Transcending Pride & Prejudice, John Rice

Rublev's Trinity

God’s love and welcome, as extended to my wife and myself in the mid 1970’s, first drew me to the Episcopal Church while living in northern Vermont. Since those days, I have worshiped in many other Episcopal Churches from Vermont to North Carolina, having been blessed to pastor three of them. What they all have had in common is God’s love for all who walk through their doors. Never have I seen church membership requirement based upon one’s sexual orientation. I give God thanks for this!

I guess in some ways, we are all sheltered from the realities of others. This certainly is true for both gay people and those that are straight. We obviously are not comfortable to walk in each others shoes; thus, it is amazingly difficult to understand the others perspective on the issues of our sexual orientation and how this informs and shapes our life together as communities of faith. We basically are not listening to one another, which makes it so challenging, if not impossible, to hear each others concerns and pain. For example, do we as a church know the deep pain that our homosexual brothers and sisters carry due to experiences of being judged, rejected and left to feel unwelcomed by heterosexual Christians. At the same time, do those who support the move towards blessing same sex unions understand that such a blessing would be seen as a painful betrayal by thousands of Episcopalians who have sought God’s ways through scripture, tradition, and reason.

Our church, the body of Christ that we refer to as the Episcopal Church, is being bruised and battered. We have become so very good at articulating our differences. However, we tend to lack the grace-filled eloquence of what we have in common – the love of God for all people as witnessed to us by the words and deeds of Jesus. O Lord, help us to move into listening that takes us into seeing – into conversations and dialogues that peak with such statements, “Oh, I really understand … I really ‘see’ what you’ve been saying.”

I must admit that I have stopped listening to the debate on sexual orientation - of whether it is a sin or not a sin. Whether my interpretation of scripture is right and yours is wrong. Why have I stopped listening? Because the air waves and written words are jammed with statements laden with judgment, anger, prejudice, and pride. It is like a husband and wife who go to marriage counseling. The counselor asks them to share what has been going on. Each is very good at pointing out the sins of the other, while neglecting their own. The power of prejudice, of seeing the other person in ways that are less than who God creates us to be, is rampant. Pride, the power of seeing myself as being more than who God creates me to be, is just as strong. We have our own reality show. We could call it the Episcopal Churches version of Pride and Prejudice.

Where do we go from here? I think we must go to God, seeking God’s deep Spirit-filled counsel. And we must go together – gays and straights, ‘Anglicans’ and Episcopalians. I believe that we are being given the opportunity to listen to God’s truth as revealed by God’s Spirit, and as best we can articulate these revelations to one another. Godly listening moves us towards the possibility of reconciliation. Reconciliation is only a short step from words of forgiveness. Forgiveness always brings resurrection – the gift of new life in our relationships with one another, the gift of new life within our churches, the gift of new life within God’s Episcopal Church. I pray this may become our new reality, with God’s help!