I have seen the intensity of what debating this does to people. And how it can tear people apart. I think that in those years, in all that intensity, people had to grow in ways they did not want to grow. They had to learn something new. He says that he personally wouldn't be surprised if many United Church people still disagree with the United Church decision, but the church hasn't fallen apart.
Congregations can clearly flourish with gay and lesbian leadership.
To Be United are not the whole picture. Huntly concludes that while the process of change in The United Church of Canada is not over, there are signs that the church is a very different place than it was in 1988. She says the real costs and gains of the United Church's 1988 decision are in many ways immeasurable. There was no way the United Church could have faced the issue of ministry and homosexuality and come out unscathed. Huntly believes that maintaining diversity is perhaps the United Church's greatest accomplishment out of The Issue years.