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Loading...Episcopal Church Moves Closer to Accepting Trans Clergy
A panel of senior members of the Episcopal Church on Saturday voted in favor of allowing the ordination of transgender ministers, bringing the Church one step closer to a fully inclusive LGBT environment.
The House of Bishops voted at the church’s General Convention to include “gender identity and expression” in its “non-discrimination canons,” meaning sexual orientation, including that of people who have undergone sex-change operations, cannot be used to exclude candidates to ministry.
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The resolutions on gender would allow transgender individuals access to enter the Episcopal lay or ordained ministries, and extend the overall non-discrimination policy to church members.
The measure must now be approved by the church’s House of Deputies.
The Episcopal Church was of course the first within the modern Anglican Communion to ordain an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson. This sparked a fierce debate that still rages within the Anglican Church today.
Interestingly, the Episcopal Church in 2009 voted against enumerating specific classes, settling instead for a blanket nondiscrimination policy. However senior church officials now seem to have now reconsidered this position, possibly because of the several states that, in the time that has passed, have moved to adopt such explicit protections.
This change is being considered at the Church’s triennial convention which is being held in Indianapolis.
There is also expected to be a vote on standardizing liturgy for blessing same-sex unions. The Episcopal Church, while defining marriage as being between a man and a woman, gives great deference to ministers who wish to bless same-sex partnerships but there has, until now, been no agreed upon language for such blessings.
This came in the same week that the Presbyterian Church voted down a measure that would have allowed the church to recognize same-sex unions–though it was by a narrow margin that the measure failed.
Related Reading:
California Episcopalian Church to Bless Gay Unions
Presbyterian Church USA Votes to Affirm Gay Clergy in Same-Sex Partnerships
Pope Urges “Defense” of Marriage
Read more: civil rights, episopal church, gay marriage, gay rights, lgbt Indiana, lgbt religion, lgbt rights, marriage equality, same-sex marriage
Image used under the Creative Commons Attribution License with thanks to danny.hammontree.
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22 comments
+ add your ownI , too am proud to be an Episcopalian! My priest is openly gay and he is top-notch! He converted from Roman Catholicism. Our gain is their loss.
thx.
Who speaks for God? Too many people with too many different point of view.
Great news
The baby steps continue and I am pleased. Let us all continue to spread the word how un-Christlike those that spew hate and condemnation are. Let us also remember that they are in a sense blind and have been conditioned to hate by those who would like to destroy the lovingkindness we are so capable of extending to each other.
tHE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN CLERGY IS THAT THEY SHOULD NOT EXPECT TO GO TO HEAVEN ON OUR COATTAILS...OR HELL.
Sarah H.--Perhaps you should read your Bible more closely. I am Episcopalian, and I am proud that I belong to a church that practices what it preaches. The fanatics who fight so hard against LGBT people purport to be Christians, but they do not practice the Christian faith. How can you claim to follow the teachings of someone when you do the very opposite of what they do. Jesus Christ preached love and peace, not hatred and condemnation. He ate with tax collectors and befriended prostitutes. He didn't condemn anyone, and displayed anger only once--when He chased the money-changers out of the temple. He shed His blood for our sins--even yours. JESUS CHRIST IS A LIBERAL. Do you really feel that a man in a woman's body, an accident of birth, should be forced to live as a woman his whole life? Gay people are born that way. They are the creation of God. Do you really think God made a mistake? If you do, then you need help for your mental condition.
Sounds like a good first step.
I'm not very religious but I'm glad I am Episcopalian! They seem to make me proud quite often.
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