INTEGRITY FORUM

FOR GAY EPISCOPALIANS AND THEIR FRIENDS

c Integrity, Inc. 1978   ISSN: 0095-2184

Volume 4  Number 6  September-October 1978

 

INTEGRITY FORUM Managing Editor:  David Williams.  Editorial Board:  David S. Blix, Rev'd Grant M. Gallup, Rev'd T. Dewey Schwartzenburg and James Wickliff.  Contributing Editors:  Rev'd Ellen M. Barrett, Rev'd Malcolm Boyd, Louie Crew, William A. Doubleday, Rev'd Carter Heyward, Rev'd Canon Clinton R. Jones, Rev'd James B. Nelson, Rev'd W. Norman Pittenger.  Copy Editing:  James E. Templar.  Circulation:  Jerry Vogt and Integrity/Chicago.  Integrity Officers:  John C. Lawrence, President; Kevin Scahill, Vice-President; Donn Mitchell, Secretary; George W. Casper, Treasurer; and the 8 Regional Representatives as listed on the back page.  INTEGRITY FORUM:  FOR GAY EPISCOPALIANS AND THEIR FRIENDS is the official newsletter of Integrity, Inc.  Publication of the name, photograph or likeness of any person or organization is not to be construed as any indication of the sexual orientation of such person or organization.  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, P.O. Box 891, Oak Park IL 60303 or telephone 312/386-1470.  Copyright 1978 by Integrity, Inc.  6 issues per year.  Memberships are $10 per year; subscriptions without memberships  are $12 per year.  Add $3 for mailing in a plain envelope.  Please remit in U.S. funds to George W. Casper, 530 Massachusetts Av., Boston, MA 02118. 

 

GOD FOR POT

 

Herb Overton, of Olathe, Kansas, brought his trial on charges of possession of marijuana to an abrupt halt by telling the judge that the Bible gave him the right to smoke the weed.  The bailiff finally located a Bible so the judge could check out the reference to the book of Genesis Mr. Overton claimed as his divine authority.  It reads: "And God said, Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat."

 

Unmoved by the Word of God, the judge ruled that, in this case at least, biblical verses do not overrule the law of the state.  Too bad Anita Bryant hasn't heard!

 

5TH NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MEN AND MASCULINITY

TO BE HELD IN LOS ANGELES

 

"Men Overcoming Sexism" will be the theme of a national conference to be held later this year in Los Angeles, CA.  Hundreds of men and women are ex­pected to attend the conference, which will explore new ways for men to sup­port feminists, gay women and men, and change for men.

 

The Los Angeles Men's Collective is coordinating activities for the 5th National Conference on Men and Masculinity.  The conference will be held December 27‑31, 1978, on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, CA.

 

Participants will discuss many of the important feminist, gay and men's issues which face society today.  Workshops, entertainment and political involvement will assist both men and women to focus on the responsibility that men have in supporting the Equal Rights Amendment, pro-choice abortion and gay civil rights.

 

The 5th National Conference on Men and Masculinity will provide an oppor­tunity for men to live and work together cooperatively.  Participants will also examine how men can change the traditional ways they relate to women and young people.  Such important contemporary issues as rape and violence against women, new models for fatherhood, divorce and custody, and child abuse will be addressed.

 

The conference will also host the first annual meeting of the new national men's organization, Men's Alliance for Liberation and Equality.  The national men's organization was formed during the last men's conference in St. Louis, MO, in November, 1977.

 

For further information, contact: Los Angeles Men's Collective, 6286 Commodore Sloat Drive, Los Angeles, CA, 90048.  Phone:  473-4229.

 

NEW INTERNATIONAL NETWORK

 

"WE ARE EVERYWHERE, INTERNATIONAL" is the name for a new world-wide group of concerned individuals and gay organizations aiming to support actions promoting justice for gay persons and to combat acts of oppression towards gay persons in countries throughout the world.  The founding branch of the network was formed in Los Angeles on July 12, 1978.  Concerned individuals and gay organizations in this and other countries are being contacted to act as correspondents for the network.  The infant organization has already moved to protest the arrest of peaceful gay demonstrators in Sydney, Australia, with a support rally in Los Angeles, and over 600 letters of protest sent to the Australian ambassador to the United States.

 

"WE ARE EVERYWHERE, INTERNATIONAL is an organization which considers acts of oppression against a gay person anywhere to be an attack on the human rights of all of us.  We will move to bring the weight of international protest against any country which oppresses the civil rights of homosexuals," said Anthony Sullivan, convenor of the U.S. chapter.

 

For more information, contact Anthony Sullivan or Morris Knight, 1428 N. McCadden Place, Los Angeles, CA 90028.

 

GROPPI AT VTS

 

Father James Groppi, a famed and widely known activist in the civil rights movement of the '60's, is now a student at the Episcopal Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia.

 

Fr. Groppi, a former Roman Catholic, was excommunicated for marrying without ecclesiastical permission.  Canonically resident in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, he subsequently sought admission to the Episcopal Church's Diocese of Milwaukee as a priest.  The Bishop, the Right Reverend Charles T. Gaskell, cited an agreement between his predecessor and the former Archbishop of Milwaukee not to admit priests seeking to transfer from one jurisdiction to another.  After rebuffs from several other bishops, Fr. Groppi was accepted as a candidate for the priesthood in the Diocese of Michigan by the Rt. Rev. H. Coleman McGehee.

 

Although he will not have to be re-ordained to serve as an Episcopal priest, Fr. Groppi must study Anglicanism before being received, in order to satisfy re­quirements of canon law.

 

Writing to the Milwaukee Sentinel, Fr. Groppi praised VTS:  "(It) is a beautiful place to study.  Some of the students for the priesthood are married, some single, some women, some black, and the students are from all over the world.  It is nice to be in a seminary where there is no discrimination against married men or women or against people of a different race."

 

One wonders if this famed civil rights advocate is aware of the bigoted and in­tolerant position of the VTS faculty with regard to gay students.  According to an official and public statement approved by the faculty, as a standing Seminary policy, gay students are not allowed at VTS, and any student found to be gay will be expelled.

 

GAY AND PUBLIC BROADCASTING

 

The Federal Communications Commission recently issued a "Proposal for Rulemaking" which would require local broadcasters to interview all signifi­cant community leaders in their area of coverage to ascertain minority needs, even if such groups do not already appear on the FCC "checklist" of minori­ties.  This move would clearly include the gay and lesbian community.

 

The proposal came as a result of petitions presented to the FCC by both the National Gay Task Force and groups representing the interests of the handi­capped.  Rather than simply add these two groups to the "checklist" of minori­ties which local broadcasters are required to survey, the FCC chose to make it clear that "broadcasters (would) have a responsibility to insure that all signifi­cant elements or institutions which are readily accessible within their com­munity of license ... are ascertained."

 

In a related action, the National Gay Task Force also testified before the Congressional House Subcommittee on Communications.  NGTF's testimony was principally directed toward ways of strengthening and broadening the "public interest" principle in any Communications Act rewrite, rather than abandoning that principle altogether, as some have argued.  NGTF suggested that licensees should not only be required to ascertain a broad spectrum of com­munity leaders, as in the present law, but should be required to translate that ascertainment into programming that meets the needs of every significant com­munity group.

 

Retention of the Fairness Doctrine was also urged, along with expansion of the present fairness principle to include an Awareness Doctrine:  the recognition that the human rights and dignities of all groups in our society are not controversial issues.  It was argued that regulations requiring programming diversity are necessary, and in the best interest of all segments of the public as well as the broadcasting industry itself.

