INTEGRITY FORUM
A JOURNAL FOR GAY EPISCOPALIANS AND THEIR FRIENDS
c Integrity, Inc. 1978 ISSN: 0095-2184
Volume 4 Number 4 April - May 1978
INTEGRITY FORUM: A JOURNAL FOR GAY EPISCOPALIANS AND THEIR FRIENDS is the official newsletter of Integrity, Inc., a non-profit religious, charitable, educational and literary organization of gay Episcopalians and their friends. Membership and subscription correspondence should be sent to Integrity Treasurer, Raymond Conti, Integrity, P.O. Box 3681, Central Station, Hartford, CT 06103. Editorial correspondence should be sent to Integrity Forum Editor, William Doubleday, c/o Episcopal Divinity School, 99 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. For further information write to P.O. Box 891, Oak Park IL 60303 or telephone 312/386-1470.
Signed articles represent the views of the contributors. The editor reserves the right to revise all sexist language.
Copyright 1978 by Integrity, Inc. 6 issues per year. Memberships are $10 per year; subscriptions without memberships are $12 per year. Add $3 if you would like your copy of Integrity Forum mailed in a plain envelope; Canadians remit in U.S. funds.
President...................................... John Lawrence
Secretary...................................... Donn Mitchell
Treasurer...................................... Raymond Conti
Editor..................................... William Doubleday
Publisher..................................... David Williams
Publisher's Assistants........... Jerry Vogt, William Landram
& Integrity/Chicago
FORUM BECOMES BI-MONTHLY
Integrity Forum officially becomes a bi-monthly with this issue. The National Executive Committee made this change upon the recommendation of the Editor, Bill Doubleday. The decision is made in light of logistical problems attached to a ten-times-ayear publication schedule and is also undertaken as a money saving venture. The Executive Committee felt that too large a percentage of Integrity's resources were being expended on the Forum budget.
PLANNING PROCEEDS FOR FOURTH INTEGRITY CONVENTION
Mike Suhr, the co-Dean of the Twin Cities Convention, and Craig Anderson, the Convenor of Integrity/Twin Cities, reported to the Integrity Executive Committee on planning and preparations for the 1978 Integrity National Convention. Suhr spoke on behalf of himself and co-Dean Martha Winslow who was unable to attend the meeting in Oak Park on April 8 and 9.
The 1978 Integrity Convention will be held at Gethsemane Episcopal Church in downtown Minneapolis, on Thursday evening, August 17 through Sunday afternoon, August 20. A meeting for various Integrity Committees will precede the convention during the day on Thursday, August 17.
The theme of the convention is: "A Community of Prophets Moving from Vision to Task." The speakers and workshops are still being arranged, but Professor James Nelson, who wrote an extremely enlightened and insightful piece on homosexuality for Christianity and Crisis, has definitely agreed to give one of the keynote speeches. It is hoped that a feminist theologian or pastor will give the other principal address.
The next issue of Integrity Forum will carry details about housing and arrangements. A special mailing will also go out to all national members of Integrity and to all chapters. If you have suggestions for workshops at the convention or pressing questions about arrangements, you may write to Michael Suhr or Martha Winslow, Integrity/Twin Cities, P.0. Box 355, Upper Nicollet Station, Minneapolis, MN 55403 (be certain to use entire address).
INTEGRITY SUMMIT DEALS WITH SUBSTANTIAL AGENDA
The National Officers and Regional Representatives of Integrity, Inc., gathered at the home of David Williams in Oak Park on April 8 and 9. John Lawrence officially assumed the Presidency at that meeting and presided over an extremely productive meeting at which many matters were discussed. Donn Mitchell, the National Secretary was also in attendance, although Ray Conti, the National Treasurer was unable to attend. Three of the eight Regional Representatives were in attendance: Mason Martens of the Mid-Atlantic Region; Kevin Scahill of the Great Lakes Region; and Craig Anderson of the Midwestern Region. Forum Editor Bill Doubleday and Forum Publisher David Williams were in attendance as non-voting members of the Executive Committee and several members of Integrity/Chicago and representatives of other chapters in the Midwest participated informally in many of the discussions.
The meeting began with an overview of chapter activities around the country. Most of the existing chapters are doing well and growing in numbers. Several new chapters are in formation In areas as far flung as Hawaii, Cleveland, San Diego, and Mississippi.
An up-date was received on the workings of the Constitution and By-Laws Committee. The proposed documents and a story are carried elsewhere in this issue of Integrity Forum.
Michael Suhr, who is co-Dean of the Twin Cities Convention, gave a report on the progress which is being made on Integrity's fourth annual convention. A separate story also previews that event.
A committee was appointed by the President to receive nominees and make recommendations for the annual Integrity Award which is given at the convention. The committee is composed of David Williams, the Rev. Clark Wills, the Convenor of Integrity/Chicago, and the Rev. Grant Gallup, long-time Chaplain to Integrity/ Chicago. Suggestions for the Integrity Award may be sent to David Williams, Integrity, P.0. Box 891, Oak Park, IL 60303.
A report was received from the preliminary meeting of the Integrity Committee on Counseling Concerns. The group held a meeting in Hartford in early March. It is chaired by Richard York of Boston. The President was charged with the responsibility of clarifying the composition of the committee and of encouraging them to proceed with a most important task, i.e., to formulate an organizational response to the psychological positions of Dr. Ruth Barnhouse and Dr. Charles Socarides which are so popular in the Episcopal Church.
A short brainstorming session was carried out to discuss numerous possible candidates for the office of Vice President which will stand vacant until the Twin Cities Convention. Everyone agreed that the election should be completely open and it was hoped that several nominees would be forthcoming. The names of over ten men and women from various parts of the country were proposed as possible candidates and the Executive Committee divided up those names with the expressed purpose of calling each of those persons to encourage him or her to stand for election.
Donn Mitchell gave a report on the developing plans for Commemoration Day on June 7th. The day is intended to be both a liturgical event and a major fund-raising effort for the programs of Integrity at the national level. A number of chapters already have significant events in the planning process.
There was a lengthy discussion of the preparations which must be made for the 1979 General Convention in Denver. It was noted that the fifth annual Integrity Convention will immediately proceed the General Convention and will take place in Denver. The Denver chapter of Integrity under the leadership of Tom Dobbs has already begun to make local arrangements.
A Committee on General Convention Preparations and Participation was appointed by John Lawrence in consultation with the Executive Committee. Bill Doubleday was named general chair of the committee and coordinator of a sub-committee to work with the House of Bishops. Mason Martens was named as coordinator of a sub-committee to work with the House of Deputies. A second person to assist Mason is still being sought. The Rev. Tom Dobbs was named as coordinator of local arrangements and Donn Mitchell agreed to make arrangements for a suitable book concession. Other members of the committee and sub-committees will be contacted in the immediate future and their names will be published soon. It was agreed that funding was a critical issue if our participation in General Convention was to be effective. It was also recognized that there was an enormous data gathering process ahead which will require the cooperation of all the chapters and many of Integrity's individual members.
John Lawrence spoke at some length about his conception of the office of President. He indicated that he would be travelling much less than Ron Wesner and would rely very heavily on Regional Representatives to leadership and chapter visitations around the country.
