The Episcopal Church has announced a very limited number of in-person attendees for the investiture of incoming presiding bishop Sean Rowe, set for November 2 and held in the 129-seat Chapel of Christ the Lord in The Episcopal Church Center in New York City. Touted as including “diverse representation from around the church,” that reflects major ethnic groups, there’s one group that conspicuously absent from the list of in-person attendees, and that is the LGBTQ+ community.
The omission of LGBTQ+ representatives reflects a disturbing and long-standing practice in the church, which is to noisily trumpet the church’s inclusion, while in practice tokenizing and marginalizing sexual minorities in the church, including brushing off clergy misconduct directed at LGBTQ+ church members.
Per the Episcopal Church’s website, in-person attendees will include:
- Family and close friends of the presiding bishop-elect
- The 26th and 27th presiding bishops and their spouses, as well as Phoebe Griswold
- President and vice president of the House of Deputies
- Presidents and vice presidents of the nine provinces
- Representatives from Latino Ministries, Asiamerica Ministries, African Descent Ministries, and Indigenous Ministries of The Episcopal Church
- Officers of the House of Bishops
- Executive Committee of Executive Council
- Presiding bishop’s senior staff
- Members of the Investiture Committee
- Co-chairs of the Transition Committee
- Co-chairs of the Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop
- Presidents of Church Pension Group and Episcopal Relief & Development
- International and ecumenical guests
- Chaplains to the House of Bishops and House of Deputies
- New York-area choristers and acolytes
Of course, coming on the heels of the Max Lucado debacle, the ongoing anti-LGBTQ+ animus of Santosh Marray, the tone-deaf decision by the Diocese of Virginia to host the anti-equality Oak Ridge Boys at Shrine Mont, and the move to host the consecration of Virginia bishop Mark Stevenson at a Southern Baptist Church—a denomination then under investigation by the FBI for its handling of abuse, and ardently anti-LGBTQ+—the announcement is hardly a surprise.
Needless to say, in-person attendees will include a number of LGBTQ+ persons, who will be there in other roles. But that is not the same as expressly including representatives, particularly since international guests and “New York-area choristers and acolytes” will make the cut. (Don’t even get us started on the topic of international guests, jet travel, and greenhouse gas emissions.)
What is really galling is that, when called on these issues, the Episcopal Church typically draws from the National Cathedral Dean Randy Hollerith playbook, which is to cite its unwavering support for equality and inclusion, while running roughshod over the very people it says it welcomes. Only when the hot potato gets too hot to handle will church officials apologize.
To be fair, the apologies from Episcopal Diocese of Washington bishop Mariann Budde and Hollerith were better than most, despite the fact we see little in the way of long-term change. Budde said:
In the days since, I have heard from those who were not only wounded by things Max Lucado has said and taught, but equally wounded by the decision to welcome him into the Cathedral’s pulpit,” Budde said. “I didn’t realize how deep those wounds were and how unsafe the world can feel. I should have known better. More than apology, we seek to make amends.”
So, in light of the decision to exclude representatives from the LGBTQ+ community from in-person attendance at the upcoming Rowe investiture, where does that leave sexual minorities in the Episcopal Church?
The answer reminds us of a female friend who jokingly refers to the men in her life as “good enough to sleep with, not good enough to sit on the furniture.”
In other words, LGBTQ+ persons, like women and other minorities, are welcome to give money to the church, to serve as music directors, priests, and sometimes bishops, to serve on vestries, and to labor at every level in the church. Indeed, the denomination often will make a point to include an openly LGBTQ+ person on committees—even better if the candidate is a “two-fer,” meaning they also are from a racial or ethnic minority.
That raises the issue: what would the reaction be if, for example, all the minority ethnic groups were invited except, say, indigenous people? Or persons of Asian descent? Folks would howl in outrage, and rightly so. But because the persons left by the side of the road are LGBTQ+, it’s okay, at least according to the Episcopal Church.
In other words, the church takes the LGBTQ+ community for granted. And the church is so clueless, that just like the waves of objections to Max Lucado’s preaching, so-called leaders brush off the concerns without even attempting to understand the reasons behind the criticisms. Maybe, if they actually took time to listen to voices outside the stained glass echo chamber, they’d get it, but we just don’t see that happening.
And the decision to exclude LGBTQ+ representatives from the upcoming investiture is ironic, as one of Rowe’s early mentors was a closeted lesbian Episcopal priest.
So, Anglican Watch staff has no plans to participate in Rowe’s investiture in any fashion. We’d much rather do something pleasant, like getting a root canal, volunteering as a “human pincushion” for phlebotomy trainees, or squashing stink bugs in the living room carpeting.
Maybe like with having women, they assume LGBT are already including? I don’t know. And likely, neither do they. Mass confusion. The Rector at Ascension and St. Agness in DC is confused about whether his church is even “affirming” though he is in a sane sex marriage and a sizable percentage of attendees and donors are gay males. Of course his church is affirming! So why quibble with it? Well, because he and core “leadership” are “in the closet” about there right-wing politics (including a former ambassador as Sr. Warden). They need the money and support from LGBT parishioners, but don’t want to alienate any right-wing dignitaries from whom they crave access and connections.
https://livingchurch.org/covenant/are-we-an-lgbt-affirming-parish/
It’s also worth noting that Mark Stevenson, bishop of Virginia, is part of the planning team for the investiture. I like Mark, and believe he’s sincere. But he doesn’t seem to understand the practical aspects of inclusion, or how his actions are perceived.
Apropos ASA, the rector is a good guy. But his background as a former Roman monk seems to leave him with a lot of unresolved inner conflict—including not simply inviting all of St. Paul’s K Street to his wedding; he served there at the time.
I don’t know anyone at STPK who wouldn’t have offered him and his husband unconditional love.
~Ed.
Regarding ASA Rector….I adored him at one point. And still really want to like him. However, he’s a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde. I’ve heard multiple reports from parishioners and lay leaders of him pushing people out, including pressuring the previous Rectors widow to hurry out of the rectory so he could have the floors sanded, though she and her son had just lost their husband/father; the vestry had given her a little extra time to find housing, and a former Vestry member told me the Rector’s response was “people die everyday” and “no one likes that woman”. She was not welcomed back for activities commemorating her husband. Multiple stories of parishioners leaving. A special needs lady pushed out of a womens group by rector (he later lied and said it was only for young women). And a recent Parish Administrator was pushed to resign and sign an NDA preventing him from talking about his departure. The PA remains silent, but others have leaked information from the church.
I think insecurity and wanting to protect his job is largely driving all of this….it’s a broken system, broken culture. Brings out the worse in people. Very little accountability.