March 1975 [HTML]

INTEGRITY

GAY EPISCOPAL FORUM

Vol.1 No. 5 Mar. 75

INTEGRITY: GAY EPISCOPAL FORUM is the official newsletter of INTEGRITY, Inc., a national organization of Gay Episcopalians and our friends. Memberships/subscription/$5/10 issues. Offices at 701 Orange Street, No. 6, Fort Valley, GA 31030. Copyright 1975 by INTEGRITY, Inc. Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a stamped return envelope. Signed articles are the views of the contributors. INTEGRITY, Inc. is a nonprofit religious and educational organization.

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

Associate Editor......................... Ellen Barrett, M.A.

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

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

Associate Editor................ The Rev. Michael G. Koonsman

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

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

Consultant........................... Norman Pittenger, Ph.D.

THE 190 & 9 . . .

28th Feb. Ft. Valley. INTEGRITY, Inc. ended the month with 199 paid subscribers; all but 10 of these are individuals and have voter privileges. Our growth continues at about 50 per month. Share us with your friends. Help our ministry to grow.

ELLEN BARRETT-EDITOR

NYC. INTEGRITY welcomes as a new associate editor Ms. Ellen Barrett, who becomes the first of what promises to be many Gay Episcopalian women to take on equal roles in our organization.

Ms. Barrett is 29; she holds the A.B. (Albert Magnus) and the M.A. (NYU), and is about to be graduated with the M. Div. (honors) from General Theological Seminary in NYC.

Ms. Barrett is a former teacher, a Gay activist, and a writer. She has served as a co-chairwoman of DOB/NY, a moderator of Gay Students Liberation at NYU, and as a member of Gay Liberation Front, Radicalesbians, et al. She lectures frequently on Gay liberation, on sexuality in general, and on women's history -- as she puts it, enough so "to make a circuit-riding preacher queasy."

Ms. Barrett will independently edit a special May issue devoted to Lesbians in the Church, and she will regularly contribute to all other issues. Persons with manuscripts for her consideration may send them to her directly at 175 Ninth Avenue, NYC 10011. The males on the staff are particularly grateful for her much needed presence, not only for our women subscribers, but particularly for those of us who as males can so unwittingly fall into the sexist biases that we have been taught.

BISHOPS

St. Louis. Three INTEGRITY editors (Barrett, Crew, and Koonsman) are scheduled to join six other Gay professionals to meet as the guests of the Task Force on Homophiles and the Ministry of the Episcopal House of Bishops, on Thursday and Friday, 6-7 March, at the Diocesan House. As reported in our December issue, the Task Force is working in an advisory capacity for the House and is particularly trying to work towards an at least partially definitive statement about the status of Gay people in the Church. Many of our members have advised us of their concerns for this session, and we would welcome as much input as you care to send. We certainly need your prayers on these two days.

NOT A BREEDER

One non-Gay woman reader shared with us orally her feeling that the illustration of Jo Box's poem "Overbreeding" is sexist. Frankly, it never occurred to us that our readers would view the beautiful woman as a breeding machine. We apologize even for tempting anyone so to view her.

INTEGRITY CHAPTERS

Requests continue to come in for information about those who would be willing to join various local and regional groups. While we are unwilling to send out any addresses of our subscribers and members, we will gladly send for you any such announcement to people in your area. Chapters with specific addresses given below are already forming, and the others have had a query by a person in the area inviting interested persons to write through the Fort Valley office.

INTEGRITY/Atlanta. Convenor Brother Thomas Williams (404-874-6530, 771 Adair Av., 30306)

INTEGRITY/Boston. Convenor Dan Fee, Box 51, 99 Brattle Street, Cambridge 02138.

INTEGRITY/Chicago. Convenor Jim Wickliff, P.0. Box 2516, Chicago, IL 60690. Meets weekly.

INTEGRITY/Minneapolis. Convenor Frank R. Eggers, 26 Arthur Avenue, Box 203, Minneapolis 55414.

INTEGRITY/North Central Rural Pennsylvania. Contact through the Georgia office.

INTEGRITY/Philadelphia. Convenor The Rev. John Lenhardt, 4711 Baltimore Avenue, Phila, PA 19143.

INTEGRITY/San Francisco and Bay Area. Contact through the Georgia office.

INTEGRITY/SW OH and N. KY. Convenor Bob Hurles, P.0. Box 24096, Cincinnati, OH 45224.

INTEGRITY/District of Columbia. Contact through the Georgia Office.

INTEGRITY/New York City. Convenor The Rev. Michael G. Koonsman, 31 Stuyvesant Street, NYC 10003.

CONGRESS

Washington. A bill to forbid discrimination on the basis of affectional or sexual preference has been introduced in the U.S. House by Bella Abzug (NY), Ed Koch (NY), John Burton (CA), Pete McCloskey (CA) and Robert Nix (PA). The bill will amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to protect Gay people in the areas of employment, public accommodations, public education, and federally funded programs. National Gay Task Force is soliciting nationwide support for the bill, and INTEGRITY members are urged to support, particularly by writing our congresspersons.

