the nature of human interactions in the context of disagreements: discord, dissensions and factions, for example. Whereas the fruit of the Spirit exemplify characteristics which can be transformative in situations of conflict: forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

The simple observation is that any church debate, whether within or beyond a particular denomination, will be improved in quality in direct proportion to amount of the fruit of the Spirit present. This question of spiritual reality lies at the heart of how disagreements are faced, and how Christlike we are as we face them.

The irony for me, as I watch the Church of England teeter on the edge of self-destruction over questions of sexuality, is that often we find unity easier to pursue beyond a denomination than within it. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will pray for Christian unity in Rome this weekend, even as that same unity is seriously imperilled within his own jurisdiction.

We live with these ironies as we intercede for deeper unity. My own particular hope and prayer is that Christian leaders will recognise the spiritual dimension to our striving for unity – and that we will be faithful to the Lord’s desire for his followers to be one, as we face and debate our differences, whether within a synod or beyond it.

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