Albany Diocese rules on gay unions

SPECULATOR -- The conservative-led Episcopal Diocese of Albany staked out a firm defense of traditional marriage on Saturday, a move that comes as gay unions have gained new ground in California and New York.

The hundreds of clergy and lay delegates who converged for their annual convention in this lakeside Adirondack community resoundingly approved a resolution that lays down this rule: Only heterosexual marriages can be celebrated in the diocese.

 Speakers who lined up at two microphones in a rustic auditorium at Camp-of-the-Woods debated the issue in often personal terms. The Rev. Brad Jones, who supported the resolution, spoke of his personal journey from a young man consumed with homosexual desire to a married father of seven with a passion for God.

"If the Episcopal Church had proclaimed to me then that God would bless my lustful passions and desires, I would likely not be standing here alive today," said Jones, rector of Christ Church in Schenectady. "I would certainly be dead in my sins."

The resolution sets down in local church canons a diocesan policy that already existed in practice. Supporters called it consistent with scripture and necessary because diocesan leadership could change in the future, as could state law.

But critics blasted it as unnecessary, discriminatory and divisive. One spoke of a gay relative's love for her partner. A rector from Saranac Lake described the "cry of anguish" of a gay parishioner who learned of the proposal.

"I do not believe homosexuality is a sin," said Nancy Stewart of the Church of the Redeemer in Rensselaer.

 

  Diocese rules on gay unions
Albany Times Union, NY