Sexuality Issues to Get Convention Attention
Episcopal News Service. August 10, 1976 [76264]
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Issues of human sexuality -- and the rights and prejudices associated with it -- are among the most controversial that the General Convention of the three-million-member Episcopal Church will be called on to decide when it meets in Minneapolis/St. Paul, September 11-23.
In all, more than 60 resolutions and memorials dealing with ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate, homosexual expression, abortion, and sexual bias in language, have been sent to the Convention for action.
The agenda committee of the Convention is recommending that resolutions dealing with the issue of the ordination of women to the priesthood and episcopate be introduced as early in the 13-day meeting as possible, immediately following action on the proposed revision of the Book of Common Prayer which is scheduled for consideration the first few days of Convention.
Nearly 50 resolutions address the question of ordination with a heavy preponderance calling for canonical change that would open the priesthood and episcopate equally to men and women. For the most part, these seek to add a new section to Title m, Canon 9 (called "Of General Provisions Respecting Ordination") which would stipulate that the provisions of the Canons" shall be equally applicable to men and women. "
If the Convention chooses to adopt this route, the change in policy could take place almost immediately within those dioceses that have women deacons who have qualified for priesting. A canonical change takes effect -- generally -- on January 1 following the General Convention at which it was approved.
The alternative -- which is advocated by some of the resolutions -- calls for change in the Constitution, a procedure that takes affirmative action by two successive meetings of Convention or a total of more than three years before it could take effect. Thus, the approved amendment to the Constitution would not go into effect until January 1, 1980, following the meeting of the Convention in the fall of 1979.
It is also possible that the Convention will vote -- as it did three years ago -- against admitting women to the priesthood and episcopate. In 1973 the House of Deputies defeated a resolution to change the Canons to permit the ordination of women, which meant that the House of Bishops did not have opportunity to vote on the issue. The bishops in interim meetings in 1972 and 1974 approved the principle but have not yet voted in a legislative session. At the 1976 Convention, the House of Bishops will vote on the issue first and the House of Deputies will be asked to concur.
A vote against admitting women to the priesthood and episcopate is urged by some of the resolutions which ask that the exclusive male priesthood be affirmed, or that the Episcopal Church defer a decision until consultation has taken place with other members of the Anglican Communion or with the churches with which the Episcopal Church is in ecumenical dialog.
The debate will probably focus on an underlying issue: whether or not the sacramental ministry needs to include both sexes in order fully to represent all of humanity. Pastoral, theological, and historical arguments are raised on both sides with foes asserting that the tradition of an all-male priesthood had its origin in the commissioning of the Apostles by Jesus and that this form of priesthood has adequately represented the whole of humanity throughout the history of the Church.
Proponents of the change claim that the past nature of the priesthood has been largely a matter of cultural conditions which have now changed and that to uphold the all-male priesthood at this time denies half the human race full access to the Body of Christ.
The question is further complicated by the fact that -- since the 1973 Convention decision -- 15 women deacons have taken part in disputed priestly ordinations and have, on a number of occasions, assumed priestly prerogatives. Extensive and often bitter debate and ecclesiastical and civil court actions have grown out of these actions which have raised questions of canonical duty, obedience, episcopal prerogative, and the pastoral needs of the 15 women, their bishops, and those who have rallied on either side of the question.
The actions -- and future -- of those women will be debated at Convention apart from the overall ordination question with resolutions calling for affirmation of their Priestly Orders, or for re-ordination, or for reversion to the Order of Deacon with a two-year waiting period before they can again be considered for priesting.
Although ordination of women has received the greatest prominence -- and is the subject of the largest single number of resolutions -- other issues of human sexuality will command Convention's attention.
Six resolutions on the question of abortion have been filed, ranging from one asking the Church to affirm the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court -- which calls abortion a matter of individual conscience -- to condemnation of abortion under almost any circumstances. At issue in this debate will be questions of the sanctity of life, when life begins, and the control of one's own body as a right of humanity.
Also at issue in this overall category will be homosexual expression. Two resolutions have been filed which seek to censure one diocesan bishop who has ordained an avowed homosexual to the diaconate.
In response to the resolutions from the Dioceses of Upper South Carolina and Texas, the Rt. Rev. Paul Moore Jr., Bishop of New York, told the Diocesan Press Service that both he and his Standing Committee had found that the woman in question was highly respected in her parish and seminary and was someone "who was most suited to being ordained a deacon. "
He added: "It is known that there are many homosexually oriented Episcopal clergy and the only difference between them and (the New York deacon) is that she has declared that to be her orientation."
The bishop pointed out that no one ever questioned whether a heterosexual was going to commit sexual acts unless a question of public scandal was raised but that people unfairly assumed that an avowed homosexual was going to commit these acts. "I ordained a deacon who happens to have declared that 'this is the way I'm built,'" the bishop said.
However, the Convention's Joint Commission on the Church in Human Affairs has offered four resolutions for debate which attempt to open up dialog and study on homosexuality, decriminalize most homosexual acts between consenting adults, and assert that homosexuals have the right to full and equal protection of the laws.
The Commission's fourth resolution seeks the sense of the Convention that "Homosexual persons are 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. "
Finally, the Diocese of Minnesota has called upon the Church to undertake an extensive revision of the Constitution and Canons to eliminate all references which seem to reflect a sexual bias. In the resolution, the diocese states: "The language... is not consistent in its use of pronouns and other words which reflect an outmoded sex bias contrary to the spirit of the Gospels and anachronistic in contemporary consciousness of the equality and mutuality between women and men in the Church of Christ."
The resolution suggests that "person" be substituted for "men," that the term "deaconess" be eliminated, and that the word "male" be eliminated or a substitute which is neutral be found.