A recent poll of American voters indicates a distaste for, as they perceive it, candidates’ use of their faith to influence the electorate. Sixty-eight percent of respondents agreed with this statement: “Presidential candidates should not use their religion or faith to influence voters to support them.”
The Episcopal Church is not alone in struggling to address the matter of GLBT people and ordained ministry. The United Methodist Church has been trying to figure out what to do about the Rev. Drew Phoenix. Phoenix, previously, was the Rev. Ann Brown, and underwent sexual reassignment surgery a year and a half ago. After his reappointment to continue pastoring his congregation at St. Johns United Methodist Church in Baltimore earlier this year by his bishop, several other clergymembers in the Baltimore-Washington conference challenged the decision.
What does it mean to have a “manner of life [that] presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion?” A priest blogging from the “Anglican Underground” wryly tackles the question and even offers a modest proposal to resolve the ambiguity.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori is making public a letter of warning that is being sent to a bishop who is actively seeking to withdraw his diocese from the Episcopal Church, and has stated that letters to other bishops will follow.
Go back through the history of the Church. One group has wanted to say to another, “I can’t imagine how I might see Jesus in you.” I think it significant, though, that such contemporary groups are not groups that would meaningfully celebrate All Saints. There are certainly not the type to worry about leaving someone out and hedging their bets by celebrating All Souls. But we do.
This hymn was written by the Reverend Robert Lowry, D.D., a Baptist minister in New York and the editor of a number of popular Sunday school songbooks. He wrote the words this well-known hymn when he was a pastor in Brooklyn, on a hot July day in 1864 during a severe epidemic.