 

If the Congress eliminates the principle of "public interest" in a revision of the Communications Act, the gains made by the NGTF with the FCC will be lost.  It is expected that the formal change in FCC regulations along the lines of the "Proposal for Rulemaking" will take place in a few months time.

 

GAY SEMINARIAN WINS IN COURT

 

David Vance completed all the requirements for a Master of Divinity degree in 1976 at the Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, Kentucky.  But it took a court order to get the seminary of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to award the degree two years later.

 

David Vance is gay.

 

Judge Charles Tackett of the Circuit Court ruled that he was entitled to the degree because the seminary failed to make it sufficiently clear to students "what is expected or what will result in a denial of a degree or admission."

 

Vance had sued the seminary for breach of contract.  The judge's ruling stated that if the institution intends to deny degrees to those it considers morally unfit, such as homosexuals, adulterers, agnostics, thieves, or others, it should say so in its catalogue.

 

NATIONAL SWITCHBOARD IN SERVICE

 

The Gay National Educational Switchboard, the first National service project to provide accurate information about gay sexuality and gay lifestyles, began operation on October 1.  A twenty-four hour WATS-line service is staffed by seventy-five volunteers.  Each shift will have at least one woman and one man with up to five people during peak hours.  The switchboard will provide free information and referrals for activities and counseling to callers from all over the country, but will especially seek to serve the non-metropolitan areas.  Most large cities already have gay information and hotline numbers.

 

The National Switchboard is a project of the Human Rights Foundation, Inc., whose focus is educating the general public on issues of homosexuality.  A professional Advisory Board has been appointed as consultant and to evaluate the statistical information collected and the services being provided.  Among the more prominent Board members are Alan P. Bell, co-author of Homosexualities; Evelyn Hooker, pioneer in scientific psychological research on male homo­sexuality; and Wardell B. Pomeroy, Academic Dean of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality.

 

All individuals and organizations, especially in smaller communities, able to provide some service in counseling or support for people trying to cope with being gay in a hostile and/or indifferent society are asked to write to the GNES, P.O. Box 3627, San Francisco, CA 94119, to be listed as a referral resource.

 

PRIEST TO HEAD RIGHTS CAMPAIGN

 

The Rev. James H. Littrell, an Episcopal priest, has been appointed coordinator of the Philadelphia Gay Task Force (PGTF) campaign to insure civil rights for gay persons.  Two goals have been set:  To work with other representatives of the gay community in coordinating efforts to obtain civil rights protection for gays, and to educate state and city governments in the needs and concerns of gay men and women.

 

"Our goal is to make Philadelphia a safe and satisfying place for gay people to live and work alongside our neighbors," Fr. Littrell said.  "We ask Philadel­phians who believe in human rights, who believe in equal opportunity for all without regard to race, class, sex, or sexual preference, to join with us in this critical task."

 

The PGTF was formed last spring with a grant from the Christian Association of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

 

MISSIONARY WARDEN

 

Women prisoners in a jail in Saint Gabriel, Louisiana, have asked a court to make their warden stop trying to convert them.  The warden, Victor Walker, made news earlier this year when a New Orleans paper alleged that he had tried to exorcise a woman prisoner.  Walker reportedly termed that exorcism a "religious experience."

 

State prison officials have ordered Walker to cease "saving souls" during working hours, but in a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union the missionary warden is charged with pushing prayer meetings on white prisoners ‑‑ while excluding blacks.  His religious policy, if any, toward gay prisoners is not mentioned.

 

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

 

The annual Integrity Convention in Minneapolis was a natural high for me and it has certainly renewed my energies to lead the organization to still greater things.  Integrity was revitalized in Minneapolis at a time when our very survival was on the line. In this General Convention year and beyond, we must sustain the spirit and the oneness that we felt and at the same time translate into action the many commitments made.  If the past month is any indication of how people will follow through on commitments, then I am optimistic and confident that we can meet our goals.

 

A number of chapters and individuals have already sent in full or partial payment of financial pledges.  Memberships are increasing and whole chapters are taking advantage of the reduced rates.  The New York and Los Angeles chapters have decided to enroll all of their members in the organization.  Only a few days ago, I received word that the Philadelphia chapter has reorganized and has enrolled most of their members.  Some chapters are planning fund-raising events for the General Convention effort.  The Boston chapter has pledged $1000; the Chicago chapter has already sent $500.  Substantial sums have also been received during the last month from several sources outside Integrity.  Individual pledges have continued to come in at a healthy rate.  It is a pleasure to be able to report only such good things and to be able to shed my role as the "prophet of doom" for the foreseeable future.  We still have to work at making the organization financially strong and we are by no means ready to take up residence on "Easy Street."

 

Also encouraging are the commitments of time and energy many have made to the organization.  Only one month after the convention, I have correspondence from members of the General Convention Committee, the Task Force on Counseling Concerns, and other individuals who have taken on tasks.  In the next few weeks, I will be appointing two new committees ‑‑ Media and Finance ‑‑ which were authorized at the convention.  I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has a desire to serve on either of these committees.

 

It is only with your support that we are able to continue to meet the challenges and to endure the frustrations of the task before us.  It is not an easy road we travel together and the love and sharing that we have sustain us and make the effort worthwhile.  As gay Christians, we have a unique responsibility to minister to each other, to reach out to gay brothers and sisters and to non-gay Christians as witnesses to the beauty and goodness of gay lifestyles, community and relationships.

 

I have never felt so rich and so fortunate as I felt among all of you in Minneapolis last month; to be part of such a loving and caring com­munity was a memorable experience.  The feelings I have for each one of you are not easily or adequately put into words, but it is an honor and a pleasure to serve as your President.

 

                  ‑‑John C. Lawrence, President

 

FORUM:

Observations from some of our readers, and others.

 

Enclosed is my check for $100 ‑‑ as pledged at our recent convention (Integrity!) in Minneapolis.

 

As I return to grad. school with no income and a meager budget, I found one item on that budget labeled "miscellaneous and entertainment" (hair cuts, snacks, gifts, movies, etc.).  It is more important to help as we claim a better life.  It is more important that we win that better day NOW.  I'll trim my own hair, dine modestly, give hand made gifts, and skip the films.

 

With this money comes my continued pledge to work with all my energies for our cause ‑‑ which is peace.

 

                  With love,

                  (Name withheld by request)

 

P.S.  I am asking my parents to join Integrity ‑‑ and suggest that other members do the same when possible.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

WE NEED YOUR VIEWS AND COMMENTS

-----------------------------------------------------------------

 

KEEPING IT RESPONSIBLE

By Rick Hillegas

 

On the anxiety continuum, responsible sex falls about halfway between erotophobia and self-affirmation.  Its specter still haunts religion.  Recently I let lapse my membership in Integrity (the group for gay/lesbian Episcopalians and their friends), not because I had given up on religion (I hadn't) nor because I had given up on the Episcopal Church (though I had), but because Integrity's timid, judgmental view of sex dismayed me.

 

The Integrity newsletter carries letters from Bishops who once knew a gay priest and he was OK (Bp. Daniel Corrigan), excerpts from speeches by Bishops who knew Ellen Barrett was a lesbian but who didn't know she had sex (Bp. Paul Moore), and plenty of assurances that gay is great as long as it remains responsible.  Responsible sex means monogamy, covenantal relationships, marriage.  It means that casual sex is dirty and that even the gay Christian or Jew who wants a covenantal relationship but shops around first feels guilty.

 

Integrity president John Lawrence speaks of a new Christian sexual ethic.  He, like many in Integrity, Dignity, and other gay religious groups, wants to construct a new sex paradigm.  The new paradigm, a redredging of the old one, will exchange overtly judgmental words like "good" and "bad" for covertly judgmental ones like "responsible/appropriate" and "irresponsible/ inappropriate."  The new paradigm won't distinguish between gay and straight but will approve for gay and straight believers the same sorts of sex acts and the same sorts of circumstances under which they may occur.  The foundation of the new paradigm, the foundation of the old, will be guilt.

