Of The Baptismal Covenant

I have often said that we Episcopalians do not believe our own prayer book. In response to the question “Who are the ministers of the Church?” our Catechism says, “The ministers of the Church are lay persons, bishops, priests, and deacons.” Note that the laity is listed first. Yet for all our proclaiming of “the ministry of all the baptized,” we don’t believe lay people do ministry, and we defer much of the ministry of the church to our bishops, priests and deacons. More than that, we seem to be abdicating more and more of our responsibility for the administration of our church to the ordained. I believe we can see this in the current struggles and our willingness to grant the Primates of the Anglican Communion so much power over the future direction of the Episcopal Church.

And, except for Bonnie Anderson, the president of our House of Deputies, our lay leadership seems remarkably silent when it comes to responding to the Primates’ Communiqué of February 19, 2007. Bishops on both sides of the issue, and from the “center,” continue issuing statements daily, and we await each one with eagerness. And our elected leader Katharine also seems willing to allow the Primates Gathered to be authoritative for the Episcopal Church—or at least have a sizeable say over the future direction of our church. She continues to ask, repeatedly, that we look at this time as a time of pause—to step back from the movement toward full and equal participation in the Episcopal Church for its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members. To many of us this seems to be a case of “justice delayed is justice denied.” For others, it does not go far enough.

Do we believe our Baptismal Covenant as it appears in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, or not?

Celebrant Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?
People I will, with God’s help.

It is clear that a significant number of us do not intend to do this. They refuse to come to the table and participate in the breaking of the bread with those who do not agree with them. There are congregations that refuse to allow their bishops to visit them, and there are bishops who refuse to visit congregations.

Celebrant Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever
you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?
People I will, with God’s help.

So while the Primate of Nigeria vocally and visibly supports a bill in the Nigerian legislature that will outlaw even the right to gather and discuss lesbian and gay issues—and I feel relatively certain that bisexuality and transgender issues are not even a blip on the radar screen for the good Archbishop--the Primates consistently demand that the Episcopal Church comply with certain parts of their Lambeth Resolutions, the Windsor Report, and their Dromantine Communiqué but refuse to demand compliance to the rest of those documents by their own members.

Celebrant Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?
People I will, with God’s help.

Good News? You mean there is Good News for us gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people? It is hard to hear the Good News when we are essentially being told to go back into our closets and let the rest of the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion talk about us and make decisions about our lives without speaking with and listening to us.

Celebrant Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
People I will, with God’s help.

The last time I looked, “all persons” included lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. But maybe we can only be loved when we are second-class members of the church.

Celebrant Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?
People I will, with God’s help.

Apparently not, since we are being asked to step back from this striving. Quite frankly, if the reactionary factions of the Primates gathered succeed in banning lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from consecration as bishops, then they will then seek to have us banned from ordination as priests and deacons. And once they succeed in that, can ordained women be far from their sights?

If we do not truly believe our Baptismal Covenant, which we all say together whenever a new person is brought into our community through the rite of Baptism, then we should take it out of the Prayer Book and replace it with “The Ministration of Holy Baptism” from the 1928 Prayer Book. Or why not return to ”The Ministration of Publick Baptism of Infants” in the 1662 Prayer Book? That is the version of the Prayer Book highlighted in the current proposed Anglican Covenant.

What part of ALL do we not understand?

Peace,
Jeffri