After years of acrimony at past General Conventions over what the teaching of the Episcopal Church should be regarding same-sex marriage, the upcoming convention will consider recognizing the reality that there are two teachings.
The 1979 Book of Common Prayer (BCP) contains marriage rites that are worded only for the union of a man and a woman. In the past decade, the church has gradually authorized same-sex marriage liturgies for use in any jurisdiction where such marriages are legal under civil law. But some LGBTQ activists have contended that because the BCP itself does not provide for same-sex marriages, people in such relationships still are stigmatized as second-class Episcopalians.
On the other side of the theological divide, a committed minority of Episcopal priests uphold the traditional understanding of marriage, and worry that changing the prayer book could put pressure on them to choose between abandoning their convictions or leaving the church.
The intertwined topics of prayer book revision and same-sex marriage will be debated again when the 81st General Convention convenes in June in Louisville, Kentucky. But if the acrimony is going to continue, there was little sign of it April 10 in an online legislative session gathering testimony about a variety of proposed resolutions.
Each of the past two General Conventions has authorized a Task Force on Communion Across Difference to work toward enabling the two camps to coexist peacefully. Members of the current iteration of the task force testified before the joint Committee on Constitution & Canons in favor of a package of resolutions designed to protect the interests of all involved. They also bore witness to the ability of people with strong disagreements to treat each other with respect.
“Parishes should therefore be allowed to hire clergy whose beliefs on same-sex marriage align with their own, even if those beliefs aren’t the same as those of their bishop or the diocese,” said the Rev. Kelli Joyce, a priest from the Diocese of Arizona who is married to another woman. “There is no harm to me in allowing a parish with a conservative theology of marriage to hire a conservative priest. But there is a great deal of harm to me in allowing the bishop or diocese to categorically exclude candidates from consideration solely on the basis of their holding to a particular belief about same-sex marriage that is compatible with the doctrine of this church,” she said, adding that the proposed resolutions will protect clergy in both camps.
“Clergy like me are concerned about the weaponization of Title IV against us, especially once the inclusive marriage rights are elevated to prayer book status,” said the Rev. Mark Michael of the Diocese of Washington, who holds traditional views on marriage. (Title IV is the section of the canons dealing with clergy discipline.) The proposed resolutions “send a strong message to clergy like me that there will be room for us to joyfully serve this church we love,” said Michael, who also serves as editor-in-chief of The Living Church.
Joyce and Michael both could be seen nodding in agreement as the other testified. The Rev. Jordan Hylden of the Diocese of Western Louisiana, another conservative who served with them on the task force, said a meeting of the group was “one of the most encouraging meetings that I’ve really ever had in my experience in the church. And I think we worked hard together to come to a place where we all really felt good about what we were putting forward together. The enabling resolution charged us with finding a path forward — a lasting path forward for mutual flourishing.”
The resolutions sponsored by the Task Force on Communion Across Difference included Resolution A091, which would amend a canon that recognizes the BCP as “the basic and essential teachings of the Church” by adding a sentence: “For the purposes of this canon, the Book of Common Prayer and any Book of Common Prayer memorialized by General Convention are understood as sufficient statements of the doctrine of this Church.”
The word “memorialized” is key, because the General Conventions of 2018 and 2022 assuaged conservative concerns by declaring that even if changes are made to the BCP, the 1979 version is memorialized “as a Prayer Book of the church … ensuring its continued use.”
One witness testified in opposition to A091. Paul Ambos, a lay deputy from the Diocese of New Jersey, argued that continued recognition of the 1979 prayer book amounts to “the holding and teaching of doctrine that gay people are less than human in the eyes of the church.”
Resolution A092 declares that the church will not discriminate against any person in matters of ordination or employment “because of their conscientiously-held theological belief that marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman, or that marriage is a covenant between two people.”
Resolution A093 ensures that even after same-sex marriage rites move from trial use to prayer book status, bishops “who hold a theological position that does not embrace marriage for same-sex couples” may continue to stand by their principles by asking another bishop to provide any necessary oversight of such marriages.
A companion resolution, A090, was discussed later in the afternoon at a separate online meeting of the Prayer Book, Liturgy, & Music Committee, and Joyce and Michael reprised versions of their earlier testimony. The Rev. Matthew S.C. Olver, executive director of the Living Church Foundation, said “the 1979 prayer book was ‘memorialized’ by general convention in 2018,” but “there was not a shared understanding of what that term meant. And this resolution provides an unambiguous definition of memorialization” by declaring that the 1979 prayer book is “authorized for regular use at any service in all dioceses of this Church.” The resolution provides that the church “will continue to honor the theological diversity of this church in regards to matters of human sexuality.”
Some of these resolutions depend conceptually on ratifying a constitutional change that was passed on first reading at the 2022 General Convention. Resolution A072, which on second reading would entirely rewrite Article X of the Constitution, begins with the words: “The Book of Common Prayer is understood to be those liturgical forms and other texts authorized by the General Convention in accordance with this article and the Canons of this Church.”
This side-steps the crucible of rewriting the entire prayer book. The 2018 General Convention in Austin scuttled a 12-year, $8 million proposal for comprehensive prayer-book revision, and there seems to be little appetite for resuming that effort. Instead, there has been a movement toward expanding the BCP by assigning prayer-book status to other documents. That approach also has been controversial.
“There are people who feel very strongly that our common liturgy should be only from the BCP, because it is the BCP, and anything that is not in that volume, should not be used in our common life as the diocese,” said the Rev. Amy McCreath, dean of the cathedral of the Diocese of Massachusetts in Boston. “At the same time, we have many people in the diocese who have only experienced in the Episcopal Church expansive-language liturgies,” and who champion expansive language.
Two bishops also advocated for A072. The Rt. Rev. Joe Doss, retired Bishop of New Jersey, played an active role in the deliberations that led to the 1979 BCP. “I love this prayer book,” he said. “But it is now very clear that it requires flexibility that it doesn’t now enjoy.”
“The prayer book has never been quite as static as we’d like to pretend,” said the Rt. Rev. Andy Doyle, Bishop of Texas, noting that the lectionaries have changed since the original publication of the 1979 BCP. Â The committees took no action at their meetings, but will vote between now and General Convention on whether to recommend passage of each resolution.
Both committees, along with many others, will continue to hold online meetings and hearings between now and General Convention, which is set for June 23-28. The convention’s “virtual binder” contains a schedule of upcoming hearings, many of which are open to the public with advance registration. The binder also provides information on the 185 resolutions that have been assigned to committees, as well as a wide array of other resources.