The Canadian Press Lifestyles, Tuesday, August 1, 2006

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INDEX:Religion, Social

Eric Shackleton The Canadian Press

Linda Privitera, an ordained priest in the U.S. Episcopal Church, has felt "marginalized" ever since joining her spouse Melissa Haussman - a Carleton University professor - last fall in Canada.

The two, who tied the knot in Massachusetts and whose marriage was recognized in Canada, quickly found themselves caught up in the cut and thrust of the Anglican Church of Canada's battle over whether married homosexual pastors should be allowed to minister to congregations.

Within days of being given a temporary licence by the bishop to preach in the Ottawa diocese, Privitera was dismissed after several clergy angrily protested the move.

She's now "in discernment about a location where I can best exercise my ministry ... offer my gifts," says Privitera, 59, who just completed her doctorate in theology at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. "It's hard to be told that there's no room for me to do that here."

Privitera's greatest worry, since she's so close to retirement, is that her ministry might end in "a whimper," she says.

When Privitera arrived in Ottawa last November, everything looked rosy. Canada, like Massachusetts, her home state, had turned a friendlier face toward gays and lesbians by making same- sex marriage legal.

Privitera was told by Bishop Peter Coffin that she could seek a parish, pointing to St. Mary the Virgin as a possible posting. Then the sky fell in - she had run afoul of the church's conservative faction.

A group of local clergy belonging to the Anglican Gathering of Ottawa, including Rev. Desiree Stedman, denounced Coffin in an open letter. "This action," they wrote, "puts our relationship with the worldwide Anglican communion in jeopardy."

The Bible, says Stedman, takes "precedence" over human rights. By licensing Privitera, the bishop "changed basically 2,000 years of Christian practice."

http://www.biblio.eureka.cc/Biblio/Search/Doc_save.asp?Action=AffDocPleinText (1 sur 3)2006-08-08 11:13:38 document Stedman's opposition to Privitera ministering to a congregation has nothing to do with her personally, says Stedman. "I can accept a gay person as a pastor as long as they are not married."

And if they are married: "it is quite clearly against biblical principles ... (and) practice in Scripture"

Privitera has received support from many people, including pastors and lay people in the Anglican Church. Of the 75 pastors in the Ottawa diocese, only seven signed the letter.

And the Ottawa branch of Integrity Canada, a group within the church that advocates for policies of inclusiveness, has been helping Privitera to find employment and trying to figure out how she can be taken on as a chaplain for the group.

In a recent interview, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison said the church has long been affirming of its gay and lesbian members "as having full access and full membership." He also sees the church making it more comfortable for them to be in the pews. "I sincerely hope so," he said.

"I believe the love of God to be for everybody and that includes those whose sexual inclinations are towards their own gender," said Hutchison.

"It's a nice statement," says Privitera. "But they haven't concretized ways in which the GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered) people have access to power."

When it comes to Scripture, says Rev. Winna Martin, who set up the Regina branch of Integrity last year, there are "many different interpretations ... You can take the Bible literally ... I look at this as a human rights issue."

For Privitera, this is cold comfort. "In the past six months, I've earned about $4,400 which is really not enough to help pay the bills," she said. It also "does a job on your self-esteem."

She is grateful to people "who have been giving me a little bit of work here and there to keep me standing upright," she said. "That part has been very important to me as have been priests who have welcomed me as a colleague."

After awhile, though, she said "you begin to think that you're not due more than the crumbs that are thrown."

Privitera's options are limited. She can either return to Boston or wait until the Anglican Church's governing body, General Synod, meets in spring 2007. That's when church leaders are expected to discuss the moratorium on blessing same-sex marriages that has been in effect for the past couple of years, and to take an official vote on the issue.

Right now, though, Privitera is contemplating returning to the United States, perhaps to her former parish in Boston, where her children, grandchildren and other relatives live.

http://www.biblio.eureka.cc/Biblio/Search/Doc_save.asp?Action=AffDocPleinText (2 sur 3)2006-08-08 11:13:38 document "My parish was very diverse," she recalls fondly. "It was not only gay. It was a wonderful mix of all ages and former religious traditions ... There's a strong longing to go home."

"I had hoped when I first arrived here that I could have a base of work in Canada," she says. "The pattern would have been like 90 per cent in Canada and 10 per cent in the States... But that may need to flip."

And what does her partner think of all this? Haussman says that while "it's not the number 1 option in terms of how we would like to live our lives together. If that's where she can practise her ministry in the best way, then that's what has to happen."

What's been most disappointing, says Haussman, an expert on Canada-U.S. relations who loves her teaching job and plans to stick it out in Ottawa, "is how a very small minority of vocal people continues to influence church policy" in the 77 million member worldwide Anglican communion.

"It feels like gay and lesbian people - that we're being told we're expendable to this church," she said. "A lot of us have been raised in it and given time, effort and money to it. It's very disappointing to hear that."

What are the prospects that General Synod will accept pastors who are married to same-sex partners in the pulpit? "I'm cautiously optimistic," says Chris Ambidge, head of Integrity Toronto.

"I'm not expecting it within the next three months, or even two years. But I am quite confident that the church will move to be affirming of all of her members and not just the heterosexual ones," he said.

Category: Society and Trends Uniform subject(s): Religion, philosophy and ethics; Homosexuals Subject(s) - The Canadian Press : RELIGION; SOCIAL Hour of publication: 12:1 Length: Long, 805 words

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