 

At last August's Integrity national convention in Minneapolis, Lawrence remarked, "Guilt seems to be out of fashion, which I think is too bad."  He said when Socrates and Diogenes publicly masturbated, nobody worried.  Our taboo against sex in rest­rooms (or supermarkets for that matter) doesn't originate with a cross-culture taboo against public sex (there is none), but in­stead, grows out of our culture's peculiar sex-shame.

 

I don't accuse the gay religious group of wanting to write law.  The new sex paradigm, seeking as it will to list the kinds of sex God likes, will apply only to people who believe in that sort of God.  But the whole range of needs and desires that charac­terizes the general population also characterizes the religious population, and no one paradigm captures the richness of human sexual experience.  It dismays me that Integrity and other gay religious groups continue heaping shame on their members.

 

I can't parse the logic of condemning sex that satisfies other people.  Sex-fear, sex-hate, sex-guilt poison our society:  the gay religious groups have a ministry to their own members and to the larger society to heal the poisoning, and not to cull from their traditions new lists of people who ought to feel most ashamed.

 

Reprinted with permission from the Gay Community News, Boston, MA.

 

"SURVIVING WITH INTEGRITY:  OR HOW NOT TO GET EATEN

BY A LEAN AND HUNGRY COW"

Banquet Address at the Integrity Convention/Minneapolis.  August 19, 1978 by the Rev. Ellen Barrett/Oakland, California

 

I don't want to press the image in my title too far, it having been chosen more or less on the spur of the moment in a bleak mood.  But even in a more hopeful mood, remembering that the lean cows' cannibalism left them just as sick and scrawny as before, it seems necessary to discuss our survival.  It is not just surviving the onslaughts of our enemies, but surviving with those qualities intact that makes the act of survival worthwhile.

 

There seems to be no escaping the fact that homophobic back­lash is upon us, and that the year-and-a-bit since Dade County is not the last convulsive death-throes of reaction, but its setting ­up exercises.  One begins to realize that reason is not enough to win our case, nor are the reasonable conviction of the justice of our cause and the certainty that other movements have found such times to be periods of growth going to supply the moral and spiritual energy we are going to need for the long haul.  The post­ Stonewall romance of revolution is a bit shopworn, the honey­moon is over, and the hungry times are upon us.  Wherewithal shall we be fed?

 

Joseph's dream interpretation gave Pharaoh enough warning of the impending famine that Egypt could stockpile food during the fat years.  The commodities we need if the revolution is not to devour its children are less tangible.  They can, unlike grain, be cultivated and flourish even in the midst of drought, but only as we live with our current predicament can we tell what reserves we have saved for seed-stock.

 

Lenin's maxim aside, another old saw is that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church ‑‑ undoubtedly true in some sense, but those of you who know me well know how skeptical I tend to be of martyrdom.  Sift out those who died at the hands of their own side, those who died as a result of bad mistakes or faulty judgment, and I will grant you that a small residue of gold will be left.  But we have had martyrs aplenty for time out of mind, and we cannot afford grand gestures like the Light Brigade or the Kamikaze.  The Masada solution cannot be ours.  Survival is one of the key words in my title for these few words, the sheer hard grind of living for a cause, the unromantic, but I refuse to believe altogether cynical, recognition of political necessity ‑‑ politics being possibilities, not romance.  It is going to be in­creasingly hard to fight referenda against gay rights or infamous pieces of bigotry like California's Briggs Initiative, or the hostil­ity of prelates, having to keep in mind both the determination to fight to win and a recognition that winning the battle must quite likely begin with a loss at the polls.  It would be so easy to slack off our efforts, to prepare more for defeat than victory, to re-oil our closet door hinges and retreat from the battlefield into the capitulation of the born loser.  After all, a lot of it could survive that way ‑‑ didn't we for generations?  Or is survival alone worth it?  I rather think not, at least not for anyone who has retained a vestige of personal integrity ‑‑ or, lest I be accused of punning, shall we call it honor?

 

Can we permit ourselves the luxury of self-pity in hard times? Can we afford the luxury of a purist approach to politics that anathematizes all but the self-doomed martyr as a sell-out to the system and a traitor to the cause?  Is not the price of self­isolation in our tragic robes (or too gay ghettos) a bit too steep?  Can we abandon hope and stay this side of the he~ of the self-­annihilation of despair?

 

I think not.  This is not reason speaking, of course, it is faith.  But reason based on faith confirms the imperative nature of hope.  Battles can be lost, specific temporal objectives can be taken from us by the Bryants and the Briggses, but we are the only people who can deal ourselves any sort of ultimate defeat. Perhaps that is why despair is so often equated with the unforgivable sin against the Holy Spirit.  God does not damn us, and will never fail to forgive any sin of ours, but we have to have some­thing left to accept it with, and despair by definition robs us of that power.

 

But I am, as sermonizers always seem to be, not likely to be addressing the people who walk in the darkness, though we all have our rather dim moments, I grant you.  Integrity brings us together not primarily as Episcopalians or as gay women and men, but as a community of faith, and a community of faith must overflow itself into activism somehow or its faith is vain words. I've learned to bake bread this summer and I'm more aware than ever of the power of the image of leaven for the lump ‑‑ with this proviso:  bread leaven can get out of hand and make a loaf a mess, but faith leaven?  Well, one may at the very least be justi­fied in waiting to make a parallel judgment until an excess of faith is at work in the world, a point one could hardly say we have reached yet.

 

Or if cookery doesn't appeal as an image, perhaps we could compare ourselves to a group of seeing-eye dogs who use smell and instinct as well as sight to help pilot those who cannot see.  Our extra sense in this case is our faith that we are heirs of victory through the victory of Christ over death and degradation. While we are not likely to reap a huge harvest of movement activist converts to Christ, that isn't exactly my point.  Evangelization by words alone can only act as a drug if it is not preceded by the evangelization of deeds.  God doesn't seem to react well to being treated as an expedient in tight places.  A conversion based on an instant high is likely to end in a monumental bubble-breaking ‑‑ and smiles and Bible verses won't energize a movement by themselves.  The biblically enjoined cunning of serpents might well be employed by investigating the logistical apparatus of the likes of Billy Graham, as an example of practicality, albeit perverted.

 

A million in the bank isn't the point, though heaven knows we need funds.  The point is that vision can only be effectively trans­mitted to masses of people in actions.  Working for human rights is a Christian imperative.  Working for human rights in a gay context is part of that imperative and a logical starting place for those of us who are gay, because we know our own issues best.  This is a time for community-building, not for talking about community.  Too often the phrase "gay community" means little more than a visible big-city ghetto of gay white men who dress and entertain in similar styles.  Gay community must bring in the closeted and the lonely in Middle American small towns, women, third world gays, leathermen, transvestite gays, even the sort of people who give gays a bad name ‑‑ to me this means people like Doris Day and J. Edgar Hoover, but everyone of us has his or her own pet hate inside the category "gay."  Somehow we need to reach out to all these people ‑‑ and as women I can tell you even "gay liberation" has meant mostly increased aliena­tion for some of us minority minorities.  Words and good inten­tions won't make it on their own.  Only actions will.  As the Jew said, "These goyim either love us too much or hate us too much, can't they ever be natural people?"  It is hard to be natural, loving, non-sexist, non-racist, non-whateverist people when we have been trained from birth not to be.

