Episcopal church gay rights
Stances of Faiths on LGBTQ+ Issues: African Methodist Episcopal Church
BACKGROUND
The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination based in the United States. The AME Church originated as a protest against the racial discrimination experienced by people of African descent at white Methodist congregations, such as the St. George Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. In 1787, Rev. Richard Allen and Rev. Absalom Jones withdrew from St. George Methodist Episcopal Church and founded The Free African Society, marking the beginnings of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
It was formally organized in 1816 by a group of several black congregations in the mid-Atlantic area and they consecrated Richard Allen as the first Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The denomination continues to be a member of the family of Methodist Churches.
The AME Church operates under an episcopal form of government. Bishops constitute the chief executive and administrative officers of the church, and their authority is derived from the General Conference.
LGBTQ+ EQUALITY
ON SEXUAL ORIENTATION & GENDER I
With same-sex marriage in the spotlight, where does it stand across the Anglican Communion?
A same-sex couple receives a blessing in the Church in Wales in November 2021. Photo source: Church in Wales
[Episcopal News Service – Canterbury, England] As the Lambeth Conference gets underway here, the status of same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Anglican Communion has unexpectedly taken center stage. Though the controversial remark saying the Anglican Communion “as a whole” rejects same-sex marriage has now been removed from one of the proposed “Lambeth Calls,” it has heightened the differences among the provinces on the issue.
Some bishops have spoken of a 1998 Lambeth resolution rejecting same-sex marriage as the “official teaching” of the Anglican Communion. However, the Anglican Communion is not one church but a group of clear churches, known as provinces, and does not contain a codified set of “official teaching[s]” beyond the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds, except perhaps the Lambeth Quadrilateral. The Lambeth Conference is not a legislative body, and its resolutions (or, in this case, “calls”) have no binding authority.
Whatever happens at this 15th Lambeth C
1962: October Homosexuality, along with alcoholism, is studied by the House of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church. It is referred to as a “standard weakness.” [1]
1963: August Rev. David B. Wayne of the Church of the Epiphany in New York City preaches that homosexuals “must be accepted fully into the fellowship of the church” while they also must seek counseling or psychological treatment. [2]
1964: November A proposed revision to a New York State law that would decriminalize “sexual deviation” (i.e., homosexuality and adultery) is praised by Episcopalians and denounced by Roman Catholics. The revision is later dropped by the NY state Legislature. [3]
1966: October Speaking at Duke Regulation School, Episcopal Auxiliary Bishop of California, Rev. James A. Pike claims that laws “aimed at controlling homosexuality, sexual practices between man and wife and abortions…must be changed.” He claims that such matters are “nobody’s business but the individuals concerned.” [4]
1967: November During a symposium on homosexuality sponsored by the Episcopal Dioceses of New York, Connecticut, Prolonged Island, and Newark, ninety Episcopalian priests agree that the chur
Conservative bishops refuse to seize Communion with LGBTQ+ bishops, demand ‘sanctions’ for churches that allow for lgbtq+ marriage
South Sudan Archbishop Justin Badi, left, and Indian Ocean Archbishop James Wong speak July 29 at a news conference organized by the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches at Kent University in Canterbury, England, during the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops. Photo: David Paulsen/Episcopal News Service
[Episcopal News Service – Canterbury, England] Leaders of a group of conservative Anglican bishops state they will refuse to take Communion while worshiping alongside partnered gay and lesbian bishops at the Lambeth Conference, and they plan to submit and force a vote Aug. 1 on their retain measure opposing same-sex marriage and the ordination of gay, partnered clergy.
The community, which calls itself the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, lists 22 provinces that are part of the Anglican Communion among its members and says it represents 75% of Anglicans around the world, particularly in Africa and Asia. “For too long, the Anglican Communion has been driven by the views of the West. In the Global South, we often undergo that our voic
.
With same-sex marriage in the spotlight, where does it stand across the Anglican Communion?
A same-sex couple receives a blessing in the Church in Wales in November 2021. Photo source: Church in Wales
[Episcopal News Service – Canterbury, England] As the Lambeth Conference gets underway here, the status of same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Anglican Communion has unexpectedly taken center stage. Though the controversial remark saying the Anglican Communion “as a whole” rejects same-sex marriage has now been removed from one of the proposed “Lambeth Calls,” it has heightened the differences among the provinces on the issue.
Some bishops have spoken of a 1998 Lambeth resolution rejecting same-sex marriage as the “official teaching” of the Anglican Communion. However, the Anglican Communion is not one church but a group of clear churches, known as provinces, and does not contain a codified set of “official teaching[s]” beyond the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds, except perhaps the Lambeth Quadrilateral. The Lambeth Conference is not a legislative body, and its resolutions (or, in this case, “calls”) have no binding authority.
Whatever happens at this 15th Lambeth C
1962: October Homosexuality, along with alcoholism, is studied by the House of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church. It is referred to as a “standard weakness.” [1]
1963: August Rev. David B. Wayne of the Church of the Epiphany in New York City preaches that homosexuals “must be accepted fully into the fellowship of the church” while they also must seek counseling or psychological treatment. [2]
1964: November A proposed revision to a New York State law that would decriminalize “sexual deviation” (i.e., homosexuality and adultery) is praised by Episcopalians and denounced by Roman Catholics. The revision is later dropped by the NY state Legislature. [3]
1966: October Speaking at Duke Regulation School, Episcopal Auxiliary Bishop of California, Rev. James A. Pike claims that laws “aimed at controlling homosexuality, sexual practices between man and wife and abortions…must be changed.” He claims that such matters are “nobody’s business but the individuals concerned.” [4]
1967: November During a symposium on homosexuality sponsored by the Episcopal Dioceses of New York, Connecticut, Prolonged Island, and Newark, ninety Episcopalian priests agree that the chur
Conservative bishops refuse to seize Communion with LGBTQ+ bishops, demand ‘sanctions’ for churches that allow for lgbtq+ marriage
South Sudan Archbishop Justin Badi, left, and Indian Ocean Archbishop James Wong speak July 29 at a news conference organized by the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches at Kent University in Canterbury, England, during the Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops. Photo: David Paulsen/Episcopal News Service
[Episcopal News Service – Canterbury, England] Leaders of a group of conservative Anglican bishops state they will refuse to take Communion while worshiping alongside partnered gay and lesbian bishops at the Lambeth Conference, and they plan to submit and force a vote Aug. 1 on their retain measure opposing same-sex marriage and the ordination of gay, partnered clergy.
The community, which calls itself the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches, lists 22 provinces that are part of the Anglican Communion among its members and says it represents 75% of Anglicans around the world, particularly in Africa and Asia. “For too long, the Anglican Communion has been driven by the views of the West. In the Global South, we often undergo that our voic
.