INTEGRITY

GAY EPISCOPAL FORUM

c Integrity 1976   ISSN: 0095-2184

Vol. 2  No. 5  March 1976

 

INTEGRITY:  GAY EPISCOPAL FORUM is the official newsletter of Integrity, Inc., a nonprofit religious, charitable, educational, and literary organization, with offices at 701 Orange Street, No. 6, Fort Valley, GA 31030.  Signed articles represent the views of the contributors.  The editors reserve the right to revise all sexist language.  (c) 1976 by Integrity, Inc.  10 issues/$10, including membership.  Add $1 for all subscriptions that require plain envelopes.  Couple rates are $13 for one newsletter.  Copies of earlier numbers, when available, are $2.50.  Volume 1 is out of print.

 

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

Contributing Editor............. The Rev. Michael G. Koonsman

Contributing Editor..................... Robert Ragland, M.D.

 

National President.............................. Jim Wickliff

National Vice President.............................. Dan Fee

National Executive Secretary....................... Bob Diehm

 

Trustees:     Ernest Clay, Louie Crew, Julie Peterson,

              The Rev. Richard Younge

 

Consultants:The Rev. Malcolm Boyd, The Rev. Robert W. Cromey, The Rev. Norman Pittenger

 

COLLECT FOR OUR PERSECUTORS

 

Grant, O Father, that in all our endeavors upon earth to claim our rightful place as your beloved children, we may seek to love and bless our persecutors as we your Gay daughters and sons profess our love for you and for one another.  Grant that by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit all prejudice and misunderstanding in your Church may disappear.  This we ask through Jesus Christ, our Savior.  (Adapted from the Collect for St. Stephen, B C.P., by a member of INTEGRITY/Portland.)

 

INTEGRITY IN THE RED BOOK

 

NYC.  THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH ANNUAL, 1976, published by Morehouse-Barlow Co., has included in its newest edi­tion the following information about INTEGRITY, under the category of "General Organizations":  "INTEGRITY: Serves Gay Episcopalians & friends with chapters, speakers' bureau, conferences, etc.; publishes GAY EPIS­COPAL FORUM..."  Our officers and addresses are also listed, all on page 82.

 

INTEGRITY OFFICERS NATIONAL NOMINATING COMMITTEE NAMED

 

Chicago.  Jim Wickliff, president of INTEGRITY, has announced members of the nominating committee charged with reporting nominations for our three national offices, president, vice-president, and executive-­secretary.

 

Members of this nominating committee include Fr. Grant Gallup (Chicago), Fr. Bill (East Coast), Ms. Kate Jones (West), and Dr. Robert Ragland (South).

 

Our Constitution requires that this committee report nominations to membership through FORUM for balloting and election in June, to begin serving (or continue, in event of re-election) from 1st July.

 

This committee would welcome suggestions from members, particularly letters from those who would like to be themselves considered for one of the posi­tions.  Vita material and any other supporting data on suggested persons would be most appreciated.

 

The committee can most effectively be reached thru its chairperson, The Rev. Grant Gallup, 1619 W. Warren Blvd., Chicago, IL 60612.

 

MCC TO MEET IN WASHINGTON

 

Washington.  The Seventh Annual General Conference of the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches will be held at the Ambassador Hotel here, starting 10th August and ending 15th August.  The majority of the workshops and the business meet­ing will be held at First Congregational United Church of Christ, the host church of MCC/Washington.

 

INTEGRITY FOUNDER HECKLED BY POLICE

 

Fort Valley, GA.  While innocently posting his day's correspondence outside the post office in this small Georgia town, Dr. Louie Crew was disconcerted by the loud catcalls and whistling at him by a group of seven local policemen about 100 yards away, in front of the Police Station and in full hearing of at least fifty local citizens.

 

Dr. Crew's first response was to drive away without acknowledging that he had heard.  He returned to talk with the policemen when he realized, about a block away, that their behavior was tantamount to an open invitation to the more hostile citizens to take the law in their own hands.  The policemen again heckled when he appeared, and the chief was not present at his office.

 

Appeals from Dr. Crew to Bishop Bennett Sims, asking the bishop to protest these behaviors, have not been responded to at all.

 

Fr. Cecil Cowan's response was to put into his first sermon in Lent a strong complaint about those sinners who try to make the Church change Her concept of what is sin and a call for such persons to repent.

 

One atheist complained to the city administrators on the integrated couple's behalf; and two commissioners who are friends of the couple roundly rebuked the policemen.  Other harassment continues at an all-time high level.

 

INTEGRITY PRESIDENT MOVES TO CAPITOL

 

Washington.  Jim Wickliff, president of INTEGRITY, will move here from Chicago on 15th March.  His new address is P.0. Box 28424, Central Station, Washington, DC 20005.  Jim will be the convenor of INTEGRITY/Washington, as noted elsewhere in this issue.

 

AROUND OUR DIOCESES

 

CHICAGO

 

On 14th March here Dr. Norman Pittenger will be the special guest of INTEGRITY/Chicago for a special wine and cheese party.  As noted in FORUM last month, Fr. Pittenger is on an extensive tour of the USA and will be visiting with our members across the country.

 

COLORADO

 

The minutes of the 13th January 1976 meeting of The Executive Council of the Diocese of Colorado report:

 

"Mr. Campbell asked if any progress is being made on the report on Human Sexuality.  Bishop [William Carl] Frey stated that he had expected a complete report in The House of Bishops, but only a brief oral report had ben given....  He [Bishop Frey] stated that the real question is whether the Church should acknowledge and recommend a homosexual life style or discover ways of dealing pastorally with the Gay community.  In the l930s and 1940s homosexuality was regarded as a psycho­logical problem, but it is no longer regarded as a mental illness.

 

"The Church must now deal with the problem in some other fashion, recognizing the fact of discrimination and the pain of inner conflict within the homosexual.  The naive view of human sexuality which would acknow­ledge homosexuality as natural is to be rejected as is any form of promiscuity."

 

One member of INTEGRITY/Denver has nominated Bp. Frey for the April INTEGRITY doublespeak award.

 

FLORIDA

 

The Rt. Rev. Frank S. Cerveny, Bishop of Florida, has announced that the clergy of his diocese will this Spring study the entire area of sexuality, particular­ly from a theological perspective.  (See Bp. Cerveny's exchange with Dr. Robert Ragland in the FORUM for November 1975, pp. 8-10.)

 

LOS ANGELES

 

The Rt. Rev. Robert C. Rusack, Bishop of Los Angeles, will be the celebrant, preacher, and honored guest of INTEGRITY/Los Angeles on Tuesday, 27th April.

 

LOUISIANA

 

The Ven. James B. Brown, Bishop-Elect of Louisiana, took the occasion of his election to the episcopacy to comment on his Gay sisters and brothers in Christ:

 

On the subject of homosexuality he said:  "I do not believe it is a part of God's plan for mankind and I hope that the church will not give into cultural pressures which now demand that homosexuals be treated the same as heterosexuals."  The Living Church

 

MINNESOTA

 

On 18th March Jim Wickliff, INTEGRITY president, The Rev. Ron Wesner, chairperson of INTEGRITY's committee for General Convention, and Frank Eggers, convenor of INTEGRITY/Twin Cities will meet here with many local persons, gay and nonGay, in an effort to make plans for the physical arrangements for the INTEGRITY delegation here for General Convention in September.

