The church should get out of the marriage business, said the Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris during Integrity USA’s General Convention Holy Eucharist on Friday night.
 
Bishop Harris endorsed the belief—widespread among Episcopal clergy—that couples should turn to the state for civil marriage ceremonies and to the church for subsequent ceremonies of blessing.
 
“Marriage is a civil contract to which the church, in the name of God, adds a blessing,” she said.
 
Taking a shot at patriarchy, the bishop joked that same-sex marriage is a longstanding pattern: “Historically, marriage was a contract between a father and a groom.”
 
Harris referred briefly to a reading from Acts about St. Peter hearing God’s call to welcome Gentiles into the church. Otherwise, her sermon was a collection of barbs—most aimed at conservatives, but with a few challenging her fellow progressives.
— “Unfortunately, many people who need to be reminded of these truths are not here,” she said, referring to the lesson from Acts.
— “Some glibly speak of our diversity. … I am reminded that there was diversity at the Tower of Babel.”
— Resolution B033 was “not just a grudging response to the Windsor Report, but a ticket … to attend the Lambeth Conference and to make false peace.”
— The Archbishop of Canterbury’s message to General Convention, as condensed by Bishop Harris: “Don’t make another unilateral move on the Communion chess board.”
— “If you don’t want GLBT folks as bishops, don’t ordain them as transitional deacons.”
— “Better yet, don’t baptize them in the first place.”
— “Don’t initiate someone and then act like they’re half-ass baptized.”
 
The Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, bishop of New Hampshire, presided at the Eucharist. Combined choirs from All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena, led a standing-room-only congregation of several hundred in rousing hymns and spirituals.
 
The planners of Integrity’s Eucharist thoroughly transformed the Pacific Ballroom in the Hilton Hotel into a place of lively worship.
 
Three large and colorful parasols marked a gospel station, and a large bronze baptismal font topped a brightly draped altar. A procession before the Gospel reading marched through every aisle between the movable seats, filling the room with incense. Bishop Robinson scattered baptismal water generously during the gospel procession.
 
After Bishop Harris offered her teaching—the program did not call it a sermon—Bishop Robinson and the Rev. Thomas Wilson of All Souls Church in Point Loma led a visually stunning Prayers for the Ministry of All the Baptized.
 
The program invited members of the congregation to step toward the altar if they fit in any of several categories:
— “All those who have led the fight against injustice toward lesbian and gay people, and those who have proclaimed the good news of God’s liberation to the lesbian and gay community.”
— All families (married, covenanted, committed blessed) and children.”
— All clergy.
 
As people crowded around the altar to the point of overflowing, most had their arms around each other. Bishop Robinson invited everyone to touch a neighbor as he prayed: “May the Spirit be the storm that shakes the foundations, the leap of new fire, which turns oppression to ash, and may her wildness infuse us with holy desire. This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
 
Douglas LeBlanc reporting from General Convention in Anaheim
 
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