Poor winners in the Episcopal Church

Some weeks ago I made a small gift to Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry. The circumstances of the gift need not detain us. The important point is that I am now on Trinity's mailing list, and this morning I received a short booklet concerning the present state of the Church from their Dean, the Very Rev'd Dr theol. Paul Zahl. I wish I had time to comment on detail on Dean Zahl's writing, which is a remarkably thoughtful and even-handed discussion from someone who must acknowledge that he is one of the "losers" (and he does not scruple to use that word) in the recent developments within the Episcopal Church. Since I do not, I will zero in on one particular charge that he makes repeatedly: that the "winners" in these struggles have been "poor winners."

I suppose I count as one of the winners, as a "practicing" gay man who is aiming at ordained ministry. (It should, however, be noted that -- to the great consternation of my parish discernment committee -- I steadfastly opposed General Convention's action in approving the election of Gene Robinson, on the grounds that it would impair the unity of the Church and would constitute a gross breach of the charity that we Christians ought always to show in our relations with one another.) As a winner I can speak out more firmly than Dean Zahl. To call the winners "poor winners" is altogether too mild. The unbridled expressions of contempt for conservatives in the Church that I have heard from people in my parish, including (perhaps preeminently) my Rector, have stunned me. There is no attempt at all to enter sympathetically into the minds of those who regard all homosexual activity as sinful, simply a reflexive and unthinking dismissal of them as bigots. The bishops who have persecuted conservative vestries and deposed conservative priests represent the kind of intolerance that we would expect from people who have pulled off a political coup. I suspect there would be even more bishops acting this way if they had the nerve, because many of the winners who are not in positions of ecclesial authority would gladly drive out conservatives if they could.

Dean Zahl proposes an "inside strategy," working within the Episcopal Church for change and renewal as long as that remains possible -- as long, in fact, as they are not driven out by the poor winners. I earnestly hope that as many traditionalists as possible follow that strategy. I do not want to be a part of a Church that has driven out people like Dean Zahl. Although I could not actually serve on the faculty of Trinity or Nashotah House, I am confident that apart from my sexuality I would be far more at home there than I would be at most of our seminaries. While I do know many "progressives" who are orthodox by the standards of Nicea and Chalcedon, I know many who are not. It is of paramount importance to me that the Word be preached and the Sacraments celebrated by those who truly know God as he is revealed in the person of the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, by those who know the Holy Scriptures as something more than a convenient jumping-off-point for enunciating secular liberal dogma. It is a relatively trivial matter to me if those people do not understand Scriptural teaching on sexual morality in quite the same way I do.

Can we, then, cultivate a disposition among the winners not merely to tolerate the losers but actively to love them, to encourage them, and to recognize in them the Spirit of Christ, who is not the Spirit of discord, but of union?