7/14/09
+Porter Taylor
Bishop, Diocese of WNC

Sometimes when I am in grocery stores or airports with my collar on, people will come up to me and ask questions about The Episcopal Church, as if I were Lucy (the cartoon one, not the saint) sitting at an advice booth. “What does the Church have to say about…?” they ask. Most of the time, my answer is “A lot.”

One of the reasons I love The Episcopal Church is our comprehensiveness. We are always on a journey to discover where God is leading us and God’s Church, and we believe that at our best, as in Pentecost, God speaks through many voices yet with the same refrain of our core doctrines and our common love of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday D025 was presented to the House of Bishops. I read it as a descriptive document. It states, “God has called and may call such individuals [gay and lesbian persons] to the ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church.” It is true. God has called, and at some point God may call again. No doubt people have different interpretations as to the time. We are in discernment about that, and we are in conversation about that with ourselves as well as the wider Communion. D025 contains no language about moratoria or B033 or same sex blessings or unions. It simply tells the truth about who we are as The Episcopal Church.

Growing up in the South, sometimes in an argument some of my elders would say, “Let’s don’t have a fight. We are all saying the same thing.” I would think to myself, “No, we having a fight because we are saying two different things.” There are many things we could fight about concerning human sexuality and past General Conventions, but D025 ought not to be one of them. It has enough Anglican ambiguity for most of us to live with it. No doubt people will read into it what they will, but in my view it is a snapshot of who we are.

In other news--yesterday we passed a Charter for Lifelong Christian Formation--which I am very excited about. The bishops passed mandatory enrollment of Episcopal dioceses in Medical Trust which will lower our health insurance costs as well as passing a resolution for pensions for lay employees (20 hours or more). We passed legislation about an Evangelism program for Spanish Speaking persons. We are getting into the home stretch---which is a very good thing.

Keep us in your prayers.
+Porter