James Stanton

A resolution in the works for years came to fruition this week when same-sex blessings were approved by the House of Bishops at the Episcopal General Convention.

The blessing is a recognition of the couple’s commitment by the church and blesses their union together, much like a wedding ceremony without the legality. The Episcopal Church became the largest denomination in the U.S. to endorse same-sex unions with the resolution, which passed with a vote of 111-41 with three abstentions and approves the blessings for three years.

However, Dallas’ heavily LGBT Episcopal Church of St. Thomas the Apostle won’t likely perform the ceremonies at all. The Rev. Steve Waller, openly gay rector at St. Thomas, told Dallas Voice last month that he had not asked for permission to perform the blessing if it was approved at convention because conservative Dallas Diocese Bishop James Stanton wouldn’t allow them.

Bishops have the authority to approve or ban same-sex blessings in parishes in their diocese as outlined in the resolution.

“We would not be given such permission by our diocese,” Waller said. “I can’t speak for the bishop, but I suspect he will toe the line and not grant permission. Our bishop has been pretty clear that he didn’t want to do that.”

Waller could not be reached Thursday for comment on the resolution’s passage. Stanton didn’t return calls last month or Thursday asking whether he would allow the blessings.

The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth’s provisional bishop, the Rt. Rev. C. Wallis Ohl, told Dallas Voice that he would retire soon and would leave it up to the next bishop to decide if the blessing will be allowed.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the passage brought tears to gay couples at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Houston’s heavily gay Montrose area.

“I’ve had people in tears” over the approval, said the Rev. Lisa Hunt. “It’s one thing for us as community to say you’re welcome and then to have rites that you can’t do … now they can really believe that the welcome is true.”

St. Stephen’s and St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin were the first two parishes to be granted permission to perform the blessings by Bishop Andy Doyle of the Diocese of Texas. Hunt said she plans to perform them as early as November.

The convention, which began last week and ends today, also approved new anti-discrimination language for transgender clergy and church members.

Cheryl Edwards

DAVID TAFFET  |  Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com

Sheri Crandall serves dinner at Ewing House once a month, and has been for six years. She is one of 11 women who have volunteered their time to help those living with HIV/AIDS who will be honored at brunch this weekend sponsored by A Sister’s Gift Women’s Center.

A Sister’s Gift provides resources and support for women living with HIV/AIDS. Cheryl Edwards founded the organization in memory of her brother, Ronald Lewis, who died of AIDS in 1995.

A Sister’s Gift will recognize Crandall as “Volunteer — feeding with faith.”

Crandall said she was embarrassed to be honored for simply doing the right thing. When she joined Church of the Incarnation, an Episcopal church on McKinney Avenue in Uptown, people were already involved with the AIDS Services of

Dallas supper club. She’s taken the program to heart and over the years has become friendly with some of the residents.

“Some have been there the entire time,” she said. “Others transition in and out, and others pass away.”

Crandall said that some residents have special dietary needs and the group tries to keep that in mind in preparing a meal that is as healthy as possible. But, she said, if groups didn’t continue serving meals at the facility, some people wouldn’t eat.

Rosemarie Odom will be recognized as a community advocate.

Odom co-founded C.U.R.E., a Collin County-based group that uses panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in HIV education efforts. This week, C.U.R.E. members hung 18 panels at the Anatole Hotel for the Out & Equal conference.

Odom said that she and Roseann Rosetti started C.U.R.E. because the number of HIV cases were increasing and fewer people seemed to know about it.

“People forgot about what happened in the early ’80s or didn’t know about it,” she said, adding that many people who come to see the quilt panels have never seen the quilt before.

The group has had success displaying panels in Plano and Frisco public schools and starting a discussion about HIV, Odom said, noting that, “Everyone wants to take a picture with it and touch it.”

For World AIDS Day, Odom said C.U.R.E. is planning an event in downtown Dallas with AIDS Interfaith Network. They will display panels from the quilt at the brunch.

Gretchen Kelly will be recognized at the brunch as an HIV fundraiser and volunteer patient advocate. For more than 20 years, Kelly has helped raise funds for a variety of agencies including DIFFA, AIDS Services of North Texas, Legal Hospice of

Texas, AIDS Services Dallas and AIDS Interfaith Network.

But rather than talking about herself, Kelly said Edwards should be getting the award.

“She made a promise to her brother,” she said. “She’s worked really hard to make it work. She’s dedicated her life to it.”

Edwards founded A Sister’s Gift after her brother died of AIDS to provide resources and support for women living with HIV/AIDS.