At the suggestion of Donn Mitchell, it was voted that no Integrity Conventions should be held in any state which has not ratified the Equal Rights Amendment. At the suggestion of Martha Winslow, the co-Dean of the Twin Cities Convention, the Executive Committee voted to send greetings and an expression of solidarity, support and concern to the Episcopal Women's Caucus which will meet in the near future.
The final part of the meeting was given over to a discussion of the philosophy and purposes of Integrity and to extensive brain storming about the issue of fund raising and membership expansion. A realistic budget must become a part of the organization's structure and the issue of tax-exemption must be resolved. It was suggested that members and chapters should seriously consider canvas and pledging programs. It was clear that the national organization must receive more substantial support from all of the chapters.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
My dear friend:
Many times I have tried to stamp out the extremely unfair rumor that Bishop Moore asked me to resign as Co-President of Integrity before I was ordained. I am horrified to find it surfacing again in what purports to be a definitive, if brief, history of Integrity. To assume that Bishop Moore would ask such a thing, and, further, to assume that I would agree to it (presumably the implication is that it was a condition for my approval for ordination), is entirely to misrepresent his stance and mine as well as the mutual respect for conscience we share. Please correct the misapprehension that my resignation was motivated by anything other than pressures of time and my basic inadequacy as an "organization woman."
Shalom,
The Rev. Ellen Barrett
Oakland, California
Editorial note: I am pleased to print Ellen Barrett's correction of a misapprehension which had been held by Louie Crew, Ron Wesner, and myself in the preparation of the Brief History of Integrity (Dec. '77-Jan. '78, Vol. 4, No. 2, Integrity Forum). Our sincere apologies go to Ms. Barrett and Bishop Moore.
Dear Bill:
Congratulations on the New (Dec.-Jan.) issue of Integrity Forum. It is really a good issue, and I think no one will mind the double-issue idea at all. When I saw David Williams here in December, in fact, I suggested it to him. Do another one if you have to; I think that is better than the subscribers' permanently receiving issues dated 6 to 8 weeks earlier than the date of reception ...
Shouldn't the Brief History of Integrity have been signed? And the book review by the seminarian who prefers to remain anonymous, especially since he twice used the pronoun "I"? Of course, we can all understand his reluctance to reveal himself in this context. Short articles ‑‑ or long ones ‑‑ by seminarians all over the country who have something to say but don't want to jeopardize their ordinations, etc., would be welcome. But book reviews? I wonder. I know for one thing that the authors of books like to know who writes the reviews, even though it could be a name that means nothing to them. The whole idea is that you don't criticize a person's book without telling her/him who you are.
As for the content of the review, I think the reviewer was perhaps correct about the book. I read it a few months ago and can now hardly remember what it said ‑‑ and good books don't leave me right away. Nevertheless, we must consider that the author is a Dominican and did sign his book and his future teaching career right on the line. It is definitely a pro-gay book, and the last sentence of the reviewer's article could apply as well to John McNeill's book. I mean, the sentence before "Bad news!"
Keep up the good work,
Tom Horner
URBAN BISHOPS HEAR GAY CONCERNS
The Urban Bishops Coalition is an organization of about fifty-five Episcopal Bishops who have indicated a particular concern for the Episcopal Church's mission in the cities. In recent months the Urban Bishops Coalition has sponsored hearings and deliberative sessions in a number of dioceses around the country. The hearings have been aimed at gathering data about urban issues and testimony has been given at most of the hearings on the rights, needs, and concerns of gay men and lesbians in the Church and in the cities.
The first hearing was held in Chicago and testimony was given by a representative of the Metropolitan Community Church. A very tight schedule did not permit testimony by representatives of Integrity/Chicago who were prepared to speak. Several days of hearings were held in the Diocese of Newark. Michael Meyers spoke unofficially on behalf of Integrity/New York at that hearing. According to the transcript and summary of the hearing, Meyers stated: "Integrity asks of the church a strong statement confessing the oppressions of the past and promising support now and in the future and a real effort at educating the clergy." The third and fourth hearings were held in Birmingham, Alabama and Colon, Panama.
At hearings in the Diocese of Olympia, in Seattle, Washington, testimony was given by Ms. Cherry Johnson of the Task Force of the Council of Churches on Lesbians and Gay Men. According to the hearing report, Johnson asserted:
" ... there are approximately 50,000 homosexuals living in Seattle. Although the city passed an ordinance to protect homosexuals in employment and housing, there is a move afoot to call for a referendum. There is discrimination against lesbians in custody cases, against teachers who come out and against 'effeminent' mannerisms in men in employment or promotion situations.
"The church needs to support dialogue and education for both clergy and laity on personal and institutional levels. Parents of gays feel guilt, fear and shame. They need support. A sociologist giving an intellectual discussion doesn't change attitudes; meeting and talking with an openly gay person does. There is a heterosexual bias in this culture. Gay people want to be open about their sexual orientation, because to be assumed straight can result in painful discrimination. For example, many hospitals forbid visitation rights to 'non-family.' A homosexual then cannot visit his or her 'family' in the hospital."
Charles F. Brydon the Secretary of the National Gay Task Force, filed written testimony at the Seattle hearing. He pointed out:
"By confronting the religious community, homosexual persons through the gay rights movement have and are saying NO to further religious-based repression, hypocrisy and hatred. And there has been a positive response. Several major denominations including the Episcopal Church have begun a painful but necessary reexamination of long held assumptions ...
"The question of ordination of homosexuals is the burning immediate issue in most denominations. It is the achilles heel of a church's civil rights position. Organized religion cannot afford the posture of 'do as I say, not as I do.'"
The Convenor of Integrity/Washington, Wayne Fortunato-Schwandt, testified in late February at the hearings sponsored by the Dioceses of Washington and Virginia. He stressed the importance of the gay ordination issue, the need for education throughout the Church, and the need for support of Integrity and pastoral and accepting ministry to gay Christians.
Integrity Forum Editor, William Doubleday, testified at the National Hearings of the Urban Bishops Coalition, held in Washington, February 20-22, 1978. He replaced Ron Wesner who had originally been scheduled to testify. The hearing report gives this summary of Doubleday's testimony:
" ... The issue of civil rights protection, the issue of education about human sexuality, and the issue of pastoral ministry to gay people all need to be stressed as omnipresent urban issues."
Social scientists say that approximately 10 per cent of the U.S.population is predominantly homosexual in orientation, Doubleday noted. But in many cities, and in many urban Episcopal churches, the percentage of gay people is substantially higher. (In many cities, Doubleday added, the gay community is growing increasingly anti-religious and anti-Christian because of the fundamentalist opposition to their life style.) The Episcopal Church, especially in cities, is an important testing ground for more open pastoral and parochial responses to gay people.
"Two areas in which those responses are particularly needed," said Doubleday, "are education and ministry. Within the predominantly heterosexual church, the need is for education ‑‑ 'to break down some of the fears, myths, and stereotypes which exist about gay people.' And within the gay community the need is for 'caring ministry ‑‑ ministry that accepts people where they are, and then helps them make decisions about how they can lead their lives more creatively, more responsibly, more wholly, more in tune with Christ and with the Gospel.
