Bishop welcomes honesty on gays

[dArKeR]

Michael Ingham, Bishop of New Westminster in British Columbia, said the Anglican communion, which stretches from the wealthy suburbs of the West to the poorest villages of Africa, was suffering "a breakdown of the former way of doing things".

In May his diocese became the first in the 450-year history of Anglicanism to sanction blessings for gay and lesbian couples.

That decision, along with the election in the United States of the church's first openly practising homosexual bishop, has triggered a crisis which has rocked the 70-million-strong communion to its core.

"The former way of doing things in the church was 'nudge, nudge, wink, wink; don't ask, don't tell'," Ingham told Reuters at a meeting of gay and lesbian Christians in Manchester.

"We all know that blessings of same sex unions have been going on for generations and that many bishops are gay.

"But as long as it was all under the table, as long as official policy was clear but we could ignore it in practice, people seemed happy," he said.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/24by7panews/page.cfm?objectid=13553991&method=full&siteid=50143

I would suggest a great documentary:
OUT IN NATURE: HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
http://www.aptonline.org/Catalog.nsf/0/E2F5D489EACCA43D85256CBF0070D915?OpenDocument

Besides the great report it mentions how it's been known for more than a 100 years but deleted from all government reports.

[oxymoron]

1. The natural occurrance of homosexuality in almost all species...

is almost always summarily dismissed. I just don't understand why it isn't accepted as a naturally occurring thing. Hell, I knew I was gay at 6. You can't tell me it's not somehow "hardwired". 4 boys in my family, 2 of which are gay. I see this all the time. I think there is definitely a genetic factor.

<edit for typos>

[roguevalley]

2. recent studies indicate it is hard wired in.

Even animals are gay. Incredible that people are so stupid.

[pasadenaboy]

3. to me

its totally irrelevant whether it is nurture or nature.

The rights of people in this country are not dependent on whether their actions are hardwired or not.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

4. Having been associated with the Episcopal church since 1973

I know that this bishop is absolutely right.

Ironically, some of the most conservative parishes have a high percentage of gay members. For a while, I attended such a parish on the East Coast, and although homosexuality was not a major topic of discussion in the 1970s (everyone was debating the ordination of women), I oculdn't help noticing that none of the three priests (ages approximately 30, 50, and 60) was married, even though they could have been, and that there were a lot of pairs of men who always came to church together.
Another ironic fact is that although we've just gone through a controversy in which the American church voted to accept a gay bishop, there has never, to my knowledge, been an official ruling on gay priests. Yet the number of "out" gay clergy has gradually increased. My impression is that the bishops are just taking it upon themselves to ordain GLB deacons and priests, just as some priests are taking it upon themselves to perform wedding ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples.

The ordination of GLB clergy is an open secret, and the consecration of an "out" gay bishop was only a matter of time.

I wonder if the opposition of the conservative parishes and dioceses is a matter of self-hatred.

[regnaD kciN]

5. From my (gay) Vicar...

Q: Why are Episcopalians so bad at chess?
A: They can't tell the difference between a Bishop and a Queen.

;-)