 

Those with additional contacts in the Twin Cities area are urged to get in touch with Fr. Wesner very soon, at his new address:  5014 Willow Avenue, Phila., PA 19143.

 

Of course, Fr. Wesner also wants all kinds on input about members' feelings concerning the type of witness we should plan.

 

PENNSYLVANIA

 

On Wednesday, 24th March, at St. Mary's on the Penn campus INTEGRITY founder Dr. Louie Crew will preach at the regular meeting of INTEGRITY/Philadelphia.  Co-convenors Fr. Ron Wesner and Fr. John Lenhardt [whose article appears later in this issue] will be the chief celebrants of the Mass; and INTEGRITY president Jim Wickliff will also participate.  Members of all Gay and Christian groups have been especially urged to share in this occasion.

 

On Friday and Saturday, 26-27th March, several INTEGRITY members and friends will gather as the guests of Fr. Wesner to plan further the strategies for General Convention.  Among those expected to be present are The Rev. Grant M. Gallup (Chicago), The Very Rev. Dr. Clinton R. Jones (Hartford), The Rev. John Lenhardt (Philadelphia), The Rev. Michael G. Koonsman (NYC), The Rev. Paul M. Washington (Philadelphia), Jim Wickliff (Washington, DC), and Louie Crew (GA).  Several who will attend cannot risk publication of their names.

 

TEXAS

 

Houston.  At its 127th diocesan council here in February, after passing the antiGay resolution on Friday the 6th, on Saturday the 7th the Council passed the following additional resolution, offered by Mr. Philip Masquelette:

 

   "Resolved, that this ... Council ... memorialize the next General Convention ... to forbid the ordina­tion of persons who engage in fornication, gross indecency, sexual irresponsibility, idolatry, sor­cery, feuds, wrangling, jealousy, bad tempers, quarrels, disagreements, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, or similar things, to the office of Deacon, Priest, or Bishop."

 

The mood of the overwhelming majority passing this followup resolution was gleeful, as if, observed on Gay priest attending, they crowd was purging itself of its sin of singling out Gays for special objections on the day before.

 

Hopefully General Convention will have a hard time taking seriously such gamespersonship.

 

WASHINGTON DC.

 

Meeting at the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul here on 30-31 January, Diocesan Convention passed the following "Resolution on Homophiles and the Church":

 

"WHEREAS, a primary conviction of our Church is the full acceptance by our Heavenly Father of all who come to Him through His Son; and

 

"WHEREAS, we are urged by our Lord to love one an­other and to judge not; and

 

"WHEREAS, homophile men and women are a minority group even within our Church; and

 

"WHEREAS, the House of Bishops has set an example in responding to a Churchwide concern by establishing a task force on homophiles in the ministry; and

 

"WHEREAS, our Diocese is known for taking a lead in promoting human rights, and for responding to human needs, through the thorough exploration of issues; therefore be it

 

"RESOLVED, that the Eighty-first Annual Convention of the Diocese of Washington asks the Bishop to appoint, for twelve months, a Commission on Homophiles and the Church, for the following purposes:

 

 "(1) To be a Diocesan agency for collecting and distributing information on the subject of homophiles and the Church.

 

 "(2) To recommend to the 1977 Annual Convention of this Diocese, policies and programs on this subject, for adoption by the Church."

 

INTEGRITY/Washington will have an important organizational meeting at The Church of the Epiphany, at 7:30 P.M. on Tuesday, 23rd March.  The new convenor of the chapter is Jim Wickliff, president of INTEGRITY/national.  President for this fist Washington meeting at Epiphany will be INTEGRITY founder Dr. Louie Crew.

 

WEST TEXAS

 

DELEGATES to the 72nd Annual Council, meeting Feb 7 in the New Braunfels Civic Center, voted to establish a Commission on Human Sexuality ....

 

After defeating a resolution con­cerning homosexuals in the ministry and use of church property for meetings of homosexuals the Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution presented by Mrs. Robert Lovell, St. John's, McAllen, that concluded:

 

"Therefore, be it resolved, that this Council petition its Bishops to estab­lish within the Department of Christian Social Relations, or independently as they see fit, or this Council direct, a Commission on Human Sexuality to explore further the here-considered topics below and such others as may develop:  (1) A Christian theology of sexuality; (2) the Church's ministry in sex problems; (3) homosexuals in the Church family, (4) married sexuality; (5) the 'singles' sexuality -- premarital, widowhood, etc.; and (6) basic physio-psychic sex education -- (a) adult and (b) child."

                        --From THE CHURCH NEWS

 

CATHOLIC BISHOP DEFENDS US

 

NEW YORK -- Bishop Francis J. Mugavero of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn has issued a pastoral letter defending the "legitimate" rights of all people, including homosexuals.

 

The bishop, spiritual leader of more than one million churchgoers, said that homosexuals had been "subject to misunderstanding and at times unjust discrimination."

 

"Our community," the Brooklyn pre­late said, "must explore ways to secure the legitimate rights of all our citizens regardless of sexual orientation, while being sensitive to the understanding and hopes of all involved."

 

The Bishop's letter was described by a diocesan spokesman as a "comment on" rather than a "response to" a Vatican declaration issued Jan. 15 which condemned premarital sex, homosexuality, and masturbation.

 

The spokesman said that Mugavero had no specific piece of legislation in mind, such as the bill vetoed last year by the New York City Council that would have recognized the rights of homosexuals to hold jobs without fear of discrimination.

 

The bishop's letter was distinctive primarily for its tone rather than its content.  While in substance, the prelate's remarks did not depart from what is widely understood to be Catholic teaching on human rights, his views represented, to an unusual degree, an understanding and concern for justice for those who many consider to be immoral.

 

Its intent, he emphasized, was to "urge priests, counselors, and others to express concern and compassion for those men and women who experience pain and confusion due to a sexual orientation."

 

Further, the letter stated:  "We urge homosexual men and women to avoid identifying their personhood with their sexual orientation. They are so much more as persons than this single aspect of their personality.  That richness must not be lost."

 

Mugavero pointed out that homosexuals are often subject to "misunderstanding."

 

"It is not homosexuality which should be one's claim to acceptance or human rights of being loved by us all -- it is a fact that we are all brothers and sisters under the fatherhood of God."

 

FORUM

 

I don't know who you are, but for the past three years I have lived in such Hell as the result of a breakdown ­in health.  Four psychiatrists have brought me to the point of acceptance of self; however, the Church which I love dearly has no place for me, according to Scripture.  What hypocrisy!  I have turned myself totally to the direction of our Lord's will for me.

 

It's such an empty existence -- it was better not to have confessed my sin and lived ln comfort, although closeted.  Position, financial security -- I have that.  In August I shall enter my 38th year.  How very much I  would like to end it all, yet each attempt is a failure.  I'm so very alone, and the Church has impressed upon me my "evil nature."  However, in these past three years I have been completely withdrawn.  I have just spent a weekend with [an Episcopal convent] in retreat and have returned more depressed: their dedication is beautiful, their togetherness, enviable. 

 

If you are spiritually oriented pray that I may have peace and comfort in my loneliness.

 

P.S.  I read about you in one of the Sister's periodicals ... lying about.  Whatever you are, work to bring to others the awareness of Christ's understanding and caring. 