Edwards said the idea for the brunch came several years ago when she was given an award and noticed that she was the only woman being recognized.

She remembered a woman who took care of her brother when her parents were out of town and she said she knew there had to be a lot of other women whose devotion to people with HIV were not being recognized.

“Women’s needs are different from men’s,” she said.

Edwards called one of the primary services provided by A sister’s Gift “navigational counseling.”

“After many women are diagnosed with HIV, most are clueless about where to go and what to do,” she said.
Edwards said the goal is to make sure women with HIV get medical care and stay on their regimen. They provide bus passes to make sure clients can get to doctors appointments.

More than 95 percent of A Sister’s Gift’s clients live below the poverty line. So when possible, they provide grocery assistance and utility assistance.

TOP Event Center, 1508 Cadiz St. Oct. 29 at 11:30 a.m.
$20 online at ASistersGift.org.
$25 at the door.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition October 28, 2011.

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is the only major GOP presidential candidate who’s spoken out against the Family Leader’s “Marriage Vow.”

Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:

1. The “Marriage Vow” pledge that a right-wing Iowa group is asking presidential candidates to sign continues to make headlines. Over the weekend, the group, called the Family Leader, removed a portion of the pledge’s preamble which suggested blacks were better off during slavery. But this wasn’t before GOP candidates Michele Bachmann — who, alarmingly, leads one recent Iowa poll — and Rick Santorum had already signed the pledge, which also says homosexuality is a choice and calls for banning all pornography. Thus far, only one GOP presidential candidate, Gary Johnson, has spoken out against the pledge, although Jon Huntsman has also confirmed he won’t sign it.

2. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s new policy allowing ordination of non-celibate gays and lesbians took effect Sunday. Many congregations marked the change with a national day of prayer organized by More Light Presbyterians, which pushes for LGBT equality within the church. The 2.8 million member Presbyterian Church joins other Protestant denominations including the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, in allowing gay clergy.

3. Six police officers have been fired for lying about what happened during a September 2009 raid of the Atlanta Eagle, a gay bar, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. More officers face hearings this week following the release of a 343-page report showing they lied or destroyed evidence in the wake of the raid. Eight men were arrested during the raid, but charges were dropped and the city later paid the men more than $1 million to settle a federal lawsuit.

Above is video of the Houston megachurch pastor’s latest remarks, which are scheduled to air tonight on CNN. And below is a press release that just came across from the Human Rights Campaign:

HRC to Joel Osteen:  Use Your Pulpit for Good, Not Hate

Televangelist’s Hateful Remarks Before a National Audience are Dangerous

WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest civil rights organization dedicated to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality, today called on Joel Osteen, pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, TX and well-known evangelical preacher with a syndicated television following of over 7 million viewers, to immediate apologize for his remarks on national television that “the Scripture shows that [homosexuality] is a sin.” Osteen made the remarks on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight. The full show will air tonight.

“It’s a real shame that someone of Joel Osteen’s prominence and life experiences would repeat this tired and dangerous statement. It furthers ignorance and discrimination by some Americans and adds a burden to those already struggling to accept their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. “One would hope Mr. Osteen would use his pulpit, with an audience of over 7 million people, to tell all human beings that they are loved just the way they are. Instead he chose to send a dangerous and irresponsible message.”

The American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association have both concluded that same-sex attraction is normal.

Mr. Osteen’s position does not reflect the views of many religious leaders and denominations. Mainline denominations such at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and the Episcopal Church, see God’s divine presence working across the spectrum of human sexuality. Many Baptists also dispute Mr. Osteen’s stance.

“Joel Osteen is certainly entitled to his opinion, but America needs to know that he doesn’t speak for all Christians, he doesn’t even speak for all Baptists,” said Rev. Dr. Miguel de la Torre, a Baptist minister and member of the HRC Religion Council. “As a Southern Baptist and an ethicist I believe that we can’t follow Jesus’ commandment to love God and our neighbor as our self if we start with the premise that homosexuality is sinful. Starting with the belief that people are sinful doesn’t allow us to get to know them, let alone love them.”

HRC encourages young Baptists who are struggling with their identity to contact the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists (AWAB) for resources on the church and sexuality. AWAB’s website is http://www.wabaptists.org/. AWAB partnered with the Human Rights Campaign in 2010 to honor several Washington, DC area Baptist pastors who were instrumental in passing marriage equality legislation in the District of Columbia.