"Doubleday proposed a 'pilot program' in pastoral ministry to the gay community and education about the gay community, beginning with four representative cities (Boston, Washington, Detroit, and San Francisco were suggested). Each pilot project would be headed by an 'urban missioner to the gay community' whose charge would include: 1) to provide pastoral care for gay Christians, and others who might turn to the Church in crisis; 2) to be a witness of Christian love and concern within the gay community; 3) to interpret the church's concern for gay people within the larger urban society; 4) to be an educational resource and consultant for clergy and others; and 5) to provide support for clergy who may be dealing with sexuality issues in their own lives."
The compiler of the hearing report made these observations about the import for the church of Doubleday's testimony:
"There is no longer any way the church can sidestep the issue, and so it is faced with two choices: either the church can examine the question of homosexuality with knowledge and grace, or it can throw in its lot with Anita Bryant.
"Integrity's call for more education about gay people is thus ell-founded and echoes Minneapolis. The need for a 'caring ministry' to gay people may be equally well-founded (and may even be said to echo the Minneapolis resolution that said 'Homosexual persons are children of God ..."), but it is far more controversial and thus harder to 'sell.'
"In fact, Doubleday readily acknowledged that the whole Integrity message was hard to sell. He said he knew people were leaving the church over other issues, and a more open attitude towards homosexuality was not going to bring them back, or raise their pledges. But he wondered: 'Are we in the business of business? Or are we in the business of following Jesus?'"
On March 29-30, the Urban Bishops Coalition met with a small number of resource people to discuss a deliberative document which was aimed at summarizing the findings of their hearings to date. The document was prepared by Dean Joseph A. Pelham of the Colgate Rochester Divinity School / Bexley Hall / Crozier Theological Seminary. Editor Doubleday was invited to be a full participant in that meeting.
Very important conclusions about the urban crisis and the church's mission in the cities were included in the report. Unfortunately, the report focuses almost exclusively on the plight of the very poor, unemployed, ill-educated Black person in the cities. Gays, women, Hispanics, and lower-Middle class Blacks are treated only in passing and several other urban ethnic groups are overlooked entirely. The gay issue is included in the report as a passing intra-Church issue rather than as a part of the urban crisis per se. On the positive side, the report does state:
"Testimony presented in several hearings by Integrity and by other representatives of the gay community indicated that the actions of the House of Bishops at Port Ste. Lucie call into question the ability of the church to speak and act with authentic concern for gays, whose feelings of a lack of 'citizenship' in the church are strong."
At the meeting in Chicago, Doubleday pressed for a report which would see gays, women, and other oppressed groups as an organic part of the urban crisis rather than as only an intra-church issue. At an early plenary session of the Urban Bishops Coalition meeting he said:
"l believe that the report overlooks the issue of humanity, the issue of personhood. It focuses much too exclusively on the poor in a dollars and cents and resources sense. But what about the poor in spirit ‑‑ the personally fractured ‑‑ the oppressed? The cities, indeed our urban parishes, are ghettos, not only of the poor in an economic sense, but also the poor in spirit. By this I mean: a) the elderly who no longer see a place for themselves in an ageist society; b) the young women who see no prospects beyond a dehumanizing office job in a male dominated sexist society; c) the previously institutionalized who have been merely dumped on the street through inadequate community release programs; d) the gay people who are burdened by self-hate, oppression, or self-destructive behavior engendered by a homophobic society; e) the growing number of college and professionally educated men and women who have bought the great American myth of education only to be faced with the depressing fact of under-employment or unemployment."
Asked how he felt about his participation in the meeting, Doubleday said: "I wish that gay people and other oppressed groups might have found a more central place in the deliberative document and proposals. But I am pleased that a visible gay person was included as a full participant in a meeting of forty Episcopal bishops." On the more humorous side, during one of the more tedious plenary sessions, several bishops got up and spoke about the need to preserve the 'INTEGRITY' Of the document, of the bishops, of the coalition. One of the more liberal bishops turned to me and said: "The only one here who has anything to do with INTEGRITY is you."
In the months ahead additional hearings will be held in several dioceses. It is essential that gay people and other concerned persons come forward to give testimony. The issue of civil rights protection, the issue of education about human sexuality, and the issue of pastoral ministry to gay people all need to be stressed as omnipresent urban issues.
GAYS INCLUDED IN STUDY OF "COUPLES"
Prof. Pepper Schwartz and Prof. Philip W. Blumstein, Sociologists at the University of Washington, have received a substantial National Science Foundation grant for a three-year study of gay and non-gay couple relationships: "what makes (them) work or not work, what makes people satisfied or dissatisfied with (them), how things like conflict, negotiation, and patterns of decision-making or dividing physical labor and emotional tasks contribute to the durability of a relationship." The final sample of about 200 couples to be interviewed at some length (with a $20 reimbursement for their time) will be chosen from among those who fill out preliminary questionnaires; it is intended that the group will break down into approximately equal numbers of lesbian, gay-male, and heterosexual couples.
The research is not restricted to couples who have already been together a long time. Schwartz and Blumstein would "like to hear from anyone, especially people who are quite private ... about their lives." The results will be "qualitative rather than quantitative" and will be published ‑‑ with participants' anonymity protected ‑‑ in a series of papers and, eventually, a book. Couples interested in receiving a questionnaire should write to the researchers at the Department of Sociology, DK-40, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. You may also write for general information if you like.
AN EASTER MESSAGE FROM INTEGRITY/HARTFORD
Dear Friends:
At this joyous Eastertime we can finally say good-bye to one of the worst winters of the century. The welcome signs of Spring are slowly but surely peeking through. No doubt this year we will rejoice more than ever before in the warmth and freshness of the new life around us.
As Christians, we have so much more to celebrate than just the wonderful change of seasons. We are called to rejoice in our Lord's triumphant victory over death in His glorious resurrection. What a joy it must have been, so long ago, for those friends of Jesus who, having seen Him crucified and dead, saw Him in their midst again as their Risen Lord. They were still grief-stricken, thinking that they would never see him again. But there He was. How soon their despair turned to hope.
Perhaps the expression "Seeing is Believing" can rightfully be traced back to doubting Thomas, who insisted on seeing the nail holes in Jesus' hands before he could really believe for himself. Maybe we are all a little bit like Thomas. Even today, nearly two thousand years later, none of those events can really make sense unless we, as individuals, see and believe for ourselves, much the way Thomas did. Even though Jesus is here in our midst, we still can't believe our eyes, or simply take someone else's word for it, until we recognize Him for ourselves, in our own special way seeing Him as the Risen Lord. Then there can be no doubt. Thanks be to God!
Through the ministry and fellowship of Integrity/Hartford over the past two years, many Christians, gay and non-gay, have been drawn closer to each other and to our Risen Christ. Many have found new life, new assurance where before they knew only doubt and fear. Some have found a true family which they never had before. Many, although driven away and badly hurt by the Church, through Integrity have been welcomed back to a new home. The list goes on and on.
As we approach the start of our third year, this ministry and purpose are growing steadily ‑‑ not only in quantity but in quality. We are all grateful to all those people whose hard work and faithful service have seen us through. I think it is very appropriate on this, our second anniversary, to especially salute and thank our founder and Chaplain, Canon Jones, for all that he is and for all that he has done.
Hoping to see all of you in the near future.
