Ask! Tell!

Today shall not pass on this blog without noting the change in the law that now allows gay people to service openly in the military in the USA. The so-called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” rule that has now been consigned to history was an emblematic piece of hypocrisy. The idea was that it was OK to happen to be gay in the US military, but it wasn’t OK to be honest and open about that. It was an uncomfortable half-way house on the road to acceptance. On the one hand the policy prevented the military authorities from harassing closeted gay military personnel but on the other it meant that people faced direct discrimination if they did disclose their sexuality.

Over 13000 people were discharged from the US military because they were either caught out or chose to be open. That is a lot of people’s lives messed up, a lot of money spent on training people who were then deemed unsuitable and a lot of grief all round.

All over now. Cause indeed for rejoicing.

So why is it significant for me to mark on this blog?

Well, the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is similar (though not identical) to the situation for many gay clergy. To be blunt, you get rewarded for staying in the closet. Come out and you don’t know what will happen to you. Come out and you could be removed from your post by your bishop. Or the next bishop who comes along. Or the Vestry might make life impossible because there are no established guidelines to stop them. Come out about your relationship and you don’t know where you are in the morass of ethics and values regarding who you can live with and what are the rules.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell comes very close to the attitude that the Anglican Churches have in the UK towards gay people becoming bishops. It doesn’t affect that many people directly, but it sends out a ghastly message indirectly to the many. Moderate Christians supportive of gay clergy think that policy stinks. Those in the church most opposed to gay clergy think it stinks. Friends in the USA and Canada, punished collectively in their churches because they affirmed one ministry or another connected to people who happen to be gay, think it stinks. The angry leaders of African provinces looking back at Britain think it stinks.

We can’t just blame Rowan William’s depressing tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury. That is too easy. Notwithstanding that though, I’d say that the closeted straight supporters of gay clergy have a particular role to play in finding a way out of the mire.

Ask! Tell! Whoever you are.

Recording the resurrection

I’ve to do the strangest thing today. I’ve to record the resurrection ahead of time.

We are in the middle of Lent at the moment, which means worship in a lovely subdued mode, preaching of the passion on Sunday and a generally sub fusc mood. Yet I’ve agreed to a recording of a service for Easter Day on Radio Scotland and today is the day for making it all happen.

Its very difficult to get your head around what it feels like to celebrate the resurrection on Easter Day without going through Holy Week. Its going to feel as though we’ve gone through a short cut and then as soon as the recording is over, will need to reverse out of it again.

It reminds me a little of an Anglican church which I visited in Egypt when I was on a scholarship trip before I was ordained. The thing was, the English speaking Sunday morning congregation kept the same calendar as the Western Church whilst at least one of the Arabic speaking congregations, which met later on a Sunday, kept the local Coptic date for Easter. (Yes, that’s right, Anglicans had managed to exist in full communion for years yet didn’t even agree on Easter Day, something much more fundamental than current disputes). I can remember being astonished to hear that congregations of the same church kept different Calendars and then bewildered at the liturgical realities of it. Those with Western Easter would sometimes have Easter whilst the Coptic Calendar Anglicans would still be in Lent. Imagine, decorating the church with flowers and celebrating the resurrection with trumpet and ta-ra only to have to tone it down for later in the day for a congregation who were unable yet to proclaim the Good News of the Resurrection.

I always feel a little subjunctive on Holy Saturday – feeling that we must clean and polish the church just in case he rises. I guess that is what is going on in today’s recording too. We’ll make a recording of what Easter will sound like just in case we find in a few weeks that death has been broken and the stone been rolled away.

We’ll take a chance on it, I guess.