What does it take for a church to be an effective witness in a divided world? For the Rev. Scott Gunn, one answer is to bring together a group of people who “disagree about things that are important to each individual” and engage in thoughtful discourse “in a loving and respectful way.”
“Jesus told us to love our neighbors,” Gunn told TLC, “and we don’t always agree with our neighbors. I think the conversations that we’re having are important, not only because they’re about same-sex marriage, but they’re helping us practice the skill of having difficult conversations with people that we are called to love.”
Gunn, who leads Forward Movement, a ministry of the Episcopal Church, and the Rev. Dr. Matthew S.C. Olver, executive director and publisher of The Living Church, convened a group of church leaders for three days in mid-May in the Diocese of Long Island to explore several key questions: What kind of theological questions are contained in the church’s teaching about marriage? When Christians disagree, what kind of disagreement is it? Are canonical safeguards working, and are more needed to ensure that those who hold either teaching mutually flourish in the highest degree of communion possible? Where has the church still failed to adequately articulate its understanding of marriage?
“Looking at the context of the U.S. church, it might seem that the progressive side won the debate on marriage for same-sex persons,” Olver said. “But it begins to look different from a global perspective. I wanted us to learn to hear one another and to find paths of reconciliation even when we disagree.”
The meeting, hosted by Bishop Larry Provenzano of Long Island at the diocesan center and the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, emphasized the need to continue the work of reconciliation throughout the church by acknowledging and listening to diverse viewpoints on same-sex marriage.
“As Bishop of Long Island, I was honored to help host this important effort, which reflects the diversity and complexity of our diocese,” Provenzano told TLC in a statement. “Without compromising core theological principles, the Church must prioritize understanding across difference to maintain unity.
“We have no business speaking to the world about unity if we can’t do this work together,” Provenzano added, noting his “real sense of responsibility for continuing this work” alongside Forward Movement and The Living Church.
The May 13–15 meeting included participants who are single, a man married to a woman, and individuals in same-sex marriages. The group also represented a range of theological perspectives—“people who would probably be called liberal … people who would probably be called conservative on many issues,” Gunn said.
In 2018, the General Convention reached a compromise on same-sex marriage through Resolution B012. It authorized the use of same-sex marriage liturgies, wherever legal, while allowing conservative bishops to maintain their teaching and also preserve their pastoral authority by delegating oversight of same-sex marriages to another bishop.
Speaking to Amber Noel on an episode The Living Church Podcast, the Rev. Dr. Jordan Hylden, a traditionalist member of the Task Force on Communion Across Difference, highlighted key implications of B012: “That the General Convention has made a clear decision about marriage, that they have made a firm commitment to make marriage rites accessible, and that there is an indispensable place for the theological minority in this church.”
The task force—formed when B012 was passed—was commissioned to protect space for differing perspectives on same-sex marriage. Half of its members hold the Episcopal Church’s traditional understanding of marriage, and the other half, an understanding of marriage that includes LGBTQ persons.
At the 81st General Convention in 2024, the task force proposed two resolutions, both passed by the House of Bishops. These amendments to the canons acknowledged two teachings on marriage and protected access to ordination, deployment, and canonical residency for clergy regardless of whether they believe marriage is between a man and a woman or between two people.
As reported by the Rev. Mark Michael, editor-in-chief of TLC, when the resolutions were passed, “No bishop spoke against either resolution, and there was no audible dissent when the voice votes were taken.”
Although the task force was not renewed at the 2024 General Convention, the Communion Across Difference group in Long Island hopes to continue the work it began, “constructively and with theological integrity” and without using the church budget or being constrained by bureaucracy.
“Our desire is to be a sign of hope for church peace and church reforms moving into the future,” the group said in a press release.
In the same document, the group said it “will seek to build on the Blue Book reports of the previous two triennia, continuing to seek a lasting path forward for mutual flourishing consistent with the polity of The Episcopal Church and the 2015 ‘Communion across Difference’ statement of the House of Bishops.”
That 2015 statement affirms:
- the clear decision of General Convention that Christian marriage is a covenant open to two people of the same sex or of the opposite sex;
- General Convention’s firm commitment to make provision for all couples asking to be married in this Church to have access to authorized liturgies; and also affirming
- the indispensable place that the minority who hold to this Church’s historic teaching on marriage have in our common life, whose witness our Church needs.
As with the Task Force, half of the Communion Across Difference group affirms that marriage is a “covenant between a man and a woman” (BCP, 422), and the other half that it is a “covenant between two people” in the presence of God (Resolution 2018-A085).
The group plans to meet quarterly by Zoom and annually in person until the next General Convention in 2027.
Caleb Maglaya Galaraga is The Living Church’s Episcopal Church reporter. His work has also appeared in Christianity Today, Broadview Magazine, and Presbyterian Outlook, among other publications.
