The House of Bishops approve Blessings legislation #A049 on a role call vote of 111 Yes, 41 No, 3 Abstain – goes to House of Deputies next.
[Added: AP coverage, msnbc]
Canticle Communications @CanticleCom followed the debate. Read from bottom to top:
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Roll call vote: The HoB passes amended A049 on same sex blessings. 111 yes, 41 opposed, 3 abstain. PB: we act in humility. ?#gc77?
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Roll call: Chaplain Stephanie Spellers is leading HoB in prayer before vote, asks for guidance as we search for way to be your church ?#gc77?
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Gray, MS: Won’t authorize. Knows he sees through a glass darkly, but asks church not to be triumphant when this passes. ?#gc77?
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Gregg, NC: Had decided to vote no, didn’t think liturgy was excellent. Now vote yes; we haven’t completed, now vote for opportunity ?#gc77?
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PB: two more yes, two more no, then see if you’re ready to vote. ?#gc77?
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Brewer, Central FL: This won’t help TEC, driving people out. Also aware that this could be catastrophic for partners around world. ?#gc77?
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Sauls: 50 years ago, TEC allowed theological exception so divorced people could remarry. This is the same. ?#gc77?
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Waldo: In diocesan meetings, gay men who wanted blessings said theological rationale was inadequate. Wants to vote yes, but can’t. ?#gc77?
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Waldo Up. SC: In favor of full inclusion, but theological rationale weak. Contextual theology, but not sin, salvation, tradition. ?#gc77?
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Frade SWFL: People say Hispanics will be upset, but we have gay children, uncles. Don’t generalize that Hispanics will run from TEC ?#gc77?
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Question about bps. turning this into marriage rite. Bp. Smith defers to Ely. Will be adaptation in states with marriage equality. ?#gc77?
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Lawrence: Doesn’t want to lose marriage feast of Christ and his bride. ?#gc77?
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Lawrence, SC appears to be lost in the High Sierra. ?#gc77?
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Andrus, CA: The church has responsibility to help couples who want to follow Jesus through resources of community. ?#gc77?
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Jacobus, Fond du Lac: Concerned A049 still leaves room for opposite gender use. Will vote no. ?#gc77?
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Miller amendment to A049 fails by wide margin. ?#gc77?
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Bp. Curry: Critically impt. that we rightly order our liturgical, pastoral life. We’ve been on frontier. Now we have a common mind. ?#gc77?
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Debate strongly against Miller amendment, but Albany supports. ?#gc77?
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Lane, Maine: Authorized liturgy will improve accountability, communication. No on amendment. ?#gc77?
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@BishopGRobinson. No on amend. Moderate bps. have said they would do LGBT blessings when ?#gc77? authorizes. Colleagues need “authorize.”
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Miller: Whole lot not quite right. Too many issues. How do we understand marriage? Does it create second class LGBT people? ?#gc77?
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Miller, Milwaukee: Strike provisional and authorize in ln 45, insert “commend as part of our generous pastoral response the use of” ?#gc77?
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Bp. Love, Albany: good chance Anglican Communion will suffer triple whammy. Blessings, no Covenant, less $ for Communion. ?#gc77?
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Baxter: This liturgy, pastoral character respects differences, continues conversation. Many Af. American pastors are upset with me. ?#gc77?
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Baxter: We have been called to courage by two preachers. Don’t be afraid to be a minority. ?#gc77?
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Bp. Baxter, Central PA: For almost 40 years, we have been struggling. Unless we take movement toward inclusion, conversation stops. ?#gc77?
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Bp. J Howard: Will drive a wedge between us and in Communion. Not necessary. Blessings are happening, pastoral response in place. ?#gc77?
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Bp. Budde, DC: They want only for their church to honor and bless their relationships. I proudly rise in support of this resolution. ?#gc77?
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Budde: In honor of the many same sex couples who have inspired my husband and me, and who have served Christ and Christ’s mission. ?#gc77?
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Bp. Dena Harrison: Against. Will affect relationships across the world. We can bear better than those whose mission it will affect. ?#gc77?
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Shaw, MA: Our diocese has had significant growth recently, in thanks to including all people. ?#gc77?
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Bp. Shaw, Mass: First state with marriage equality. Pastoral generosity makes it possible to care for LGBT people. ?#gc77?
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Martins: Presupposes outcome of marriage study. We can say blessings, but CNN will say marriage. ?#gc77?
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Bp. Martins, Springfield: Adds his name to minority report. May be Anglican, but goes against instruments of Communion. ?#gc77?
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Amend from Bp. OK: “subject to the permission of the bishop exercising ecclesiastical authority.” Passes w/o discussion ?#gc77?
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Amendment passes. Rite is clearly only intended for blessing unions of same sex couples. ?#gc77?
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Beckwith, Newark: Opposes amendment, marginalizes people we’re trying to include. ?#gc77?
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Ely: Cmte already intended added same sex specificity in other places of resolution. He and Lee, Chicago agree. ?#gc77?
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Johnston, VA: Amendment, line 9 add “in a same sex relationship.” Roskam supports, don’t use this for opposite gender people. ?#gc77?