Love,
Kenny
Convenor
THE KING'S MINISTRIES EXHIBITS FEARFUL EXPANSION
The organization known as "The King's Ministries," which is based at 100 Colorado Blvd., Denver, CO 80206, is currently carrying out a major publicity and fund-raising campaign throughout the Episcopal Church. The group claims to cure or change homosexual orientation. It is being supported and well-received in many of the more homophobic quarters of the Episcopal Church. A pledge card from The King's Ministries states: "Being mindful of the Lord's Commandment in St. Matthew 22:39, I want to help support The King's Ministries and its outreach to sinners. To that end I would like to contribute: a) $12.00 per month for the next 12 months, or b) $ ____ herewith as an immediate gift only." Perhaps Integrity should also be sending out pledge cards!
The King's Ministries appears to be growing and in that it is based in Denver will undoubtedly have a significant presence at the 1979 General Convention. For purposes of information only, we reproduce the purpose statement of The King's Ministries:
"The mission of the Body of Christ is to proclaim the hope and reality of forgiveness found in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for all sinners rather than to condemn them to eternal damnation. The King's Ministries brings this message of strength and hope to homosexuals, as well as to the clergy and laity who would minister to them. We believe homosexuals need redirection and healing no more and no less than others who live out their emptiness through other forms of immorality. Instead, we would offer them liberation from a life-style resulting in rejection and fear by proclaiming that Christ can set them free from their bondage.
"Our purpose is to conduct a continuing program of education to aid clergy and laity in ministering to persons of Gay orientation who are seeking release from the homosexual lifestyle. The program enlists theological, psychological, medical, sociological and pastoral insights and skills from both professional and lay people. This ministry supports the church in its ability to provide effective pastoral care to homosexuals, in the assurance that there is no sin beyond the redemptive and regenerative power of Christ.
"The King's Ministries participates in the growing movement to return to the historic Christian understanding of the Gospel, with its clear teaching about sin and forgiveness. This understanding is crucial to an authentic Christian approach to human sexuality, and therefore, to an effective ministry to homosexuals.
AS AN ADVOCATING AND PRACTICING HOMOSEXUAL PERSON
by Malcolm Boyd
The season of All Saints is one of those times when our thoughts have a way of wandering to the martyrs whom we've known or who have touched our lives.
In 1964-65, I knew Jonathan Daniels in Selma, Alabama. The young white Episcopal seminary student from New England was serving Christ in the civil rights movement. I admired his innocent enthusiasm, disciplined discipleship, his marvelous commitment in an age of selfishness and cynicism. When he was murdered ‑‑ in cold blood, shot down in the light of day, because he insisted on acting out his belief in God's sense of justice and love for black as well as white ‑‑ I remember that my heart broke.
As it did when I attended his funeral in Keene, NH, his hometown. Afterward a few of us sat with his mother and tried to probe the meaning of prejudice and hatred at microscopic close-range. We read some words Jon had written before he was murdered: "A crooked man climbed a crooked tree on a crooked hill. Somewhere, in the mists of the past, a tenor sang of valleys lifted up and hills made low. Death at the heart of life, and life in the midst of death. The tree of life is indeed a cross."
Another martyr, one whom I never had the privilege of meeting or knowing, is Robert Hillsborough. [Editor's note: Robert Hillsborough, a gay San Franciscan, was murdered on a street of the city by anti-gay thugs in the summer of 1977. He was with his lover, who was also injured by the thugs who shouted "Faggot!" "Queer!" and "This is for Anita," as they inflicted knife wounds. One hundred thousand San Franciscans marched to protest Robert Hillsborough's murder].
Preaching at Robert Hillsborough's burial office in the San Francisco Cathedral, James Brown [the rector of St. John the Evangelist Church] said that "voices like Anita Bryant's sounding from pulpits in both Catholic and Protestant traditions have declared precepts that would exclude gay Christians from full membership in the kingdom."
Yet now the Episcopal House of Bishops has seemingly joined Anita Bryant when it issued these words on the matter of sexuality: "It is clear that in ordination, this church publicly requires each ordinand to fashion his or her personal life after Christ as an example to the faithful. The bishops therefore agree to deny ordination to an advocating and/or practicing homosexual person."
I, as an advocating and practicing homosexual person, a gay Christian and a gay priest, say to the House of Bishops that Jesus said nothing about homosexuality; the principal witness Jesus left us was a passionate pouring out of himself for the sake of the suffering, the dispossessed, the outcasts of respectable society. Even when the young martyr Jonathan Daniels was murdered because of his discipleship, the church denied him a memorial service in Alabama, while, that same week, it held the burial office inside an Episcopal church for a Klan member whose Ku Klux Klan associates were permitted to wear their white robes and hoods as they crowded into the church building. "Is it nothing to you, ye that pass by?"
When I went to jail during civil rights days for the sake of racial justice, and during the Vietnam War for the sake of peace, I looked in vain for the Church's witness fashioned after Christ as an example to the faithful. The Church, which near-heretically tends to equate immorality with sexuality, has long acted as immorally about social sin ‑‑ racism, war, poverty, corruption ‑‑ as any other part of our society. Too often the church ‑‑ following not the cross but the dollar to suburbia, neglecting the gospel of Christ while maintaining the social status quo ‑‑ has contributed to the sickness and suffering of people instead of health and salvation.
Recognizing this, James Brown said in his homily at Robert Hillsborough's burial office: "Some of us who have come this day to mourn the death of Robert have entered the institutional walls of a church for the first time in many years. A sense of personal integrity has kept us distant and has, in fact, demanded our absence."
Bishop Kilmer Myers caught the sense of this, too, when (in his diocesan convention address) he suggested that the church should be in turmoil because always it is struggling with the mind, the will, the teaching and the end of Jesus of Nazareth.
I first knew Kim Myers when he was a young priest on the lower east side of New York. His book Light the Dark Streets was an inspiration to me; I am grateful for his continuing search of both gospel and conscience, and his honest public wrestling with the Spirit. Indeed, it reminds me of Karl Barth's corrective words to the commercial, huckster phonies in our midst who are silent about prophetic witness and seemingly know Jesus only as a blond, blue-eyed, static figure forever antiseptically locked inside a stained-glass window. Barth said: "There is a sinking and a suffering, a being lost and a being rent asunder, in the peace of God."
The peace of God in our time is not found in selfish, careerist, individual isolation, but must be understood against the backdrop of concentration camps in many countries, the use of torture by governments, mass starvation, the urban lonely crowd, denial of civil and human rights, and the impending threat of mass death. You see, it is in involvement, sacrifice, active loving, sharing, that we come to know the peace of God.
May I speak quite personally? I looked in vain for a message and witness of grace, love and acceptance from the institutional church for most of my life.
But I was taught by the church, as by society, that I was a queer.
I should therefore exist in the shadows, tell a fundamental lie about my God given creation, live a lie, and be patient in my self-hatred. Then, I moved up the ladder to become a homosexual. Now my condition was openly mentioned, even on the television news and in the press ‑‑ as an example of mental sickness, spiritual sin, social shame, and private hell.
Only just recently did I come, by the grace of God, to the awareness of myself as beloved of God as a gay person, healthy, happy, fulfilled, grateful, and wanting to share my joy as a gay running with Jesus. This is called "flaunting it" by those who say "It's o.k. for you to be sick and a pervert, a dirty faggot doing dirty things, but stay in the shadows, don't raise your head or your voice, live a lie ‑‑ lie, lie, lie."
