Episcopalians Seek to Avoid Divisions on Homosexuality : Relationships: Bishops, noting problems of other denominations, ask church to uphold an ideal of lifelong faithful unions for heterosexual and gay couples.

In 1991, a Presbyterian committee created an uproar when it said sex outside of marriage between genuinely consenting adults was OK. Its report was overwhelmingly rejected at the church’s annual meeting.

Last fall, when an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America committee on sexuality released a draft statement urging members to challenge traditional biblical condemnations of homosexuality, the church reacted to the subsequent backlash by appointing a new writing panel and assuring members that any official policy would stand on biblical foundations and the confessional tradition of the church.

Now U.S. Episcopal bishops are trying what they hope will be a less contentious approach to sexuality with a draft statement that asks the church to uphold an ideal of lifelong faithful unions for both heterosexual and homosexual couples, and greet gays and lesbians with hospitality rather than hostility.

“As it can be for heterosexual persons, the experience of steadfast love can be for homosexual persons an experience of God,” the bishops say in the fourth draft of their proposed pastoral teaching on human sexuality.

At the same time, the document also relates traditional church teaching that sex is reserved for heterosexual marriages and stops short of advocating changes in church law on the issues of gay ordinations or the blessing of same-sex unions.

“The document doesn’t take a stand one way or the other, basically,” said the Rev. Jane N. Garrett, a member of the drafting committee. “It leaves everything open for a continuation of the dialogue.”

But Bishop William Frey, dean of Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, said presenting different points of view is not pastoral teaching, but a reflection of the chaos in the church on these issues today.

“The nicest thing I can say is that parts of it remind me of theology by Oprah and Donahue,” he said. “In its present form, it would be the most embarrassing document the bishops have ever produced.”

In an attempt to avoid the Lutherans’ fate, the bishops had decided to bypass the pews in the drafting process by keeping the document confidential until the denomination’s General Convention beginning Aug. 24 in Indianapolis.

But the fourth draft of the report was released recently by Episcopalians United, a conservative group.

“Several bishops and laity from the theological left and right have questioned this clandestine process,” said the Rev. Todd Wetzel, the group’s executive director. “It seems the only people pleased with this secrecy are those who have the most to gain from it.”

A drafting committee is now polishing up a fifth draft that is expected to be circulated to all the bishops in a couple of weeks.

Committee members would not comment on the contents of the final draft, but said it would not shake up the church.

“It’s not going to be a particularly radical document,” said Bishop Frank Allan of Atlanta. “If people want to get titillated by it, they can get titillated by something else.”

In the Episcopal Church, the denomination’s legislative body has declared both that homosexuals are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the church and that physical sexual expression is appropriate only within the lifelong, monogamous union of husband and wife.

The church has said it is not appropriate to ordain practicing gays or lesbians, but several bishops have gone ahead and publicly or quietly ordained homosexuals.

At the 1991 General Convention in Phoenix, the House of Bishops was ordered to prepare a pastoral teaching on sexuality.

The fourth draft of “Continuing the Dialogue: A Pastoral Teaching of the House of Bishops to the Church as It Considers Issues of Human Sexuality” takes note of the traditional church teaching that sex is appropriate only within marriage and of the experience of gays and lesbians identifying their love with Jesus Christ in long-term, committed relationships.

In a section on Scripture, two interpretations are offered. One interpretation said the biblical texts condemning homosexuality should be taken at their word. “Sexual activity of any kind comes to be seen as sinful, and homosexual practice as especially dishonorable.”

The other interpretation said that the texts can also be viewed in the larger context of the spirit of the law upholding love for all and that texts written in a period with a different understanding of homosexuality should not be used “to demean and perhaps exclude a whole group of disciples.”

In a section offering pastoral guidelines, the fourth draft declares that sexual relationships reach their full potential in the context of chaste, faithful and committed lifelong union between mature adults.

“We believe this is as true for homosexual as for heterosexual relationships and that such relationships need and should receive the pastoral care of the church,” the statement says.

In a vague reference to ordination, the bishops recommend the church ordain only persons believed to be “wholesome examples.”

The United Church of Christ is the only major Protestant group to allow the ordination of active homosexuals.

Garrett said that given the tensions in the church the drafting committee deliberately avoided taking a stand on issues such as the ordination of homosexuals.

“There’s no way at this moment to reconcile those differences,” she said.

Wetzel disagrees. He said the document is a sophisticated attempt to place homosexual relations on a par with heterosexual relations.

“I think the real intent of the document is pretty clear: to legitimate homosexual practice,” he said.

But a leader of an Episcopal gay rights group said that is already happening--with or without a statement from the bishops.

E. Kim Byham, publisher of the Voice of Integrity, said blessings of same-sex unions have occurred in churches throughout the country, and homosexuals have been ordained in 35 dioceses.

“It’s really a done deal,” he said.