 

                        --Charlut

 

I am a retired ship captain, and it is my hope to be able to contact a clergyman with similar views and in an age bracket between 40 and 65.

 

I have found it pretty much hopeless in my part of the country, so maybe your magazine will put me in touch with someone of integrity and dependability.

 

                        --Peter

 

I also have an interest in what you say about the need for ministry within the Gay community, specifical­ly on campus.

 

I come here after a ministry in higher education in Maryland.  I personally have had no experience with the type of ministry you cite as such, but am aware that the Gay movement has gained credence on a number of our campuses of late, and this I feel is a positive step toward liberation in general....

 

I hope you will keep me informed about your specific ministry, and that you will keep me in your prayers in this new job of mine which I am sure will be even more pressure-filled than my previous.

 

                   --The Rev. James J. McNamee

                   Youth & College Ministries Coordinator

                   Executive Council of the Episcopal Church

 

I have read the last couple of issues of INTEGRITY with great interest ....

 

You are doing good work.  God bless you.

 

                        --The Rt. Rev. Paul Moore, Jr.

                        Bishop of New York

 

As a friend I would like to learn more about your movement, and as a priest of the Episcopal Church understand how we may best serve in this area.

 

                        --Fr. Leonard

 

As you are aware, the Black woman or man, especially if Gay, has been ignored in the history of this country.

 

Here are some facts.  A Black man was born in the South in 1876. His name, Tony Jackson.  As a young boy he never took piano lessons, but taught himself to play.  As a young man he went to New Orleans, where he played the piano in some high class bordellos, includ­ing Lulu White's Mahogany Hall.  While there he met Jelly Roll Morton, who always considered Tony the fin­est jazz pianist and Blues man he had ever known.  In fact, Tony billed himself as the "World's Greatest Single-Handed Entertainer."  He composed over 1.000 songs, most of which have been lost to history.  In 1916 he sold a song he had composed to Gus Kahn, who put it into a Broadway show, and Fannie Brice intro­duced it; the song was "Pretty Baby," about a tall skinny young man to whom Tony had dedicated it.

 

Tony left New Orleans because he was being harassed for being Gay, and traveled around looking for a place where he would be accepted.  He was next seen in 1905 in Chicago, playing at The Elite, No. 1, and other bars of "The Section," which was along State Street near 35th.  He lived quietly with his two sisters in Chicago.  In April, 1921, after eight weeks of hiccups which the efforts of doctors and nurses could not relieve, he died.  For more information see JAZZ MASTERS OF NEW ORLEANS by Martin Williams, published in 1967 by McMillan.

 

                        --James Foshee

 

NOTES ON PUBLICATIONS (L.C.)

 

Alcoholic Gay Information is being gathered for a thesis ­that is a followup of a paper "The Alcoholic Gay--Stigma and Sobriety," which was presented to the National Council on Alcoholism Forum, Denver, 1974.  If you have any leads, send them to Hank Therholz, 266 Liberty St., Paterson, NJ 07522.

 

Conference on Human Sexuality.  The conference was held ln 1973 in the Diocese of Newark.  We have the tapes as provided by the Episcopal Radio-TV Foundation and will gladly make them available to chapters or persons who will reimburse the postage.  Professor Albert Mollegen has the unhappy chore of representing the opposition (to almost every human expression of joy).  Fr. John McNeil. S.J., does the most direct assault on erotophobia, and especially on homophobia.  Joanna B. Gillespie angrily describes the "Cultural and Sociological Scene Today," with a strong feminist perspective.  I would think that diocesan study  commissions would want to circulate this among members.

 

CONTEXT, Vol. VIII, No. 5, March 1, 1976, p. 1.  In this Professor Martin E. Marty's regular bull decreed from his throne of Protestant liberalism at Chicago Divinity School, Fr. Richard Ginder [see FORUM for  Feb. 1976, pp. 9-10] comes under the homophobic axe:  "Some years ago it was discovered that in matters sexual he [Ginder] turned out to be 'ill.'  Now he has written a pathetic apologia for his ways in the form of an attack on Catholic teachings on sex.  Paul Blanshard reviews the book favorably in THE CHURCHMAN, and many religious liberals regard the book as a blow for freedom or a responsible critique.  It is not.  Ginder has showed us all his warp; we can serve him best by neglecting his 'woof.'  Nor does his strangeness indicate that conservative Catholicism has no point to make ...."  Professor Marty is also on the editorial board of THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY.

 

EXPLOR:  A JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY. Ed. by Paul Hessert, Garrett-Evangelical Seminary, 2121 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60201:  Vol. 1, no. 2 (Fall 1975) is devoted completely to the questions of homosexuali­ty in a theological perspective. 90 pp.

 

Some of the items here are surprisingly a purg­ing of the homophobia we have grown to expect from evangelical circles.  The Biblical material ("What of Sodom and Gomorrah?" by Dr. Wolfgang Roth) notes not only the tribal concepts out of which much of the homophobia developed, but also that "it seems that the homosexual act became an issue in ancient Israel relatively late and in one sub­group."  Albert Sundberg and Tyler Thompson discuss "Sexuality and Marriage in the Biblical and Patris­tic Texts," concluding that "the right use of sexuali­ty is a central symbol of God's intention to bring order out of chaos."  The social scientists also get lots of attention, though with an unbalanced emphasis on Irving Bieber (especially by a homophobic pastor named Walter Muelder, and by John Cartwright) ­persons like George Weinberg (SOCIETY AND THE HEALTHY HOMOSEXUAL) and Thomas S. Szasz are almost ignored.

 

Still, the impression is that here we have a diverse group of persons who are refusing to keep Gay people invisible, who are daring to open what for them is admittedly a loaded gun.  Some are more cautious than are others.  The big stumbling block seems to be etiology.  At one point in his own essay editor Hessert says:  "A discerning pastor, teacher, or neighbor can at times see in a distorted family situation another young homosexual or lesbian in the making, but it is that one person, not the parents or larger social unit, who will bear the onus of 'being different.' To 'accept' homosexuality in such cases is but an escape from our responsibilities to each other.  'Acceptance' simply cannot sanctify all the hurt that has produced and is generated by the condition."  As a discerning teacher I have often seen in a distorted family situation another young heterosexual in the making, but it has never occurred to me to deprive sanctity to all heterosexuals or heterosexual experience, even though this distortion reoccur a billion times!

 

I suspect that these devout Methodists have still not made their own world safe for their Gay colleagues to share that intimate and important fact with them.  One of the great weaknesses of this volume is the near muffling of the few open Gay witnesses that are allowed (a reference or two to Troy Perry and to one or two more).

 

Yet what Episcopal seminary has even dared to tackle the questions here raised?  Whatever happened to that notion of our Church as a leader in theological investigation?!

 

THE GLINES.  John Glines has established a new off-­broadway theatre and welcomes mms. from all Gay play­wrights, whether published or unpublished, produced before or never produced.  He is particularly interes­ted in experimental works. JG, 28 Willow Street, Brooklyn Heights, NY 11201.

 

HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE WESTERN CHRISTIAN TRADITION (1955) is at last back in print from Shoe String Press.  Order for $7.95 plus 50 cents postage from Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, 15 Christopher St., NYC 10014.

