Where there’s smoke, there’s fire

Bishop Barbara C. Harris preaches at Integrity-sponsored Eucharist.

07/10/09:  It’s true that there was a lot of incense in the air, but what really smoked up the Anaheim Hilton’s Pacific Ballroom at tonight’s Integrity-sponsored Eucharist was a fiery sermon preached by Bishop Barbara C. Harris, in which she declared as boldly as Peter that God has no favorites; called B033, the 2006 restraint on consecrating gay bishops, a “false peace”; made clear distinctions between the sacred and the profane, what is sacrament and what is not; and said the church should get out of the marrying business altogether and stick to administering holy blessing.  

[Morning-after update:  Bishop Harris's sermon is now available in the on-demand video section of the General Convention Media Hub.  You kind of had to be there, so we advise lighting a fire under something while you watch.]

“If we can develop rites and blessings for fishing fleets and fisherfolk, and for hunts, hounds, horses and houses, including the room where the indoor plumbing is located, we should be able to allow clergy in the exercise of their pastoral ministry to adapt and to appropriate the pastoral office of the blessing of a civil marriage for use with all couples who seek the church’s support and God’s blessing in their marriages.  Friends, yes we can do that,” she said.

Integrity is an advocacy organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Episcopalians, and the Eucharist it sponsors at General Convention has become  over the years a high-spirited worship highlight.

Retired as bishop suffragan of Massachusetts, Harris this year marks the 20th anniversary of her consecration as the Anglican Communion’s first female bishop. 

One of her more pointed characterizations was directed at the motives behind B033.  Making reference to Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, seated at her right and the service’s celebrant, she said, “There is also some sentiment that resolution B033 passed at the 75th General Convention should be repealed, revoked or done away with in some fashion.  This resolution, with its questionable language about a person’s ‘manner of life’ making them eligible or ineligible to be a bishop, needs to be seen for what it was:  not just a grudging response to the Windsor Report but a ticket for active members of our House of Bishops, one of whom was blatantly excluded, to attend the Lambeth Conference of 2008 and to make some false peace with others in the communion.

“I would suggest that there perhaps or probably is little chance of the resolution and its dubious language being rescinded, especially after being told by the archbishop of Canterbury:  don’t make another unilateral move on the communion chessboard.  But having served its purpose, B033 needs to be superseded by something positive that recognizes the dignity of all God’s human creation.”

–Tracy J. Sukraw

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