This Too Shall Pass

This Too Shall Pass

Before passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920 women did not have the right to vote in every state, only men. 

In my growing up years, women could not serve on a parish vestry or as delegates to diocesan conventions or General Convention; or acolytes, lay readers, ... And though there were women "deaconesses," women could not be ordained. Then they could be deacon. Then priest. Then bishop. Then presiding bishop.

In 2003 an openly-gay man was elected bishop in the Episcopal Church, approved by General Convention, and consecrated. I objected strongly, and wrote so, not because the man was gay, but because it seemed sure to scandalize a large part of our church worldwide, especially churches in so-called “third world” countries where culture and certitude seem so different from ours. I thought it would cause schism in the worldwide Anglican Communion; and it has to some degree, though not the total collapse I expected. Obviously, it isn’t all over, and there have been realignments and may be more, but the hysteria is over and life goes on. The term “gay bishop” no longer sets world and Church ablaze, several more have been elected, approved, and consecrated; and the Episcopal Church goes on with Christian mission.

To my sadness, one thing I observed during our church’s most recent travail was vehement hatred of gay and lesbian people on the part of some, both in America and overseas, which I had not realized until all this opened up. My own slow realization over the eight years since 2003 is that I don’t really care to be in a church with those folks anyway, or in communion with them, Anglican or otherwise, don’t care to be in a Christianity part of which is hatred. Not to mention certitude.

Years ago I worked with a fellow naval officer whose reaction to every catastrophic crisis that put the admiral in a frenzy was “this too shall pass.” It always did.

My 2003 feeling about gay bishops is done. It isn’t an issue with me anymore. This too has passed.

What brought this chain of thought to mind? Last week’s major news coverage about the New York legislature. New York has joined Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C., in allowing same-sex couples to wed. Certitude and hatred may be seen in the issue; but, counter to prophetic hysteria, American marriages and the American family and the American way of life have not been destroyed in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont or Washington, D.C. It won’t happen in New York either. 

In due course, the frenzy will subside in New York, and life will go on as usual.

This too shall pass.

Tom+