An Amusing Codicil to the Diocesan De-Briefing
I had been pretty passionate about B033 in the discussions with our Bishop and Deputies in the formal session, and that passion continued when I talked with them one-on-one after the official session ended.
Our Bishop is a slow-talking, earnest, and thoughtful speaker. (He’s also one of the whitest and straightest guys I’ve ever met.) As we talked informally after the debriefing, I was impressed that it seems he is beginning to “get it” as he is hearing from gay and straight people in our diocese profoundly wounded and angry over the passage of B033.
At one point in our one-on-one chat, almost pleading, he said: "Please do not leave! We need you and all the gay people of our church. I need you in our church. Don’t quit reminding me how you feel!" He was so touchingly earnest and sincere -- and I like him so much -- that I couldn't help returning with a quip: "You just say that 'cause you're afraid all the gay guys are going to leave the diocese, and then who'll be left to make your pretty vestments?!"
Yes, he lost it!! :-) We had a marvelous laugh together. It was a relief to be able to enjoy a bit of “gay humor” with him. And pretty cool to see his acknowledgement that, without the skills of all those gay-guy seamstresses out there, our church would be poorer.
Sorry if this little anecdote is politically incorrect. But I’ve been in a lot of parishes where the only people who make vestments are the blue-haired ladies and the talented gay men … I just couldn’t resist. (And I envy their skill!)
Our Bishop is a slow-talking, earnest, and thoughtful speaker. (He’s also one of the whitest and straightest guys I’ve ever met.) As we talked informally after the debriefing, I was impressed that it seems he is beginning to “get it” as he is hearing from gay and straight people in our diocese profoundly wounded and angry over the passage of B033.
At one point in our one-on-one chat, almost pleading, he said: "Please do not leave! We need you and all the gay people of our church. I need you in our church. Don’t quit reminding me how you feel!" He was so touchingly earnest and sincere -- and I like him so much -- that I couldn't help returning with a quip: "You just say that 'cause you're afraid all the gay guys are going to leave the diocese, and then who'll be left to make your pretty vestments?!"
Yes, he lost it!! :-) We had a marvelous laugh together. It was a relief to be able to enjoy a bit of “gay humor” with him. And pretty cool to see his acknowledgement that, without the skills of all those gay-guy seamstresses out there, our church would be poorer.
Sorry if this little anecdote is politically incorrect. But I’ve been in a lot of parishes where the only people who make vestments are the blue-haired ladies and the talented gay men … I just couldn’t resist. (And I envy their skill!)
posted by Lisa Fox at 7/30/2006 02:37:00 AM
3 Comments:
Lisa, do you remember those way cool green silk vestments that +Anne wore at Trinity? Yup! Hand-made by a gay man in our parish.
So you comment to the +Bish, while maybe a little un-PC for some folks (read: not me) was totally on the mark -- and he knew it.
He really is a dear, sweet man, our +Bishop. I've had occasion to meet him several times and I love him more each time I get to talk with him.
Yes, Toewalker, I did notice them, and how beatiful they were. I'm not a bit surprised.
But, J, you do need to master this one tiny convention of TEC. By calling her "+Anne," you've just made her a Bishop. [From your mouth to God's ear!!!!] Priests are like Anne+. Bishops are like +Smith. It's all about the placement of the + sign. ;-)
Isn't our abstruse little church marvelous?! Who else would love terms like nave and sacristy and obsess about the placement of + signs? LOL!
Oh my, with the stoke of a pen, as they say... Sorry, Anne+, we'll have to let the real +Bishops do that.
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