How can gays not be welcome at Saint Thomas, Fifth Avenue?
posted by The Postulant @ 8:09 PM
4 comments
Friday, July 13, 2007
About Me
- Name: The Postulant
I'm actually a priest now, but I've been calling myself "The Postulant" for so long that I've grown attached to the identity, and I think I'll keep it for a while yet. I'm a professor of philosophy and religious studies, specializing in medieval Christian philosophy. I'm a Rite-One-loving, Anglican-chant-singing, Nicene-Creed-believing homosexual -- a Hobartian as a matter of conviction and a ritualist as a matter of taste.
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4 Comments:
I don't know. Having been in a parish once that sounds a lot like this one, it's doesn't seem so strange to me at all. By the time I left the parish, besides the priest, I was the only gay person left...others cut and run long before I did as shifts in the parish moved toward a strange "don't ask, don't tell" bit that got me weird looks and hushed silences when I mentioned my partner. The atmosphere was such that I resigned my position on the Peace and Justice Committee when the parish moved to talking about gay related issues. I was the only gay person on the committee, and raised matters particularly of concern regarding gays. At one point, I was literally verbally shut down by one gentleman who afterwards told me, "I have lots of gay friends." It can happen.
Not that this is quite germane to your comment, Christopher, but I was also struck by the fact that this priest already had a history of generating conflict. What could the folks at Saint Thomas possibly have been thinking when they called him? Clergy deployment in the Episcopal Church is a bewildering thing.
Actually, that has a lot to do with my comment. Not only was the priest triangulative, so was the vestry. Folks snuck around their own agendae behind one another's backs and I didn't realize it until I caught some folks doing just that in the sacristy while I was trying to prepare the linens for the 7am Mass! Yuck! Talk about profaning the Lord's house.... Triangulation and gossip are truly wicked in my opinion and I wish we had some ways of taking priests aside who generate conflict for a little therapy or whatever...
Knowing this priest personally, I can assure you that this is rubbish. This is a good and holy priest of enormous integrity who has been wrongly accused by malicious people.
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