 

JOIN HANDS.  JH is a Gay male prisoner support group which plans to publish a newsletter by the same name, consisting primarily of letters, articles, poetry, and stories written by Gay prisoners. Free to prisoners.  Those prisoners on the outside can order at $1 per issue or $4 per year (about 6 issues).  Outside subscriptions help send this newsletter to prisoners.  JOIN HANDS, P.O.B. 42242, SF, CA 94142.

 

MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS, a new special issue from LONG TIME COMING, published last August.  Contains articles about how lesbians relate to their straight mothers and vice versa, articles on how daughters feel about their mothers' lesbianism, etc.  Order at $1.75 per copy (inc. postage), from Box 218, Sta. E., Montreal, P.Q., CANADA.

 

THE MYTH OF MADNESS, a collection of material about lesbians and mental health, particularly about personal experience with mental health institutions in Canada.  Order for $1.25 from the same address given for MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS above.

 

THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH TASK FORCE WORKING PAPERS ON HOMOSEXUALITY is again in print.  Order it for $1.25 a copy from your nearest Government Printing Office, Catalog #HE20.2402: H75/2.

 

OFFENDER REHABILITATION is a new journal and calls for papers.  Quarterly.  Concerned with programs and servi­ces for prisoners and ex-offenders, prison reform, job training, continuing education programs, etc.

 

It is edited by Dr. Sol Chaneles, 333 West End Ave., NYC 10023.

 

"Questionnaire on Male Sexuality," prepared by the NYC chapter of NOW.  Send a stamped addressed envelope to INTEGRITY in Fort Valley to get your copy.  It's a tedious chore, but you need to share with them your own experience, particularly to help them have Gay input.  Copies may also be ordered free with stamped return envelope from Shere Hite, NOW, 47 East 19th, NYC 10003.

 

SEXUALITY: GOD'S GIFT.  This is the brochure version of the "pastoral letter" of the Most Rev. Francis J. Mugavero, Bishop of Brooklyn, noted in the article on page 2 of this FORUM.  Copies may be ordered for free from The Chancery, 75 Greene Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11238.  Study commissions and chapters will want to order bulk supplies for all members and inquirers.

 

SEXUAL LAW REPORTER, 3701 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 700, LA, CA 90010. Ed. by Joel S. Tlumak and published by Thomas F, Coleman. This important newsletter is the only way I know to keep up with what is going on in the legislatures and courts.  I read two ACLU publica­tions, but would remain ignorant of vast amounts of information available only here.  Also valuable are announcements of certain conferences on related themes, several very literate reviews, etc.  $15 for individuals.  $10 for accredited students. Special rates on inquiry for prisoners and/or prisoner groups.

 

EDITORIAL

 - STOP EMBARRASSING ME, HONEY! OR FOOLS FOR CHRIST'S SAKE

 

BY LOUIE CREW

 

Embarrassment threatens to paralyze vast portions of the Gay community.  Each person fears that the next will behave in some vaguely defined but clearly unseemly way.  Too many of us are like the young hero in the antediluvian play "Tea and Sympathy" when his roommate suggested that perhaps there really was something wrong about the way he walked, something suggestive of being different.  The character struggling so desperately hard not to be Gay complained that he'd wondered the same thing about himself, but that to ask the question of how one walks is to paralyze one's movement altogether.  Ask the centipede, and watch him stall.

 

Early Christians experienced the same threat.  Almost half of the New Testament references to being "ashamed" are cautions NOT to be.  The writer of 2 Timothy cautioned:  "Do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but take your share of suffering for the gospel in the power of God ....  I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed ....  May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me; he was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me eagerly and found me." Likewise, St. Peter said, "If one suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God."  Christ too warned:  "For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed."  Being ashamed of a sister or brother may be itself what is shameful.

 

An Episcopal female leader told me confidentially recently, "Our Church can accept almost anything except bad manners."  I hope she is wrong, lest we have come so close only to miss the joy of heaven.  Catholic must mean indiscriminate, yet I often get the uneasy feeling that in our Church we mean catholic only metaphorically, only after persons have been deodorized, leaving "the great unwashed" to Rome or the evangelicals.

 

For years now I have allowed as one of about 20 topics for the final essay in first-year composition, "Jesus had B.O."  Rarely is it elected, but I have never read a bad essay on the subject.

 

In Gay terms, embarrassment always registers the way in which we as Gays have internalized the hostile judgments of our oppressors.  We reward ourselves when we can say, "I am Gay, but ...." rather than when we say "I am Gay and ...."  It is as if the mundane realities we fill in our blanks are the source of our life rather than we the life-giver to the mundane realities we indulge.

 

One of my handsome students once wrote, "I have a flat nose, but an attractive face."  The sentence shot out at me from the composition where it was buried.  "I thought you believed your cliche 'Black is beautiful,' and here I find you apologizing for your gorgeous African flared nostrils!" I said.  "Where did I do that?!" he replied.  "Compare," I said, "'I have a flat nose and an attractive face' or, better still, 'I have flared African nostrils which make my face attractive."'

 

To be ashamed of another who is a member of our tribe is tantamount to believing that we are a monolithic group, or ought to be.  Thereby we deny the pluralism of the world's most integrated minority, as should be perspicuous to even the most insensitive Gay person.  We say that we attack the alien style:  I suspect that we merely coverup the real fear, that of being either discovered or placed in "too narrow a niche" by others viewing the scene, as was St. Peter before the cock had thrice crowed.  Sometimes the mobility to leave the fold, which we always retain, can be self-alienating rather than liberating.

 

Our oppressor has also programmed us to be afraid of uppity sisters and brothers.  A priest who has one of the largest Gay congregations in the world wrote me confidentially recently:  "My own feeling, as you would guess, is leave well enough alone.  There is no trouble being made, and I expect none so long as there is no pushing for recognition."  That's as articulately as anyone I know has ever been able to say, "I know how to stay in my place."  Of course, the price is rather high, considering the darkness of millions of sisters and brothers who do not know, as this priest does, that God loves all unconditionally.  Add to that the price of our suicide rates, our mental health bill in preserving this quiet place for a few safe Gays, et al.

 

I have not yet met a Gay leader who has not been preceded by debilitating rumors.  "She's too pushy."  "He's not very diplomatic."  "He makes public spectacles."  "She's not as smart as she ought to be." "He's a bit floozy or effeminate."  "She's too closety."  .....  We really don't need nonGay oppressors:  we do the task well enough ourselves.  A familiar way of avoiding repentance is, after making the insults then patronizingly to add, "Well, my world is big enough for you; is your world big enough for me?"  Of course the world is big enough.  The question is whether we can behave towards our co-inhabitors as towards Children of God.

 

In the Gospel account of "The Good Queer" we learn that Goodness is defined by neighborly, caring conduct.  There the outsider nonconformist was the highly disrespectable Samaritan who took the Jew in distress and bound up his wounds and placed him safely in an inn.  It is not enough to be Samaritan or Queer.  Who proved to be neighborly?  "The one who showed mercy ....  Go and do likewise."

 

COME TO SAN FRANCISCO!

 

ON 6-8 AUGUST 1976 Will BE HELD THE 2ND ANNUAL INTEGRITY CONVENTION, AT TRINITY PARISH, WITH ALSO A MAJOR MASS TO BE CELEBRATED AT GRACE CATHEDRAL.  FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT THE LOCAL ARRANGEMENTS COMMITTEE, THROUGH THE REV. RICHARD YOUNGE, P.O. BOX 6444, SAN JOSE 95150.