TWO GROOMS by Louie Crew

Our marriage, like our courtship, has been conventional. It was love at first sight when we met at the elevator just outside the sixth-floor tearoom of the Atlanta YMCA. Ernest was a fashion coordinator for a local department store, Louie a state college professor from 100 miles away, deep in the pecan and peach orchards. One of us Black, the other white; both native Southerners. We commuted every weekend for five months. Our friends weren't surprised when we decided to marry.

We would have wasted our time to send an announcement to the local papers. Besides, the bank employees spread the word just as effectively when we took out a joint account. Our wedding itself was private, just the two of us and the Holy Spirit. Parents, though loving, would not have welcomed the occasion, and our priest had no Episcopal authority to officiate. Two apartment neighbors, historians, sent a bottle of champagne; a psychologist friend dropped in earlier to propose a toast; others sent welcoming tokens.

We unloaded the heavier gear from the car before beginning the ceremony. Then we carried each other across the threshold into the dining room, where the table was set with two wine glasses from Woolworth's, one lone and lighted red candle instead of our customary two green ones, a vase with one early narcissus, and an open Book of Common Prayer. We read the service nervously, its fearsome bidding and pledges. The words woman and wife translated readily as spouse, man, husband, Person. All took only about ten minutes.

One could be too quick to sentimentalize a few details, such as our bed, a two-hundred-year-old four-poster built by the slave ancestor of one of us for the free ancestor of the other. Perhaps we were fulfilling their dream? Or Dr. King's dream....? But we find day-to-day living too difficult for us to negotiate other people's dreams: we work at living our own dream, a dream no different from the dream of many other couples, a dream of a home with much love to bridge our separateness.

editorial

GAY RELATIONSHIPS

Surely our highest immediate priorities as Gay Christians are the various tasks to effect our civil and ecclesiastical rights. It would seem nonsensical to talk at length about improving the quality of human life for those who have as a people not yet been emancipated from being felons. The sodomy statutes must crumble. Physicians must be convicted for malpractice who persist in using the discredited diagnoses of Gay as sick, neurotic, abnormal, or the like. Priests must discover and proclaim the Gospel that God loves all people without any sexual conditions. No amount of concern for our enemies can justify our relaxing one whit these minimal just and righteous demands.

Meanwhile, we know that even these struggles will continue to be difficult ones. We cannot afford to wait until all our relationships are legal before we begin to reach out to each other. We have been reaching out all along, and many of our ways of reaching have been heuristic mainly because we have had no other choices. Undoubtedly many nonGays perceive us as a very real threat precisely because they realize the strength we have gained in having to question many of the rather basic assumptions of this society about the way(s) people can and ought to relate.

In this issue we have tried to begin a long-term look at the diversity of Christian points of view towards Gay relationships. Nothing we have included is intended to be prescriptive, but only suggestive. Michael Koonsman urged the inclusion of the Lakey interview because "the dominant note on marriage for many Gays is that they are already married, heterosexually." Dave, one of our subscribers and himself not a priest, urged his Mass on grounds that it is usable as is right now, by virtue of the fact that it does not violate laws canonical or secular. Father Richard's discursive emphasis on single relationships was seconded roundly by Ellen Barrett, who added, "It's about time somebody respected singleness, of whatever mode.... I have been wanting to work up a good liturgy that goes back to the early form (still evident in Orthodox Churches) where the blessing of the CONTRACT between the two partners is separate from the blessing of their union itself. Particularly since so much in current liberation thinking makes the old heterosexual marriage contract with its sexist and hierarchical pattern passe, and since we are experimenting with all sorts of styles of commitment, this kind of separation of the two components of the 1928 BCP rite might be helpful. Some really creative things could be developed in this area, but so far all the liturgies for 'Holy Unions,' 'Blessings of Friendships,' etc., that I've seen are pretty bad." Finally, Ernest Clay and Louie Crew offer a brief account of their own rather conventional union. We invite responses from others.

A GAY GOSPEL - LENT

And the person said, Darling, give me some of this fancy water that you claim can quench my thirst without my having to draw from the well.

Jesus said, Go, get your husband and come back.

She stood still. I have no husband, she said.

Jesus winked, Honey, of course you have no one husband: you have had five, but the man you live with now is not even one of those.

She said, Sharp! But if you're so smart, where's the right place to worship, deary, here on this mountain as my tribe says or down in the bars with your tribe?

Jesus said, The place doesn't matter anymore. It is now time to worship by being who you are in spirit and in truth, wherever you are. The Creator actively hunts all such worship.

(Cf. John 4:15-24)

CHECKING IN WITH GEORGE LAKEY

AN INTERVIEW BY MARK MORRIS

Reprinted with permission from WIN MAGAZINE, Box 547,

Rifton, New York 12471, 3 Oct., 74

George Lakey is a longtime peace activist & one of the founders of Movement toward a New Society. He lives in Philadelphia in an MNS commune with his wife Berit & their three children. In addition to his work with MNS he works, part-time for Friends Peace Committee. This interview took place at the WRL National Conference at Geneva Point Conference Center.