The first openly gay Episcopal bishop said Saturday, Nov. 6 that he will retire in 2013, due in part to the “constant strain” on him and his family from the worldwide backlash against his election seven years ago.

Bishop V. Gene Robinson, whose consecration convulsed the global Anglican fellowship, said he was announcing his retirement early so the transition would be smooth for the Diocese of New Hampshire. He assured congregants that he is healthy and sober after seeking treatment for alcoholism five years ago. He will be 65 when he steps down.

Robinson revealed his plans at the annual diocesan convention in Concord.

“The fact is, the last seven years have taken their toll on me, my family and you,” the bishop said, in prepared remarks released by the diocese. “Death threats, and the now-worldwide controversy surrounding your election of me as bishop have been a constant strain, not just on me, but on my beloved husband, Mark.”

Robinson was surrounded by bodyguards and wore a bulletproof vest under his vestments when he was consecrated in 2003, an event celebrated far beyond the church as a breakthrough for gay acceptance even as it broke open a long-developing rift over what Anglicans should believe.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. body in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, a group of churches that trace their roots to the missionary work of the Church of England.

The spiritual head of the Anglicans, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, has been struggling to keep the fellowship together since Robinson was installed.

Episcopal and Anglican traditionalists overseas formed alliances and created the Anglican Church in North America as a conservative rival to the Episcopal Church.

Under pressure from conservatives, Williams did not invite Robinson to the 2008 Lambeth Conference, a once-a-decade meeting of the world’s Anglican bishops. Instead, Robinson flew privately to England and spoke at local churches while the other Anglican bishops convened.

Robinson and his partner of more than two decades, Mark Andrew, held a civil union ceremony in 2008, and the bishop publicly advocated for same-sex marriage in New Hampshire, which the state approved last year. Robinson also gave the opening prayer at a concert ahead of Barack Obama’s inauguration as president.

The bishop’s retirement will not heal tensions among Anglicans, which go beyond Robinson. Episcopalians solidified their support for same-sex relationships last year by authorizing bishops to bless same-sex unions and by consecrating a lesbian, Assistant Bishop Mary Glasspool of Los Angeles.

In his speech Saturday, Robinson thanked congregants for supporting him through the tumult over his election.

“New Hampshire is always the place I remain, simply, ‘the bishop.’ This is the one place on earth where I am not ‘the gay bishop,”’ Robinson said. “I believe that you elected me because you believed me to be the right person to lead you at this time. The world has sometimes questioned that, but I hope you never did.”

Bishop Robinson signs copies of his book Wednesday at the Cathedral.

As I reported in today’s Voice, Bishop V. Gene Robinson preached Wednesday night at the Cathedral of Hope. I had the privilege of sitting down with Robinson, who became the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church in 2004, prior to the service. Here’s a transcript:

Q: First, a quick point of clarification, last time you were here for Black Tie Dinner in 2008, you told me you couldn’t preach in the Dallas diocese without Bishop James Stanton’s permission. You’re scheduled to preach tonight at the Cathedral. Has something changed?
A: The circumstances have changed. I can’t function liturgically, which includes preaching in an Episcopal church, without the bishop’s permission, and I would never do that. When I was here, it might have been the same week as Black Tie Dinner [in 2008], I went out to [St. Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church]. Because I did not have his permission, I just spoke after the service at the coffee hour, but because this is a United Church of Christ parish, I’m not bound by that. But I did back in early December let the bishop know that I was going to be here and what I was going to do.

Q: So you’re not going to be breaking any rules tonight?
A: No, no headlines there.

Q: OK, well speaking of headlines, the Episcopal Church recently elected its second openly LGBT bishop, the Rev. Mary Glasspool of Los Angeles. How big is that?
A: I couldn’t be more delighted, and I’ve just been with her down in Navasota, Texas, at the House of Bishops meeting. Those bishops who have received their necessary consent to be consecrated are invited there even though they haven’t been consecrated yet, and she will be consecrated on May 15, and I will be there in Los Angeles for that. … I think it’s huge. To do this once might have been a mistake, but to do it twice, it means that this is the direction the church is going. And I have to tell you, I was really surprised at the House of Bishops meeting this week that there just didn’t seem to be all that much controversy over it. I think those who are happy about it are happy about it, and those who are not happy about it seem resolved and understanding that this is the direction we’re moving, and so we’re just going to move on. So I’m delighted for her that the angst has not bubbled quite as wildly as it did from my election.