 

But being a Christian implies commitment to peopleness in the image of God, not of our self-imposed bentness.  How to convert this into action?  In politics.  In outreach, either as groups or individuals into the world of gay people.  Volunteering to help establish and/or maintain gay service and gay self-help organizations is one way, if not with time, with money, even with prayers (embarrassing as it may be to say that sort of thing).  Encourage local resources and coordination between gay groups and try to get them to reach out to those who are isolated from urban centers.  The National Gay Educational Switchboard will, I hope, be one project doing a lot of this kind of thing ‑‑ not only as a hot­line for isolated persons who need to talk about their gayness, but as a coordinator of local services for referrals, and eventually, also a clearinghouse for ideas on how to set-up local health and counseling and general support systems all over the country.  Their aim seems to be put into practice loving one's neighbor as oneself.  First you get yourself to respect and understand and love yourself, and then you go out and help others to.  Obviously there are lots of opportunities for this sort of in-house service both in the 2000-odd gay organizations now existing and in areas where unmet needs are daily manifesting themselves to the alert and willing.  Our own small field is more than ripe for harvest.

 

But service inside and edification of the gay community alone is, while praiseworthy enough, not much more than beautifying our ghetto.  And the inclusivity of Christianity that we want to see include us means we need to go out and include them (all sorts and conditions of thems) as well.  Not just because seeing an openly gay person on the parish world hunger study group is going to show a few more folks we don't have three heads and an obsession with sex, but because starving people are our problem too.  San Francisco Bay Area Integrity ran a "Chicken Fund" to contribute to the Heifer Project.  Other gay groups hold bake sales for hospital burn units and car washes for children's homes and provide hot meals for the elderly.  Gay men have often provided day care for women's movement conferences.  Individual gay groups can do an awful lot of unsung but utterly indispensable community-building by participation in all sorts of parish and community projects ‑‑ not necessarily wearing their "Dyke" and "Faggot" buttons ‑‑ just by being themselves pitching in, whether it be cleaning up a kids' playground, helping in food co-ops, chasing vermin in a kill-a-rat program, collecting for the Presid­ing Bishop's Fund, driving for Meals-on-Wheels, or whatever.

 

One of the tools of the powerful to keep the disenfranchised down and out is to turn them against each other.  If we are too close to see it here at home, look at the so-called religious war in Northern Ireland, which has at its roots the desire of powerful capital to distract workers from the consciousness of their mutual exploitation, so that the poor will never be able to unite and upset the status quo to the detriment of the industrialists. And their tragedy, and ours, is that we submit to such distractions ‑‑ no, even embrace and perpetuate their divisiveness.

 

We, as oppressed people, as a Christian people should be able to have a vision of commonwealth that unites the disenfranchised, not to take over and lord it over those now in power, but to promote mutuality and co-equal participation in both the necessary labors and the rewards of this life.  Reason alone shows this can't work ‑‑ vide the failures of Utilitarianism, or Marxism, and so on.  Faith backed up by considered action towards the equity of Christ's body can work.  The victory of faith is not always or even usually in terms the world sees as such, but it is inevitable if only we pursue it, however unlikely the context or however great the odds.  The opportunities surround us.  Like the difficulties they often overwhelm us (no wonder, because they are mostly the same thing), but by taking hold, in faith, of the bit nearest us, and by encouraging others to do likewise we can make the all­-important beginning.  The course may call for changes of pace and of tactics, for strategic withdrawals, for refusing of direct confrontation in order to strike at a better target, but whatever it takes, the perseverance of faith is the thing that comes through to victory.

 

I have perhaps been too vague for some of you.  You must each find your own job in this struggle.  Very often it will find you, and it won't be the one you wanted.  Priests are too prone to give easy formulae for what to do and how to live without thinking about it.  Already I have talked more than my share.  Let me close then with these words from Luke's Gospel (18:1-8).

 

He spoke to them a parable, to show that they should keep on praying and never lose heart, "There once was a judge who cared nothing for God or for man's opinion either, and in the same town was a widow who kept coming to the court to demand justice against the one who wronged her.  For a long time he refused to do anything, but finally he said to himself, 'lt is true I don't care about God or about what people say about me; but this widow is such a pest that I had better do something for her before her persistence nags me to death.'"  The Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge says?  Will not God vindicate those who cry out day and night for liberation from their op­pression?  I tell you God will vindicate them, and soon.  But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"

 

EDITORIAL

 

With this issue the Integrity Forum enters upon a new era.  The editorial and production staff has been completely reorganized in a way which we hope will result in a more lively, original and informative Forum ‑‑ as our logo says "for gay Episcopalians and their friends."

 

An Editorial Board has been formed under the direction of Managing Editor David Williams to assist in making each issue of the Forum a more valuable contribution to dialogue on issues of sexuality, ethics and the Church.  The other members of the board are David Blix, the Rev. Grant Gallup, the Rev. Dewey Schwartzenburg and James Wickliff.  In addition, we plan to have Contributing Editors including persons of prominence, who will contribute sig­nificant articles for original publication on a regular basis.  Of course we will be concerned to continue and expand our regular coverage of news events within and outside the Church ‑‑ coverage that is difficult if not impossible to find elsewhere.  Book reviews will be presented on a regular basis, and both "Chapter Notes" and "Dirty Linen & Closet Fresheners" will continue to inform and entertain.

 

But perhaps most important to the new Forum will be you ‑‑ our readers.  The Editorial Board wants to make this publication a true "Forum" of opinion and insight.  Therefore we invite one and all to contribute their ideas, experiences, and views to be shared with others in a new, expanded "Forum:  Observations from some of our Readers, and Others."  We only ask that you keep your comments relatively brief and to the point, in line with the precepts of good taste and charity, and as far as possible limited to one issue or area of concern.  The Editorial Board reserves the right to edit by omitting or shortening items.  But our goal is to present a provocative, challenging interplay of ideas and insights in this section, not merely a "party line."   The Church, after all, should be the one place in society above all where persons can disagree in an atmosphere of mutual love and concern.  We would be happy, for example, to print a communication on some issue from Ruth Tiffany Barnhouse, or even Anita Bryant ‑‑ and to invite reaction, comment and criticism.  Only if we really begin to confront each other in our differences will we begin to discover our essential shared humanity ‑‑ and individual integrity as bearers of the light of Christ to all persons.

 

Changes do take time, and we go to press having made only a few of those we feel necessary.  Stay with us ‑‑ there is likely to be a new surprise for you in every issue!

 

                   ‑‑The Editorial Board

 

FROM A SERMON BY THE RT. REV. C. KILMER MYERS AT GRACE CATHEDRAL, SAN FRANCISCO, SEPTEMBER 3, 1978.

 

As a Christian trying to follow Jesus as I understand him, I am deeply concerned about the erosion of the pastoral cure and personal rights of men and women of gay sexual orientation.  I am profoundly concerned at this very moment with the threat to their rights posed by the Briggs Initiative, the net effect of which would be the firing of all homosexual teachers.  I do not propose to dissect the language of the initiative; however, lawyer friends of mine tell me that its language is so ambiguous, so vague, that even a so-called 'straight' school teacher theoretically could be fired from his/her position in the school system by merely advising a student with possible homosexual tenden­cies to seek the aid of a therapist.  If such a teacher (of unques­tioned heterosexual orientation) were to counsel a student in any way that suggested to the student that he seek psychiatric help in accepting his particular orientation, that teacher could experience the full brunt of this initiative proposed by Senator Briggs.  One wonders, if the initiative passes, who will be next?   The psychiatrists, the psychologists, the clergy?

