LGBTQ Ordination (a follow up to my Te Kaea interview)

Five Minutes of Fame.

Well, it seems my all too brief and not very illustrious career as a commentator on Church issues has hit its first speed bump!

With General Synod underway in Fiji and issues around our LGBTQ whanau having some prominence, it was only natural that the media would pick it up as a story, and so the lot fell to me to be interviewed. In an attempt to ensure 100% clarity I elected to be interviewed in English for the Māori language news, Te Kaea. The interview went well and I was pleased with the overall experience, until I saw the subtitles.

In the interview I was asked if I thought there was a barrier to the ordination of LGBTQ people to which I responded in the negative. I went onto say that there is, in my opinion no theological or tikanaga reason why LGBTQ people who are living in a loving relationship or are celibate cannot be ordained. This is not a view I apply uniquely to our LGBTQ whanau, but one I apply to any ordained person, or indeed candidate for ordination. The subtitle, however said “…I don’t see why any celibate gay man or lesbian woman cannot be ordained.”

Whanau, I believe that sexuality in its entirety and the physical manifestation of that sexuality between two people who love each other is one of the great gifts of God. It alarmed me therefore to see that the subtitle indicated or inferred anything other than that position. To demand anyone, LGBTQ or otherwise to exist in a state of celibacy as a prerequisite for ordination when they are involved in a loving relationship not only denies the couple perhaps the most intimate manifestation of love available to humans, but also denies the fullness of the candidate’s identity to be lived out. Of course there are some who choose to live a celibate life, and I support them 100% in that calling. I, however draw the line at demanding celibacy as an enforced way of life.

Whanau, although this post largely takes the form of an explanation, it is also a statement of support and solidarity from myself to our LGBTQ and Takataapui whanau everywhere, not only those in the Church.

Arohanui.

Please note that this isn’t an attack on Maori TV, Te Kaea or the reporter. Sometimes these things just happen.

It Gets Better!

Hi all,

I put together the below video in support of GLBT people everywhere. For those of you who read this blog (all 10 of you) you will know that any issue of social justice is close to my heart and I have written on this particular issue before. Please check out the video and I will also post the transcript below…although I did ad lib a bit!

Kia koa, kia hari- Rejoice and be glad!

It Does Get Better!

Hi. I am the Reverend Christopher Douglas-Huriwai and I am an Anglican Minster here in Auckland, New Zealand and I am here to tell you that is does get better.

I know that for many of you out there it may seem as if “Christian” is just another word for “Homophobia,” believe me it isn’t. To be a Christian is to follow Christ and to follow Christ is perfect freedom and love. And while, I, myself am not a GLBT man, and I don’t for a second pretend to know firsthand the hurt that is all too often present in the lives of Gay, lesbian, Bi and Transgendered people as a result of Homophobia I do know some things. I know that love doesn’t call you Fag, love doesn’t call you a Dyke, love doesn’t condemn you because you have been fearfully and wonderfully made, just the way God intended.

I may only be one person, within a community that is too often seen to be homophobic or anti-GLBT, but please know, you have friends here and we are praying for you. Not for some sort of miracle cure to your “ILLNESS” we aren’t praying that the “GAY DEMON” be cast out of you. But rather we are praying that when you feel like hope is lost and the options are running out. When you feel like things are too hard and your light has grown too dim, remember that there are people here for you, praying for you, and there is a God that loves you, and so do we. IT DOES GET BETTER!

LGBT are Fine BUT…

The Compass Rose

I was (pleasantly) surprised last week when I was speaking to my mother and she asked me if I had heard that the Church of England had given the OK for Gay clergy, not only to be ordained, but to exercise episcopal ministry. I must say while my initial thought was full of doubt I still had the slightest hope in me that what she told me was true and that there had been a breakthrough. Sadly, my doubt was confirmed.

In a paper released last Monday the Church of England stated their position on Gay clergy in relation to the Equality Act. The main thrust of the paper is that Gay clergy will be allowed to hold any office in the church, including episcopal, if they are celibate. This paper maintains that there should be no discrimination based on orientation, but that it is the behavior that goes with the orientation that mattered.

While this is (arguably) a step in the right direction, one can’t help but feel that this is a final step and not an initial one. This paper effectively says that it is OK to be Gay as long as you don’t act on your inherent, God given sexuality. Not only is this an injustice against our LGBT brothers and sisters, it is a blatant injustice against the love of God. Any couple, heterosexual, homosexual or otherwise will testify to the intimacy, love, transformation and transcendence that occurs when making love. It is quite possibly the most intimate time and space that we share with another human being. It is the human response to love that we should all be able to express irrespective of sexual orientation, so to deny that expression of that intimacy, that love, to anyone is a grave injustice.

This paper is falling back on secular law as a scape goat to facilitate and empower a position of prejudice. This paper relies on the law that says marriage is to be between and woman and a man only. So what if a LGBT couple, who are legally married in another country go to minister in England? Will they be able to exercise their sexuality while one of them is also in active ministry? This (using the law to justify prejudice) is a tactic that is all to familiar around the communion. It has even been used here in the Church in Aotearoa- New Zealand and Polynesia.

The canons of the church in Aotearoa- New Zealand and Polynesia are clear; a requirement of ordination is Chastity. Chastity in the canons of this province is defined as “the right ordering of sexual relationships.” This statement is also explained in the Standing Resolutions where it says “the right ordering of sexual relationships is within marriage, if single then the person is to remain celibate.” Where does this leave our LGBT whanau? Where does this leave the church? It places our LGBT brothers and sisters in a very unfair position, either remain celibate and respond to your calling to ordained ministry or deny your calling to ordained ministry but live the fullness of who God created you to be. That is an unfair position to say the least, and to say the most, it is oppression of the worst kind.

It is easy to see now, how the church is using secular law to empower their prejudice. After all it isn’t the church’s fault that it is illegal for same-sex couples to be married, is it? Well, I have a radical idea,  instead of waiting for the law to change how about we change the canons? Why not simply insert civil-unions into our existing canons so that the right ordering of sexual relationships is between the married and those in civil-unions? Of course that would be too easy…

The Church of England has not taken a step forward, all this paper does is rub salt into an already very sore wound and until we, as a church are ready to step out in faith and make a prophetic (as opposed to this pathetic) statement affirming the God given sexuality and sexual nature of all human kind than we are still no closer to fully living out the gospel of Christ, the gospel of love.