"I count among my very best of friends members of the GLBT community. I can't imagine life without them."

'Brothers and Sisters in Christ -
I am a heterosexual woman in a 36 year marriage. I was raised in the Congregational Church, but have never been an active member. I was, however, an active member of a chorus that sang liturgical music. It was the music that brought me back to the church. I was blessed to be part of the service to elevate Gene Robinson to Bishop of New Hampshire. It was one of the most moving moments of my life. I couldn't begin to put into words how important this event was in my personal or in my spiritual journey It changed me in any number of positive ways. The most important was that I did made a decision: if people were going to say that they would leave the Episcopal Church because of Bishop Robinson, then I wanted to be counted as someone who would join the Church because of Bishop Robinson. So I began the process to become an Episcopalian, and was received into the Church, by Bishop Robinson, the following Spring. Knowing that Gene Robinson put his hands on my head and welcomed me into the Church continues to be one of life's most important moments for me. I am now a member of an Episcopal faith community that has a large GLBT component. Our beloved pastor is a gay man in a committed relationship. He has enriched my personal and spiritual life in countless ways. I count among my very best of friends members of the GLBT community. I can't imagine life without them. I am blessed to be part of such a welcoming community.

Deeply disturbed by what is happening, or perhaps more by what is not happening, at Lambeth

I am deeply disturbed by what is happening, or perhaps more by what is not happening, at Lambeth. Our Lord sent his disciples out to heal and to speak truth to injustice. I believe we need both healing and justice now. The Anglican Church has among its official mission the need to seek to transform unjust structures of society. Yet Bishop Gene Robinson has not been invited to the table. There have been other gay bishops before him. You seem to be advocating a "don't ask, don't tell" policy. This, to me, seems neither just nor healing.

I am a woman and a lay minister, and know that there are still some congregations in which neither women priests nor lay ministers are welcome. I find it personally painful when you deny others their rightful place at the Lord's table. I live on the border of New Hampshire, and worship in a church in Vermont. My church is a vibrant and holy place. We are growing and doing so well that people have been sent to see how we "do" church. Our rector happens to be gay. His rightful place at the Lord's table is as a priest, and there is no denying his calling. The light of the Holy Spirit shines through him and lights up our church. My spirituality has been greatly enhanced by his leadership, and the thought that you would deny others with such a call causes a deep ache in my heart. We are an inclusive church, and I think what we do so well is love.

Some of my fellow congregants are gay or lesbian. In no way is my marriage of almost 30 years adversely affected by them. When they are in partnership, I see love. God is love and where true love is, God is also there. My life is enriched by their presence.

When I was a child, I had a picture of Jesus in my room. He was standing by a door with no latch, patiently knocking. That picture seems very relevant to what is happening, or not happening, at Lambeth. Will there be a time when you must answer "When, Lord, did we deny you a place at the table?" Listen. Someone is knocking at the door. Think about it.

Devin J. Starlanyl

An incredible lack of tolerance and safety in YOUR OWN PARISH!

Imagine your most beloved child, nurtured in a loving heterosexual marriage, and above all cherished for being a much waited for and prayed- for child-your child- informs you he is gay, or lesbian, if this was a longed for daughter. Try to imagine and get your head and soul around this. Imagine your reaction, his/her response, the family's responses, your spouse's responses, your marriage. Just imagining truthfully wrapping your heat, soul, science, theology, childhood, training in developmental psychology, et. al. Imagine your local-family- parish consists of little diversity -- mostly older people.

Some left when Gene Robinson was elected. Imagine the whispers around you, the incredible lack of tolerance and safety in YOUR OWN PARISH! You want to scream, "Jesus made him this way! Jesus loves him! He didn't choose this, who would want to with the amount of hatred in this world. This precious angels tell me his story, and a profound and long story it is for a early teen. Already worried if he would be accepted by his extended family, his father, his best friend, his school and most of all, his church family. Denying feelings, hating himself, loneliness. We as parents, embracing him, loving him....we love you the way you are, you have a family that loves you. Dad steps up, old fashioned as he is. I see the Holy Spirit work right there, in my husband!

We've come out of the closet a bit-mom and dad still in there, child coming out as Mathew Shepard's Mom says---and parents going in! We have been nurtured and supported by our local PFLAG group. and our loving and compassionate priest. We have a loving gay family counselor- not Christian-but helpful.But for the most, we're all in the closet and are alone.

Some of the jokes and things I have heard in my own church hurt me so. I want to protect my son from those people who I have heard say those things. I pray for those folks. I want to say, if you knew in your own House here, is at least one gay person....and probably more. If God makes your child this way, what are you to do if you love this child more than life itself? You would want the best and same privileges a heterosexual person would want for their children.

I wish we had pastoral guidance...where to go , how to go through this with our parish family. The closest Integrity is 4 hours away.

Our family's thoughts and prayers are continuously with +Gene Robinson. The exclusion he is experiencing takes me right back to this little parish and the exclusionary remarks that have been said. I have never heard anyone say, "I want to have information, I want to listen, I want to understand about LBGT people."

Thanks for letting me get this off my chest. My prayers are with Lambeth. Sometimes, when my husband and I are alone, we talk about waiting for the deaths of older congregational members so for the next generation there will be more tolerance, respect, compassion and trust. God bless.

