LGBTQ+ History in the Church

October is LGBTQ+ History Month. Learn about the history in our national church.

Church of the Resurrection is blessed to have a vibrant group of LGBTQ+ members and Allies. How did we get here? This week and next we will take a look at the years of discussion and decision-making in both the American Episcopal church, and in our Diocese of California, that brought us to our status as a church that welcomes all who seek God, and respects the dignity of every human being.

63 years ago, in October of 1962, the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church in America studied homosexuality, along with alcoholism, referring to both as “standard weaknesses.” By 1967, 90 priests from the Dioceses of New York, Connecticut, Long Island and Newark agreed that the church should classify homosexuality as “morally neutral…and in some cases a good thing.” They stated that “expressing genuine love” for each other is more important than gender.

From 1967 to 1989, the subject of welcoming LGBTQ+ parishioners, blessing homosexual unions, and ordaining homosexual people was debated at the national Generational Convention, held every 3 years, and within individual dioceses. The first publicly acknowledged ordination of a gay man took place in 1989, when Bishop Spong of the Diocese of Newark ordained Rev. J. Robert Williams. Within a month, Williams’ controversial statements about monogamy and celibacy, and the following investigation by the diocese, resulted in his resignation from ministry. Williams died of AIDS two years later.

It was another 15 years before the ordination of the first openly gay Bishop in the church, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. His ordination, and the authorization of a rite for blessing same-sex unions, caused a number of congregations to split from the Anglican Communion and establish the Anglican Church in North America, which limits the role of women in ministry, and defines marriage exclusively as a lifelong union between a man and a woman.

Read more here about the years spent faithfully advocating for full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the American Episcopal church: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/organizations-affiliations/lgbtq/history/