Episcopalians Apologize To Gays At Convention, Church Confesses ‘Past Sin’

The Episcopal Church officially apologized to gays and lesbians Friday for “years of rejection and maltreatment by the church.”

The apology came at the end of the 2.4 million-member denomination’s 10-day General Convention, which was a far friendlier event than Episcopalians expected. Some people had predicted that the church could split over homosexuality and women’s ordination.

“Catastrophic fantasy is always hovering over the beginning of every convention,” said Bishop Frank Griswold III of Chicago, who was elected presiding bishop of the denomination Monday. “Yet it seems that once the body assembles and begins its work, we emerge untidy but with civility and commonality.”

That was a great relief to Dr. Pamela Chinnis, president of the 840-member House of Deputies, made up of elected clergy and laity.

“People have shown a lot of compassion toward one another,” she said during a news conference. “I kept waiting for something to explode, but it never did.”

The convention’s last day was marked by applause, hugs and kisses. And the apology passed overwhelmingly in both the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies.

It was a crowning moment for the church’s gay and lesbian activists, who saw their agenda affirmed repeatedly during the convention.

“Personally, I’m elated,” said the Rev. Patricia Ackerman, a deacon in the Diocese of New York and a spokeswoman for Integrity, the Episcopal gay rights group.

During the convention, the denomination voted to study blessing same-sex unions, agreed to extend insurance benefits to domestic partners, voted down attempts to prohibit sexually active gay clergy and elected a presiding bishop sympathetic to gay and lesbian concerns.

About the only resolution favored by gays and lesbians that didn’t pass was one to extend pension benefits to partners of gay clergy.

The Rev. Michael Hopkins, spokesman for Integrity, said of the apology: “Many saw this as an attempt not only to confess past sin, but also to help create a new climate of conversation. … We look forward to these words of apology being translated into deeds of tolerance and inclusion.”

Conservatives weren’t as happy.

Bishop Stephen Jecko of the Diocese of Florida said he voted against the apology resolution.

“When you begin to single out groups for apology, there is no end to the list,” he said. Jecko said he was disappointed that an Episcopal group called Regeneration, whose ministry tries to help people shed their homosexuality, didn’t also receive an apology.

Also Friday, Bishop James Stanton of Dallas read a statement to the House of Bishops affirming conservative stands on sexuality and women’s ordination.

The statement, from the conservative Dallas-based American Anglican Council, of which Bishop Stanton is president, expressed solidarity with people “anguished” over what he called “sexual practices clearly at odds with the whole of the biblical pattern.”

“We will not abandon you,” Bishop Stanton said, “or our determination to guard the faith once delivered to the saints.”

Bishop Stanton also said he stood with the four bishops who opposed women’s ordination, including Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth. Last week, the convention voted to force those bishops to allow women’s ordination in their dioceses. The decision came 21 years after the church first began ordaining women.