MARK: Tell me about Friends General Conference earlier this year.

GEORGE: My report on the conference would be even more subjective than most because it was a very special occasion for me. It was the time when I came out as a bisexual. I made my announcement to an audience of a thousand or 1500. That was a very powerful thing for me because the Society of Friends for more than 15 years has been my family ‑‑ my really big extended family. I've valued very much the regard of Friends, really wanted their good opinion of me. I was worried that if I came out maybe they wouldn't like me any more. I did come out and at least a good many Friends still seem to like me.

But you did it in a very careful way.

That's true. For one thing, I was embarrassed to come out in a big deal way because I was so late compared with a number of people in the Society of Friends who've been coming out over the last several years, who did it when it was a much riskier thing to do. For many of them, because of their employment, the stakes were much higher than they were for me. So I felt, "Good grief! I'm so late I don't want to make a big deal of it." But on the other hand it did seem important that I do it, if only to signal to younger Friends who were torn about their gay feelings, who look around them and see most Quakers to be ‑‑ at least on the surface ‑‑ straight. Or not even to have sexual lives at all.

But don't you think the friends have always been really good on sexual issues including gayness?

Compared to other religious groups I think that's true. But even so, there's an expectation of straightness. If there's a party, a covered dish supper, Friends will ask a single Friend to feel free to bring his girlfriend. There's a straight world assumption that you are heterosexual unless you make a point of stating otherwise. The social life of Friends is often organized in a family way. I don't think it's easy for teenage Quakers to feel that one perfectly acceptable and honorable sexual lifestyle is a gay lifestyle. Thus it seemed important for me to come out.

The evening was just perfect for it. My wife Berit and I had been asked to speak on community -- specifically on building communities of awareness.We were talking about the Society of Friends as an increasingly aware community. Berit spoke first. Then I spoke and toward the end of my talk I brought it up almost anecdotally ‑‑ as an illustration of a point I was making about the importance of risk taking. I took my risk.

How did Berit cope with this? Did she know in advance you were going to do it?

Oh yes. I'd agonized over it for months beforehand. Berit and I had talked about it a lot. She felt good about it.

Did you get any hostile reaction?

Yes, a few men came up afterwards. There was no immediate hostile reaction from women, but those men were very upset. Thank goodness they could express this anger to me directly. I told them how much I appreciated this. Sometimes it was an almost inarticulate rage. But these were only a few. Most of the feedback was positive. Our speeches were in the beginning of the conference, so there was a lot of time for the pot to boil. And it did boil. There were some Friends who complained to the steering committee of Friends General Conference. They thought the conference should not have allowed this kind of thing to be said in front of impressionable youth. That maybe these sorts of things do go on in private somewhere ‑‑ certainly not in my meeting ‑‑ but it shouldn't be advertised & talked about as tho it's a perfectly respectable thing to do. The steering committee took that question up in light of these complaints, deciding they were perfectly comfortable that I'd said what I'd said. They felt that it was important for those who had objections to talk directly to me. Having this support made me feel good.

That's great. Did your coming out result in any organized gay activities at the conference?

Gay Friends are probably reasonably well organized. There are two gay organizations. One is Gay Friends and the other is Friends Committee on Bisexuality. Both groups had business meetings scheduled at the conference, and consciousness-raising sessions. And there was sort of a gay coffeehouse. Thus there already was a highly visible gay presence, and my statement didn't spark anything new. But I'm pretty sure that my statement did inspire some people to look into it more, to go to a lecture on gayness or whatever.

Can you think of anything else you would like to say?

Yes. For me this has been a good example of how a political act reflects back on one's internal life & consciousness. After coming out I was faced with a whole lot of things I had to think thru. I had to start taking positions on controversies, to start working out an ethical stance ‑‑ one that wouldn't work merely for me but that was shareable with others. I realized then that I've been pretty irresponsible. I've really had my gay sexuality in a closet intellectually as well as behaviorally. I had not been working at integrating my gayness into the rest of my political work. I hadn't been reading much of the gay liberation writing. I hadn't been attending meetings on gay liberation. Most important, I hadn't been trying to think gayness into my world view. For example, the "Manifesto for a Nonviolent Revolution" that I had a hand in drafting mentions gay liberation only once. My book, Strategy for a Living Revolution mentions it only in passing, as part of a list of groups that need liberating -- blacks need liberation, women need liberation, gay people need liberation. So coming out has been a really powerful kick in the pants for me to help me integrate my life.

