The Diocese of San Diego has joined several other dioceses — including Massachusetts, Southeast Florida and Southern Ohio — that have decided since General Convention 2009 to allow some form of public blessings for same-sex couples.

The decision by the Rt. Rev. James Robert Mathes, Bishop of San Diego, reflects the recommendations of the diocese’s Holiness in Relationships Task Force Report [PDF].

“My approach on this matter, and several other things, is to be in conversation with the community,” Bishop Mathes told The Living Church.

The bishop has discussed his thinking with several clergy gatherings. The bishop said he sees the decision above all as making provision for pastoral care by priests.

Parishes aren’t authorized to bless anything,” he said. “Priests are.”

The Rev. Canon Allisyn Thomas, subdean and canon for spiritual formation at St. Paul’s Cathedral, San Diego, referred to the new policy in a sermon she preached July 18.

“Approximately two weeks ago, Bishop Mathes sent a letter to all clergy in the Diocese saying he will permit the blessing of same-gender relationships in churches in this Diocese, under certain conditions,” Thomas said in her sermon.

“Among them, parishes wishing to do blessings must engage in a parishwide study of the issue such as the one found in the Holiness in Relationships Task Force Report and submit a letter or resolution to Bishop Mathes from the vestry, or in our case Chapter, indicating support for their clergy to do blessings. We have done both and Bishop Mathes has said we may proceed.”

Among the recommendations by the task force in its report of June 2009 was a request that the diocese’s General Convention deputation “support measures that allow the exercise of an ‘option’ to perform blessings of same-sex relationships, rather than measures that would direct such blessings to be performed or direct such blessings to be prohibited.”

The task force’s recommendations continued:

  • “Should an ‘option’ approach to the blessing of same-sex relationships be enacted by General Convention, we encourage our Bishop to put into place a process by which a church can discern if the blessing of same-sex relationships is appropriate to occur within its community.
  • “We encourage this discernment to include extensive study and discussion of the appropriate General Convention resolution, this Task Force report, and the effects of the decision on the spiritual life of the congregation.
  • “We also recommend against coercion or sanction that might be brought against any priest or congregation choosing to exercise or not to exercise such an option.
  • “We encourage our Diocese and its congregations not to take any unilateral action that will knowingly further endanger the relationship of the Episcopal Church with the Anglican Communion.”

No priest has made a written request since the bishop sent his letter to clergy of the diocese, but he expects scattered requests.

“I think it’s going to be a handful,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to be everyone, and it’s not going to be just a couple.”

Douglas LeBlanc