Remarks delivered at the Post-General Convention Community Meetings
By Russ Randle, member of Christ Church, Alexandria, and lay deputy to General Convention

I’m Russ Randle, the lay deputy who voted against Canon Robinson and the blessings resolution. This was the hardest call I have made in 25 years. A gay, evangelical friend brought me back to Jesus Christ in 1976. I made these votes with a profound sense of my own sinfulness, still amazed that the church regards me as redeemed and forgiven, when I know I deserve neither.

I voted as I did because Scripture and our Tradition both teach that sexual intimacy belongs in marriage, not outside it. The early church abandoned the ceremonial and ritual rules of the Old Testament; but it most clearly did not endorse sex outside marriage, and it did not endorse gay or lesbian relationships, nor has the church done so since.

This rule is very hard for our culture and for me, particularly when it excludes a class of good people from sexual intimacy. But we have other tough rules. One is forgiving our enemies, repeatedly. Another is tithing. Another is protecting the weak from the strong. If we say Jesus is Lord except in our sex lives, why should anyone believe us when we say that Jesus is Lord, over us, our money, our tempers, our lust for power over others?

I also think it’s wrong to set one standard for a bishop and a higher one for lay people in our own churches. It demeans both the laity and the office of Bishop. And on such basic matters, God’s truth about us does not vary with geography.

Please raise your hand if you are a lay person who has been on an overseas mission trip. Odds are, most of you oppose these decisions, understanding that the overseas church sees these questions differently. Some of us have gone voluntarily as missionaries into Sudan, Burma, Pakistan, and China, places where it is often dangerous to be a Christian. Some from Truro came under attack in Sudan. People were killed around them.

We are the tithers, the church planters, the missionaries, because the Scriptural witness to Jesus’ redeeming power is not theoretical for us. We are also the undeniably exasperating, backward, often bad mannered folks whom many would like to write off as expendable, collateral damage of these decisions. Yet Scripture teaches that all of us are vital parts of the body of Christ, the Church, just as much as our gay brothers and lesbian sisters.

But now I have questions for my evangelical brothers and sisters. General Convention made our jobs harder. But what did General Convention do to make any of our ministries less important than they were before General Convention?

Not one blessed thing. Nor could it.

And if Jesus called you and me to our ministries, who relieved us from duty? Who gave us a bye or a leave slip? Jesus said “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations.” He did not say “Cut and Run because you’re mad at your brethren.”

Last year I was in the Kakuma Refugee Camp with the Sudanese refugees. We preached unity there, forgiveness of enemies, for their own survival. How can we credibly preach unity and forgiveness to people who are killing each other if we cannot forgive each other over this issue and continue to work together? Surely this issue is less important than the life and death of thousands of Christians for the faith, and our support for them.

In closing, let me remind you of Thomas the Apostle, who denied the truth of the Resurrection. He remained in fellowship with the Apostles and they did not eject him. Jesus corrected him, and Jesus will set things in the Church right, but only if we remain together to be corrected. None of us are better than the Apostles. Amen.