 

GAYS BEING MADE WHOLE IN CHRIST

By The Rev. John E. Lenhardt II

 

Ministry to homosexuals within the institutional church has proved to be a most difficult task.  The Episcopal Church, in which I am a priest, does not yet recognize the importance of a clearly defined ministry to Gays.  I, therefore, have had to begin what is turning out to be a very successful ministry, without the financial support of the Church and without much verbal encouragement.

 

It seems as though the calling to preach the Gospel to all of our sisters and brothers stops short when the ministry of the Church involves Gays.  The Church is obviously threatened by the anger or possible anger that would be directed toward it from homophobic parish­ioners and clergy, and we must not, as it were, "rock the ark."

 

But the Church has another fear, one rooted deeply within its own history and tradition, a fear of its own sexuality.  The Church refuses to deal with sexu­ality as a positive gift from the Creator, but rather prefers to see sex as a negative but necessary aspect of our humanity.  Ignorance leads to fear; and fear can cause impotency, a loss of joyful celebration, and an unwillingness to die even though resurrection is prom­ised to us.

 

The point is crucial.  It is in the ability to risk that we find life, for as we risk, we risk death.  We expose ourselves and are naked before one another and God.  And we die a little; but because we have risked ln the Holy Spirit's call, we will grow, become, change; as it were, we will be resurrected to a new life. The Church is afraid to die, and if it does not risk death, it will never be resurrected into a new Church more glorious in Christ's calling to it to be His Body, more actively ministering to those in need than ever before.

 

Dealing with homosexuals in a loving manner is one area of risk unto death, but death with the promise of Resurrection.

 

INTEGRITY calls the Church to take that ultimate risk and begin to love and care for us as human beings, not as oddities to be laughed at and scorned.  That is why my ministry has centered in INTEGRITY.  I have died to my old life; and it was a very painful process.  Now I celebrate my new life loving myself and my sexuality, and willing to fight, with INTEGRITY as my support group, for change and growth within the Church.

 

Our Philadelphia chapter of INTEGRITY began only seven months ago, with five persons.  It has grown to fifty persons and is still growing and developing.  Why do these persons come?  What draws them?  Why do The Rev. Ron Wesner and I persist in a ministry which the Church has not accepted?

 

The first and most important factor is that in INTEGRITY/Philadelphia we find a support group of other loving, caring, giving, forgiving, accepting Christian Gays and straight persons.  We have found that the group has developed into one important part of the Body of Christ in which we find self-affirmation, the ability to love who we are as whole persons and as sexual beings created in love by a loving God.  We find that we are becoming self-actualizing.  Consequently, we are able to give in love to one another the strength and support, the friendship and companionship we need in order to move out into the world and back into our own parishes loving others more deeply because we are able to love ourselves.  In being enabled to love self, we are enabled by the action of the Holy Spirit to see our God Father and Son, Creator and Redeemer, in one another.

 

All of us in INTEGRITY, as all Christian people, see through a glass dimly, but because of the love of Christ which we find in one another our vision is becoming less cloudy, and we therefore are finding the freedom to be real people living the Gospel, not rejecting it or hear­ing the word but not understanding the meaning.  Because we can hear, we are enable to act.  We are growing in a real knowledge of what it means to be the people of God, for Christ has set us free and our very beings are becoming integrated.  No longer do we reject our homo­sexuality before God or before the altar, but rather we joyfully offer our homosexuality as a part of our selves, our souls and bodies, back to God in thanks­giving, in Eucharist.  The second important factor is that persons come to our meetings to share with one another in the Holy Eucharist and in the programs which follow the Mass.  One member stated her feelings concerning this activi­ty as follows:

 

"I am drawn to INTEGRITY by the fact that it is Eucharistically based; each meeting begins with a service of Holy Communion and ends with prayers of dismissal.  This format helps me to keep in focus, to remember that we are all Children of God, and as such charged to do the best that we can with who we are and what we are."

 

The programs after the Eucharist are diverse.  We have guest speakers who "rap" with the group on variety of topics of interest, ranging from theology to very practical matters of dealing with being Gay in a world which rejects homosexuality.  We attempt to understand our Gay community with all of its diversi­ty of persons, practices, and opinions and to find our own place within that larger community.  We also play games which help us to laugh, to get to know one another better, and to rediscover the meaning of play and its place in our lives.

 

Another member of the group expressed his feelings concerning the program in this manner:

 

"The programs are diverse and entertaining as well as informative.  Some things we've done have brought back to me part of myself that I didn't realize I had lost. The fellowship afforded me at INTEGRITY is rewarding, warm, understanding, something I've never experienced before.  I'm less inhibited about meeting people and in my associa­tions with my new friends at INTEGRITY, I've learned a lot about myself which I might never have disco­vered otherwise."

 

Another rather joyfully stated: "It's nice to have a fun night in the middle of the week."

 

One of the most unusual facts about INTEGRITY/Phil­adelphia which distinguishes it from any other Gay organization in the city, religious or secular, is the makeup of the group.  As is to be expected, our membership is basically lesbians and male homosexuals.  However, there are between eight and ten regularly attending heterosexual persons.  From what they have told me, they come because in INTEGRITY they have dis­covered that their Gay brothers and sisters are able to offer to them a sense of belonging, of loving con­cern, and a Christian community which they find to be a rare experience in their lives.  The heterosexual persons in the group have opened themselves to us who are Gay, and they have discovered that we, except in our sexual preference, are no different than they.  One straight male stated that now he was able to touch other men and had learned not to be afraid of touching, of being warm and intimate with others of the same sex without having to be concerned about be­ing sexually propositioned.  For him, a myth about Gays has been destroyed:  that Gay males try to seduce straight males.  INTEGRITY is made up also of several married couples wherein one partner in the marriage is Gay.  Their association with the group has strength­ened their relationships, for which all of us rejoice.

 

It is also of interest to note that not all of our members are Episcopalians.  Most of them are, but we have several Quakers, Lutherans (including a pastor), Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, and several members who regularly attend Metropolitan Community Church.

 

Many heterosexual clergy and lay persons of the diocese have asked Fr. Ron and me what the purpose of INTEGRITY is.  The main reasons for its existence I have already stated.  But there are several other purposes which stem out of the life of this group.

 

First, the co-convenor, The Rev. Ron Wesner, and I are concerned to be a support to the clergy of this diocese who are Gay but because of their parish situa­tions cannot reveal their sexual orientation nor do they have anyone with whom they can talk openly and honestly.  Many such clergy feel that they are the only ones, and it is a very lonely place to be.

 

Secondly, we have made ourselves available as coun­selors to the Gay community in general and specifically to the Church's members who are Gay.

 

Third, we wish to be teachers, offering ourselves to any parish of the diocese or to any group within the diocese that wishes to deal constructively with homosexuality.  It is clear to us that the best way to learn about homosexuality is in talking with Gay persons who are willing to be honest, open, and gentle with those who are striving to understand us better.

 

Fourth, we wish to extend our understanding and insight with parents of Gay persons who are striving to understand their children's behavior and the agony in which the children are living.  To grow up Gay in today's world is most difficult, as I can personally testify.  Parents often blame themselves for that over which they have no control and for which there is no real blame to be placed.  Their agony is as great as the child's in trying to understand what they fear.