Q: In fact, it barely even made the news, right?
A: It’s really amazing, isn’t it? And that’s true at the international level, as well as our Episcopal Church level. I think there’s something about the second one that makes it quite intentional. There is no turning back. In 2003 I was elected, consented to, and at the next General Convention in 2006, we heard what a problem this was for the rest of the Anglican Communion, and so we wondered, had we done the right thing? We sort of put everything on hold. By the convention this past summer in 2009 we had considered that and then decided no, actually, we hadn’t made a mistake, and we were going to move forward and we passed those resolutions, and indeed Mary was elected in December. So I think it’s hugely significant.

Q: On the flip side, the Dallas Diocese recently called a special convention where they voted to reject the same-sex liturgy approved by the national church last year. How much of a disappointment is it to continue to see things like that happening?
A: Well, first of all we have not approved a liturgy, but we have set in motion a process that very well may lead to an authorized liturgy, so that’s an important distinction. You know, one of the things about the Episcopal Church is that it’s very much local control. It’s not hierarchical like the Roman Catholic Church is, so it does widely vary from diocese to diocese, and [Dallas] Bishop [James] Stanton, whom I get along with very well … It’s kind of funny, we were smoking buddies at the General Convention, so he and I were outside on the patio, smoking together and chatting all through the General Convention. … We chatted quite a lot, and we actually joked about the fact that people would be shocked that, you know, we were really quite cordial to one another. We obviously stand in diametrically opposed positions on this issue, and that’s not going to change, but I think what he and I would both say is that we can still be in the same church, and the essential things of the faith, we agree on, and I think that’s what I hope people are seeing in the Episcopal Church, that there can be a wide diversity of opinion. After all, we have a wide diversity of opinion on abortion and on who should be president and probably on health care, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find our way to the altar and receive communion and go back to the pews and fight about those things. I think in a world and in a nation that is increasingly polarized, that’s actually quite a remarkable witness. Just on the news today, they’re talking about death threats against some of the congressional delegation who voted for health care reform. They’re talking about people threatening violence and all of that, so it’s not an unimportant witness to be making at this time, I think.

Q: But doesn’t it bother you that he accepts you personally as a friend, and yet his position is essentially that gays and lesbians are less than equal?
A: Of course it bothers me, but you know the way I deal with that is, I’m pretty sure how this is all going to turn out: This is going to turn out with the full inclusion of gay and lesbian and bisexual and transgender people in the life of the church and the life of the nation, and I don’t want to be arrogant saying that, but I do have faith that that’s where we’re headed, and it’s hard to find anybody under 30 that thinks this is remotely an issue, much less an issue that should be tearing apart the church or anyone else. So I do think that my job is to be gracious to him, and learn from him what I can learn, and then continue being a good and faithful bishop as best I can, and in the end I think that will win the day.

Q: And you don’t have any illusions that you can change his mind?
A: No, no, no, I don’t think so. He seems pretty committed to his position and he has every right to hold it.

Q: And you didn’t argue about it when you were smoking?
A: Nope, neither one of us needed to go there.

Q: And all three of us — he, you and I — need to quit smoking.
A: Exactly. I’ll quit when Barack Obama quits.

Q: I also read today that you’ve recently been named a senior fellow at the Center of American Progress. Congratulations on this. Does this mean it’s OK to mix religion and politics?
A: We’ve always mixed religion and politics despite what your mother told you about never mixing those two things, and the writing that I will do for them will seek to do what they asked me to do, which is to bring a religion and moral perspectives to the issues that face us. So, I am not likely to be promoting one party, or one particular position, but what I will attempting to do is to say, ‘OK, if we hold these values, particularly for Jews, Christians and Muslims, the three great Abrahamic faiths, how does that inform our choices about these issues that face us? And for instance, on the issue of health care reform, both the Old and New testaments, the Jewish and Christian scriptures, as well as the Quran, are absolutely full of God’s preferential treatment of the poor, and a warning from the prophets that any society will be judged by how it treats the most vulnerable among that culture. That seems to me to point toward health care for all, and so that’s what I’ve said in my writing. That doesn’t say one provision ought to be in the health care bill or not, it doesn’t say one party is right or not, although I think in this case because the differences between the two parties and the cooperation on this effort was so polarized, it may very well. But it seems to me that we have a moral imperative to care for the most vulnerable among us. My writing will attempt to do that with respect to lots of different issues — immigration reform, the environment, LGBT issues and so on. It’s a wonderful forum from which to speak, and there are just a lot of smart people there that I’m excited to be working with.

Q: Another thing that’s happened since we last talked is marriage equality in your home state of New Hampshire. How big was that?
A: Huge, and you’re now talking to a married man.

