On the local level, they have been elected to vestries and diocesan boards and serve as acolytes, lay readers and licensed eucharistic ministers. And while it is very contraversial, we are struggling with the whole question of the blessing of unions between persons of the same sex and the ordination of homosexuals. The convention decided not to decide, that we needed to go slower. We, as the church, agreed to disagree. This issue has, as have some others in the past, such as the Anglo-Catholic movement and the secular issue of our Civil War, brought us close to boiling over, but we usually pull back from the brink of breaking apart.
Families fight, yes, but healthy ones fight in an open and honest way and stay together.
1 think the Episcopal church is a healthy family. There is much history and tradition in the Episcopal Church, far more than l can even touch on in something as short as this sermon. 1 hey contain much which men and women have found useful and meaningful in their relationship with God down through the ages. We are not afraid of outwards signs and symbols and most people find our churches beautiful. We are very reluctant, however, to claim to know absolutely the mind of God.