So, as a gay person and a gay priest, the words of Luke's Gospel shatter me with joy and hope and gratitude: "Happy are you who weep now: you shall laugh. Happy are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name as criminal, on account of the Son of Man."
And Ephesians speaks to us about God giving us the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, "having the eyes of your hearts enlightened; that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe‑‑"
The power of God is here or us now. It is the power that generated Jonathan Daniels' life, Robert Hillsborough's life. It is the energy of the martyrs, the energy of the saints.
It is the power, the energy, that lets us laugh in the face of pain and rejection and threats and violence. It is the power that saves us from taking ourselves and our situation too seriously, for we and our situation are in the hand of the living God. It is the energy that means we do not have to bring in the kingdom of God. It is already here. We can cooperate with it, celebrate it, offer thanks for it, partake of it.
The power of God, here for us now, lets us see emperors without clothes ‑‑ stark naked like the rest of us in the human condition. We know that empires, including our own, are reduced to dust; but the laughter, the joy, the innocence, the beauty of authentic life can never be destroyed. This lives eternally. In our wonderful diversity, we pin hands and exchange the kiss of peace with each other and with all the martyrs and saints who have gone before us, having tasted what we taste, experienced life in the same ways, seen God now through a glass darkly, but then face to face.
What a privilege it is for us ‑‑ here, now, where we are together to receive the assurance of our own full participation, as a freely offered gift of God, in the communion of saints. Jonathan Daniels gives us the kiss of peace. Robert Hillsborough gives us the kiss of peace.
And what can we do with it? Pass it on ....
Editor's note: Malcolm Boyd's book, Take Off the Masks, which has been recently released by Doubleday, is reviewed elsewhere in this issue of Integrity Forum. This sermon was preached in St. John the Evangelist Church in San Francisco, on Sunday, November 6, 1977.
GAY CHRISTIANS "SILLY," SAY ACTIVISTS
The February 1978 issue of Detroit's Metro Gay News carried a strongly anti-Christian interview with Minneapolis-St. Paul Gay activists Jack Baker and Michael McConnell. The Interview was taped by Larry Lee of the Metro Gay News:
"To talk about a gay Christian is like talking about a spent virgin. There's just simply no such thing. All the Christian leaders, starting with Billy Graham and the Archbishops, the Popes and the Methodists and Lutherans, they all say the same thing and that is that homosexuality, and by that I mean orgasm by two people of the same sex, is incompatible with Christianity. It's just silly to be talking about a gay Christian."
DIGNITY AND INTEGRITY ARE THEY BEING USED?
"Exactly, I think these are the insecure people who are looking for a celestial sugar Daddy, and that's what they get out of Christianity. That's all they're looking for."
WHAT ABOUT MCC?
"Troy Perry made one fatal mistake and that is that he failed to take into account the ramifications of what he was doing. The fact of the matter is that Christians have taken, for very specific reasons, a death symbol as their symbol, namely the cross. A cross as a death symbol is no different from a picture of Anita Bryant, from the swastika, from a picture of Hitler. These are all death symbols and to get people to adore a death symbol is to fuck with their minds. No matter what kind of sugar coating you put on a death symbol you're still adoring a death symbol and with all the violence that goes with it. That does violence to the subliminal mind. It's full of guilt. Christianity, no matter what you say or what anybody says is a history of murders; is a history of bigotry."
BOOKS IN BRIEF
Take Off the Masks, Malcolm Boyd's sexual-spiritual autobiography, published by Doubleday & Co., Inc., $7.95 with 15 black and white photographs.
I read this book in uncorrected proof copy, which did not contain the fifteen black and white photographs noted on the publicity release, which the final printed version will contain. They'll be of great interest; they could enhance the book or (as with Norman Pittenger's Gay Life Styles) tend to trivialize it. The book has two Parts: two-thirds of it is Part I, "Life in the Closet"; and the last third, Part II: "Take Off the Masks." The first part of the book is an elliptical reminiscence of childhood, schooldays, vacations, college, Hollywood, seminary, falling in love and out, and adulthood. There is fine writing in the expression of anguish over a sexual orientation which "remained distasteful beyond redemption." Indeed (though I have not read all of Malcolm's 18 other books), some of his best writing is here, in Part I. There are a number of gaps and unanswered questions, if we are to appraise the book as chronicle; it is a series of vignettes, carefully crafted scenes, very much like the scripts of the currently popular one-actor dramatic readings (Vincent Price as Oscar Wilde; James Earl Jones as Paul Robeson; Robert Vaughn as FDR). As a fellow priest, I wished for more heilsgeschicte ‑‑ the sacred meaning of this personal history as it unfolds; and more details ‑‑ the answers to the question priests are always asked ("Why did you become a priest?") are not here. This is a highly personal question, more personal than questions about one's sex life ‑‑ and perhaps harder to answer. Part I ends with a section called "asexual years," no doubt for want of a better term in unclinical English. "Asexual" strictly means "without genitals." It is used here as a metaphor for the experience of repressed sexuality which sometimes styles itself as celibacy, not freely chosen, and is perhaps as good a phrase as can be located now. The last chapters of the book recall the last three years, and the healing process of "coming out." Chicagoans will be interested to read the paragraphs telling of the importance of our interfaith worship committee's invitation to Malcolm to preach at our Gay Pride Week Service in Lincoln Park in 1976. That service, and Integrity's convention in San Francisco, were important midwives in the re-birth of Malcolm as an openly gay Christian, honest, self-accepting, loving God and his fellow human beings more deeply.
But because the book is candid, there will no doubt be demands to his bishop, Paul Moore, that he be disciplined or deposed. But both men are strong and have support; Malcolm's unmasking isn't likely to cause Paul's unmitreing.
Grant M. Gallup
LESBIANS MAINTAIN ARCHIVES
The Lesbian Herstory Archives, New York, NY, were founded to preserve lesbian history for future generations, and to provide a place for reading, research, and browsing. The agency maintains a collection of old and new lesbian books, newsletters, newspapers, records, correspondence, conference proceedings, graphics, bibliographies, poems, and tapes. It has over 500 folders on every aspect of lesbian culture. Contributions of materials or information can be had by writing to Lesbian Herstory Archives, P.0. Box 1258, New York, NY 10001, or by telephoning 212/874-7232 or 212/873-9443.
COMMITTEE PRESENTS
Constitution & By-Law Changes
The Committee on Constitution and By-Laws completed a final revised draft of the documents at its February meeting. The Constitution is printed here for informational purposes and will be acted upon at the 1978 Integrity Convention in the Twin Cities.
The By-Laws will be voted on by using the attached mail ballot. The ballot is devised to enable voting on each section. With only one exception (Section V., Article D), no alternatives to the Committee's drafts were submitted. On article D of Section V., you are asked to vote for either alternative 1 or 2 or for neither.
At this time there is no programmatic preamble, as its revision has not been completed. A subcommittee continues to work on it, and it will be acted upon at the convention.
We elected to act on the By-Laws by mail ballot because we would like them to be operative by the time of the convention, and with limited time for business at the convention, it was felt both documents would be too much to undertake there.
