| |
|
|
| |
||
In Witness to the ResurrectionWe recently received a note from J. Christy Wareham which we wanted to share with you (with his permission). |
||
My gay father died in January |
My gay father died in January. He had contracted Hepatitis-B about 20 years ago from a homosexual liaison. The blood test that revealed his disease occurred in 1986. I never knew that, but, as it happens, the disease gradually turned his liver into scar tissue, until he rather suddenly found himself in acute liver failure beginning last November. Dad's doctors thought he might survive the acute episode and have enough liver left to sustain him, perhaps even for a few years. That proved to be unrealistic, and he only declined, day by day, until dying on January 16th. My father, once a Presbyterian minister, had come out several years
ago and became willing to share his experiences with neighbors at The
Synod of Southern California's Monte Vista Grove, a retirement community
for retired ministers, missionaries and their spouses. Some of his neighbors
and friends embraced or accepted Dad and his sexual orientation. Others
did not approve, but even they were loving and supportive friends. |
|
Here is the point I want to make |
At Dad's funeral, conducted with exquisite sensitivity and artfulness by Barbara Anderson and Mark Smutny at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, people spoke openly and with deep affection to the 300+ in attendance about John Wareham, including his homosexuality. My niece, my son, my brother, my sister, myself, a gay member of a covenant group and a priest from All Saints Episcopal Church all addressed, without reservation or self consciousness, about a faithful servant of Christ who had learned to accept God's will for his sexual identity. Here is the point I want to make: Twenty years ago, this could not have happened in this way at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, where I, providentially or otherwise, was nurtured in the faith and eventually ordained. People attended who do not accept homosexual orientation as the will of God, but they listened with love and respect, and none of us felt the least need to apologize for any offense they might have taken. Nor did it occur to us that we might be offending them. Their offense, if felt, could only have risen from their own, to our mind, misbelief [not a real word]. To me, this marks a shift we do well to recognize. |
|
I fully expect tough battles ahead, but I must say, the movement is irreversible. |
I fully expect tough battles ahead, but I must say, the movement is irreversible. The church and the culture have realized, albeit incompletely and in a broad sense unconsciously, that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters are sexually blest human beings. (It will take a while, I suspect, before that same sense extends to bi- and trans- folk, but matters are improving for everyone.) I believe we who are activists in the cause, which I take to be a cause of divine justice, have become less leaders of change and more leaders of transition. That is, we are responsible more to help the church and culture through a difficult and often painful adjustment to reality and less to the task of challenging a social norm we've outlived. At this point, I've come to believe, it is only a matter of time. Chris Glaser, a college classmate of mine, as it turns out, had been a friend of Dad's, and he called shortly after Dad died. It's gives me such sadness that Chris could have been such a gift to the ministry of our Lord and was prevented, but I am sure that neither death nor life, nor all the rest, will keep us all from the love that will bring us to the day of joy and celebration. So, there, I've told you all that. Thanks for listening.
J. Christy and his father, John, gathered at the baptismal fount of Calvary Presbyterian Church in Bolinas, California on the occasion of the baptism of Blake Wareham on a Sunday in early 1991. "A good family and a good day," Christy wrote when he sent this picture. |
|
The Covenant Network2515 Fillmore St - San Francisco - CA - 94115 |
 |
|
| | |
