Episcopal Diocese of Virginia Approves Same-Sex Unions

I have often advised LGBT readers who have been brought up in anti-gay religious traditions to leave and find a more accepting and - in my view in respect to Christian denomination - more truly Christian - faith home. My leaving the Roman Catholic Church is a case in point (I joined the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which I find liturgically nearly identical to the Catholic Church but without the corrupt, child rapist enabling/protecting Church hierarchy). Why remain involved in a religious tradition that treats one like dirt, generally disseminates lies and false mental health claims about LGBT individuals and works to keep one as a inferior class of citizen. LGBT Virginians raised in the Catholic Church have even more reason now to consider joining the Episcopal Church with the recent approval of same sex unions now coming even to the often conservative Diocese of Virginia. I can just imagine the spittle that must be flying in Congressman Scott Rigell's break away Anglican parish (Rigell was endorsed last year by the leader of the anti-gay hate group Traditional Values Coalition.) Here are details from the Washington Post:
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One religion story that escaped almost everyone's notice this past weekend is that the nation's largest Episcopal diocese voted to allow church-sanctioned same-sex unions.
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Time was when the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia was way too conservative or even middle of the road to consider such an action. The northern tier of the diocese used to be populated with several large conservative congregations that would have never agreed to same-sex blessings. But these congregations pulled out of the diocese several years ago in response to the 2003 consecration of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Episcopal bishop. The leave-takers, the majority of whom voted to leave during a dramatic series of votes in nine churches on Dec. 17, 2006, were also less than thrilled that a majority of the Virginia diocese's bishops and delegates to the 2003 Episcopal General Convention in Minneapolis voted to ratify Robinson's election.
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Things since have changed in the Old Dominion State. The resolution passed last weekend read: "Resolved, that the 216th Annual Council of the Diocese of Virginia thanks Bishop Shannon Johnston and the diocesan team for the very fruitful 'Listen ... And Be Heard' sessions in 2010, and urges our bishop to 'provide a generous pastoral response' by moving forward with guidelines with regard to public blessings of same gender unions."
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This past weekend during the diocese's annual convention in Reston, Johnston, who took over the diocese more than a year ago from retired Bishop Peter J. Lee, set the stage with a speech that clearly laid out how he hoped the vote would go. "I have always affirmed that committed, monogamous same-gender relationships can indeed be faithful in the Christian life," he said.
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Virginia Theological Seminary, the nation's largest Episcopal seminary located in Alexandria and a major incubator for the Virginia diocese's new clergy, just got an award last April from Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) "for its twenty-year commitment to the inclusion of homosexual students, faculty, and staff."

Southern Virginia Episcopal Diocese to Remain Less Than Fully Gay Accepting

For more than 150 years Virginia has remained in the rear guard among those states rejecting modernity and equality be it based on race or sexual orientation. As is all too typical in this state, even though national trends and policies change and move forward towards equality for all, the Southern Virginia Diocese has decided to act in the usual Virginia manner and ignore the recent changes voted on by the national church that allow gay bishops and marriage like ceremonies for same sex couples. But for the boyfriend's successful salon, I swear that nothing would make me happier than to leave this benighted and backward state. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot on the Southern Virginia Diocese's to reject change and full equality:

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The Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia will continue not to marry or bless same-sex couples despite tentative movement in that direction by the national denomination last week. "Nothing in our policies about either has changed," Bishop Herman Hollerith said in his blog this week. He leads the diocese, which encompasses Hampton Roads.

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Hollerith said meetings in the diocese will allow congregants to discuss the convention's decisions.
Debate over gay ordination and same-sex unions has shaken the denomination since it approved in 2003 the ordination of a non-celibate gay man as New Hampshire's bishop.

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I had hoped to perhaps join the Episcopal Church if the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America fails to adopt pro-gay resolutions at the Churchwide Assembly next month, but apparently to make the change worthwhile I'd need to move rather than change denominations.