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Lillibridge, W TX: Will vote no, but deeply appreciates deliberation, study, its of view taken seriously. Bending over bkwds for all. ?#gc77?
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Bp Neff Powell: Another woman was so upset, then kids said, “Mom, you’re talking about our friends. Would you still love us?” ?#gc77?
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Bp. Neff Powell, SW Va: In 2003, woman said to him, I’m so glad my son can got back to church [after +Gene’s consecration.] ?#gc77?
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Bishop William Skilton: Against. Will cause great problems overseas. ?#gc77?
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Parsley A049 amendment passes w/o opposition. Burnett: cmte intention is to protect individuals, not to compromise bish. oversight. ?#gc77?
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Ely: Speaks in favor of amendment. Embarrassed that cmte didn’t get the language in the resolution. ?#gc77?
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Parsley, ret. AL: uses language from 2009 C056. As bishops, need to embrace diversity of church. Have to embrace all of God’s people. ?#gc77?
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Parsley moves amend.:”that this convention honor the theological diversity of this church in regard to matters of human sexuality…” ?#gc77?
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Bp. Little, No. IN: Vote no, will put TEC out of Christian mainstream. Other Christians will confuse with marriage. ?#gc77?
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Bp. Ely: The preference, and more accurate term for this, is same sex, not same gender. HoB has already discussed gender vs. sex. ?#gc77?
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Bp. Burnett: trial use is canonical term that can lead to BCP revision, wanted to remove confusion. Not BCP revision, so provisional. ?#gc77?
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Bp. Persell, Ohio: Strongly in favor. Questions about amendments–trial to provisional, gender to sex. Why changes? ?#gc77?
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Bp. Bauerschmidt, TN: Roll call vote. Opposed to A049. Reasonable to believe that vowed lifelong fidelity predicated on opposite sex. ?#gc77?
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Bp. Vono, Rio Grande: It is the Jesus thing to do in our time. ?#gc77?
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Ely: Calls for more engagement with scripture and theology, and for reflection with Anglican Communion and ecumenical partners. ?#gc77?
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Ely: The bishops on committee 13 were not of one mind, yet I believe we listened to one another with infinite respect. ?#gc77?
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Ely: Resolution changes “trial” to “provisional”. Three year authorization. We all have more to learn from each other. ?#gc77?
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Ely: Presented blessings rite in Canterbury, at provincial gatherings. 195 diocesan gathered in Atlanta. Also blog comments. ?#gc77?
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Ely: Reviews Res. C056 from 2009. Conversations have been rich. HoB discussed resources in Sept. 2012, twice in 2011. ?#gc77?
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Report on A049 on blessing same sex relationships. Recommend adopt with amendment. Calls on Bishop Tom Ely of Vermont, sub-cmte. chair ?#gc77?
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As I understand it, GC has authorized blessing civil unions. But we now have Marriage in the northeast US and many other places. The discussion has moved on. By belatedly recognizing unions, however, GC may provide cover for enterprising church persons to go farther. The cat will not go back in the bag.
Gary’s been exchanging comments with Donald Schell. Donald Shell, Jeffrey Shy — suspect mental cross contamination.
Dear Jeffrey, I apologize for calling you Donald. For some reason I was confusing you with someone else.
Gary Paul Gilbert
Hi Eric, Passion is not something I associate with the Episcopal Church these days. Barbara Harris on one of the recent Integrity videos says there is too much timidity in the denomination today.
If you knew what you were doing with the bus analogy, great!
If we had done like Canada and remained loyal we would most likely already have full civil marriage equality in this country. And we could have avoided two civil wars. The first one split families in Long Island. Not pretty!
I think the Presbyterians were right to raise the issue of marriage. Though they narrowly rejected opening marriage to same-sex couples at least they raised the right question.
I am too much of a consumer advocate to celebrate this vote. The fine print I read is that this is not religious marriage and does nothing to support civil marriage for same-sex couples.
Gary Paul Gilbert
Hi Gary. Thanks very much for your comments.
My use of the bus analogy was not unintended, and as someone who actually has been on the Freedom Rides (in the 80’s — not the original ones) I did so with some trepidation. But I also wanted to make the point that the passion, the courage, and in some cases, the willingness to risk one’s life to acheive equality has not been present on the issue of marriage equality. Instead, we see the standard TEC paradigm–send it to committee, study it, put out a “safe” resolution, bloviate, repeat. And when in doubt, reduce it to pseudo-Elizabethan English, make it really obtuse, and try again.
For heaven’s sake–it’s a wonder we’re not still a friggin’ English colony. After all, we certainly would not wish to be unkind towards those who believe we should be subject to taxation without representation.
Again, I applaud the recent votes, but the phrase “moral courage” is not the first to come to mind.
Eric Bonetti
What denomination is flourishing? The Catholics? Nope. Empty churches in much of the world. More and more lapsed Catholics in the U.S. every year. A church that is only growing because of a temporary wave of immigration. Bankruptcies and closing parishes. So what’s your point?
Dan Sloan