We have a gay woman priest at our church. She's the rector during transition. I don't care if you agree gays can be Christian or not, you all, everyone of you would love Mother Val. We have a gay, lady senior warden, leader of our vestry. A gay music director who gives us the most beautifully arranged music and services every Sunday. We have several gay members at St. Mark's Episcopal Church.
Not too many weeks ago, 80 % of our church stood up and said, "We don't want Mother Val to leave. Please stop looking for a new priest and extend her contract." 5% didn't comment on the Val's contract and only 15 % were against her staying for different reasons. The vestry chose not to extend Mother Val's contract, though many of them wanted her to stay. It has more to do with wanting a priest who will stay for many years as opposed to several years.
Anyhow, some goober slipped a note into Mother Val's mailbox at church. It said, "We won. We got rid of you. Now we'll get rid of the other faggots, too." She brought it to the attention of our Bishop, who rearranged his schedule to come to St. Mark's and preach that next Sunday. We all got an invitation asking us to be there, but not telling us what was up. The Jr. Warden read us the note. Then the Bishop preached about it. He told us that the way Christianity works (he didn't have to preface Christianity with the word True) is to identify a problem and take a firm stand against it.
So we restated our church's all inclusive mission statement. And the Vestry all stood up and went to the alter and signed a paper reaffirming our mission statement. The Bishop spoke eloquently on the matter. He also told us to pray for the writer or writer of that note. They also set up a task force, open to anyone, to find ways to make everyone feel welcome at St. Mark's, all creatures great and small.
One of the things they decided to do is to fly the Rainbow Coalition's Rainbow Flag out in front of St. Mark's. Well, last Sunday was All Saints Sunday. And it was the first day for the flag to fly. Mother Val told us we had three new people visit our 8 AM service and they told her they WOULD be coming back. My youngest grandson was baptized at the 10:30 AM service and in addition to Andy and me, his two amazing gay godmothers stood up as sponsors for him.
Mother Val is so positive, kind and loving about people and most things, unless she needs to stand against them. When I told her of my sad experience getting mixed up with Jehovah's Witnesses, she said nothing ill about them. She kindly listened and offered comfort.
JW's could hand Mother Val one of those tracts. She'd say thank you and probably read it, out of want to understand JW's better. Would she shake in her boots? Hell no! The Episcopal Church, barring a tiny minority of those who still cling to the notion that homosexuality is a dastardly sin, is very welcoming to all and doesn't beat people over the head with rules. They appeal to the natural good in everyone. You feel so moved by the church's beautiful and very real spirituality and the church's respect for people's intelligence to listen to their own consciences.... People move on their own to improve as a persons. They don't change out of fear of God, man or anything else.