When will fear be banished?

My partner of almost 20 years and I have lived in a commited relationship that is in no substantial way different than the marriages of our straight relatives and friends. We have had our joys and our sorrows and we have had dreams realilzed and dreams shattered. However, the one constant throughout our life together has been the love of our Lord and service to his church and witness to the world. I am both a priest and a RN working in a psychiatric hospital and my partner is a liturgical musician of national standing as well as a pioneer in AIDS ministry.

We simply do not understand why certain bishops refuse to acknowledge our lives as good and capable of holiness particularly when some of those same bishops treat women as little more than chattel.

We know that the world needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we know the world will die without it. Why are not all the amazing gifts of amazing grace that we LGBT people bring to Christ's service recognized and affirmed? When will fear be banished?

"God is about love and exceptance, not hate"

As a young person growing up in a very religious family (I have ministers and priests on both side of my family) I had a very difficult relationship with organized religion and thus I thought with God as well. I really like what a religious community had to offer most people but as a young gay man I believed that community offered wonderful things to everyone but me, and other people like me. I had tried a number of organized religions and religious communities, but was unable to find one that would accept a young out gay man. So for many years I described myself as spiritual but not religious, I kind of developed my own relationship with God. Growing up I was told that religion had no place for me and neither did God's kingdom. I was also told that because I was gay I was evil, sick, twisted and hated by everyone and anyone who was religious or had any relationship with God. I never believed I was evil, sick or twisted or that I should be hated by anyone especially by people I did not know. I also, felt like my understanding of God was that God was about love, and that a true God would not hate me because he made me the way that I am. I also believe that I am a good person, and I do good work for people in my community and I would like to believe that God is proud of the person I have become.

Almost four years ago I was invited to the Christmas Pagent by the child of a friend at St. Michael's Church in Brattleboro Vermont. He was playing Joseph and was very proud and excited, how could I say no? I went to St. Michael's the afternoon of the pagent and was overwlemed by a number of different feelings, one I really missed being in church. In closed to 15 years I had only been inside of any church to go weddings. I was also blown away by the sense of family and community inside St. michael's, as I think about it now a number of years later I am almost crying, out of joy. As I sat in church watching my friends son be Joseph, I was suprized by the number of people I saw who I knew to be gay or lesbian in church! I remember thinking wow! After the pagent I was greated warmly, and welcomed by everyone, people I knew before that day and people I was meeting for the first time. I felt completly excepted and in many ways like I had come home.

After that day I started becoming a regular at St. Michael's, I was there every sunday without fail and I started to become more and more involved in the community. It was wonderful, after all those years to have a religious community. A couple of Easters ago, I was baptised, which is something I always wanted to do, but I was always told because I was evil and there was no place for me in God's Kingdom, I could not be baptised. I was/am so glad to have a religious community where I can be an opennly gay man, and where I am excepted and loved. I have become a member of a very vibrant community that is glad to have me as a member and together we are united in God's love.

I am so glad to now know that what I believed as a child is true, God is about love and exceptance, not hate.

Gay or lesbian bishop "should be treated with respect and honor"

I don't if my story is the kind you want -- I am a heterosexual (sorry). I have only been an Episcopalian for a few years, but God loving all my life. A God that doesn't want certain people for their colour or sexual orientation is foolish in this day and age - but does happen. I wish it were as simple as old habits die hard but that is not so. In high school the most handsome boy choose me to be friends with (go out with, I hoped). He choose me because He felt He could trust me with his dark secret He was a homosexual--his old friends threatened me for breaking up his "relationship", for changing him when he was simply day by day becoming who he should be--he became noticably lighter with the fact he had someone he could be his self with & if he had one -more would follow. I never did get to date such a handsome man! This all happened in the late 1960's. Now I am watching the archbishop deny Rev. Robinson the right to attend the Lambeth conference with no real reason expect that he's trying to ignore a battle that will not go away. I feel that the Church (1) should be well beyond the 60's in it's attitude, and (2) this is a case of shutting the barn door after the horse left, when gay people and women were allowed to become priests it should of been apparrent to someone that the best & brightest of these would rise to the top as cream does and when these men & women are duly elected to office there is only one course of action that office should be treated with respect and honor.

"I am delighted that a whole set of labels do not apply in this church"

Very simply, as a relatively new parishioner at an open, affirming church (St. Michael's Episcopal Church of Brattleboro, VT), after a lifetime of participation in the Episcopal Church (I'm 70), I am delighted that a whole set of labels do not apply in this church. It is a great gift to me and to my generation to see that we can strip away stumbling blocks and meet and care about everyone. There is no question to me that God intended it to be this way.

At the same time, due to my involvement in non-profit work in sub-Saharan Africa (CHABHA), I have many times heard and seen the outrage of "Christians" who proclaim the "Sin" of homosexuality. My heart and mind reel back to uncomfortable moments of the past. Yet I care about some of these people who say, "Homosexuality is a sin." I feel in great need to help people receive the great gift of honoring and rejoicing in love, love of all sorts. This is a time of complexity and need for discernment.

Let us pray that we can focus on the love of all kinds.