REACTIONS

Regarding your news item on page 1 of the January 75 issue, "Naked Truth": St. Stephen's, Providence, has long been a supporter of the Catholic Tradition of Apostolic Orders: Bishop, Priest, and Deacon. The stole has long been uniquely symbolic and emblematic of those Orders in the Western Catholic tradition (except for the Swedish Church). While the MCC clergy have and are a ministry, they make, I believe, no pretention of having Apostolic Orders. For St. Stephen's to loan their stoles would publicly imply that the MCC has these Orders. This would be equally true for any denomination not having Apostolic Orders, viz., Methodists, Presbyterians, etc. Indeed, I believe, "deacons" in the MCC as in many other Protestant groups are more akin to our Vestry, rather than a specific historical Order. The blessing of these vestments is traditionally a "Reserved" blessing, that is, normally done by a Bishop and uniquely associated with the Celebration of the Eucharist in Western Catholicism.

I would be interested to know if St. Stephen's denied the loan because of the "Gayness" of the recipients or because of polity differences. You imply the former, coming no doubt, from your paranoia -- alas, something with which we gays are too affected.

I wonder too if the misspelling of "Steven" (twice) and the use of "blest" for blessed are a put down of this courageous parish which has long fought for a minority Truth.

P.S. Sic to you too! Keep up the good works.

Father Tom

[The Rev. Paul Kintzing and the Rev. Joseph H. Gilbert, MCC/Providence, were both invited to reply. Fr. Kintzing has not yet done so. Mr. Gilbert's reply follows.]

The witness and martyrdom of Deacon Stephen are as important to many Gay Christians as to their heterosexual brothers and sisters.

MCC does indeed make no pretension of having apostolic Succession, as symbolized by an unbroken chain of laying-on-of-hands from the Apostolic Era. In fact, we have rejected the gift when offered to us by Bishops of valid but irregular lineage. But many members of this fellowship do believe that the Rev. Troy D. Perry was charismatically called out by the Holy Spirit to create a witness to Gay people. We believe that installation as Moderating Elder by the MCC is in the best tradition of the early doctrine of Charismatic Priesthood. Many of us believe that indeed we have Apostolic Orders by virtue of deriving our priesthood thru his. Now about Deacons .... It is true that in many of the protestant churches Deacons are used much as Episcopalians would use a vestry. MCC, however, has Deacons who are ministers, albeit layministers. The only difference between an Anglican Perpetual Deacon, or a Roman Permanent Deacon and an MCC Deacon is that the ministerial nature is not indelible and that s/he may be authorized by her/his pastor to preside over the Eucharist. S/he may also be asked to a parish of that geographical church ....

As to whether the stole, of all vestments, takes on a sacred nature that prevents its use by Christians outside a particular tradition, I have shared my altar in con-celebration with the Dean of an Episcopal Cathedra and lent him a stole to wear.... I have worn the festal Eucharistic Vestments of a Roman Catholic Cathedral in my own church, and I believe they were lent with no feeling that they would have been de-sacred when we were finished with them. Certainly in neither case did I feel that there was any implication that we had Apostolic Orders according to the tradition of the assisting clergy. In fact, I believe that all we proclaimed was that love and charity are the ways to Christian Unity, not that it has been accomplished ....

I want to share my awareness of the courage involved on the part of St Stephen's parish and clergy to proclaim the Catholic Tradition in a denomination that sometimes gets very "Protty." As a former Anglican, I can tell you that it was once my earnest hope that Anglo-Catholicism would be the springboard for real liturgical renewal in the Christian Church., It appears to me, now an outsider to the experience, that the torch has been taken up by the post-Vatican II Roman Catholics and that the moment has passed for Anglo-Catholics to have that kind of impact on the whole church. If I am correct, we are all the losers. I believe that Saint Stephen's rector's inability to share that day is symbolic of the loss.

Jos. H. Gilbert

MEDIA

STRAIGHT TALK ABOUT GAYS, by the Rev Paul R. Shanley. A Cassette, 1975-Ampro, 101 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02108, 60 minutes, $8.95.

Fr. Shanley is the only priest ln the Catholic Church appointed explicitly for a ministry to Gay people, not just to Gay Romans. This talk is appropriately addressed to nonGays as an effort to tell them about "my people," although Fr. Shanley is careful not to say either way whether he is Gay himself, as he feels that celibacy is far more definitive and people do not similarly quiz priests whose ministry is clearly to assume nonGays.

Fr. Shanley is strong in his efforts to tell nonGays that they are the real problem for Gay people, not Gay sexual orientation per se. He notes how his ministry to Gays makes him anathema in contrast to earlier street ministries to derelicts of all sort, through whom he became something of a crusading hero. Priests in our Church could make good use of this tape, in spite of the obvious flaws, as when it bogs down in tedious definitions. It will be a welcome day when our Church also recognizes the need for such a ministry.

GAY COMMUNITY NEWS, a Weekly for New England, 25 weeks, $5; 52 weeks, $10, 22 Bromfield St., Boston, MA 02108.

Very much growing in its second year, this is an important, informative newspaper, especially for people living in New England.

The Rev. Richard W. Ingalls, "The Homosexual Issue in the Church," THE CHRISTIAN CHALLENGE, Feb., 1975, 11-13.

