Monday, January 03, 2011

Historic Lesbian Marriage in Boston Cathedral Unites Top Clergy of Episcopal Church

Cambridge, Mass. Jan 02 2011

The Episcopalian bishop of Massachusetts began 2011 by solemnizing the first lesbian marriage - of two senior Episcopalian clergy - at Boston's St Paul's Cathedral Saturday (January 1).

The marriage of Episcopal Divinity School, dean and president, the Very Reverend Katherine Hancock Ragsdale and Mally Lloyd, Canon to the Ordinary, was the first lesbian marriage solemnized by the Right Reverend M Thomas Shaw SSJE, Bishop Diocesan of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

At the marriage attended by close to 400 guests, Bishop Shaw commented: “God always rejoices when two people who love each other make a life long commitment in marriage to go deeper into the heart of God through each other. It's a profound pleasure for me to celebrate with God and my friends, the marriage of Katherine and Mally.”

The couple met on June 30, 2008, at the urging of a mutual friend. At the time, Canon Lloyd, 57, said, “We were both travelling a lot and so we would talk by phone. And somehow when you talk a lot by phone, a relationship can go deeper more quickly than when you spend time in person. At least that is what happened to us.”

Although this is a second marriage for Canon Lloyd, it is the first for Dean Ragsdale,52. “It's astonishing how the world is changing,'' Dean Ragsdale said, “when I grew up, I never believed I would be able to have someone special in my life and now to have almost 400 people show up to support us at our marriage ceremony is wonderful.”
Read the rest here if you have the stomach.

...And when a woman becomes pregnant within a loving, supportive, respectful relationship; has every option open to her; decides she does not wish to bear a child; and has access to a safe, affordable abortion – there is not a tragedy in sight — only blessing. The ability to enjoy God’s good gift of sexuality without compromising one’s education, life’s work, or ability to put to use God’s gifts and call is simply blessing.

These are the two things I want you, please, to remember – abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Let me hear you say it: abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done.

I want to thank all of you who protect this blessing – who do this work every day: the health care providers, doctors, nurses, technicians, receptionists, who put your lives on the line to care for others (you are heroes — in my eyes, you are saints); the escorts and the activists; the lobbyists and the clinic defenders; all of you. You’re engaged in holy work.
-Katherine Hancock Ragsdale (Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School Cambridge, MA.)
From a sermon July 21, 2007.

To any readers or visitors to this blog who may be Episcopalian; I apologize for what I am about to write. It is going to sound horribly harsh and judgmental. And it may offend some of you. But sometimes things need to be said plainly.

I think it was Perry Robinson who came up with the great line that in Christianity, you are who you are in communion with. With that in mind, you do know that you belong to the same church as these people, right? And that you are in full communion with the bishop who just blessed this "marriage," right? I am slow. So please indulge me and explain how anyone who self identifies as a Christian can in good conscience belong to a church that is by any reasonable standard utterly apostate. And yes, a church that does these things and ordains and promotes clergy who call abortion a blessing has ceased to be Christian. Do you call sinners into the Episcopal Church for their salvation? Do you in all honesty believe that the Episcopal Church is truly a branch of the catholic church spoken of in the ancient creeds? Do you seriously doubt for even an instant that if any of the Fathers of the Church walked the Earth today, that they would shout "ANATHEMA!" at the Episcopal Church?

24 comments:

Igumen Gregory said...

Perhaps this is not disturbing news! For those in the more traditional groups of Christians who are seeking this agenda, the Episcopal Church is your answer. Sign up now.

Chris Jones said...

In addition to everything else that is disturbing about this story, there is the fact that this marriage is uncanonical according to the current canon law of the Episcopal Church. While there is no doubt that ECUSA is moving towards the acceptance of same-sex marriage, the necessary changes to the canons and to the Prayer Book have not yet been made. Same-sex marriage is legal (by judicial fiat) in Massachusetts, but it is not canonical in the Episcopal Church.

However, don't look for Bishop Shaw to be charged and tried for breaking the canons anytime soon.

Matushka Anna said...

I too await an answer to the 'in communion' question.

Anastasia Theodoridis said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anastasia Theodoridis said...

An Episcopalian friend of mine observed, "There have always been gays in the clergy; so what?" and that seems to be the attitude of many. They think at least they are being honest in acknowledging it, and charitable in honoring it. Love IS what Chrisitanity is all about, yes?

One doesn't even know quite where to begin with such an attitue.

Chris Jones said...

One begins by asking the question What is "gay"?

