I'm going to watch an old friend be installed as Rector of a nearby parish this evening. Her past five years have mirrored the past five years in the Episcopal Church. She was a wonderful, wise leader at the church I attend. When she fell in love, she and her partner were most discreet, but they, like many people in love, wanted to make a public commitment to each other. They did so and things got crazy. She lost her chance to be Rector of a nearby parish, her sexual orientation was discussed in one of the local newspapers and she wound up moving back East to serve at a parish in a diocese where her sexuality was less of an issue.
Meanwhile, the priest who leaked the information about her relationship to the newspaper is no longer in the Episcopal Church, his financial misdeeds and activities discussed in local and national newspapers and in the courts. Our General Convention acknowledged that God calls a variety of people, including gays and lesbians, to ministry. Time has past and much has changed. God, however, has remained constant.
I'm going to watch an old friend be installed as Rector this evening. She will be a wonderful, wise leader at her new church, just as she was for us and just as God has always called her to be.
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