This is an important item for each Gay Episcopal to read and to respond to. Fr. Ingalls is a Bible thumper who soundly believes all Scripture quite literally about Gays, while ignoring that he doesn't require women to sit in outhouses during their periods, that he doesn't ask people to kill witches, that he doesn't expect bears to eat little children who laugh at bald men, etc.

Very high on Fr. Ingalls' grievance list is really mild support given Gays tentatively by the Executive Council of the Diocese of Michigan (see our Nov. 74 issue). Also ominous for him is the threat that Gays will align themselves with women at the 1976 General Convention.

It is tempting to dismiss this kind of hate theology as the mere drivel that it is, but hate in high places, hate articulated for those who hate us but are too afraid of the Gayness in themselves roundly to jump on the podium to call for our destruction.

Let us earnestly pray for Fr. Ingalls' speedy recovery from epidemic homophobia.

EASIER FOR CAESAR

MINNEAPOLIS. On 18th Feb. the Diocesan Council of the Diocese of Minnesota affirmed an amended Minneapolis Code against discrimination based on "affectional or sexual preference."

The motion had come to the Council from the Christian Social Relations Department of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota. The local ordinance thus supported had already been adopted last September.

The Council was careful to include in an "integral preamble" to the affirmed section a warming: "It is to be understood that affirmation of this Ordinance cannot be construed as supportive of any position relating to the phrase 'affectional or sexual preference' except as regards Civil Rights." The Council was reluctant to affirm the full Gospel to Gays.

NC STUDIES SEXUALITY

WINSTON-SALEM, NC. The Commission on Ministry of the Diocese of North Carolina has been asked by Bishop Thomas A. Fraser to make a study of Priesthood and Sexuality. Chairperson of the Commission, The Rev. Jacob A. Viverette, Jr., Box 7371, Lake Forest Univ., WS, NC 27109, has expressed a willingness and an interest to be exposed to Gay points of view.

A FOOTNOTE

Dr. Norman Pittenger suggested in his followup conversation in Atlanta last month that it is high time that the Church go out of the marrying business altogether, and instead enter the blessing business. The forms of the BCP service (especially "Who gives this woman," but others too) are redolent of the slave block and represent the worst sort of material objectification of human personality. The Church should be on the side of spiritual support, for everybody.

PITTENGER SPEAKS

21st Feb. Atlanta. Dr. Norman Pittenger, distinguished scholar at King's College, Cambridge, met with INTEGRITY editor Dr. Louie Crew here after Dr. Pittenger's address on "Christianity and Human Sexuality" at the Chandler School of Theology at Emory University.

Dr. Pittenger is a consultant of INTEGRITY and wrote an item which appeared in our December issue.

Dr. Pittenger will continue a brief lecture circuit ln the USA, speaking at Wesley Seminary in Washington, DC, 1 PM, 6th March; St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, evening, 11th March; and St. Mary's of the West, Cincinnati, 8 PM, 20th March.

He will return to the USA on 3rd August to Dallas as the guest of the annual conference of MCC to give their final address, on

"The Christian Faith and the Homosexual."

EDITOR PROFILES

FIRST OF A SERIES

Ernest Clay has lived in New Mexico, Connecticut, California, New York, and Georgia. He attended Florida A & M University, is a Licensed Practical Nurse, has worked in NYC as a professional model, and is now training in cosmetology. He is a life-long Christian and attends St. Luke's in Fort Valley.

Mr. Clay is the main person responsible for the actual printing of FORUM, and he tirelessly proofs and delivers copies, prepares mailings and advises about editorial content. He is married to Louie Crew.

STATEMENT: "Both of my parents played a very positive part in my move from childhood to adulthood. They were strong and supportive in allowing me to be myself. Thus, I have never had a reason to hide myself and have always been delighted with my possibilities as a person. My parents conveyed to me the certainty that whatever pattern God had set for me, I am not inferior to anyone.

"We human beings are all like flowers in a garden, different in every way, and yet all much alike. My mother preached constantly self-respect comes from within.

"We Gays have a real challenge to put enough love in our hearts to spread over a lifetime.

Dan Fee was reared in Kansas, California Arizona. He has been educated at Oral Roberts University, Southern Illinois University, and is currently a senior at Episcopal Divinity School. He has been accepted as a Candidate for Holy Orders from the Diocese of Oklahoma under the guidance of the Rt. Rev. Chilton Powell. His candidacy may be terminated because of his association with INTEGRITY, though the actual disposition of his canonical relation is undetermined at the present. He is currently at work on a book of poems and on a senior thesis in theology.

STATEMENT: "I like the name INTEGRITY. I believe in the processes of relating, growing, becoming a part of, becoming integral. Humanness is pied beauty, indeed, and the diverse ways of being human, including conflict and brokenness, are redeemed in the Unity which is the person of Christ. We are made one Body, not because differences are trivial, nor because human norms legislate successful conformity, but rather as we seek to live, move, and root our life and our love in the Person of Love among us. The Good News of Christ frees us from stereotypes and oppression, that we may affirm our wholeness in giving for each other and in celebration of the incarnate creatureliness to which God calls us. The glory of God is that we shall become what we are intended to be: fully alive, incorrigibly diverse, blatant lovers of God and persons."