Once one has the right answer to that question, it becomes easier to present and explain the Church's teaching.

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

Good point, Chris. These are in fact very sad people; the rate of suicide among them is 6 times that of the general population, IIRC.

My husband, a psychiatrist, insists upon not saying "gay" but "hlmosexual" or "lesbian".

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

Make thata "homosexual" of course...

Anonymous said...

If you have no Tradition or believe that the Traditions of the Church are ‘out of date’ and extraneous, and even the Bible itself starts to be a ‘living breathing document’ that changes with the times or is open to any personal interpretation that ‘speaks’ to you, this is what you get.

Anonymous said...

No need to apologize, John, when you speak the truth.

The Archer of the Forest said...

Harsh words, but, sadly, correct. If any of these theological quacks showed up at my parish, they would not receive Communion.

Neil Parille said...

Will the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches break off ties with the Episcopal Church or the WCC/NCC over this?

Don't hold your breath.

-NP

amy said...

Thank you for posting this. I've never before read a sermon from a "christian pastor" hailing abortion as a blessing. Absolutely appalling. There is no reason, no pc obligation or courtesy why any true follower of Jesus Christ should afford this woman the appellation of "Very Reverened" in connection to our Lord and Saviour.

Who will hold her accountable on this earth?

John (Ad Orientem) said...

Neil
Neither Rome nor the Orthodox Church hold communion with the Episcopal Church. I can't speak for all of the jurisdictions, but the Russian Church and the OCA (to which I belong) refuse to hold any conversation or dialogue with them. Many priests with the tacit approval of their bishops are starting to refuse to accept Episcopal baptisms from converts.

I am not sure what you meant by "ties" but I see little that could be labeled as such from an Orthodox perspective.

In ICXC
John

priest's wife - S.T./ Anne Boyd said...

Let us pray for their souls- so sad, it is not surprising that one of them would find abortion to be a blessing...so sad

Neil Parille said...

John,

That's good news, but aren't most orthodox churches members of the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches? Don't these organizations have the Episcopal Church as members?

Will there be Orthodox representatives at Benedict's 25th anniversary celebration of Assisi?

-NP

Gerry Hunter said...

This is but more proof (if any more be needed) that what one believes has no bearing on the whether or not one can legitimately be called an "Anglican." It also demonstrates that there is no mechanism in Anglicanism to make that matter, and no prospect of there ever being one.

The Archer of the Forest said...

For the record, most Episcopalians I know are horrified by the rant of this "priest" on abortion. Even the pro-choice crowd in the church largely thinks its dreadful. This woman has been banned from performing any priestly duties in several dioceses.

The Archer of the Forest said...

Likewise, most bishops, at least here in the upper Midwest and in the South have banned seminarians from attending the Episcopal Divinity School.

Matushka Anna said...

But that's sort of congregationalist, isn't it? My parents are Episcopalian and their defense is that the little church they belong to is "ultra-conservative" and the priest there has never espoused any of these beliefs. Either the church as a whole accepts her or condemns her, right? (Pardon any ignorance here; I'm no theologian or church scholar.)

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of an old joke, from Terry Mattingly I think, that goes something like this:

"The year is 2017. Two Anglo-Catholic Episcopal priests are standing in the foyer of the National Cathedral as the Presiding Bishop and her lesbian lover begin to process down the center aisle of the cathedral in a cloud of incense, carrying a statue of the Buddha. And one Anglo-Catholic priest turns to the other and says, “You know, one more thing and I’m outta here.”

I don't mean to make light of the conservatives who remain, as for years they have been enduring the unendurable, but I can't understand why anyone identifying as a traditional or conservative Christian would stay, particularly since none of the Anglicans claim they are the one true Church.

- Steve

Anonymous said...

That's why many of us are either already gone or making our way out of the Episcopal Church. Me, I'm on the way to Rome. My former pastor is gone to Antioch. May all Episcopalians recognize the bankruptcy of Anglicanism and make their way to a real "branch" of the Church.

Ordinariate bound priest

Anonymous said...

Neil Parille said...
"...aren't most orthodox churches members of the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches?"

My jurisdiction, Antiochian Orthodox Church, has left the NCC.

I was a cradle Episcopalian, and when I was going to be chrismated into the Orthodox Church, I had to take a copy of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer into Father to prove that I had been baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

- The Pilgrim

Jacquelyn Stager said...

We had to break communion with the Episcopal Church 20 years ago for the same reasons outlined here. The slippery slope has only become more slippery. It's painful to witness.