INTEGRITY

GAY EPISCOPAL FORUM

 

Vol. 1                      No. 2                     DEC. 74

 

 

INTEGRITY: GAY EPISCOPAL FORUM 10 issues/$5. 701 Orange Street, No. 6, Fort Valley, GA 31030. INTEGRITY is independent of any other organization and is published by and for Gay Episcopalians and our friends. signed articles are the views of contributors. Only material so designated is copyrighted, but editors are asked to give acknowledgements of the source when citing. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome if sent with SAE. The journal is a nonprofit organization.

 

Editor........................................Louie Crew, Ph.D.

Associate Editor.....................Ernest Clay, Cosmetologist

Associate Editor............................Dan Fee, Seminarian

Associate Editor..........................Rev. Michael Koonsman

Associate Editor.......................Br. Thomas Williams, LPN

Consultant................................Rev. Robert W. Cromey

Consultant..............................Norman Plttenger, Ph.D.

 

REACTIONS

 

I have your two letters and a copy of your filthy, blasphemous publication.

 

I note in your publication that you quote various people.  Do not put my name in your filthy rag.  Be advised.

 

In my letter to you of November 11, I inti­mated that I might be interested in minister­ing "effectively" to any members of our Church who might be involved with your group of perverts.

 

My effective ministering to members of this church involved with you would be to excommunicate them immediately.

 

     [the Bishop's name withheld]

 

                        * * * * * * * *

 

I wish to congratulate you upon your excellent publication and hope all goes well with its future.  We have needed this for so long....  I and other priests [here] must keep quiet publicly (or lose our jobs).  I hope this will change, but until it does, I will continue to work silently and support those of you who can speak for us.

 

     [a city priest]

 

                        * * * * * * * *

 

The main hang-up for the rural clergy you speak of as Gay priests is how to meet others of like disposition without having to visit Gay bars and obviously "public places." ....In small towns one has to receive all mail in plain folder, and even then the P.O. ladies and such are most curious.  And they will talk and gossip. I used to get a lot of stuff because someone evidently sells mailing lists.  But the ladies said, "Oh yes, all doctors and ministers seem to get all this sort of thing."  It has stopped coming somewhat.

 

I feel some bishops would like to help make the lot of the Gay people easier but are afraid of being "tarred" by the same brush.

 

     [rural priest]

 

                        * * * * * * * *

 

I have just received the first issue of INTEGRITY and have found the investment very rewarding....

 

Because I would face ostracism, as does the alcoholic, it would be suicidal for me to be open with my Bishop, who is of the Diocese of Eau Claire, and shall, of necessity, remain in the closet.

 

     [priest's name withheld]

 

                        * * * * * * * *

 

I understand that there are a couple of other churchy types who are into leather/wes­tern drag, and have informally brought into being a group styled Sons of Levi.  They are also into creating appropriate liturgical celebrations for their group:  St. Peter's Chains being adopted as the festival for sadists, and St. Laurence being chosen as the patron of masochists.  I might have chosen St. James Minor who I believe was martyred by being flayed alive, but perhaps St. Laurence's request to be turned over on his grill as he was being slowly roasted to death is more in keeping with the masochistic spirit .

 

On the personal level, the last month or two have been quite exciting, starting with generally good feelings and interactions at home with my wife and family.  Then I have also been observing (quite discreetly) some of the park cruising which takes place near work.  These days the weather makes lunch in the park a very pleasant experience and I have incidentally met some quite fascinating characters.  This is a tearoom situation, and I am beginning to appreciate more and more what Laud Humphreys was writing about ... or at least to appreciate more and more his point of view and observe (as opposed to participant) role.

 

     [city priest]

 

INTEGRITY:

1ST ISSUE SOLD OUT!

 

The first issue of INTEGRITY (November 74) has sold out its initial run of 400 copies, including several that were sent on a complimentary basis.  The response to our meager beginnings has been greater than we had dreamed.  We are particularly grateful to those of you who have sent gift subscriptions to bishops, clergyper­sons and friends.  We hope very soon to be able to send copies to all bishops and to all persons regularly responsible for human relations in all dioceses.  We would appreciate readers advising us of our friends and of key enemies who still need to be informed.