 

But deeper, what about the oppressive mood in this country with respect to the entire homosexual community?  That self-­appointed, fundamentalist evangelist, Ms. Anita Bryant, eviden­tially has triggered even the repeal of city ordinances designed to protect the civil rights of gay people.  A veritable witch hunt has begun and we ignore it at our peril.  There is no doubt that the gay community is under heavy attack.  One cannot forget that in our generation (at least mine) the Hitler program of human extermination began with the homosexuals.  The very word 'faggot' refers to the wood used to burn them alive.  And the record of the Church in this regard is by no means clean.  It is, in fact, deeply stained with the blood of executed homosexuals.

 

Jesus nowhere says anything about homosexuality.  It is likely that in his human nature he was not aware of the phenomenon as we are today.  But he clearly championed the cause of all op­pressed dehumanized people in his own day.  He ate and drank with them.  They were his friends.  It was because he took up their cause as his own that the religious authorities of his time caused his murder by the state.  He was first, last and always for Man.  It was, he believed, God's will that man (generically understood) be free to live out human life to its fullest.  Any person or institution standing in the way of this glorious process was an enemy of God ‑‑ yet a God who accepted them all ‑‑ both sinners and righteous but especially the down-cast, the poor, the oppressed, the alienated.  As I have come to understand Jesus I am compelled to oppose any law, any initiative, which would have the effect of dehumanizing men and women or imperiling their responsible freedom.

 

A REVIEW OF THE OCTOBER ISSUE OF THE WITNESS

 

In the October issue of The Witness, "Gays in the Church:  Is There a Place?," the editors have given us a small but valuable group of articles that bring a new (and sorely needed) depth to our discussions of the homosexual and the church.  Or perhaps I should say homosexuals in the church.  For the valuable point these articles make is that we are not dealing here with an open and well defined conflict between two monolithic abstractions ‑‑  the church on the one hand and the homosexual on the other.  Rather we are dealing with people, who differ in many remark­able ways (sexual orientation being just one of them), but who also share common hopes and fears.  The question, therefore, is not, How shall we admit homosexuals into the church?  No, homosexuals are already in the church?  The question is, What is their place once inside?

 

Brian McNaught introduces the articles.  John Hall Snow, Pro­fessor of Pastoral Theology at the Episcopal Divinity School, offers a general discussion of gay people and parish life.  Gregor Pinney, education writer for the Minneapolis Tribune, tells the story of an actual exchange between gays and straights in a Minneapolis church in 1972.  William Doubleday, Education Director of the NGTF and Convenor of Integrity New York, leads off a pair of articles by two gay priests about life as closeted clergypersons.  Georgia Fuller, co-coordinator of the National Consultation on Women and Religion for NOW, calls hetero­sexuals in the church to a "painful Leap of Faith" that casts aside the shackles of homophobia.

 

There is little that is new here to seasoned observers of gay life.  We have heard it all before ‑‑ the pain and isolation of gay people, the need to overcome negative stereotypes, the difficulties of negotiating dialogue on the issues, the feints of gay life on heter­osexual turf.  But we have not read this before, in articles written by both homosexual and heterosexual Christians, in a church-­related magazine.  This marks a healthy development, and ac­cordingly the first two articles are perhaps the most interesting of the lot.

 

Pinney's careful account of the events at the Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church is painful to read, so true does it ring. He shows the church members raising the classical liberal objections:  "Homosexuals are O.K. if they keep it to themselves."  "We should welcome them, but we shouldn't go and seek them out."  Writing as a journalist, Pinney does not try to rebut these objections, nor does he comment further on the remark made by one young man in the church who said, "So long as I feel they don't have any choice [about being gay] then I must extend my love to them."

 

Snow, by contrast, takes these objections on.  For the most part, I think his arguments are clear, Christian, and unimpeachable.  But I cannot agree with him when he advocates a "family atmosphere" as the best place in the church for gays to "realize their potential."  Nor can I agree with him when he says that it is a "mischievous notion of Gay Liberation ideology" to see homosexuality as a "life-style" or "sexual preference."  To be sure, no one chooses a sexual orientation in one fell swoop, but nobody ‑‑ including gay liberationists ‑‑ ever supposed that they did.  Like the young man in the church in Minneapolis, Snow seems to be distressed at the idea that homosexuals might "style" their lives through any kind of moral agency, or act responsibly in their own behalf.  Indeed, he seems to want to shirk any language of responsibility and speak of homosexuality as being someone's "fault," even God's.  Surely, as Christians, we must teach otherwise.  We must teach that Christian love withers precisely when, like the young man in Minneapolis, we do not permit, or do not wish to permit, the other person (gay or straight) to exercise those powers of creative choice that image the Creator in their lives.  (Read Dorothy Sayers' fine piece on the Mind of the Maker.)  Even more, we must teach that Christian love flourishes when those powers are exercised truly and integrally. For then the other person encounters us, as a significant other, with a life of his or her own.  Snow, I fear, by taking the family as his model, misses this wider theological context, and so assigns gays a place in the Church on the basis of criteria that are not fully Christian.

 

                         ‑‑David S. Blix

 

[Editor's Note:  The Witness can be ordered directly from the publisher, $9.00 per year; $1.00 per copy.  Write to The Episcopal Church Publishing Company, P.O. Box 359, Ambler, PA 19002.]

 

Clinton R Jones.  Understanding Gay Relatives and Friends.

New York:  Seabury, 1978.  viii, 133 p. $3.95

 

Canon Jones, whose distinguished career as counselor in the field of human sexuality needs no introduction to readers of Integrity Forum, has followed up his two earlier publications with this new book.  In it he deals with the other persons who have family, school or pastoral relationships with homosexual individuals in the process of accepting their orientation and re­vealing it to the non-gay sharer in the relationship.  The under­standing that is demanded of these "others" in these situations is always difficult and frequently rejected.  It is to and for those struggling to understand and accept gay persons who have these various close relationships to them that this book is written, and to this task the author brings years of experience in counseling gays and non-gays.  Each of eleven brief chapters, the majority of which run no more than ten pages, is devoted to the non-gay side of one of these relationships, the continuation of which depends upon an acknowledgement and acceptance of the other's homosexual orientation.  The relationships considered are those involving parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, teachers and students, clergy and congregations.  Two added chapters deal with a transvestite husband and a transsexual son.  A postscript ends on a hopeful note in reporting an editorial, appearing in October 1977, that called for enlightened legal redress and remedy for the protection of the civil rights of homosexual persons.  The legal reverses of 1978 have occurred too late to influence this upbeat conclusion.  A bibliography of suggested readings affords a helpful list of books through which to continue the long search to understand­ing, while those for whom the book is primarily intended will appreciate the basic resource list of referral services for gay rela­tives and friends.

 

Canon Jones uses an interesting device to produce each chapter; it also serves as the matrix out of which the particular exposition develops.  A letter, representative of many such situations that the author has experienced in his career but presented as authentic with necessary name changes, becomes a vehicle for the gay person to reveal to the non-gay the challenge to growth and understanding that lies in acceptance of the sexual orientation.  From this the theme of the book in terms of the particular rela­tionship is explored.  I found that as each of the relationships unfolded, not only was a sympathetic approach developed to the specific problems being faced, but also an accumulation of per­ceptive insights into what it means to be gay in twentieth century America, the history of the gay movement, and the contributions of various disciplines toward understanding homosexuality, re­sulted with benefit to a wide range of potential readers with diverse interests.  I was especially moved, for instance, by the description of the particular pain that homosexual persons ex­perience when separation comes through death.  Not only rela­tives and friends of gays, but all involved in the area of human sexuality, will profit from the wisdom so lovingly presented in this book.