Please return you mail ballot by June 24, 1978 to Donn Mitchell, Secretary, 2208 Lombard St., Philadelphia, PA 19146. Ballot envelopes must be signed by the member, include return address and marked "Ballot" in the bottom left corner. Any ballots post marked after June 24, 1978 will not be counted.
CONSTITUTION
I. PREAMBLE
We, the members of Integrity, Inc., recognizing the presence of Christ in our gay sisters and brothers as well as in all that God has created, and relying on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, have established ourselves as a charitable, religious, educational, and literary not-for-profit organization and do hereby establish this Constitution and herein state our purposes and principles of governance.
II. MEMBERSHIP
1. Membership in Integrity, Inc, shall be open to all gay Episcopalians and their friends and requires the payment of dues in the amount decided upon annually by the Executive Committee.
2. The names and addresses of members or of any other correspondents of Integrity, Inc., shall be kept confidential among the elected officers and staff, shall not be disclosed without the written permission of the respective member or correspondent, and shall not be sold.
Ill.-A OFFICERS
1. The officers of this organization shall be a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary, a Treasurer, and the Regional Representatives.
2. The officers shall constitute the Executive Committee of Integrity, Inc., which shall be responsible for conducting the affairs of the organization. A quorum of the Executive Committee shall consist of those attending after due notice of a meeting. Due notice shall be determined by the Executive Committee.
3. The President, Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer shall serve from the adjournment of the Convention at which they are elected through the adjournment of the following Convention.
4. Removal of the President, Vice-President, Secretary, or Treasurer shall be effected by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of those members timely returning a mailed ballot, such vote to be taken as action on a petition signed by at least ten per cent (10%) of the dues-paid members of the organization.
5. Removal of any Regional Representative shall be effected by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of those members in the region represented by the Regional Representative who timely return a mailed ballot, such vote to be taken as action on a petition signed by at least ten per cent (10%) of the members in the region represented by the Regional Representative. The Executive Committee shall appoint an officer to oversee the balloting.
6. Vacancies, other than in the office of President, shall be filled as provided in the By-Laws.
7, The membership of the organization shall be divided into regions for purposes of representation on the Executive Committee. Each region shall be entitled to elect one (1) Representative to the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee shall periodically review and determine the composition of the regions, subject to an override by a majority of the Convention.
Ill.-B GENERAL DUTIES OF THE OFFICERS
1. President ‑‑ The duties of the President are to call and preside over meetings of Integrity, Inc, to call and preside over meetings of the Executive Committee, to represent Integrity, Inc., in dealings with other organizations, and to serve as Chief Liaison with chapters of Integrity, Inc.
2. Vice-President ‑‑ The duties of the Vice-President are to assist the President and to preside in her/his absence, and in the event of a vacancy in the office of President, to succeed to that office.
3. Secretary ‑‑ The duties of the Secretary are to handle correspondence of the organization, to keep records and files, to maintain a membership list and to assist the Treasurer in the filing of all local, state, and federal forms which may be required of the organization. In the event of vacancies in both the offices of President and Vice-President, the Secretary shall succeed to the office of President.
4. Treasurer ‑‑ The Treasurer shall be responsible for all financial affairs of the organization,
5. Regional Representatives ‑‑ The duties of the Regional Representatives are to act as liaisons among Integrity, Inc., and all members, chapters, and missions within their respective regions; and to aid in the formation of new chapters.
Ill.-C PUBLICATIONS
The Executive Committee shall appoint an Editor and a Publisher for the official publication(s) of Integrity, Inc.
IV. CHAPTERS
Chapters of Integrity, Inc., shall be designated and certified as such by the President, subject to the approval of the Executive Committee. A President's refusal to grant certification may be overruled by a majority vote of the Executive Committee. In order to be so designated and certified, a chapter-in-formation shall:
a. Subscribe to the goals and purposes of this organization;
b. Have held at least three meetings over a period of at least ninety days; and
c. Have at least five individuals who have paid dues to this organization.
Chapters shall raise or collect the prescribed dues for Integrity, Inc, from all members and forward them to the Treasurer. Chapters shall have the right to develop their own local or regional constitutions and by-laws provide they are consonant with this Constitution and the By-Laws, to elect their own officers under such form of governance as they might choose, and to handle their own finances including the levying of chapter dues. Each chapter may develop its own programs, so long as they are consonant with the aims and objectives of Integrity, Inc., as set forth in this Constitution and the By-Laws.
V. LEGISLATION AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS
1. All policies not set forth in this Constitution or in the By-Laws shall be made by the Executive Committee, subject to review by the membership as set forth in the By-Laws.
2. This Constitution shall be amended by a two-thirds (2/3) majority vote of those members timely returning a mail ballot. A proposed change in this Constitution must be endorsed by a majority vote of the Executive Committee or be endorsed by a petition bearing the signatures of at least ten per cent (10%) of the membership. The membership shall be notified of all proposed amendments to the Constitution, either in two (2) successive issues of an official publication of Integrity, Inc., distributed to all members, or by an official mailing a least two months before the date of voting.
BY-LAWS
PREAMBLE
(The Preamble will be presented and acted upon at the Twin Cities Convention.)
I. DUTIES OF THE OFFICERS
In clarification of, but not superseding Section III of the Constitution of Integrity, Inc., the following are the nominal powers of the officers.
A. PRESIDENT
The President shall:
1. Appoint committees and individuals to assist in carrying out the duties, programs and obligations of Integrity, Inc.;
2. Appoint persons to fill vacancies in the offices of the Executive Committee, effective upon the approval of the Executive Committee (before filling vacancies in the offices of the Regional Representatives, the President shall consult with members in the region);
3. Represent Integrity, Inc., in all matters of general concern, in consultation with the Executive Committee;
4. Sit in an ex-officio capacity on committees, but shall vote only to break a tie vote in such committees;
5. Serve as chief liaison with chapters and members and shall certify and designate duly constituted new chapters, subject to the approval of the Executive Committee;
6. Report regularly to the membership through an annual report and publications or visits to the chapters.
B. VICE-PRESIDENT
The Vice-President shall:
Assist the President, shall preside in his/her absence, shall perform the functions of the President in the event of her/his disability, and shall succeed to the office of President in the event of a vacancy.
C. SECRETARY
The Secretary shall:
1. Serve as the chief business officer of the organization and assist the other officers in the execution of their duties;
2. Keep and maintain records of all the business of the organization, including a membership list, minutes of the meetings of the Executive Committee and business meetings, and shall have charge of the correspondence files;
3. Act as liaison between Integrity, Inc, and the chapters in matters pertaining to the membership rolls:
4. Keep membership rolls confidential and release the names of members only with their written consent;
5. Preside in the absence of both the President and Vice-President, and, in the event of vacancies in both offices, shall succeed to the office of President.
D. TREASURER
The Treasurer shall:
1. Collect and receive from the Secretary all monies, handle all financial billings and shall keep accurate records of receipts and disbursements;
2. Be responsible for the preparation and filing of all required local, state and federal forms;
3. Provide to the membership through an official publication, a regular accounting of all finances and proposed major expenditures;
4. Prepare an annual budget for Integrity, Inc., for submission to the membership during the Convention;
5. Provide any figures and assistance which may be required by any committee appointed to raise funds or other financial assistance for the organization.
E. REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVE
Each Regional Representative shall:
1. Serve as a liaison between Integrity, Inc., and the chapters, missions and members within the region:
2. Report regularly to the President concerning the affairs of the region:
3. Call and preside over regional meetings;
4. Serve as a coordinator of regional activities;
5. Assist the President in the formation of new chapters within the region.
II. DUTIES OF THE PUBLICATIONS STAFF
A. EDITOR
The Editor:
1. Shall supervise and direct the preparation of all official publications of Integrity Inc., in accordance with the aims of Integrity, Inc., as set forth in its Constitution and these By-Laws;
2. May select her/his own assistants and may attend Executive Committee meetings with voice, but no vote.
B. PUBLISHER
The Publisher:
1. Shall arrange for the production and distribution of all official publications of Integrity, Inc;
2. Shall prepare a budget for submission to the Treasurer and shall provide the Treasurer with any financial information necessary in the performance of her/his duties;
3. May select his/her own assistants and may attend Executive Committee meetings with voice, but no vote.
III. DUES AND SUBSCRIPTIONS
A. The Treasurer shall recommend the amount to be charged for dues in Integrity Inc., and for subscriptions to publications. The Executive Committee shall, by majority vote, fix such fees.
B. The setting of chapter dues for membership in chapters shall be the business and prerogative of the chapters.
IV. CHAPTERS
A. The conditions for the designation of chapters are spelled out in the Constitution.
B. No person shall initiate the formation of a chapter without permission of the President.
C. Chapters in formation shall be considered as missions of this organization until such time as they have given evidence of stability and have complied with the stipulations of the Constitution on the certification of chapters.
V. CONVENTIONS AND DELEGATES
A. Conventions of Integrity, Inc., shall be held annually.
B. Every certified chapter shall be entitled to at least two voting delegates to the Convention.
C. Each chapter will be allotted one additional voting delegate for every fifteen (15) dues-paid members of Integrity, Inc.
D. (Select either alternative 1 or 2)
Alternative 1
For purposes of representation at the Convention, a members must belong to a chapter.
RATIONALE
The substance of alternative 2 was rejected overwhelmingly by the Constitution Committee on two occasions. Among the reasons were the following:
1. The proposal would require Integrity members of various regions to vote together as one block even though the two regions may have nothing in common and the Church within the two regions will probably be completely different.
2. By being able to meet with other Integrity members within a region to vote on the delegates, a member would be integrated within her/his region, and
3. members would be forced to meet together to elect their representatives even though they had little in common and probably wouldn't know each other before the convention.
It must be remembered that this proposal affects only the business meeting of the convention; all members of Integrity would be able to attend the convention, its workshops, and meetings et al. just as before. All members at meetings would be entitled to a voice in meetings.
Alternative 2
For the purpose of representation at the Convention of INTEGRITY, INC., members-at-large shall be regarded as one chapter, having two votes and one additional vote for every fifteen (15) dues-paid members-at-large known to the Secretary as of the first of May preceding the Convention. These votes will be divided equally among the members-at-large present at the Convention who Wish to sit as voting delegates, except that no member-at-large may cast more than two votes. They will be seated in the voting section as member-at-large delegates.
RATIONALE
Integrity, Inc. was founded as an association of members-at-large and should not now exclude such persons from representation.
Members-at-large who are isolated from fellowship with chapters may well have a deeper commitment to Integrity, Inc. than chapter members, and, therefore, should have a voice and partial vote at the Convention which is their only opportunity to do so.
While member-at-large delegates will not be representatives of their constituents in the same sense as elected chapter delegates, nevertheless, the time and distance factors which enable one member-at-large to attend and vote at Convention one year will, in other years, favor other members-at-large.
This suggested revision adds no more complexity to the voting procedure than does the proposed By-Law Section V., Article K which also requires differential values for votes; but it does provide much more fair representation for members-at-large.
This suggested revision is preferred over By-Law Alternative 1 which calls for members-at-large attending Convention to meet as a chapter and elect our voting delegates, because it avoids these disadvantages of that system:
1. Failure to give members-at-large the same per capita value of representation as chapter members.
2. Failure to give members-at-large attending the Convention adequate time to determine the best representatives among themselves.
3. Failure to give members-at-large knowledge in advance of Convention as to whether or not they will be seated as voting delegates. This may influence the decision of some to attend. It should be remembered that members-at-large attend at their own expense while many delegates receive help from their chapters.
This suggested revision is preferred over the proposed By-Law Alternative 1 which requires that, for purposes of representation, a member must belong to a chapter, because it avoids these disadvantages of that system:
1. Since many members-at-large live at a great distance from the nearest chapter and cannot attend meetings regularly nor become acquainted with members who may be elected delegates, their representation by such delegates is a legal fiction.
2. Some members-at-large do not join a chapter specifically because they do not think it represents them. Alternative 1 denies them representation.
3. While demanding all the obligations of chapter membership from members-at-large at, in most cases, a higher cost of inconvenience, the proposed revision virtually excludes them from election as delegates.
E. For the purpose of determining delegate allotments, each chapter shall submit a list of only those members who are dues-paid on May 1 of each year. The Secretary shall receive and process such lists. Delegate allotments will be assigned to chapters on the basis of those names submitted. Members enrolled after May 1 of each year shall not be counted toward entitled convention delegates until the following year when a new list is submitted.
F. The Secretary shall, after checking the membership lists submitted, inform the Convenor of each chapter of the number of delegates to which the chapter is entitled. Such notification shall occur no later than sixty (60) days before the Convention.
G. Chapters shall then elect delegates and inform the Secretary of the names and addresses of those elected not later than thirty (30) days before the Convention.
H. Chapters may elect as many alternate delegates as they are entitled to elect delegates. An alternate delegate who serves in the place of an absent delegate shall be considered a delegate within the meaning of these By-Laws.
I. The Secretary shall maintain a master list of those certified delegates and alternates. These persons shall be identified as such at the Convention.
J. During the Convention business meetings, delegates shall be seated In a special voting section of the meeting room. All members present shall have voice in the business meetings.
K. Any chapter sending a total of delegates less than the number to which it is entitled may, when authorized by the Secretary, divide the votes of its absent delegates equally among those delegates present, except that no delegate may cast more than two (2) votes.
L. A quorum to do business shall consist of a majority of those delegates in attendance at a Convention business meeting.
M. The President shall, at least four (4) months before the Convention, appoint a Dean of the Convention who shall be responsible for planning the program of the Convention.
N. Each Convention may determine the site, month and date of the next Convention before adjourning, or may authorize the Executive Committee to determine any or all of these. If a chapter must withdraw an invitation after acceptance by the Convention, the Executive Committee shall determine the Convention site and date.
VI. ELECTIONS OF THE PRESIDENT, VICE-PRESIDENT
SECRETARY AND TREASURER
A. At each Convention, a Nominating Committee shall be appointed by the Executive Committee which shall include a geographic distribution representative of the membership. The Nominating Committee shall elect from its membership a chairperson.
B. The Nominating Committee shall cause to be published in two (2) issues of an official publication sent to the membership well in advance of the Convention a request that nominations from the membership be sent to the chairperson of the Nominating Committee.
C. The chairperson of the Nominating Committee shall forward the names received for consideration to the members of the Committee.
