St. Stephen’s Warden’s Notes – August, 2005
Renew - to make new spiritually: regenerate (Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary); the Renewal of our Christian Community. This has been a focus of much of our work together for the past year or so. Jonathan might argue that is has been the focus of his ministry here for the past 10+ years, but I’ll leave that discussion to him. For me this journey with all of you has been invigorating, tiring, inspiring and at times down right frustrating. But through it all, I’ve always felt supported by you and that has made the burdens lighter. But sometimes regeneration of something involves pain and these past few months I have felt the pain of this journey.
As you know we have been in the process of searching for an Associate Priest. What you may not know is that one of the candidates – a very qualified candidate – is a gay man who has been living with his same-sex partner for seven years. After much soul-searching and prayer, the committee has found itself deadlocked 5 to 5 and unable to reach a consensus. Therefore the decision was made to continue with other interviews. Now I’m not going to weigh in on whether or not the Search Committee made the “right” decision regarding this candidate. What I will say is they put a lot of prayer, anguish and pain into the discernment process and we all should thank them for that. We should all be grateful for the sacrifices this group has made of their time and commitment to finding the candidate who is the “right” candidate for us. This group was selected to represent the demographics of the parish and I believe they have each represented their “constituencies” very well. Or, should I say accurately?
But … what does this say about our renewal efforts? Have we been made new spiritually? Are we more equipped to make difficult decisions? To accept one another as Christians even when we disagree? Can we look beyond our own personal feelings and to rely upon God? I believe so - most of the time, sort of. I am grateful to the search committee for holding up the mirror for an honest, gut-wrenching look at ourselves. The committee did their best to consider this candidate based on his qualifications but in the end, we could not resolve concerns regarding his life style. I say “we” because as I said before, this committee represents all of us - and I think they did.
Does this mean we are unwilling to accept gays and lesbians into our Christian community? We’ve had gay and lesbian parishioners for many years at St. Stephen’s – and I don’t believe for one minute that anyone of us would want them to feel that they are less than welcomed into our faith community. However, we all need to find ways to make it clearer that we do welcome all people who are seeking God. The very first of our Five Pillars states that we at St. Stephens value a community that is multigenerational & diverse. We state: “St. Stephen’s strives to be a faith community welcoming people of all ages, ethnic and sexual orientation. St. Stephen’s cherishes the idea of providing a safe, inclusive environment for all generations with programs and service opportunities to meet the diverse needs of the community.”
So, what next? Prayer, discussion, healing and God’s Grace; we all need continue to press forward together – even if it’s painful – in the renewal of our Christian faith. As we all know, God works in mysterious ways. The search committee has recommended another candidate who they all believe possesses the gifts to help us move in the direction God is calling us. The Vestry has approved their recommendation at it’s meeting August 14.
Christ’s Peace,
Dave Stein
Sr. Warden
This page last updated: 08/25/2005