Brian Williams, LCSW, marriage and family counselor spoke at St. Mark's adult forum on Holy Matrimony. Brian talked about the role of God in the marriage relationship, power struggles and conflict resolution.
It was a good talk except that it was presented in a typically safe manner. Inviting a gay Christian to discuss gay, long term relationships would offend those who disapprove. It's kind of a sensitive issue in The Episcopal Church due to all of the conflict. Maybe one day St. Mark's will become a truly inclusive church which will be able to include gay relationships in the same discussion as Holy Matrimony discussions.
A couple of years ago a St. Mark's member told me that he disapproved of Integrity and thinks that it should be shut down "because everybody should be mixed together and share together."
That's easy for him to say when gay people are invited to participate in the community functions but only heterosexuals experiences such as the Holy Matrimony forum are a part of the discussion.
The 20+ year relationship that Larry and I have is too controversial to rate equal status as heterosexual relationships in church discussions. The church member who made the statement about Integrity is wrong. It's a heterosexual who is in the majority and therefore in more of a position of power telling the minorities, those with the least power in this patriarchal society of ours telling me to stay in my place. Praise the Lord for Integrity!
When I spoke with Bishop Robinson a couple of weeks ago he thinks that this will change sooner than later. I read on a blog (can't remember which one) that The Episcopal Church is going through a "coming out" process, not unlike that of gay people when they decide to come out to family, friends or co-workers. The ups and downs and positive and negative reactions creates anger, fear, etc.
I praise God for Integrity as it provides a place to share on equal levels of gay and straights and share the values of the relationships of both. Actually, that's the beauty of the Palm Beach chapter of Integrity. It's about 50/50 straight/gay. However, although the gay folks come from various Episcopal churches in Palm Beach county, only 2% of Integrity of the Palm Beaches are straight people. The other 98% are St. Andrew's members.
It was great having Brian Williams speak at St. Mark's and I hope he comes back soon.
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