INTEGRITY RATIFIED

The Constitution and the Articles of Incorporation of Integrity, Inc. have been ratified overwhelmingly by a vote of 65-1, with a startling return of 50% of those 133 people eligible to vote at the time of the mailing of the January issue. The one dissenter, who prefers to maintain anonymity, objected more on matters of timing than on matters of substance.

With this action the FORUM becomes the newsletter of the national organization. The two initial trustees (the Gay couple Mr. Ernest Clay and Dr. Louie Crew) are charged with appointing a Nominating Committee in April. This committee will report nominations to the membership in time for a June election. Officers will serve from 1st July.

SINGLES PLUS BY FATHER RICHARD

I think I appreciate fully the impulse which leads Gays to want a marriage ceremony as an outward and visible sign of their inward and spiritual relationship. Marriage comes with all sorts of good connotations: commitment, permanency, love, sexual sharing and fulfillment, legal status and social recognition and support, to mention a few; and obviously Gay people with any sense of their own integrity and dignity and with deep religious convictions want these things for themselves. But Marriage, as is quite apparent from much contemporary criticism of nuclear family patterns, comes with some very negative connotations as well: exclusivity, jealousy, possessiveness, rigid role playing, and the like.

I wonder whether Gays may not be missing an opportunity to do something innovative and creative when they use their energies in trying to be married and to have their marriages recognized. Why not leave marriage to heterosexuals, and create a new model for the Gay relationship ... a model which will focus on commitment, on the love and sharing and community between the partners, on the understanding of sacrament which we have, but which will consciously discard the destructive aspects of traditional marriage? Why not build on the quite sound theological and liturgical understanding that the ministers of a marriage are the people involved, with the priest and the congregation acting only to witness and to bless their union; and on the growing practice (a good one, I think) of having the two partners create their own marriage service within guidelines established by the Church? Why not cut through the legalistic dodge that canon law and state do not recognize Gay unions, and call on the Church and its priests to do something which is much more fundamental: to witness and ask God's blessing on a relationship between two people. If we can bless pussy cats and bunny rabbits on St. Francis's Day, and officially pray for good crops on Rogation Sunday, certify vestry elections, annual parochial reports, and tax exemption forms, surely we can stand by as witnesses that John and Thomas, or Mary and Elizabeth are making a commitment to love, comfort, honor and keep each other in sickness and in health, and to keep true faith to each other; and we can ask for God's grace and power to enable them to keep and perform their vows.

Rather than trying to fit Gay relationships to the Procrustean bed of traditional marriage, why not bring into being a new thing, with a new name and some new expectations and possibilities, and why not finally (to dream a little) invite our straight brothers and sisters in their heterosexual relationships to do our relationship trip instead of getting married? I am sure that with a little effort we could come up with a good name for Gay union, one that didn't sound like a business deal or a picket line. Where is all that Gay inventiveness and poetry and facility with words we hear so much about!

There are still the legal advantages and protections of being married to be dealt with. Pressure is mounting to do away with the income tax discrimination against single people; until that is successful, or until Gay unions are accorded the same legal benefits as marriages (which I suspect won't be soon), surely there are some skillful lawyers around who can draw up partnership agreements or contracts which will procure most or all the advantages and protections of marriage?

To conclude with some personal comments and biases: I really do not feel that marriage and Gay union are generically the same, largely because of a very real biological/reproductive difference. That is not to say one is better than the other, only that they are different. I'd be willing to wager that those who have, or are experiencing both, would agree with me. I think it muddies the waters when Gay people seem to be insisting that they are the same, and it also lessens the possibilities for much needed thought and insight into what the nature of Gay union is. I agree (somewhat reluctantly) with Bishop Powell that for the time being a Gay marriage service is beyond the competence of the Standing Liturgical Commission ... and so what? It is not beyond the competence of the Christian community, priest and laity, to witness and bless Gay unions if they wish to do so, and without breaking any law whatever (though obviously calling into question some traditional moral theology; but that's the way the Church is reformed and renewed, by having old traditions and received wisdom called into question). As a priest I could in good conscience do such a witnessing and blessing, privately if need be (Romeo and Juliet were privately married, remember) and publicly if possible and appropriate.

STORMS

Fort Valley, GA. On Tuesday 18th February, a fierce tornado wrecked this small Georgia town, causing almost $9 million dollars worth of damages. INTEGRITY editor Crew, who would normally have been on his motorcycle returning through the devastated area at precisely the moment the twister hit, was away at the Univ. of GA for a conference. INTEGRITY editor Clay had just given a permanent to the wife of his priest and was returning home just behind the path of the storm. He saw a tree fly over the car just ahead of him, but was himself unhurt.