 

Fifth, we have our political motives for we realize that there is much to do in aiding the Church to change, to grow into an understanding of a condition of human nature which has been condemned and for which persons have been persecuted throughout Christian history.  We fear that which we cannot understand or that which threatens us, and as a result, we persecute and destroy rather than follow our Christian Gospel which directs us to love and to attempt to deal with our ignorance and fear.

 

One of our members wrote me recently:

 

"INTEGRITY has offered me a framework within which I am more able to realize my own sexuality in rela­tionship to the world at large and more specifical­ly to my life as a Christian.  It has helped me to better understand Christ's Gospel of love, and I have more fully experienced Christ's real presence in the Mass, have delighted in the fellowship that has flowed from sharing in this act of giving with my Gay bro­thers and sisters.

 

"INTEGRITY is not so much a separatist group, but a group that is trying to raise the consciousness of the One, Holy, Catholic Church in general.  INTEGRITY is working within this framework.

 

"I hope that we can continue to grow and share, being the Body of Christ to a greater level of under­standing, acceptance, and realization of our sexuality in the context of the Christian faith in the con­temporary world." 

 

May the Church in love attempt to reach a better un­derstanding of who we Gay people are, both as Christians and as human beings.  May God's blessings go with us all.

 

MARKED FOR GENOCIDE?

By Rolf T. Jarlsson

 

Since one of the sources of Western homophobia is the condemnation of sodomy in Judaism, it is important to know the precise meaning and the historical circumstan­ces of passages in the Old Testament which deal with homosexuality.

 

Attention is called here to five verses in which re­ference is made to sodomite/sodomites:  Deuteronomy 23:17; 1 Kings 14:24; 1 Kings 15:12; 1 Kings 22:46; and 2 Kings 23:7.

 

In these verses the Hebrew word for sodomite is "qadesh" or "kadhesh."  It is a noun derived from a verb which means "to consecrate," "to dedicate," "to hallow," "to sanctify oneself." The qadesh were hier­douloi, communities of men and boys who were available for rites of sexual intercourse at shrines and sanctuaries.  Cf. Johannes Pedersen, ISRAEL: ITS LIFE AND CULTURE, London.  Oxford Univ. Press, 1953, IV, 469-471.

 

The ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS explains Semitic hierdouloi as follows: "Some modern scholars believe that the religion of Jahweh had its roots in the soil of primitive Semitic ritual, and that hierdou­loi were one of the features which Jahweh's religion.  like other Semitic religions, inherited from the parent stock.  Whatever the origin of the institution, it is certain that, aided by the Deuteronomic law, the pro­phets imposed their view upon Judah and finally up­rooted this debasing type of religious service....  That the prophets succeeded in removing from Judah's religion an institution consecrated by religious sanc­tion and hoary with age, which appealed so powerfully to the animal element in man, is eloquent testimony to the fact that they were working with God and for Him."  (George Barton, "Hierdouloi," James Hastings, Ed., ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION AND ETHICS, Edinburgh, T & T Clark, 1934, IX, 675.)

 

After we subtract Doctor Barton's bombast, three significant facts remain:  1) cultic homosexual inter­course was practiced in Judaism as in other Semitic religious traditions, 2) the cults were an ancient ins­titution which had long enjoyed the blessing of religious authority and, presumably, of the God for which that authority spoke and acted, and 3) the tabu against homosexuality originated with the Deuteronomic reform carried out by the prophets in the reign of King Josiah (d. 608 B.C.).

 

The purpose of the Deuteronomic reform was to exclude from Judaism all foreign peoples and their culture.  "Behind the utterances of D (the reform text) we see a very self-contained society, fighting convulsively to preserve its individuality from the foreign innovations threatening it.  Notably it endeavors to keep free from the gods of foreign peoples and what belongs to them.  A strong clannish spirit is necessary within the community ....  Not everyone can be admitted to this closed community.  Ammonites and Moabites must never be admitted ... Edomites and Egyptians ... not until the third generation.  Amalekite are to be entirely exterminated like all Canaanite peoples."  (Pedersen, op. cit., 583-585.)

 

Those zealous sons of the prophets among us who cite the 7th century B.C. Deuteronomic condemnation of homo­sexuality as God's word for the 20th century A.D. are obliged to tell us how they propose to carry out the other provisions of this divinely inspired code.  What alien elements, innovations, and influences in our cul­ture are to be eradicated, what foreign peoples in the land are marked for genocide?

                              

 

WOULD YOU

 

Sing to a flower,

Hug a tree,

Bathe a bird,

Caress a leaf,

Speak to the ocean,

Kiss the wind,

Make love with me?

          --Randy Bennett

 

HIS STORY

 

"From these tropical reeds look at the world

in shambles of rage ...

It was a game after all -- this life," Adam said.

"Do or don't.

And God said, 'If you are curious, go and see.'

I knew I would forget, but I went,

I, man.

So, I got sick on an apple you know

and was so concerned over my own disease

that He really wasn't very important."

 

          --Laura Dennison

 

THE OFFICIAL GAY GUIDE TO WESTMINSTER ABBEY

Rictor Norton

 

Copyright 1975 by Gay News Ltd.  We are grateful for permission to reproduce Ric­tor Norton's article, which originally appeared in Gay News (1A Normand Gardens, Greyhound Road, London W14 9SB, England).

 

This grandiose pile is a pleasantly depres­sing monument to death, or, more precisely, to our ancestors' sometimes ludicrous grasps for immortality by means of the most delightfully ostentatious tombs.  I've always considered its funerary sculpture to be a perfect example of high camp, and in any case it's moderately diverting to find out where lie the mortal remains of our gay forbears.

       

POETS' CORNER

 

A modest stone in the Poets' Corner in the South Transept, for example, com­memorates Lord Byron (1788-1824), great romantic poet, author of Don Juan, and indefatigable lover of diverse Greek youths.  Nearby is a monument to gay satirist Samuel Butler (1612-1680), whose actual body was interred in St Paul's, Covent Garden, for lack of sufficient monies to pay the Abbey's exorbitant grave fees.

 

The Poets' Corner also boasts a handsome medallion for the (suppressed?) gay poet Thomas Gray (1716-1771), with a tasteful epitaph composed by his friend William Mason.  And -- but of course ‑‑ a monument to the immortal William Shakes­peare, a striking structure which the gay antiquary Horace Walpole aptly termed "preposterous" when it was erected by ­subscription in 1740.  The bones of gay dramatist Francis Beaumont (1584-1616) ‑‑ who lived with his lover John Fletcher on the Bankside in Southwark ‑‑ lie near the tomb of Dryden.  The latest gay poet to be honoured in the Poets' Corner is WH Auden.

 

If we make our solemn way thence to the Great Nave, we will come upon the effigy of one of the gayest of monarchs, King James I (1566-1625), whose tomb was lost and not rediscovered until 1869. On His Majesty's left is the magnificent tomb of his lover George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628); and on his right  is the tomb (with huge bronze figures re­presenting Hope, Truth, Charity and Faith) of his other boyfriend, Ludovic Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox (1574-­1624).  Oh, to be so happily flanked for eternity!

 

It is not always easy to get into the Abbey.  Robert Stewart, Viscount Castle­reagh (1769-1822), who had gone insane and cut his throat after homosexual black­mail, finally was buried near the North Entrance to the North Transept, but at his funeral mourners had to fight their way through a rioting mob.

