Hoisted on their Own Petard
February 15, 2016
HERE ARE two recent letters to the editor of the Chestnut Hill Local in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia:
Local Episcopal congregations committed to inclusion
Our neighbors in Chestnut Hill and Mt. Airy may have seen the news out of Canterbury, U.K., that the Episcopal Church is “temporarily sanctioned” by the leaders of the Anglican Communion because our church created a marriage service for same-gendered couples.
As the Rectors of Saint Paul’s and St. Martin’s Episcopal Churches we would like to tell the community that nothing has changed nor will it at our congregations due to this news from our communion, the third largest church in the world.
At your Episcopal churches in this community we are proud that LGBTI people are always welcomed, affirmed and invited to share in complete equality and mutuality in all of the sacraments, including Holy Matrimony.
We repent of the damage that Christian churches have done and still do to LGBTI people. We stand with our Presiding Bishop who asserts that “our commitment to be an inclusive church is not based on a social theory or capitulation to the ways of culture, but on our belief that the outstretched arms of Jesus on the cross are a sign of the very love of God reaching out to us all.”
It is with great gratitude and humility that we welcome all the Godly gifts LGBTI people bring into our common life. Our image of God becomes more complete through the love they share!
Jarrett Kerbel, Rector at St. Martin’s
and Cliff Cutler, Rector at Saint Paul’s
The second one, published on Feb. 11, 2016:
An insult to the global South
The Reverends Kerbel and Cutler may think they are being “inclusive” but the real facts tell a very different story. It was top Anglican bishops from Africa who played a pivotal role in sanctioning the Episcopal Church for its open acceptance of homosexuality. So what we have here is hardly “inclusion” but quite the opposite: a couple of American ministers sending a big insult to African Christians and to Christians of the global South. For two respected ministers to be engaging in this kind of arrogant American exceptionalism is truly deplorable. Reverends Kerbel and Cutler only need to wake up to the stunning loss of membership in their own denomination — for example, consider the article on Beliefnet.com, “Why is the Episcopal church near collapse?”—to see what happens when churches go marching to the tune of politically correct crusades to nowhere.
Caryl Johnston
Germantown