Two days later the editor of the local weekly LEADER-TRIBUNE printed with all of the pictures of the storm a letter from The Rt. Rev. James P. Dees, Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Orthodox Church, calling on the people of Fort Valley to take the law in their own hands and to attack INTEGRITY: We quote parts of his letter:

I wish to call to your attention the fact that there is in Fort Valley a nationally known group of homosexuals who are nationally touting themselves as "Gay Christians," seeking a following, members, financial aid, moral support, etc ...

This is the most disgusting thing that I have encountered for a long time, utterly nauseating ....

I cannot imagine the people of Georgia putting up with this disgusting cesspool of corruption.

Surely you must have laws to prohibit such a thing. If you do not, one would think that the fine Christian people of Georgia would rise up infuriated and stamp it out.

God bless you in your efforts in behalf of God and Country.

A heavy onslaught of local hate calls has followed the letter, and daily people ride by the apartment of the Gay couple Clay-Crew shouting threatening obscenities. The FBI when alerted to the possibilities of riot said that it could take no action until after one of the pair had been lynched, although it did buy a copy of the paper to use as evidence against the out-of-state bishop if such riotous response should develop. Tellingly, the FBI agent claimed that if Dees were a student, as opposed to an adult, agitator, the laws make it much easier to take immediate action.

Meanwhile, the couple has lived as calmly and busily as ever. At the wise urging of friend and Episcopalian John Preston (editor of the ADVOCATE), Crew sent a cordial note explaining INTEGRITY to the local clergy and volunteers to talk openly bout the needs of Gay Christians with anyone. The two local Episcopalians, The Rev. Charles Robinson (the Caucasian St. Andrew's, where the couple has been told explicitly that they are not welcome and indeed cannot drop by even for a chat) and the Rev. Cecil Cowan (priest at the Black St. Luke's, where the couple attends but has been denied access to the community hall, open even to all local secular groups which request it) have made no response at all. The only verbal reply has been the following letter from the local pastor of the First Baptist Church of FV:

You and your kind are a sickness and a blight to everything you touch. Your concept of life is so far from anything Christian only a sick person would seek to relate the two. The Old Testament and New Testament condemns [sic] you. I refer you to: Genesis 19: 1-29, Deuteronomy 23:17, I Kings 14:24, 15:22, 22:46, II Kings 23:7 and Romans 1:18-32. Your sickness is included with many other evils the Bible says warrent [sic] death.

I have no interest in your distorted "faith" nor your foul and false propaganda. I care that you need Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. Failing in that, please keep your trash to yourself.

[signed] Robert Thompson

cc: Chief of Police Robert Borders

Sherriff [sic] Reg Mullis

In a secular and unrelated event the local group of Fort Valley Writers invited Dr. Crew to share with them his essay "Growing Up Gay in Dixie," which is tentatively being considered by a national publication. Other friends in the community have been very supportive, and many INTEGRITY subscribers have sent notes of concern about the storm. The Rev. Mr. Thompson has had his steeple repaired which was damaged by the tornado.

INTEGRITY TRAVELS

INTEGRITY editor Louie Crew will address two national bodies of English teachers this spring. The Conference on College Composition and Communication, St. Louis, 13-15 Mar., will hear Crew speak on stereotypes of Gays in literature, at the Thursday afternoon session. The College English Association, Atlanta, 10-12 April, will hear Dr. Crew address the subject, "Teaching Gay Students." Subscribers in the areas are urged to get in touch.

MASS FOR GAY UNION

by Dave

GENERAL RUBRICS.

1. This service is to be used only for persons who are already part of the Christian community.

2. It is to be used only after careful preparation and counseling by the priest.

3. This service is not designed to create the relationship; the union is to be in existence already.

4. This service does not effect the status of marriage, either according to civil laws or in the eyes of the Church. It should therefore be referred to simply as a blessing, not as a wedding. 5. This service may be used in a church at the discretion of the Rector or Priest-in-Charge, but may also be held in a private home. The priest shall give proper regard for the welfare of his whole congregation, whether gay or straight.

6. The Priest may, at his discretion, restrict publicity.

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INTROIT - Deus Israel

THE GOD OF ISRAEL make you one : and may he be with you even as he had mercy of two that were the only begotten of their fathers : grant them mercy, O Lord, and finish their life ln health with joy. Psalm. Blessed are all they that fear the Lord, and walk in his ways. V. Glory be.... R. As it was.... The God of Israel ... in health with joy.

EXHORTATION

Good people, we have come together in the presence of God to witness the celebration and blessing of the union which already exists between these two persons, which they now desire to offer to Almighty God for blessing, sanctification, and renewal. The relationship we see here is a special gift of God which is not given to every person, but is a vocation to which some are called and some are not. The Church forces no particular state of life upon any person and commands only that which our Lord Jesus Christ commanded his disciples, saying "Love one another as I have loved You."

The Priest addresses the partners:

N. and N., do you believe that you are truly called by God to live together as lovers?

Answer:

We believe we are so called.

Priest:

Do you now wish to offer your life together to Almighty God for his blessing, strengthening, and renewal?