 

The Great Gay Mystery of the Abbey is the whereabouts of the remains of Samuel Foote (1720-1727), the Restoration drama­tist who was once as popular ‑‑ and as witty ­as Oscar Wilde, and whose reputation, like Wilde's, was blasted by homosexual scandal.  But his staunch admirers, determined to claim for him a respectable niche in the Abbey, buried him by torchlight in an unmarked grave somewhere along the North Walk of the Cloisters ‑‑ tread softly!

 

STOLEN JAWBONE

 

Other gay or bisexual notables interred in Westminster include King William III (1650-1702), buried in great simplicity in the South Aisle of the Chapel of Henry VII and his boyfriend William Bentinck (1649-­1709), buried in a vault nearby; and King Richard II (1367-1400), whose tomb in the Ambulatory used to be partly open until a Westminster schoolboy stole his jawbone in 1776 (it was returned in 1906).

 

Persons memorialized herein not-definitely-­known-to-be-but-probably gay include Charles George Gordon or 'Chinese Gordon' (1833-1885) ‑‑ a bronze bust in the Belfry Tower; Prime Minister William Pitt (1759-­1806) ‑‑ a monument over the west door of the Nave; and Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) of Rhodes Scholarships fame --South Aisle.  A fair number of the monks and abbots entombed in the building they loved best were no doubt gay, though the 'proof' be buried with them.  And of course there is an honourable gay share among those grey marble slabs which pay homage, for ex­ample, to "all those who served the Crown in the Colonial Territories."

 

Mortality, behold and fear

What a change of flesh is here!

Think how e'en the gayest bones

Sleep within these heaps of stones.

 

BLACK ON WHITE

BY CLAUDE GARY

 

I have been asked if I have ever suffered any forms of so­cial prejudices from gay peo­ple and since gay people come from all kinds of backgrounds, the answer is yes.  People are taught ways of judging other people from their social envir­onment and immediate peers which usually does not take the person as an individual but as a group member, which doesn't give you much of a chance to disprove them.

 

I can remember the first time I went to the Amherst bath.  I was the only black per­son there and some of the peo­ple acted like they smelled shit every time I passed.  I got pissed off and was just waiting for one of them to use the word 'nigger,' but no one did.  I was sitting there and a guy came up to me and asked me why I looked like I was mad at the world.  I burst out laugh­ing because I did not know that my feelings were showing.  That broke the ice that night.

 

Thinking of some of the ways people will let you know that they are not prejudiced is funny, like, "I like black people but I just won't sleep with them."  Or they say to a black person that they have to know you for six months before we could have sex, but then meet some one white and have sex the same night.  If I were to say these things don't bother me, I would be lying.

 

The form of racial preju­dice that pisses me off the most is the kind you get from gay bar owners.  When a bar is turning gay they welcome everyone (black & white), but once they get a good crowd coming there, then they try to reduce or get rid of the numbers of black people they allow in.  Here is a sample of how it works: You can be ninety-nine and black and you will need a sheriff's card to get into the bar -- while you can be sixteen and white and get in the bar with no questions asked.  I had been going to one of the bars ever since it turned gay.  I was there on a Friday night drinking with some friends.  On Saturday night I went to the bar and was asked for proof of age.  I showed my driver's li­cense, but they would not take that as proof.  They wanted a sheriff's card' I am thirty­-six and cannot get a sheriff's card nor would I get one just to go to the bars!

 

In September I was in Rochester for a conference and I went to the Roman Sauna and was not let in.  I was told there were no rooms, all the rooms were reserved or taken and so were the wall lockers, so I left.  As I was leaving a white guy came in.  He didn't have a reservation, but he got in.  So I left and went across the street to the AM/PM baths.  There I met some of the local black gays and we were talking and I mentioned what had happened at the Roman and was told that they try to limit the number of blacks allowed in.  I complained to the host organization about the treatment and was told there had been complaints before and they would look into it.  So I came back to Buffalo and wrote a letter to the management complaining of the treatment.  I asked for a statement of their policy in dealing with blacks.  They said it was a misunderstanding that they did not try to limit the number of blacks and that in the future I should phone and make a reservation to ensure myself a room or wall locker.

 

These are the kinds of social prejudices that black people have to face even in the gay world from gay people who are also oppressed.  I get pissed because gay people have to deal with many forms of oppression in straight society and they should know how it feels, but they seem to forget it so easily.  You know I will be glad when people are judged on what they know, and do and how they treat you as a person and not by the color of their skins or race or other things -- just on the way they treat you as a human being.

---------

Reprinted from 5TH FREEDOM for January 1976, with permission from Claude Gary

 

THE CITY OF GOD

 

The following is taken verbatim from the address of Bishop Rusack to the 81st Convention of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Los Angeles, delivered on the 6th February 1976 at the Biltmore Hotel.

 

"Right now there are those who are out in the open 'homosexually.'  They must be treated as fellow communicants, children of God, as they have been for a very long time in this Diocese.  It may be that some 'out of the closet' homophiles may present themselves as candidates for Holy Orders as they have in other dioceses.  The Commission on Ministry, the Standing Committee and the Bishop are preparing for this.  I will not be pressured by so-called 'in-groups,' but I will respect those who cry out for recognition.  God help me and any who seek ordina­tion for anything other than service to the Holy Other and His people."

 

With questionable flair, the Los Angeles Times spotlighted this one paragraph (out of 13 pages) under the headline, "Bishop Says Gays Must Be Accepted."  Anyone who didn't know better might think that the Episcopal Church met for two exhausting days at the Biltmore merely to have a Gay love-in.  The emphasis may thus have been askew, but the message, following hard on similar statements by the Presiding Bishop and the House of Bishops, is clear:  When the smoke of battle has finally cleared in Minneapolis next fall over priesting of women and liturgical revision, the Church will then confront the urgent request from her Gay members, both priest and lay, that henceforth homosexual orientation be viewed neither as illness nor problem, but simply as fact ‑‑ a wholly-acceptable, alternative life-style for those to whom it is natural.

 

                           * * * * *

 

Let no one be misled.  Our opposition, occupied in current battles over priesthood and liturgy, is now fairly dormant.  Hostility surfaces in isolated instances over use by Integrity of church premises most notably in Kansas City.  In reaction to Ellen's ordination the Diocese of Texas is reportedly going to General Convention behind a resolution "to forbid ordination of avowed homosexuals to the offices of deacon, priest and bishop of the Episcopal Church."  So that the confrontation Integrity does not seek at this convention may be unavoidable.  And after those other battles are done, amid empty threats of schism, certain hostilities may be looking for a new target.  And it may well be us.  In love and faith we must prepare.

 

No matter how long or hard the way, we can all be quietly proud, I think, of the fact that we, once characterized as "God's Frozen Peo­ple," are no longer backing away from the tough issues.  A clergyman friend of mine (who would be mortified to find his name in these pages) has his own sardonic view of the famed definition of Ecclesia Ang­licana as "The Bridge Church."  "The bridge ‑‑ that means you're coming from somewhere and on your way to someplace else, but meanwhile, you're nowhere."  No, dear friend, not any more.