 

Xerox copies of the first issue will be available at $1.50 each, including postage.

 

                           METANOIA

                One Year, $3; Three Years, $8.

 

"AN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL OF RADICAL LUTHERANISM"

 

METANOIS

2126 University Avenue

[state & city faded - can't read]

 

BIRTHPLACE

 

Get the picture.  A dirty barn where a frightened young woman, married less than nine months ago, gives birth to a strange child.

 

Forget all the handsome miniature scenes --turquoise horses actually smiling at a marble doll ln a mahogany manger filled with silk swaddling clothes, and alabaster sheep who can't even ba, much less fill the ivory hall with stench.

 

A wealthy lady for many years at Christmas has commissioned the lower end of her estate to be an "authentic" manger scene, with real hay, real cows, real horses, and a china baby Jesus soaked in pale electric light from a blue plastic star.  Each year the neighboring wealthy and the distant poor peer at the etherial scene.  Once as a child, I too made the visit.  Unhappy with the view from a distance, I slipped through the railings and rushed across the field to view the animals face to face.  In my pursuit, I slipped on the sheep dip; and I finally got the picture.

 

     There Gospel while we experience so little of it for ourselves.

 

When we have proudly proclaimed that we are Gay, you have been

embarrassed and have whispered that we are indelicate or "flaming," and some of you have even called anonymously to say that "faggots still ought to be used to burn witches!"

You have roundly and legalistically refused to honor our

marriages, even when we use the Prayer Book in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Even when we have merely introduced ourselves as lovers, you have

said that we are flagrant, and you have let us know all too well not even to suggest aloud that the Mass is offered in the name of Gay persons, because you do not care for us even enough to pray for us explicitly.

When we have asked you to provide space for Gays to meet

together, you have delayed or denied us outright, sometimes preferring to make such space available to Gays in Gay churches rather than even to those with whom you might more closely be associated.

You have provided no money to support any ministry to us,

although for centuries you have welcomed our contributions to your orphanages, to your half-way houses for unwanted mothers, to your nurseries, to your family dinners and bazaars.

 

When we have come under attack from outsiders, you have refused

to defend us even when you have possessed all of the evidence necessary, preferring "to let the matter pass without polarization" -- because you do not want to know even for yourself what side you are really on.

When because of such attacks we have needed words of love and

warmth, we have waited long nights in silence for your call, and we have known that many a pagan would be less offended than you had we called for help.

When you have spoken to us in public, it has seemed done to

demonstrate your claim to "bigness" more than to demonstrate your sense of our oneness; your children have been more honest in looking away with the fear that you have taught them to have of us.

When you have been forced to recognize our achievements, you have

seen them as proof of your good taste ln finding treasure ln a waste heap.

 

At best, we have been a quaint fulfillment, a conversation piece,

for all your fantasies about what you see as abnormal in yourself.

You have preached against your prejudices towards races, towards

the poor, towards the old....., but you have not even mentioned your prejudices against us, because even the subject of Gayness is not respected by you.

 

"If this is so, why do you keep coming to our Church?" you

revealingly ask.

 

"Because it is not your Church, but the Lord's," we reply.  We

come at His own bidding and explicit invitation:  "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."   Our God is no respecter of persons.  We keep coming because He continues to feed us in "these holy mysteries, with the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of his son our Savior Jesus Christ."

 

NonGay churchpersons, why do you keep coming to the Lord's

Church?  Are you in need of a physician?  Are you in love and charity with us?  Do you really acknowledge that we are of the same baptism and are sisters and brothers in the unity of the faith?  Just what kind of God do you really worship?  We have been watching you all our lives, and we still are not sure.

Some wag at the NYC meeting of the Gay Academic Union last month was overheard saying:  "The Romans have Dignity; the Episcopalians have Integrity; I suppose that leaves compassion for the Methodists and passion for the Baptists."