D. The Nominating Committee, upon majority agreement, shall cause the names and qualifications of its nominees to be published in an official publication of Integrity, Inc., at least thirty (30) days before the Convention. The Nominating Committee shall have previously ascertained that nominees would be willing to serve if elected.
E. Officers shall be elected by secret written ballots by Convention delegates during the business meeting.
F. Those candidates receiving the highest number of votes in the balloting shall be deemed elected.
G. Any delegate shall be entitled to make nominations from the floor of individuals other than those proposed by the Nominating Committee.
H. Any delegate shall be entitled to "write-in" the names of candidates other than those nominated.
I. The Secretary shall be responsible for maintaining a list of those voting and shall verify each ballot against said list as it is deposited.
J. The ballots shall be counted by a Board of Tellers to consist of the Dean of the Convention or his/her representative, and by two other delegates to the convention appointed by the Dean, each from a separate chapter. Current officers, other members of the Executive Committee, candidates for office and members of the Nominating Committee shall not be appointed tellers.
K. The Dean ok the Convention shall be responsible for conveying the results of the election to the presiding officer of the Convention, who shall announce the results to the Convention.
L. Newly elected officers shall take office immediately following adjournment of the convention at which they are elected.
M. The Secretary shall hold the ballots for a period of sixty (60) days, at which time the ballots shall be destroyed if no one has contested the results of the election.
N. Election results shall be published in an official publication. Such results will include the vote for each nominee and each "write-in" candidate who consents to the publication of his/her name.
Return your Ballot to Donn Mitchell, Secretary, 2208 Lombard St., Philadelphia, PA 19146. Each member must sign his/her ballot and include return address in the upper left corner of the envelope. Write "Ballot" in the bottom left corner of your envelope. Ballots must be postmarked by June 24, 1978 in order to be counted.
VII. ELECTION OF REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVES
A. Each region shall elect a Regional Representative no later than thirty (30) days before each Convention of Integrity, Inc. The Regional Representative so elected shall serve from the close of the Convention immediately following her/his election, to the close of the next succeeding convention.
B. The election of Regional Representatives shall be conducted either in a regional meeting or by a mail ballot of all members of Integrity, Inc, within the region.
C. No later than four months before each Convention. The Regional Representative shall notify each chapter of the impending election of a Regional Representative, and shall ask each chapter to vote whether the election shall be conducted in a regional meeting or by mail ballot. In determining the manner of election, each chapter shall have one vote. The Regional Representative may vote to break a tie vote.
D. The members convened in a regional meeting called to elect a Regional Representative shall determine the procedure for nominations and election.
E. The Regional Representative or his/her designate shall conduct a mail ballot for election of the Regional Representative and shall certify the election results. A reasonable time shall be allowed for the return of mail ballots. A majority vote of the membership within the region timely returning a mail ballot shall elect a Regional Representative by mail ballot.
VIII. DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS
A. The Treasurer may, upon verification of the expenditure, disburse funds under one hundred dollars ($100.00) for any purpose.
B. Travel expenses for the Officers are to be authorized by the President and disbursed by the Treasurer subject to review by the Executive Committee.
IX. AMENDMENTS TO THE BY-LAWS
A. Amendment to these By-Laws shall be enacted by a majority vote of the membership by the mail process of balloting or a majority vote of the certified voting delegates at the Convention of this organization.
B. Proposed amendments must bear the signatures of three (3) members and shall be submitted to the Secretary and shall be reviewed by the Executive Committee before submission to the membership or Convention. The Executive Committee shall submit proposed amendments with or without the Committee's recommendation.
C. Proposed amendments shall be mailed to the membership thirty (30) days before the voting deadline or the Convention. All members shall be notified of the acceptance or rejection of the proposed amendments.
OFFICIAL BALLOT
By-Laws Only
YES NO
Section I [ ] [ ]
Section II [ ] [ ]
Section III [ ] [ ]
Section IV [ ] [ ]
Section V [ ] [ ]
Except Article D)
Section V, Article D
(Only vote for one)
Alternate 1 [ ]
Alternate 2 [ ]
Neither [ ]
Section VI [ ] [ ]
Section VII [ ] [ ]
Section VIII [ ] [ ]
Section IX [ ] [ ]
JOIN INTEGRITY
All information sent to us will be kept confidential.
Please [_] enter or [_] renew my subscription as indicated.
[_] $10 One Year Membership [_] $20 Two Year Membership
All memberships include Integrity Forum.
I cannot join Integrity at this time but wish to subscribe as indicated:
[_] $12 One Year Subscription [_] $24 Two Year Subscription
Please send my copies in a sealed envelope for which I enclose extra:
[_] $ 3 One Year [_] $6 Two Years
----------------------------------------------------------------
$______ is enclosed as a contribution to Integrity.
Name______________________________________________
Address___________________________________________
City State & Zip__________________________________
[_] The above is a name/address change/correction.
Canadian and Foreign respondents remit in U.S. funds.
Return to:
Integrity, P.O. Box 3681, Central Station, Hartford, CT 06103.
LOCAL CHAPTERS
New England Region
INTEGRITY/BOSTON, P.O. Box 2582, Boston, MA 02208. Convenor Allan Stifflear, Phone 617/547-4676.
INTEGRITY/HARTFORD, P.O. Box 603, Glastonbury, CT 06033.
Co-Convenors Kenneth Woods and Bonnie Gray.
* INTEGRITY/MAINE, Box 283, RFD, Damariscotta, ME 04543. Convenor Doug Wright.
* INTEGRITY/NEW HAVEN, P.O. Box 1777, New Haven, CT 06507. Convenor Clinton H. Warner.
Mid-Atlantic Region
Mason Martens, Regional Representative
* INTEGRITY/GERMANY, Convenor Tobby Erdman. Write to Regional Representative.
INTEGRITY/NEW YORK CITY, G.P.O. 1549, New York, NY 10001. Convenor Charles Kast.
INTEGRITY/PHILADELPHIA, Convenor Roger K. Stephens, 1516 Lombard St., Philadelphia, PA 19104. 215/985-1290.
INTEGRITY/WASHINGTON, D.C., Convenor Wayne Fortunate-Schwandt, 2112 32nd St. S.E., Washington D.C. 20020. 202/583-2158.
Southeast Region
* INTEGRITY/ATLANTA. Write to Regional Representative.
INTEGRITY-DIGNITY/CHAPEL HILL, P.O. Box 1184, Chapel Hill, NC 27514. Convenor Hogan Gaskins.
* INTEGRITY/FORT VALLEY, Co-Convenors Ernest Clay and Louie Crew, 701 Orange Street, #6, Fort Valley, GA 31030. Phone 912/825-7287.
INTEGRITY/SOUTH FLORIDA, P.O. Box 680457, Miami, FL 33168. Convenor Bill Worley.
* INTEGRITY/NORFOLK. Write to Regional Representative.
INTEGRITY-DIGNITY/RICHMOND, Convenor Rev'd Edward Meeks Gregory, 1907 N. 23rd St., Richmond, VA 23223.
Gulf Coast Region
David Allen White, Regional Rep., 417 E. Locust #3, San Antonio, TX 78212.
* INTEGRITY/AUSTIN, Convenor Charles Arthur, 9904B Randall, Austin, TX 78753.
INTEGRITY/HOUSTON, P.O. Box 66008, Houston, TX 77006.
* INTEGRI