 

I have only two caveats.  I wish the book had been longer.  I know one should not fault an author for failing to do whatever he intended to do, but I was left with a hunger for more.  My other reservation has to do with the chapters of transvestism and transsexualism.  I agree with the author when he writes that it is important that basic distinctions between homosexual, transvestite, and transsexual are important to bring to a reader's at­tention, and that the latter two need understanding and acceptance as much as the first.  But I question their inclusion in a book designed specifically to promote the understanding among their non-gay relatives and friends.  Might not serious misunder­standings and confusions result?  The fine aim of understanding the transvestite and the transsexual might well be the impetus for a separate and much-needed treatment, and Canon Jones would be the person to do it.

 

                   Robert A. Smith

 

Ruth T. Barnhouse.  Homosexuality:  A Symbolic Confusion.

New York:  Seabury Press, 1977, 190 p. $8.95

 

Caveat emptor! This book's intriguing title, together with the fact that it is written by a Jungian psychiatrist with an apprecia­tion for theological constructs, could make it most attractive to Churchpersons eager for an objective and thoughtful consider­ation of a timely topic.  Unfortunately the book does not begin to live up to its packaging.  It will not take the relatively well­-informed reader much time to discover that the author's interest in showing what her theoretical/theological perspective has to contribute to our understanding of human sexuality far out­weighs her respect for (and maybe even knowledge of) respon­sible scholarship.

 

The book begins with the author's contention that values can­not necessarily be derived from facts, that what "ought to be" must be distinguished from "what is," and that all too often individuals' evaluations of a particular phenomenon involve a mindless "capitulation to the scientific enterprise" which would seduce them into believing that empirical findings can be useful in judging the moral worth of a particular aspect of the human condition.  Without explaining how scientific evidence might ever be used as the basis for an informed judgment or elaborat­ing on the difficulty of disentangling the dichotomy which she posits, the author proceeds in the second (and longest and by far the weakest) part of her book to report the "facts" about homosexuality.  She does it in a way which shows her own propensity for drawing moral conclusions from the biased evidence she cites.  For example, in her use of anthropological data she seems to invite the readers to share in what she believes is and has always been a universal disapproval of homosexuality.  She cautions the reader not to believe the reports of "homosexual apolo­gists" who have exaggerated the incidence of homosexuality, as though such exaggerations might legitimately be used as the basis for a more favorable evaluation of the phenomenon.  In the same way she argues that true homosexuality (defined in explicitly sexual terms) does not exist among infra-human species, that the American Psychiatric Association's decision to remove homosexuality from its list of mental disorders was not arrived at on scientific grounds, that bona fide researchers have found homosexuality to inevitably reflect psychological immaturity and/or impairment, and that homosexuality is a condition which is "curable."

 

Regardless of the extent to which the author may fear that evidence contrary to what she reports could be used as the basis for a moral judgment about homosexuality different from her own, her lengthy review of "what is" clearly demonstrates an incredible ignorance of what is so about the topic.

 

It does not include the classic works of Ford or Beach or Wainwright Churchill which indicate that many other societies are not nearly as "homoerotophobic" as our own.  It does not include more recent evidence of sex role reversals in the animal kingdom. It does not include the work of any sociologists which sheds considerable light on "what is" so about homosexuality.  It does not include numerous studies by psychologists and psy­chiatrists which amply demonstrate that homosexuality is not ipso facto pathological.  With regard to this last matter, ap­parently the only authors she has read are Socarides, Bieber, and Hatterer whose notions about the dynamics of homosexu­ality have hardly been put to any rigorous empirical test!

 

Given the author's selective use of the evidence, her insistence upon setting up Clarence Tripp as the chief spokesman for a different point of view, and her arrogant dismissal of McNeill and Pittenger as "homosexual apologists," the last two sections of her book are hardly surprising.  She joins the aging chorus of those who have always viewed homosexuality as abnormal and immature, as involving a choice on the part of those who have made such an adaptation, and as a condition which must be met by the determination to become either heterosexual or celibate.  These outworn views are then discussed (and, needless to say, confirmed) within the context of Jung's understanding of the symbolic significance of human sexuality.  Sexual conduct is seen as an occasion for the reconciliation of opposites, as a symbol of the loving at-onement between God and Creation, as an instance of a mystical completeness necessarily involving two people who are "truly other."  Lovers who happen to possess the same genitalia are presumably never in a position to reach the all­encompassing goal which the author posits for human sexuality.

 

This is where my disenchantment with the book becomes com­plete.  Given the author's theoretical background, surely she must know that sex is not the same as gender and that an unusual complementarity based upon every aspect of the per­sonalities of those involved is not necessarily limited to couples who literally differ with respect to their sex.  A veritable panoply of opposites can exist between persons only apparently the same, leading to romantic attachments and sexual unions which cannot be easily dismissed as nothing more than "lust."

 

Is it not possible that homosexuals are drawn to each other for the very reason which the author posits as the ideal motivation for sexual contact, i.e., as the result of their need to be completed through contact with another viewed as different from them­selves?  The author's fundamental mistake is in drawing conclu­sions about the meaning of sexual encounter simply on the basis of what meets the eye.  We have not begun to unravel the com­plexities of peoples' sexual whereabouts.  There is a dearth of data on the dynamics of sexual attraction and the meaning of sexual contact.  My own guess is that as more data come in we shall find that sexual orientation is a relatively unimportant variable in the nexus of sexual impulses and affectional ties.  We may even discover that, contrary to the author's central notion, in many respects the actual and the ideal hardly differ at all and that it is our own confusion which makes it appear otherwise.

 

                   ALAN P. BELL, Ph.D.

                  Senior Research Psychologist

                  Institute for Sex Research

                  Indiana University

                  Bloomington, IN 47401

 

ALAN P. BELL, the author of this Book Review, is co-author with Martin Weinberg of the monumental Homosexualities:  A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, 505 pp. $12.95.

 

Reprinted by permission of THE ST. LUKE'S JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY,the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, 37375.  John M. Gesell, Ph.D., Editor.

 

DELIVERANCE BELONGS TO GOD

   (Jonah 2:1-9)

 

Homily by the Rt. Rev'd Philip McNairy, Bishop of Minnesota, Retired at the Choral Eucharist at the Integrity Convention, Minneapolis, August 18, 1978.

 

It is a pleasure for me to greet you for Bishop Robert Anderson of Minnesota.  I speak also for myself and for Gethsemane Church in bidding you welcome.  We appreciate your continuing relationship with the Episcopal Church.  We hope that the term "integrity" implies that you will remain an integral part in the dioceses and the parish churches you represent.  Withdrawal leads to alienation.  The late Martin Luther King once said, "Alienation is the acid of despair that will destroy our society."

 

There have been times when your church has been difficult to understand.  Occasionally there have been persons and congregations whose treatment of you has been that of the "stereotype" -- that is, the judgment of the whole group because of the mal­practice or poor character of a few individuals.  This is not the method of the Episcopal Church.  At other times, people have quoted the Bible out of context as a means to intimidate and condemn categories of society.  Neither is this the practice of the Episcopal Church ‑‑ nor do I believe it is the Christian way.  The June issue of Plumbline has devoted most of its subject matter to homosexuality.  In an introductory portion the editor says.  "Society has been too long clouded by taboo, fear, fantasy  ..." and I add misinformation.  The attitude of the ill-informed his­torically has been to adopt a moralistic stance, labelling as "evil:"  the mentally ill, chemically dependent, lepers, the epileptic, youth, the elderly, races, ‑‑ anyone different than the opinion holder.  Someone has said that "prejudice is being down on something we are not up on."

