Bishop Myers Ponders Re-licensing Ellen Barrett
Episcopal News Service. May 12, 1977 [77153]
The Rev. Canon Larry Davidson, Editor, Oregon Episcopal Churchman
Sacramento, Calif. -- Advice on re-licensing the Rev. Ellen Barrett, an avowed homosexual priest, to function as a minister in the Episcopal Diocese of California, was sought by the Rt. Rev. C. Kilmer Myers, Bishop of California, in a statement made here on "Sexuality and Christian Faith. "
The bishop's "Statement" was issued to a week-long gathering of Episcopal clergy and laypersons at Christ the King Retreat Center in Sacramento.
Ms. Barrett was recently ordained to the priesthood by the Rt. Rev. Paul Moore, Bishop of New York, and had moved into Bishop Myers' San Francisco-based diocese to complete graduate studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif.
Bishop Myers said he raised the issue because he was seeking the advice and counsel of the nearly 100 Episcopalians meeting in Sacramento to consider ways of increasing the world-wide mission of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. Bishops and lay people from both domestic and overseas dioceses were in attendance.
Bishop Myers said he had licensed Ms. Barrett earlier to function as a deacon at St. Mark's, Berkeley, with the approval of the rector and vestry of that parish.
"She has now requested a license to function as a priest in my diocese. Her first license expired on April 17. By agreement with her, the question of her re-licensing will not finally be determined until after our diocesan clergy conference in May," the Bishop said.
Most of the speakers who responded to Bishop Myers indicated their opposition to the licensing of Ms. Barrett, but some, like the Rt. Rev. Otis Charles, Bishop of Utah, said they would not hesitate to re-license Ms. Barrett if she were living in their dioceses.
Opposition to the licensing centered around the view that ordination of homosexuals had received no official sanction by the Episcopal Church when it met in General Convention in Minneapolis last September.
The General Convention adopted a policy statement that homosexuals were to be regarded as "children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church. "
Beyond that, the General Convention decided not to approve or even consider ordination of homosexuals -- a request that incidentally was not being made by homosexual groups at Convention -- but instead, to commit the Church to a three-year study of human sexuality, with emphasis on homosexuality, before making up its mind. The three-year study is to be reported to the General Convention meeting in Denver in 1979.
Other responses to Bishop Myers included the inexpediency of granting a license to Ms. Barrett at a time when the Episcopal Church is divided over the ordination of women, prayer book revision, and other important issues.
Some bishops at the Sacramento meeting said that similar requests (to that of Ms. Barrett's) had not yet been made in their dioceses, but they said they felt the time was coming soon when they, too, would have to face this decision.
Among these was the Bishop of Alaska, the Rt. Rev. David Cochran. A woman priest from Bishop Cochran's diocese, the Rev. Jean Dementi, said she could support re-licensing.
The Rt. Rev. Victor M. Rivera issued a statement to the Sacramento meeting that said, "As Bishop of the Diocese of San Joaquin and as President of Province VII (of the Episcopal Church), I humbly request, plead and beg, that no bishop of this Province license or ordain any avowed homosexual."
The Rev. Canon Charles Conder, Diocese of San Diego, said, "We are concerned about the well-being of homosexuals, and have even set up a ministry to help them deal with their problems. But for the Bishop of New York to ordain a homosexual to the priesthood has outraged our people."
The Bishop of Spokane, the Rt. Rev. John R. Wyatt, voiced his anger about Bishop Moore "violating the mind of the Church in not waiting for General Convention to decide the issue. " Bishop Wyatt said, "Bishop Moore went ahead and said, 'I am not going to wait,' and that makes me angry. "
When Bishop Moore ordained Ms. Barrett earlier this year, she became the first known homosexual priest ever to be ordained in the Episcopal Church or in the world wide Anglican Communion. The Church has been bitterly divided over this matter for several months.
Bishop Myers told the Sacramento meeting that licensing her in his diocese could not be viewed as a singular act that ignored all the other dioceses of the Episcopal Church that work in close relationship with the Diocese of California.
Such licensing, he said, would create a precedent for the whole Church, and it was for that reason that he asked for the counsel and advice of his brother bishops and the clergy and laity assembled in Sacramento.
Bishop Myers said, "I have never during my episcopate ordained an 'avowed' (that is, an out-of-the-closet) homosexual. I have ordained 'in-the-closet' homosexuals."
"My quandary is this: given the assurance of general psychic and spiritual health of an aspirant for Holy Orders, should I consent to the ordination of out-of-thecloset homsexuals? Or should I penalize them for honesty when I consent to the ordination of in-the-closet homosexuals?"
He said that in the San Francisco Bay area "tens of thousands" of people are homosexual. "Hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- of them are fellow church people throughout the diocese."