A suburban Chicago Episcopal parish, active in ministry to homosexuals, has voted to leave the Episcopal Church after a dispute with the Chicago bishop, who has ordained openly homosexual priests.
The rector, vestry, and nearly all members of Church of the Resurrection, a rapidly growing Episcopal church in the western suburbs of Chicago, are leaving the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago over the bishop’s stand on homosexuality. William Beasley, Resurrection’s rector, and his wife, Anne, a permanent deacon, submitted their resignations from the diocese effective November 30.
“We have been scandalized by this diocese’s abandonment of the Scriptures as the source of truth and authority in matters of faith, doctrine, and practice,” the parish’s senior warden, Dan Easley, wrote to Bishop Frank T. Griswold III in November. “Your willingness to ordain and sustain in ministry practicing homosexuals is only one indication that this diocese has moved beyond the Scriptures and the biblical tradition it was founded on.” Resurrection, which grew from a struggling West Chicago mission to a parish of more than 500 under the leadership of the Beasleys, includes a Hispanic congregation, which also will leave the diocese. About 20 members of Resurrection have expressed interest in staying within the diocese, said diocesan spokesman David Skidmore. The split creates two bodies. Episcopal Church of the Resurrection will remain in the diocese as a mission parish, receiving diocesan support until it is able to sustain itself again. It has decided to meet for six weeks and then decide if it wants to continue. Church of the Resurrection will have the standing of an independent church.
Earlier in 1993 another dispute arose when Resurrection moved its worship services to Edman Chapel on the campus of nearby Wheaton College without getting the blessing of Episcopal parishes with ministries near the campus.
“Please forgive us for the hurt this has caused you, and be assured of our desire to reconcile with you,” Resurrection’s vestry wrote to the parishes in July. Two of the parishes responded in a similar tone of reconciliation.
Ministry to homosexuals
Resurrection’s leaders stressed that their conflict with the diocese concerned theology, not interparish relations. For several years Resurrection has taught that God enables homosexual Christians to live in celibacy and, in many cases, to become heterosexuals. Christian therapist Leanne Payne, who has written several books on homosexuality and healing, attends Resurrection.
Griswold said he affirms some aspects of Resurrection’s ministry to homosexuals. “My sense is that there is much truth; there is much concern that is expressed in their ministry to homosexuals.” Nevertheless, Griswold believes not all homosexual Christians are called to celibacy.
Griswold acknowledged in an interview with CHRISTIANITY TODAY that he has ordained homosexual priests. “The question with respect to sexuality is, How is this person’s sexuality part of their living of the gospel? How is it integrated into them as a person? How is it integrated into their faith?”
The issue became still more pastoral for Beasley when a young parishioner took the bishop’s position as a possible reason for the legitimacy of homosexuality. “It was a matter of waking up to the fact that, pastorally, people are being hurt,” Beasley told CHRISTIANITY TODAY. Beasley and the vestry met with Griswold in January and July last year to discuss differences to no avail.
Other defections
The Episcopal Church has debated homosexuality since the 1970s. A number of Episcopal bishops have ordained openly homosexual priests. In 1979, the general convention said homosexual ordinations were not appropriate. Griswold and other bishops say that resolution is advisory because it is not canon law.
Meeting in 1991, the general convention affirmed the denomination’s traditional teaching that “physical sexual expression is appropriate” only within heterosexual marriage, but acknowledged what it called “the discontinuity between this teaching and the experience of many members of this body.” The general convention will meet again in late August. Two dioceses, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, recently urged the convention to approve homosexual ordinations and to authorize liturgies for blessing same-sex unions.
Since 1991, a small but steady number of individual priests and parishes have converted to Roman Catholicism, Antiochian Orthodoxy, the 36-parish Charismatic Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Missionary Church, and other breakaway “continuing churches.”
Michael Youssef, rector of the 1,200-member Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, led his parish out of the Episcopal Church after the 1991 general convention. He believes the 1994 convention probably will move the denomination still closer to sanctioning homosexuality.
Youssef is forming a group, tentatively called the Association of Evangelical Anglican Churches in North America, to unite breakaway Episcopal parishes.
“Some folks feel we need to hang in there and be light, but they’re becoming amber,” Youssef said. “These are some of my dearest friends, but it’s like the frog in a kettle of water that keeps heating up slowly.”
Beasley said Church of the Resurrection will form a council, including people outside of the parish, to decide future affiliation. “I believe the only way out of all this is repentance. We may be talking about a small Reformation.”
By Douglas L. LeBlanc.
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