 

NONGAYS ZAPPED-C of E

 

London.  The very conservative CHURCH TIMES for November 8 published a forceful attack on the taboo against homosexuality.  The item was by nonGay Monica Furlong, who argued that Gay resentment of nonGay ignorance is not surprising:

 

[N.B., article faded - underscores denotes words not readable]

 

The acid test of whether Christians really believe in the goodness of sex, however, lies in their attitude to homosexuality.  Homosexuality has not got the practical grounds of procreation to recommend it to Christians though, in an over-populated world, heterosexuals may turn out to be not so much "practical" as more a d______ __ nuis______. Unlike heterosex, the only thing to recommend it is that it brings joy and relief from loneliness to the many, many men and women who love their own sex.  (Of course, like heterosex, it has many practitioners who are incapable of love or real personal response, but they are not the subject of this article).  So that it poses the question to Christians in what I am afraid I must call a "naked" form -- do we or don't we believe that sexual practice informed by love is a good thing?

 

It is, of course, perfectly possible to dodge the whole issue by going off into what it says in Romans, or what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, or what it is alleged happened to the Roman Empire.  But I only attempt to write for people who do not assume that the Bible is invariably infallible, and who accept that human understanding of sexuality has undergone a revolution.  We know things that St. Paul didn't and in the light of our knowledge are bound to re-examine our beliefs.

 

What we know is that many decent, intelligent, moral and apparently normal people find their own sex more exciting than the opposite sex.  Some are incapable of enjoying intercourse with the opposite sex, some can enjoy either.  They are found in all walks of life, and in all professions -- not a few of them among the priesthood of the Church of England.

 

If homosexuals and bisexuals belong to the Church, and want to live within its disciplines, what exactly do we expect them to do?  Live a life of total celibacy, which most of us would prefer not to do?  Or, like the rest of us, find what happiness they can?

 

GAY EPISCOPALIANS

 

At least two local organizations of INTEGRITY are forming in response to the first issue of our publication, INTEGRITY/ Chicago and INTEGRITY/Atlanta.  Subscribers in both cities have started publicity for their efforts and hope to give more details for our January issue.

 

INTEGRITY is happy to share its name with all Episcopalians anxious to organize our Gay community; and we will gladly publicize group activities.

 

At the moment, INTEGRITY is only a publication, and as such is applying for incorporation papers in Georgia.  Readers' queries suggest, however, that there is increasing interest ln a national organization for Episcopalians more fully paralleling that of DIGNITY.  We would welcome more discussion of this possibility in future issues of our publication.

JONES COUNSELS NONGAYS

 

Hartford.  Canon Dr. Clinton R. Jones, Christ Church Cathedral, has recently authored HOMOSEXUALITY AND COUNSELING, an important new study of the needs of Gay persons seeking counsel.

 

Canon Jones has long been a good friend of Gays.  His earlier book, WHAT ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY?, was one of the first Christian efforts in our Church to take seriously the lifestyle of Gay people.  Dr. Jones has devoted most of his counseling career to specializing in the problems of Gays.

 

The strongest evidence that Dr. Jones is equipped to undertake such specialization is his deep understanding that the main problem of Gay people is nonGays.  Much of HOMOSEXUALITY AND COUNSELING is devoted to raising the consciousness of counselors in their often mistaken attitudes about Gay reality.  His counseling position includes four essential guidelines:  1) "Homosexuality is a part of a person's total sexuality."  2) "The homosexual person is not necessarily sick just because of his or her homosexuality."  3) "Homosexuality [is] within the sexual norm and within the natural order."  4) "A homosex­ual genital act is not of itself immoral."

 

HOMOSEXUALITY AND COUNSELING is available in paperback from Fortress Press, 2900 Queen Lane, Phila, PA 19129.  It is doubly important because it has been widely reviewed favorably in the nonGay press and will have wide circulation in libraries even in rural areas.

 

HOMOSEXUALITY AND COUNSELING is of special importance to readers of INTEGRITY since Dr. Jones is one of the guiding forces behind the Task Force of the House of Bishops.