By Matt Radlerthe Daily Northwestern
A panel of clergy, professors and students discussed the consequences and conflicts of the Episcopal Church’s acceptance of homosexuality Thursday night at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary.
In front of about 50 people, the Rev. Liz Stedman, chaplain at Northwestern’s Episcopal Campus Ministry, led the discussion titled “Beyond Us and Them: How the Episcopal Church’s embrace of LGBT people is invigorating its proclamation of the Gospel.” The event was sponsored by Rainbow Alliance as part of its series of Rainbow Week events.
Stedman, an ordained Episcopal priest and a lesbian, said the church’s public acceptance of gay clergy has brought both spiritual benefits and controversy.
“The Episcopal Church is moving from a position of charity to one of identity,” she said. “Rather than feel sorry for them, the problems of gay men and women are really being taken into account.”
Stedman said the conflict between the Episcopal Church and other Anglican denominations began in 2003 with the selection of openly gay clergyman Gene Robinson as a bishop. Since then, disagreements over the proper position on homosexuality have divided Episcopalians in the United States and abroad.
The other panelists ranged from a doctoral student of philosophy to an NU professor of religion.
One speaker, Ruth Meyers, academic dean and professor of liturgics at Seabury, said the tolerance of gay leaders in the church reflects a change in how Episcopalians view homosexuality in the context of Christianity.
“God is at work in (homosexual) relationships,” she said. “The church is coming to recognize that. That becomes a witness and a testimony to us as people of faith in the United States.”
Kelby Harrison, a doctoral candidate in philosophy, said a faith must not denounce or reject homosexuals if it wants them to find it meaningful. By making a gay man a leader in the church, the Episcopalians become more inclusive toward all sexualities, she said.
“In order for gay people to feel divine, they must see themselves in the divine,” Harrison said. “That gives gay people the right to think through the sacred.”
Yet panelist and Music senior Katie Nakamura said she sees little consensus within the church as she prepares to become a seminary student at the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama.
“The question of ordaining gay men or women in Alabama is not a question,” she said. “It won’t happen.”
In response to an article on the Gene Robinson controversy, Prof. Richard Kieckhefer, a panelist and chairman of NU’s religion department, said he wrote a letter to The New Yorker.
“In the letter, I argued that perceptions shape reality,” Kieckhefer said. “A society, which can be supportive of gay and lesbian relationships, in a way enables those relationships. All of the responses I got for the letter were positive.”
One audience member, Weinberg sophomore and Rainbow Alliance executive board member Jason Eby, said the event highlighted positive developments for the gay community.
“A big part of our initiative for Rainbow Week was visibility,” he said. “I think this event really took our sentiments and made them clear – that a body as large as the Episcopal Church is not only accepting but affirming the gay and lesbian community is a great victory.”
In the question-and-answer session that followed the panel’s discussion, Stedman said outward hostility toward different sexualities could hurt not just her church, but other churches also.
“Christianity could get stalled in Victorian notions of the body and sex and marriage,” she said. “It could die, Christianity could die.”
Reach Matt Radler at [email protected].
