Representatives of the Fort Worth diocese voted for marriage equality at the recent general convention hoping to extend equality to Dallas. (Episcopal News Service)

Local bishop may continue to hamper same-sex marriage in Dallas churches, despite approval of compromise resolution

DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com

Despite the vote at the Episcopal Church’s General Convention in Austin approving a compromise resolution allowing individual churches to perform same-sex marriages without the approval of their local bishop, questions remain about how easy it will be for churches in dioceses with bishops who object.

Six years ago, the Episcopal Church appointed a national marriage task force to look at the question of same-sex marriage, which was gaining strength as an issue in states and in other denominations across the country.

At the general convention in 2015, a resolution passed allowing same-sex marriage. But bishops in eight dioceses — including Dallas — blocked churches under their jurisdiction from performing those weddings. Bishops who blocked their members from marrying were required to make some accommodation.

Bishop J. Scott Mayer, the bishop of Fort Worth and of Northwest Texas, stepped in and offered Dallas church members the hospitality of marriage in his diocese. That solved the accommodation problem for Dallas Bishop George Sumner.

At this year’s convention, a compromise resolution passed on July 13 that takes the marriage decision out of the hands of the bishops and puts it into the hands of the rectors at the parish level: The rector of each church will decide who may or may not marry at that church.

The resolution takes effect on Dec. 2.

Part of the compromise is that the Episcopal Church’s Book of Common Prayer will not be altered. Marriage rites for same-sex couples have been approved but will appear in supplemental material.
Katie Sherrod, spokeswoman for the Fort Worth diocese and Bishop Mayer, said, “That’s a large sacrifice to allies.”

She said Sumner is violating the spirit of the compromise resolution in a letter he sent to his diocese and other bishops after returning from the convention. “If I’m understanding Bishop Sumner’s letter, it appears to me he’s creating unnecessary steps,” she said. “He would have to ask another bishop to step in.”

Sumner seems to be saying in his letter that any church in Dallas that performs same-sex weddings would have to find another bishop to oversee all spiritual matters. For all temporal issues, Dallas would still be in charge.

Fred Ellis, a member of St. Thomas Church on Inwood Road, attended the general convention. He said his church pays its assessment to the Dallas diocese but would be asking the Fort Worth diocese to do all the work if St. Thomas chooses to allow same-sex marriages there.

And, Ellis added, asking another bishop — presumably Mayer, who already is the bishop of two dioceses — without compensating his office for the additional work would be unfair.

He questioned whether the Dallas bishop’s office would split St. Thomas’ assessment with Fort Worth in order to compensate that diocese, or if the Dallas bishop expects the local church to pay additional fees to the facilitating diocese as a way to punish those churches for following the national church and not the local bishop.

Ellis said he expects several churches in the Dallas diocese to begin performing same-sex marriages. St. Thomas in Oak Lawn has had a large LGBT membership for decades, and, Ellis said, Church of the Ascension on Greenville Avenue attracts a large number of LGBT members from East Dallas.

The liberal Church of the Transfiguration on Hillcrest Road in North Dallas, one of the largest Episcopal churches in the country, is also expected to begin performing same-sex marriages. Officials there are more positive that things will work out in the spirit in which the resolution was written.

“It’s just a matter of figuring out the dynamics of this,” said Transfiguration’s Deacon Ginny Kivel.

Ellis said he expects some lively discussions at other Episcopal churches throughout the Dallas diocese, which includes Collin and Denton counties and large parts of East Texas such as the Cedar Creek area that is popular with the LGBT community.

According to the Episcopal News Service, Bishop William Howard Love of the Albany, N.Y., diocese was the most vocal opposition to the resolution. His diocese is one of the eight that have forbidden same-sex couples from marrying in its churches and prevented its pastors from performing ceremonies. Passage of the resolution, ENS reported, “would put him in the awkward position of violating parts of his ordination vows.”

Love talked about whether “sexual intimacy within that of a same-sex couple was appropriate,” and called it “a new thing,” but said there hasn’t been “an honest look” at what God said on the issue.

For same-sex couples waiting to get married in Dallas, Albany and six other dioceses, there’s no question about their relationships other than whether their local bishops will recognize them in the same way their church does.

St. Thomas Church, for one, is not waiting for specific direction from their bishop. In an email to the congregation, Rector Joy Daley wrote in big letters, “Same-Sex Marriages to Begin at St. Thomas.”

“It has grieved me to watch so many of you serve faithfully, lovingly in your various ministries, to come to the table each week, to be involved in preparing and carrying out the sacramental life of this parish and then be excluded from the sacrament of marriage,” she wrote.

The Vestry of St. Thomas signed a resolution on July 17 that begins, “Having been duly informed by our rector, The Rev. Joy Daley, that effective on Advent 1, Dec. 2, 2018, she and other clergy at her discretion, will begin to perform same-sex marriages at The Episcopal Church of St. Thomas the Apostle pursuant to Resolution B012, passed at the 79th General Convention of The Episcopal Church.”

With the question of same-sex marriage essentially settled in the Episcopal Church and just eight dioceses figuring out how to implement it, just one mainline Protestant denomination is left without marriage equality — the Methodist Church.

Next year, the Methodist Church holds its own general conference. According to ministers of that denomination, they’re working on a compromise similar to that worked out last week in the Episcopal Church that would put the decision of whether or not to marry same-sex couples into the hands of the individual pastors and churches.

Some local Methodist ministers already have performed same-sex weddings, but they’d like to continue doing that without fear that someone from another church will press charges against them.