 

On the other hand, the Episcopal Church has been noted for its defense of minorities.  It has stood for human rights.  Its mission to the poor and the rejected is well-known.  The parable of Jonah 2:1-9 ‑‑ This, you will recall, is the story of the bigoted prophet, who rejected God's call to preach a mission of repentance to Nineveh, the secular city.  God's revelation to Jonah, through his series of misjudgments, emerges as a message for the Church in every age, especially our own:  "Deliverance belongs to God."

 

The Divine Attitude toward man becomes clear (1) All humanity is a unity.  "There are varieties of Gifts, but the same Spirit."  God wills to redeem all.  (2) We have a common destiny under God. Until all are saved, neither security nor salvation is possible for anyone.  We need to remind our society, if it is permissible to condemn any group no one is really safe and God the Father is mocked.  The sin of Jonah was his denial of God's purpose, and the prophet's insensitivity to His love of all persons.  The Christian obligation is that of mission to all people in Christ's name.

 

I would ask you now for a few moments to be introspective as you prepare yourselves for your mission.

 

(1) "Identity" is an important goal.  We must face the fact that the search for it creates a minority.  This is always a threat to the fearful.  It invites discrimination.  It leads to pain for both minori­ty and majority.

 

(2) "Self-determination" is a common claim of privilege.  It is a natural defense for the outsider.  The Godfather, a recent bestseller, describes the self-proclaimed gang leader as declaring that when a segment of people is not protected by the law of the land, the group must become its own law.  Under such a situa­tion, what becomes of grace or spiritual empowerment?  When human rights are denied, and the victims strike back, there is denial of faith in the Christian conviction that we are all God's family.  The result is atheistic.  This is what sin is ‑‑ self taking the place of God, and for its own ends.

 

(3) "Life-style" is another trap.  Doing your own thing sounds better than it is.  Actually it may be little more than self-indulgence.  We have and we need values for the development of responsible and adequate lifestyle.  "Love one another as I have loved you.  Be ye therefore merciful as your Father in Heaven is merciful.  Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us..."

 

Ours is a call to mission according to Christ's design.  This broken world hungers for Good News.  You that have known rejections have experienced the "breaking of the shell that encloses our understanding."  Empathy moves us to defend and support all victims of prejudice.  By our witness to Christ's love, we are equipped to help create a climate of mind and heart that will outlaw discrimination and injustice.

 

We have a commitment to establish our own credibility every­where by responsible living, by compassion within and beyond the fellowship that unites.

 

You are a minority.  So is the Episcopate.  I say to you from the viewpoint of this minority in the words of Forbes-Robinson; "To help a brother up the hill, when you yourself are scarcely able to keep your own foothold ‑‑ to struggle through the mists together ‑‑ this is infinitely better than to stand at the summit and beckon."

 

May the love of Christ purify your perspective, sanctify your goals, deepen your spiritual receptivity.  I pray that this Conven­tion may be open to His Presence, and to His Redemptive Power.

 

 

CHAPTER NOTES

 

After summer vacations and a general slowing down of pace during the hot weather, all Integrity chapters report getting back into the swing of things with increased vigor this Fall.  An exciting sense of commitment is expressed in virtually every one of the chapter newsletters.  (That much-tooted conservative backlash isn't going to intimidate us!)  lt's great to notice a definite increase in chapter involvement with their communities, especially at parish level.  If the number of hard-core homophobes is dropping off (and it seems to be, despite the fact that some of them are making a lot more noise than they used to), it's surely because more and more of us are letting our families, friends, neighbors in on who we are, giving them an image of gay persons that wipes out the stereotype that may have been at the bottom of their homophobia. + + +

 

Here's an idea of what's going on: Chapel Hill's Dignity/ Integrity chapter reconvened after the summer break with a Eucharist followed by a pot luck supper and rap session, making a special effort to welcome new members.  An election of officers was an­nounced for October. +++ Integrity/Denver is beginning to make plans for hosting the 5th annual Integrity Convention next year.  They've just completed a successful membership drive and things are jumping in the mile-high chapter! +++ Community involvement and participation in a wide range of local events characterizes Integrity/Hartford.  Programs on the possibility of a local gay rights bill and on the ever-present problem of VD were presented to members.  Social activities included a big picnic and a costume party for Halloween cosponsored with Dignity. +++ Integrity/Indianapolis and Central Indiana continues to grow.  Recently they have been visited by Integrity Vice President Kevin Scahill, and by Robert F. Glover, Chairman for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Task Force on Homosexuality and the Church. +++ At Madison (Wisconsin) they are experimenting with a "rotating" convenor.  Larry Bandfield remains convenor on record, but they're going to take turns planning and presiding at the meetings.  We'll be interested in learning how that works out.  They recently set up a dialogue between 75-100 clergy and 30-40 gays (the original was made up of representatives from United, Madison's gay coalition, and the Madison Urban Ministry).  On December 12, the chapter will sponsor an open house for all Christian clergy to get acquainted with Integrity. +++ Integrity/ Miami doesn't drink the local orange juice any more, but that hasn't lowered their energy, by the looks of their busy schedule of weekly masses and programs.  They recently donated a shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary at Holy Cross Church, gave a pot luck dinner for the clergy, and met in dialogue with their parish Couples Club.  The new format of their newsletter is sharp. +++ The Big Apple just seems to get bigger and bigger as Integrity/New York keeps building.  Their new convenor is Bill Doubleday, Education Officer for National Gay Task Force and former Editor of FORUM.  A weekly mass there is followed by socially and intellectually stimulating programs. +++ Integrity/Puget Sound-Diocese of Olympia is busy building their membership.  They had elections in September.  There was no report at press time on the outcome, so we'll tell you about that next time.  They are meeting with other local groups, most recently Evangelicals Concerned, establish­ing strong support ties together. +++ Working and growing to­gether within their community, Integrity/St. Louis helped raise $1600 for their parish.  They are trying to get an "official" news­letter going, and from the one we saw, they have a good start ‑‑ newsy, well-written, it carried an informed and sensitive article on closets by Ken Smith. +++ And last but not least, the Twin Cities Dignity/Integrity chapter proves month after month that ecumenism really works!  You'd think that after all that work putting on a smashing Convention they'd need a rest, but apparently not.  Right on!

 

As Integrity moves "From Vision to Task," this column is going to become more important.  Integrity's strength comes from its members, and as we begin translating our visions into action, it is essential that we share our experiences, problems and solutions, gains and losses, victories and defeats, with all the others.  If you publish a newsletter, please send me a copy (in addition to the one you send David Williams); if you don't, you can still keep us informed about what your chapter is doing by letter ... to Jim Wickliff, 127 W. Maple St., Chicago, IL 60610. Everything you're doing is important, and we all want to know about it!

 

INDIVIDUAL/COUPLE PLEDGE FOR THE SUPPORT OF INTEGRITY

 

I/we desire to support the continuing work of integrity, especially supporting our presence at the '79 General Convention in Denver, by sending periodic contributions in the amount checked below. 

 

[ ] $1 wkly          [ ] $2 wkly         [ ] $__ wkly

[ ] $2 mthly         [ ] $5 mthly        [ ] $__ mthly

 

________________________________________________________________

Name or Names                                  Phone

 

________________________________________________________________

Address                                       Apt. No.

 

________________________________________________________________

City or Town                 State                 Zip

 

Note:  The Treasurer will send you a one year supply of envelopes for your convenience in sending in your pledge.

