A Sexual Showdown

Never underestimate the power of sex to rile even such a relatively unflappable body as the Episcopal Church. The influential 2.5 million-member denomination has tolerated more progressive behavior than most Protestant groups; some liberal dioceses have held same-sex marriages and ordained gay clergy. Yet official church doctrine has always opposed such practices. Now a hot debate is erupting over a proposed "pastoral teaching" that would give liberationists more leeway than ever before.

The document, produced by a panel chaired by New York City's Bishop Richard Grein, uses carefully vague language aimed at mollifying conservatives. Yet it avoids endorsing a 1979 resolution, flouted by liberal bishops, that opposes the ordination of sexually active gays and affirms "marital fidelity and sexual chastity as the standards of Christian sexual morality." The new paper asks clergy ordinations to follow unspecified church norms and priests to set an undefined "wholesome example." The report also says the "fullest potential" for sex occurs within "faithful and committed lifelong unions between mature adults" but pointedly omits mention of heterosexual matrimony and implies acceptance of homosexual couples.

Church leaders intended to keep the 68-page report under wraps until the bishops had voted on it Aug. 24 during the church's convention in Indianapolis. But last week a conservative caucus, Episcopalians United, of Solon, Ohio, defiantly published the secret document in an effort to rally opposition.

Other foes are mobilizing. After receiving the report, a group of 18 Southern bishops conferred in Dallas and sent out a sharp-edged declaration reaffirming church opposition to nonmarital and same-sex relations. By last week, a total of 40 bishops (out of 275) had endorsed the declaration. The bitter fight ahead was presaged in a severe critique by the Rev. Stephen Noll, academic dean at Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania. "Many conscientious Episcopalians," he wrote, "feel they cannot stay in a church which officially denies one of the moral essentials of the faith."