Responding to BO33

[Louie Crew <lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu>]

I share your frustration with B033.  

You will be much more effective by giving money rather than by withholding
it.  We cannot expect to exercise leadership in an organization if we insist
that it behave the way we demand as a condition for our participation.

If you try to find a way to separate out your pledge to punish The Episcopal
Church, you will be following the model set by our enemies in the American
Anglican Council and the Anglican Communion Network.

I say the same thing to friends in dioceses which scorn us.  It is all the
more true in the Diocese of Newark.

LBGTs are not at the margins in this diocese, and we should be good stewards
by supporting the diocese fully, including the diocesan contribution to the
programs of the General Convention.  Persons in this diocese exercise
leadership nationally, and we would undercut their ability to represent us
if we were to insist on having our own way as a condition to paying our
commitment.

In addition to this kind of good stewardship, you might raise money to
be used exclusively to encourage the kind of listening/dialog with lbgts --
a commitment of the Windsor Report and of several recent Lambeth
Conferences, a commitment which has not yet been honored in those places
most hostile to us.   Many attack us out of ignorance, ignorance that until
the early 1990s set the policies of The Episcopal Church toward us as well.

We need to insist on integrity from those who have made this pledge. We were
patient yet insistent with the Episcopal Church for more than 30 years; I
urge us to be just as patient yet insistent with the Anglican Communion.
If lbgts matched the stereotypes that most of our enemies have of us, you
and I would be opposed to blessing lbgts as well.  The best reply to
ignorance and abuse is knowledge and kindness.

Love does not insist on having its own way, is patient, is kind, is not
puffed up.

Joy to all through your ministry.  I rejoice that you want to continue it
within the Episcopal Church.  Your being here will bring the experience of
Jesus to many who otherwise will not have it.

L.