Love is an article of faith for Christian denominations--though for some that is true only until someone makes a show of the "wrong" kind of love.Such was the case when a UK lesbian couple was forced out of an Anglican church in Dorset, England, for, they said, having held hands during services.
The Bournemouth edition of the Daily Echo reported on May 14 that parish members at St. Nicholas Anglican church, located in the Dorset village of Corfe Mullen, accused Kersten Pegden and Nina Laure of "overtly sexual" conduct because the two held hands in church.
No similar complaints were lodged against heterosexual couples for the same public displays during church services, however.
The article noted that Pegden had come out relatively recently, having been attending St. Nicholas for four years but only having let it be known that she was a lesbian last year.
Pegden and Laure have been a couple since last autumn; they are engaged to be joined in a civil union, which, in Britain, carries the same rights and protections as marriage.
"The vicar, who is a woman, wanted to know the details about my divorce, how long it was going to be, and the fact that it had dragged on too long," Pegden told the press.
"And she said members of the congregation said that during hymns we were dishonoring God because they said we were singing the hymns to each other, and that we were overtly sexual with each other. I said all we do is hold hands. I pointed out there is an elderly couple who hold hands. It’s no more sexual than if a straight couple did it."
The couple felt forced to withdraw from the parish.
Their children had played roles in church life at St. Nicholas, the article said, with Pegden’s daughter having sung in the choir and her son having served as an usher.
Now the family attends the open and affirming Metropolitan Community Church.
Pegden also told the press that although she had received support from many of the church’s membership, others stopped speaking to her when she came out. "These people who are watching us, instead of worshiping, are the ones dishonoring God."
Said Laure, who began to attend St. Nicholas because it was Pegden’s church, "I have been out 13 years and I have never had this sort of reaction."
"St. Nicholas welcomes people from a variety of backgrounds and gives private pastoral care to those in need," the church said in a statement. "Issues have arisen with members of the congregation which are being addressed compassionately."
Worldwide, the Anglican faith had been roiled by questions about the role of women and gays in the life of the church. Anti-gay arms of the church in Africa have allied themselves with conservative parishes in Western countries that object to the ordination of openly gay or lesbian bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions.
Tensions in the Anglican Church, which has 77 million members worldwide, started decades ago over questions of what roles women should be allowed to assume. Some hardliners reject the notion of women as bishops--and indeed, those elements are pondering a conversion to Catholicism, a move that the Roman Catholic Church would welcome.
The Vatican has already issued an invitation to conservative Anglicans who wish to join the Catholic faith. Converts would be allowed to retain some elements of the Anglican Church, such as priests being free to marry.
Pope Benedict XVI has said that an influx of Anglicans to the Catholic tradition would be "a blessing for the entire Church."
Six years ago, tension in the church was exacerbated with the elevation of an openly gay Episcopalian cleric named Gene Robinson to the rank of bishop. The idea that an openly gay man who was living a family life with another man drove some in the Anglican church to the point of breaking away; a global schism loomed.
Three years ago, the Anglican church sought to avoid that schism by pursuing a moratorium on the elevation of gay clergy to the status of bishop, a moratorium that ended earlier this year with the elevation of a Los Angeles lesbian cleric, Mary Glasspool, to the status of Episcopalian bishop.
Last year, conservative Anglicans declared that the schism was all but upon the church. That episode was one more in a string of occasions on which demands were made from Anglicans seeking to convince North America’s Episcopalians to "repent" for their support of GLBT members of the faith. Another splinter group of the Episcopalians, The Anglican Church in North America, formed last June; the new splinter does not accept that gays might serve God in certain capacities.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, who is the head of the worldwide Anglican communion, is one of the faith’s liberals, having supported equality in the church for gays and lesbians in the past. But for a time, Williams’ speeches tacked rightward as he sought to reassure hardliners for whom no compromise is acceptable; for that rightward swerve, Williams offered his apologies in a Feb. 9 speech to the faith’s General Synod.
"There are ways of speaking about the question that seem to ignore these human realities or to undervalue them," Williams told the Synod. "I have been criticized for doing just this and I am profoundly sorry for the carelessness that could give such an impression."
Williams spoke of the church’s "sacrificial and exemplary priests," among whom are gay men, and also noted that the faith has many gay and lesbian adherents.
But the Archbishop did not abandon his attempts to keep the church intact, appealing to anti-gay hardliners to soften their stance and suggesting that the faith might adopt a "two-tiered" system that would relegate some dioceses to less than fully participating status.
"It may be that the covenant creates a situation in which there are different levels of relationship between those claiming the name of Anglican," Williams told the Synod, which is the church’s legislative body.
"I don’t at all want or relish this, but suspect that, without a major change of heart all round, it may be an unavoidable aspect of limiting the damage we are already doing to ourselves."
As for women serving in the capacity of bishops, Williams opined that although "Most hold that the ordination of women as bishops is good, something that will enhance our faithfulness to Christ and our integrity in mission," he also said that allowing women greater equality in the church’s hierarchy would not be worth it if the result were to "corrupt [reform] or compromise it fatally," as in the possible scenario of opponents to women bishops leaving in droves for Catholicism.
Above all, Williams cautioned, a schism in the faith would be a "betrayal" of the church’s purpose.
However, Williams also lashed out at critics of a plan for church unity outlined in the Anglican Covenant, firmly contradicting the fears cited as motives for the criticisms.
"There is no supreme court envisaged and the constitutional liberties of each province are explicitly safeguarded," Williams stated.
The Archbishop had words for all sides in the debate, lamenting what he called "the reduction of Christian relationships to vicious polemic and stony-faced litigation" as the argument over gays and women has continued.
SIC: EdgeBoston