During his annual visit to our church today, the bishop will baptize Evanna. She’s a tall, somewhat plump transgender woman around age twenty… Our church has one other trans member, my sixteen-year-old son, Max… This is a safe place, yet instinctively I watch people’s reactions toward LGBTQ people. I look out for Evanna as if she were my own child.
Provincial Synod to discuss resolution allowing for blessing of same-sex civil unions and ordination of LGBT persons
Gillett met people surprised that a representative of the church would want to support LGBT people.
“We all know that some things in holy Scripture can be confusing, hard to understand, or open to various ways of understanding. But some essential teachings are clear and incontrovertible. Jesus tells us to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, and he tells us over and over again not to be afraid.”
The Shared Conversations program has been conducting structured, open-ended discussions around sexuality throughout the dioceses of the Church of England since September 2014. A closed-door session after the close of General Synod business next month is designed to allow small groups of General Synod representatives a similarly opportunity.
He recalled Church teachings that homosexuals “should not be discriminated against. They should be respected, accompanied pastorally.”
The Episcopal Church has made huge strides for people who identify under the umbrella term LGBT in offering overall acceptance, marriage equality, and opportunity for ordination. I’ve met clergy who are “L”, “G”, and “T.” But the “B” seems ever silent.
Retired Bishop of New Hampshire Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, is one of the White House papal visit guests
Writing on Medium, Sarah McBride writes movingly about the grief and joy she experienced in her brief marriage to her partner Andy, who died shortly after they were married in a ceremony officiated by their friend and colleague, The Right Reverend Gene Robinson.
Benjamin C. Evans III writes that he had tried for years to convince himself and others that he was straight before he realized that there was nothing wrong with who he was. Writing on the Root, Evans piece on his identity is the third piece in a series titled #BlackMenLove, focusing on the who, what, and how deeply black men love.