[ASAP] Actions to Take as a Parish

[Gibson Prichard]

I just had a conversation with my father about possible actions and a
course of direction for our parish in response to the bishop's position on
gay marriage. In the context of talking about withholding a portion of a
pledge or requesting that money not be sent to the diocese, it was
suggested that perhaps a more Direct course of action is to have the vestry
request the bishop to permit gay marriage in our parish or seek alternative
episcopal oversight by another bishop. There is a well established route
for a parish to seek alternative episcopal oversight known as AEO which
would permit our parish to affiliate with another bishop. The bishop could
be in Kentucky or any other diocese. AEO has been most commonly used by
conservative parishes seeking not to affiliate with their bishops over this
issue and instead affiliate with more conservative bishops like
Bauerschmidt or Quincy Illinois. Certainly if a cathedral was to request
AEO to another diocese that would be a huge blow to the Diocese of
Tennessee.
One of the other things my father suggested was to use the term "right side
of history." Or "do the right thing." Everyone knows that celebrating gay
marriage and permitting gay marriage is the right thing. Why are we talking
about doing the wrong thing as a diocese and a parish?
I don't have any sense whether our vestry feels strongly enough about the
matter or whether our clergy would back them up but a vestry resolution and
thus a parish request for the ability to have same-sex marriage is in our
parish would be the most direct course of action to take.
On the subject of our pledge, I'm more concerned about resolving the issue
in front of us and not to turn in my pledge by December 13. It seems to me
that we need to resolve the issues at hand and come to an understanding of
how to do the right thing. The US Supreme Court and the national
Episcopal church have spoken: gay marriage is the law of the land. Why
can't our parish be on the right side of history rather than the wrong?

Gibson


-- 
Gibson Prichard
Nashville, TN
gibson at prichard.tv
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