Q: I didn’t realize that. Did it make the news when you did that?
A: No, and you know why? It was so private you cannot imagine it. I wasn’t even awake for it. … We had our civil union. New Hampshire legalized civil unions two years before it legalized marriage and in June of 2008, my partner and I had a civil union. That was our big service, both of our families were there, and 150 people and reception, and dinner and all of that. When we wrote the law in New Hampshire for same-sex marriage, we wrote the law to say, we wanted to make conversion to marriage as easy as possible, so according to the law, we went to our town clerk, we put in the number of our civil union, and the date on which we wanted it to become a marriage, and we chose the earliest date possible, which was Jan. 1, 2010, and at about 9:30 we wished each other a Happy New Year and went to bed, and woke up married. … Actually it was wonderful, and when we went out of the country for the first time on vacation last month, we took our marriage certificate with us, and there’s something simply wonderful about that, as well as practical. If one of us had gotten sick or for any number of reasons we might have needed that. Not that it would be recognized everywhere, but it’s not nothing.

Q: Speaking of LGBT issues, there’s been a lot of debate about strategy in the last few days, after the civil disobedience in D.C. and San Francisco last week, with Lt. Dan Choi chaining himself to the White House fence. What do you make of all this?
A: I’m certainly not in the middle of any of those strategies, but I continue to be confident that President Obama is moving inexorably toward the end of don’t ask, don’t tell. I know from my conversations with him earlier on, before his election, that he did not want to take a chance on having it turn out the way it turned out for Bill Clinton, and none of us want that, and so I think he’s being incredibly smart. I think that by the time we see its reversal, and I certainly think it’s going to happen before the end of the year, it seems to me the military is going to be begging for it, and what a great way to go into that, as opposed to what happened 15, 20 years ago. I continue to believe that this is the most gay-friendly president we’ve ever had, or may have in a very long time. I think the military itself, including the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, have been just remarkable on this issue, and while I wish it could happen faster, I still have confident that there is a strategy and that it’s being followed and that it will result in the overturning of that policy. You know, one of the things that I’m saddened by in our community is — and this is often true of the church as well — how sad that we pick a fight with each other, when the real threat to us is out there somewhere. I think we need large political organizations like HRC, I think we need smaller organizations like the National Gay Lesbian Task Force, and Lambda Legal. I think we need all of those bodies working at the levels that they work best at, and we’re not always going to agree about that. There’s always going to be an ACT-UP and a Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and we need both of those, and they each need each other. So I would like to see us disagreeing with one another without picking a fight, just as I’ve said publicly, I think there’s a difference between holding President Obama’s feet to the fire and picking a fight with him, and picking a fight with him seems to be incredibly stupid.

Q: So do you support the civil disobedience?
A: I don’t support it or not support it. I think different people are called to respond to the reality in different ways, and at the end of the day, they’re all important. So I certainly would not be critical of civil disobedience, but I think it’s only one part of it. The president isn’t going to come out and talk to Dan Choi, but the president is going to talk to representatives from the Human Rights Campaign, and we need both of those things, and I think we need to keep the pressure on, and I think that’s what this civil obedience does.

Q: Lastly, tell us what brings you back to Dallas?
A: I love Dallas, for one, and every time I’ve been here, I’ve just been so wonderfully received, but the Cathedral of Hope has been just that for so many LGBT people over the years. I’ve actually been trying to come for a couple of years, and have never been able to work it out, and I knew I was going to be in Texas this week, and got back in touch with them, and said I would love to accept your invitation. You know, especially in a place like Dallas where in the culture and certainly in many of the churches, there has not been the kind of welcome for gay and lesbian people, nor have they been given much hope for full inclusion, and I partly wanted to come here to honor their ministry, over many years really. It was Harvey milk that said, ‘You’ve got to give them hope,’ and I think the Cathedral of Hope has been doing exactly that for a very long time, so I’m here to celebrate all that with them.

Bishop Mary Glasspool

The Episcopal Church has approved the ordination of Mary Glasspool as bishop of Los Angeles. She is the first openly gay person approved by the church since Gene Robinson became the bishop of the New Hampshire diocese in 1983. Glasspool is also the the first out lesbian bishop.

This news is in contrast to the local Episcopal diocese, which recently voted against same-sex marriage liturgy. More on that decision, including comments from members of St. Thomas the Apostle church and Bishop James Stanton, in the Spirituality section of Friday’s Dallas Voice.

The press release said the show airs tonight but I found it already posted here. Good stuff.