This is a little old but I had a thought so I posted it now. That is her on the left of the Bishop at the time of her ordination to the Deaconate.
Mary Catherine Volland, a longtime resident of Colorado and a partnered lesbian, was ordained Saturday at St. John's Cathedral in Denver, as the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado ended its moratorium on ordaining gay priests.
Volland had been a candidate for ordination by the Diocese of Minnesota. She will serve as an assistant priest at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Denver.
Nationally, the issue of ordaining gay priests has caused division within the church.
Beckett Stokes, a spokeswoman for the Colorado diocese, said Bishop Robert O'Neill had originally suspended gay ordination out of sensitivity to churches that had strongly opposed it. Stokes said O'Neill will now decide the matter on a case-by-case basis and that several Colorado congregations are and have been served by gay and lesbian priests.
"The Diocese of Colorado is perhaps the most politically and theologically diverse diocese in The Episcopal Church," O'Neill said. "I am grateful to all in this diocese who faithfully come to the table to offer their many gifts to God's service, including the gay and lesbian Christians among us who so generously contribute to our common life and ministry."
My point is that it is time to be who we are. We are a church that welcomes all and specifically we do not believe being a homosexuality is a sin. We believe that gay men and lesbians are wholesome examples of God's creation and that as fully human they are eligible for ordination to all offices in the Church. This is who we are if you don't like it you don't have to leave but you have to recognize who we are and get over it.
It is very much time that we be who we are. The place we have been particularly in the last 3 years thanks to in large part to B033 that ill conceived attempt to placate that form of the Anglican Communion that is currently present in the global south. It was a bad idea at the time and I voted against it and it should go away in 2009.
We must be who we are. We have attracted no one with the B033 strategy. No one who is opposed to the ordination of gay men and lesbians has joined the Episcopal Church thinking that this view will carry the day here. Very few who embrace the ordination of gay men and lesbians have joined us because we have been very unclear about who we are and we have sacrificed the legitimate call of gay men and lesbians in the hopes of unity.
We don't and haven't taken our position only for the reason of attracting others to the church. It is and always was a legitimate valid interpretation of the Bible to include gay men and lesbians in all ways. But being clear about who we are will at least allow those outside of the Episcopal Church understand what we are about.
Lets be who we are loud and clear and let the chips fall where they may.
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