 

                        (Dick Sheppard)

 

--excerpted from THE MANIFEST, published by INTEGRITY/Los Angeles

 

THE DANGER OF RHETORIC:  OR THE PROMISE IGNORED

 

Whereas, Man having been created a sexual being, sexuality is of the very nature of life and is good; and

 

Whereas, Attitudes about sexuality should be focussed less on specific sexual acts and more upon the development of human personality and relationships in the context of social responsibility; and

 

Whereas, With respect to civil laws which govern social conduct, a distinction should be made between those laws which are necessary for the protection of society and those which attempt to regulate private moral choice; therefore, be it

 

Resolved, That the General Convention instruct the Executive Council

 

     1.   To initiate studies to express Christian attitudes with respect to birth control, contraception, abortion, sterilization, illegitimacy, divorce and remarriage; marital, premarital, postmarital and extramarital sexual behavior; sexual behavior of single adults; and homosexuality; and

 

     2.   To develop an educational program designed to communicate such attitudes to the Church at large, after study and approval by the membership of the Executive Council with competent theological assistance.

 

         + + PASSED BY GENERAL CONVENTION IN 1967 + +

 

HOW TO COMBINE THEORY WITH ACTION!

 

Get in touch with some of the best thinkers dealing with the contradictions of creating a new humane society here and how.   People like Eric Bentley, Allen Ginsberg, Grace Paley, Barbara Deming, Daniel Berrigan, David McReynolds and many others.  Make a place where they can have a real dialogue.

 

Add to that on-the-spot reports from the places where people are actually working for change.  Places like co-ops, picket lines, political parties, prisons.

 

Season with thoughtful book, record and film reviews.  Toss in original illustrations and a few poems.

 

Make it a magazine that comes out every week so that its readers are up to the minute on what they need to know.  And give the magazine a growing audience (the biggest of any publication of its kind) so that no only the chosen few have the opportunity to combine theory and action.

 

Call it WIN magazine.

 

Fortunately some folks have already done all of that.  A year's subscription costs only $11.

 

WIN - Box 547 - Rifton - NY 12471

 

LESBIAN VOICES

 

Feminist Lesbian Quarterly - subscription rate $5.00 yr.

 

Name ...................................................

Address ................................................

City ...................State ...............Zip .......

 

Materials, checks, money-order to:

 

R. Nichols

P.O. Box 3122

San Jose, Ca. 95116

 

THE MEN WHO ARE SIGNED WITH THE CROSS OF CHRIST, GO GAILY IN THE DARK.                         --G.K. Chesterton

 

Rate 35 cents for a packet of 25, $1.00 for three packets.  Postage is paid if remittance accompanies on order addressed to The Anglican Digest, Hillspeak, Eureka Springs, Arkansas USA 72632.  Please ask for bookmark 75-A.

 

INTEGRITY INTERCESSIONS

 

Your prayers have been requested this month especially by Jere, who is recuperating from surgery, and by Fr. Richard in his search for a paying job.  You are also urged to pray for Fr. Wesner and those meeting with him, in their efforts to plan for General Convention.  Pray too for all Gay bishops and other clergy, that God might reveal to them responsible ways to serve ALL persons.

 

LOCAL CHAPTERS

 

INTEGRITY/Atlanta.  Co-Convenors Dr. Ara Dostourian. (3830 Highway 5, Douglasville, GA 30134; 404-942-­9813) and Steve Matthews (404-351-1943).

INTEGRITY/Austin.  Convenor Adam F. Stricker (Box 14056, Austin, TX 78761).

INTEGRITY/Australia.  Convenor The Rev. Ron Dowling, St. George's Church, 4/296 Glenferrie Road, Malvern, Victoria, 3144, Australia.

INTEGRITY/Boston.  Convenor Joe McCauley, Box 2582, Boston, MA 02208.

INTEGRITY/Chicago.  Convenor David Williams, Box 2516, Chicago, IL 60690.

INTEGRITY/Denver.  Convenor The Rev. Thomas Dobbs, 1734 Washington Street, Denver, CO 80203.

INTEGRITY/Eugene.  Convenor Randolph Harrison West, Box 3682 University Station, Eugene, OR 97403.

INTEGRITY/Fort Valley.  Convenors Ernest Clay and Louie Crew, 701 Orange Street, No. 6, Fort Valley, GA 31030, 912-825-7287.

INTEGRITY/Hartford.  Convenor The Very Rev. Clinton R. Jones, 45 Church Street, Hartford, CT 06103.

INTEGRITY/Jacksonville.  Convenor Dr. Robert Ragland, 2783 Oak Street, Jacksonville, FL 32205.

INTEGRITY/Lansing.  Convenor Gary Lee Phillips, Box 95, East Lansing, MI 48823.

INTEGRITY/Lexington.  Convenor Philip Mitchum, 435 East Maxwell St., #1, Lexington, KY 40508.

INTEGRITY/Los Angeles.  Convenor Dick Sheppard, 4767 Hillsdale Drive, LA, CA 90032.

INTEGRITY/Michigan.  Convenor James Toy, Human Sexuality Advocates, 325 Michigan Union, U-Mi, Ann Arbor, MI 48104.  Also: Michael L. Gowing, 2696 Indian Trail, RR 3, Pinckney, MI 48169.

INTEGRITY/NYC.  Convenors The Rev. Michael G. Koonsman (31 Stuyvesant St., NYC 10003) and David Allen White (23-71 27th Street, Astoria, NY 11105).

*INTEGRITY/Philadelphia.  Convenors The Rev. John Lenhardt (4711 Baltimore Ave., Phila. 19143, tele. 726-1089) and The Rev. Ron Wesner *(5014 Willows Avenue, Phila., PA 19143).

INTEGRITY/Phoenix.  Convenor Bob Eff, P.0. Box 27212, Phoenix, AZ 85017.

INTEGRITY/Portland.  P.0. Box 1334, Portland, OR 97207.  Convenor John-Mark Gilhousen, 2015 N.W. Kearney, #101G, Portland, OR 97209, tele. 503-223-4682.

INTEGRITY/Providence.  Convenor Edgar F. Staff, Box 71, Annex Station, Providence, RI 02901.

INTEGRITY/Rochester.  Convenor The Rev. Walt Szymanski, 14 Highmanor Drive, Apt. 8, Henrietta, NY.

INTEGRITY/San Diego.  Convenor The Rev. H. C. Lazenby, ACSW, 4645 West Talmadge Drive, San Diego, CA 94117.

INTEGRITY/San Francisco and Bay Area.  Co-Convenors Jim Frooks (1256 Page Street, No. 1, SF, CA 94117 415-621-0182) and The Rev. Richard Younge (P.O. Box 6444, San Jose, CA 95150).

INTEGRITY/Toronto.  Convenor John Gartshore, 20 Berryman Street, Toronto, M5R 1M6, Ontario, CANADA.

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

 

*INTEGRITY/DC.  Convener Jim Wickliff, P.O. Box 28424, Washington, DC 20005

 

Additional convenors have contacted us about the possibilities of new chapters in the places below.  All queries should be sent to our officer in charge of chapter advisement, President Jim Wickliff, 429 Surf, Chicago 60657

 

INTEGRITY/England; INTEGRITY/Houston; INTEGRITY/Madison, WI; INTEGRITY/Miami; INTEGRITY/Montana; INTEGRITY/Oklahoma City; INTEGRITY/Seattle, WA; INTEGRITY/Toledo; INTEGRITY/Topeka.

 

*Indicates either a new address or a new listing with this issue.

 

This ministry is very important.  We need you.  Please write today.  Isn't it time for you to convene a chapter?