THE NEW BLACK FLAG AT THE ADVENT

A figurative black flag has been hoisted at the Episcopal Cathedral Church of the Advent, in Birmingham, Alabama, the place that is famous, or infamous, for hoisting a real black flag over its front door in 2003 when the Episcopal Church affirmed the first partnered homosexual person as a bishop of the church. A new storm is roiling the waters at the Advent and it is still about the issue of the place of homosexuals in the church. Ironically, this is in a city that has been ground zero in the struggle for human rights in contemporary America. Unfortunately, the clerical and lay leadership of the Advent is still swimming against the tide for human rights in their city and in their church. The Advent has been in crisis all year long; and just when one thought the waters were calming, this new storm hit.

To recap what happened:

---Dec. 7, 2021, at 5:30 p.m., the bishop of Alabama, Glenda Curry, ordained to the priesthood, in the Episcopal Cathedral Church of the Advent, four people. One was reported to be a partnered homosexual person. See the diocesan announcement about the ordination HERE  . The two hour and twenty minute video of the ordination is available on Youtube.

---Dec. 8, AnglicanInk, a website often critical of TEC, posted a report from a "John Jenkins" describing the ordination of a partnered homosexual person in the Advent the evening before. The author was not identified but was obviously someone who knew in detail the recent history of the Advent. No source was given for the report. It caused an explosion at the Advent. The next day, the mysterious posting was removed from the AnglicanInk site. It is no longer available (Google it and see).

---Dec. 9, "Craig Smalley, Interim Dean and Rector; and The Vestry of the Cathedral Church of the Advent" sent a letter to the Advent email list.

The letter (click on image for enlargement):

 

Note that yesterday's letter does not use the word homosexual. The reference is covert. The overt is found in the 2006 Report "Speaking the Truth in Love" which the letter mentions. Find the Report HERE . As far as I can tell, this Report was first posted on the Internet yesterday in order to bolster the content of the letter. The Report condemns homosexuality outright. So, all of this brouhaha is basically about the issue of homosexuality.

The people of the Advent need to know that equality for and inclusion of homosexuals in the life of the Episcopal Church was settled by the church in the 1990's through a church court and various resolutions and canonical changes by General Convention. Since 1996, no one can be denied ordination in the Episcopal Church on the basis of sexual orientation. The clerical and lay leadership of the Advent are entitled to their opinions, but they are not entitled to dictate what the Episcopal Church can and cannot do about ordinations. 

Whether the Episcopal Cathedral Church of the Advent holds ordinations in the future, of any new priests, is up to the church and the diocese. The Advent is not a congregational or independent church. It is the cathedral church of a diocese that has accepted the national leadership on questions of ordination. The bishop and the dean will have to deal with holding ordinations at the Advent in the future.

I suspect that a couple of factors are at work here in this week's crisis. One must bear in mind that the last dean left the Advent to start his own church (in ACNA). It is now meeting in a synagogue on the south side, near five points. This is not far from downtown. Certainly, the former dean would want as many communicants as he can get for his new endeavor. It is in his interest to get people to follow him. Recently he was reported as saying he had a couple of hundred people in his new congregation, about half from the Advent. If only 100 communicants of the Advent followed him out, that amounts to about 3% of the membership, not exactly a stampede out.

Another factor is that the Advent is right in the middle of the process of finding a new rector/dean. Certainly the different viewpoints are vying for influence in finding the new leader. It is in the conservatives' interest to keep the issue of homosexuality alive in the parish. 

There is much that we do not know about what happened this week. Who is "John Jenkins"? What was the source of his letter? Why did AnglicanInk post it? Why did they delete it the next day? It challenges credulity that the leadership of the Advent did not know about the ordinands beforehand. Why did not they make an issue of this then? And, most of all, why is this an issue now?

The Advent has certainly had more than its share of troubles this year. On that, everyone must have sympathy. Obviously the issue of homosexuality remains highly contentious in the Advent, even after all these years. It just does not want to go away. I do not know that there is a solution or that there will ever be a consensus. I do know that we are called to love our neighbors as ourselves and not to stand in judgment on them. Perhaps the Advent needs to get back to the most basic truths of the Gospels and stop worrying about what is wrong with other peoples' behavior.