 

Male to:  George W. Casper, 530 Massachusetts Av., Boston, MA 02118

 

INTEGRITY, INC. 1978 FINANCIAL REPORT

 

BALANCE FORWARD 10/31/77.......................... $1,680.62

 

INCOME:

  Dues & Forum Subscriptions...................... $4,128.00

  Contributions-Individuals........................ 1,112.00

  Contributions-Chapters............................. 824.25

  Contributions-Bishops & Diocese.................... 553.00

  Sale of Printed Materials & Buttons................ 685.49

  Miscellaneous Income............................... 508.57

 

      TOTAL INCOME................................ $7,811.31

 

EXPENDITURES:

  Forum........................................... $3,633.44

  Travel........................................... 1,106.20

  Phone, Postage, Office Expenses, Publications.... 1,433.58

  Presidential Expense............................... 761.75

  Other Officer and Committee Expenses............... 321.34

  General Convention Expenses........................ 150.00

  Miscellaneous Expenses............................... 4.50

 

      TOTAL EXPENSES.............................. $7,410.81

 

CLOSING BALANCE 8/12/78........................... $2,081.12

 

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, 530 Massachusetts Av., Boston, MA 02118.

 

LOCAL CHAPTERS

 

                      New England Region

 

Margaret Putnam, Regional Rep., 129 Spruce Hill Av., Florence, MA 01060.

 

INTEGRITY/BOSTON, P.O. Box 2582, Boston, MA 02208.  Convenor Allan Stifflear, Phone 617/547-4676.

INTEGRITY/HARTFORD, P.O. Box 3681, Central Station, Hartford, CT 06103.  Roy Teeters, President

* INTEGRITY/MAINE, Box 283, RFD, Damariscotta, ME 04543.  Convenor Doug Wright.

* INTEGRITY/MONTREAL.  Write to Regional Representative.

* INTEGRITY/NEW HAVEN, P.O. Box 1777, New Haven, CT 06507. Convenor Clinton H. Warner.

* INTEGRITY/WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS, 129 Spruce Hill Av., Florence, MA 01060.  Convenor Margaret L. Putnam.

 

                      Mid-Atlantic Region

 

Mason Martens, Regional Rep., 175 W. 72nd St., New York, NY 10023.

 

* 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, 4315 Osage Av., Philadelphia, PA 19104.Convenor Samuel B. Johnson.  215/382-1774 or St. Mary's 215/386-3916.

INTEGRITY/WASHINGTON, D.C., Convenor Wayne Fortunate-Schwandt, 2112 32nd St. S.E., Washington D.C. 20020.  202/583-2158.

 

                       Southeast Region

 

Leslie Mullins, Regional Rep., 520 W. Franklin, Box 272, Richmond, VA 23220

 

* INTEGRITY/ATLANTA.  Write to Regional Representative.

INTEGRITY-DIGNITY/CHAPEL HILL, P.O. Box 1184, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.  Convenor Hogan Gaskins.  Phone 919/929-3730

INTEGRITY/MIAMI-SOUTH FLORIDA, 123 N.E. 36th St.,, Miami, FL 33137.  305/444-0316 or 305/576-4216.

INTEGRITY-DIGNITY/RICHMOND, Convenor Rev'd Edward Meeks Gregory, 1907 N. 23rd St., Richmond, VA 23223.

* INTEGRITY-DIGNITY/ROANOKE.  Write to Regional Representative.

* INTEGRITY-DIGNITY/TIDEWATER, P.O. Box 6363, Norfolk, VA 23508.  Bob Halcums, Secretary.

 

                       Gulf Coast Region

 

Write to Integrity, Inc. for regional information.

 

* INTEGRITY/AUSTIN, Convenor Charles Arthur, 9904B Randall, Austin, TX 78753.

* INTEGRITY/DALLAS-FT. WORTH, P.O. Box 554, Bedford, Tx 76021.  817/283-4317.

EPISCOPAL INTEGRITY/HOUSTON, P.O. Box 66008, Houston, TX 77006.  Phone 713/526-0555 or 713/777-7215.

* INTEGRITY/JACKSON, MS.  Write to Regional Representative.

INTEGRITY/NEW ORLEANS, P.O. Box 15586, New Orleans, LA 70175.    Convenor L. Sam Myers.  Phone 504/861-1663.

 

                      Great Lakes Region

 

Write to Integrity, Inc. for regional information.

 

* INTEGRITY/DETROIT.  Write to Regional Representative.

INTEGRITY-DIGNITY/ROCHESTER, 42 Tyler House, 17 S. Fitzhugh St., Rochester, NY 14614.  Co-Convenors Jack Lowe and Horace Lethbridge.  716/232-6521.

* INTEGRITY/CLEVELAND.  793 Bloomfield Av, Akron, OH 44302.  Convenor David Gellatly.

INTEGRITY/TORONTO, Convenor John Gartshore, 20 Berryman St., Toronto, Ontario, CANADA M5R 1MB.  Phone 416/925-4047.

* INTEGRITY/WESTERN MICHIGAN.  Write to Regional Representative.

 

                        Midwest Region

 

Martha Winslow, Regional Rep., 1831 Clinton Av. S., Minneapolis, MN 55404

 

INTEGRITY/CENTRAL INDIANA, P.O. Box 68290, Indianapolis, IN 46268.  Co-Convenors Charles R. Forker 812/332-6564 and Orlando S. Gustilo 317/293-9044.

INTEGRITY/CHICAGO, P.O. Box 2516, Chicago, IL 60690.  Convenor Rev'd Clark Wills.  Phone 312/743-7489.

INTEGRITY/CINCINNATI, P.O. Box 1611, Cincinnati, OH 45201.  Convenor Joshua Moore.  513/241-7539.

INTEGRITY/MADISON, P.O. Box 5641, Madison, WI 53705.  Convenor Larry Bandfield.  Phone 608/831-8448.

INTEGRITY/ST. LOUIS, P.O. Box 7213, St. Louis, MO 63177.  Convenor Jerry Martin.  Phone 314/652-9373.

INTEGRITY/TWIN CITIES, P.O. Box 3565, Upper Nicollet Station, Minneapolis, MN 55403.  Convenor Marc Messerich.

 

                    Mountain States Region

 

Rev'd Tom Dobbs, Regional Rep., 1734 Washington Street, Denver, CO 80203.

 

INTEGRITY/ALBUQUERQUE, P.O. Box 4996, Albuquerque, NM 87106.   Convenor David Maulsby.  Phone 505/268-8156.

INTEGRITY/DENVER, Convenor Rev'd Tom Dobbs, 1734 Washington Street, Denver, CO 80203.

INTEGRITY/SALT LAKE CITY, P.O. Box 11241, Salt Lake City, UT 84147.  Co-Convenors Lelia (Lee) Baldwin 801/521-6967 and Hal Carter 801/322-4396.

 

                        Pacific Region

 

Rev'd Richard Younge, Regional Rep., P.O. Box 644, San Jose, CA 95120.

 

INTEGRITY/HONOLULU, 1186 Fort Street Mall, Rm. 211,, Honolulu, HI 96813.  Convenor Bill Potter 808/537-9478.

INTEGRITY/LOS ANGELES, Convenor Bob Harrison, 7985 Santa Monica Blvd., #212, West Hollywood, CA 90046.  Phone 213/656-0258.

* INTEGRITY/PUGET SOUND, P.O. Box 855, Seattle, WA 98111.

Convenor Tim Fowler.  Phone 206/525-5817.

* INTEGRITY/SAN DIEGO, c/o Episcopal Community Services, 601 Market St., San Diego, CA 92101.

INTEGRITY/SAN FRANCISCO, P.O. Box 6444, San Jose, CA 95150.  Convenor Patrick Waddell.  Phone 415/776-5120.

 

* Indicates that a new chapter is in formation.

 

If you are interested in starting an Integrity chapter in your area, write to: Integrity, P.O. Box 891, Oak Park, IL 60303, or telephone 312/386-1470.