Answer:

That is our desire.

Priest:

Do you promise to call upon God the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, for the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit to sustain you in the years ahead?

Answer:

We do, for in God is our trust.

Priest:

Will you do all in your power to make your life together a witness to the love of Jesus Christ in the world, and especially in the gay community?

Answer:

We will, God being our helper.

Priest:

Will you be, each to the other, a companion in joy, a comfort ln adversity; and will you remain together in faith, hope, and love, as long as you both shall live?

Answer:

We will by God's help.

The Priest then addresses the congregation:

Will you who witness this covenant do all in your power to support and uphold this union in the years ahead?

Answer:

We will. Thanks be to God.

The partners join hands and kneel, all others standing.

Priest: The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Priest: Let us pray.

COLLECT

ETERNAL GOD, creator and sustainer of all people, giver of all grace, author of salvation: Look with favor upon these two persons, that they may grow in love and peace together; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit one God, now and for ever. Amen.

LESSON - Ruth 1:15-18 (for women) or 2 Samuel 1:25-26 (for men) GRADUAL - Beati omnes

Blessed are all they that fear the Lord, and walk in his ways. V. For thou shalt eat the labours of thine hands : O well is thee, and happy shalt thou be.

EPISTLE - Colossians 3:12-17, or 1 Corinthians 13, or

1 John 4:7-16

ALLELUIA - Dominus mittat vobis

Alleluia, alleluia. The Lord send you help from the sanctuary : and strengthen you out of Sion. Alleluia.

THE HOLY GOSPEL - John 15:11-17

HOMILY (optional)

THE COVENANT

All stand, the partners facing each other, right hands joined; first one, then the other, shall say:

I, N., take you, N., to be my lover, to have and to hold for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until we are parted by death. This is my solemn vow.

If there is to be an exchange of rings, each ring shall first be blessed:

Bless, O Lord, this ring, that (s)he who gives it and (s)he who wears it may live in your peace, and continue in your favor, all the days of their life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The giver places the ring on the ring-finger of the other's hand and says:

N., I give you this ring as a symbol of my vow, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I honor you, in the Name of God.

The Priest says:

May the Holy Spirit guide and strengthen you, that in this and in all things you may do God's will in the service of the kingdom of his Christ. Amen.

In the name of this congregation, I commend you to your life together and pledge you our prayerful encouragement and support.

INTERCESSION

Almighty God, in whom we live and move and have our being: Look graciously upon the world which you have made, and on the Church for which your Son gave his life; and especially on all whom you make to be one in the bond of love.

Grant that their lives together may be a sacrament of your love to this broken world, so that unity may overcome estrangement, forgiveness heal guilt, and joy overcome despair. Amen.

Grant that N. and N. may so live together, that the strength of their love may enrich our common life and become an example of your faithfulness. Amen.

Grant them such fulfillment of their mutual affection that they may reach out in concern for others, to the praise of your Name. Amen. Grant that all persons so joined together who have witnessed this blessing may find their union strengthened and their loyalty confirmed. Amen.

Grant that the bonds of our common humanity which unite neighbor to neighbor, and the living to the dead, may be transformed by your grace, that justice and peace may prevail and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

The Partners shall then kneel. The Priest says:

Almighty God, look with favor upon these two persons who have committed themselves to each other in the Name of Christ. Give them courage, patience, and vision; and strengthen us all in our Christian vocation of witness to the world, and of service to all people. Bless these your servants, that they may love, honor, and cherish each other in faithfulness and patience, in wisdom and true godliness, and that their home may be a haven of blessing and of peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The partners still kneeling, the Priest blesses them:

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, bless, preserve and keep you; the Lord mercifully with his favor look upon you and fill you with all spiritual benediction and grace, that you may faithfully live together in this life, and in the world to come have life everlasting. Amen.

THE PEACE

Priest: The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People: And also with you.

The partners shall kiss each other, and then the Ministers, the Partners, and the congregation may greet one another in the Name of the Lord.

OFFERTORY - In te speravi

MY hope hath been in thee, O Lord : I have said : Thou art my God : my time is in thy hand, alleluia.

A hymn may be sung, such as Hymn 214, or verses 1, 5 & 6 of Hymn 228, or Hymn 479. And the partners shall bring the oblations to the altar.

SURSUM CORDA*

PROPER PREFACE OF THE INCARNATION

Because in the Mystery of the Word made flesh, you have caused a new light to shine in our hearts, to give the knowledge of your glory in the face of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord: Therefore...

SANCTUS & BENEDICTUS*

CANON OF THE MASS*

OUR FATHER*

FRACTION*

AGNUS DEI*

COMMUNION - Ecce sic benedicetur

Lo, thus shall all those be blessed that fear the Lord : The Lord from out of Sion shall so bless them, that they shall see Jerusalem in prosperity all their life long, alleluia.

POSTCOMMUNION COLLECT*

BLESSING & DISMISSAL*

* Any authorized rite may be used.