1st Sunday after the Epiphany at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church

Last Sunday, there was a service of Hope and Healing at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Ocean Beach, as the church was returned to the Episcopal Diocese. Robert Heylmun gives us the backstory.

Today we celebrated the regaining of the church and property of Holy Trinity, a victory in so many ways and on so many levels.

The previous rector had led his congregation down the dark paths of unexamined traditionalism, lighted only by the smoking torches of the same pitch and tar used in medieval times to ignite the bundles of wood below burning martyrs. That same dim light had helped the former congregation to slam shut the church doors against women clergy and gay people who aspired to holy orders. Once shut, the darkness that had pervaded the building served only to isolate the hovering congregants further from the love and light of the Gospel message. Like Adam, they had sinned, knew they were naked, and tried to hide from God.

That didn’t work. Also like Adam, they were expelled from their particular garden which they had defiled by bigotry and hatred, and today we triumphantly entered a relighted sanctuary where the spirit of love would once more shine forth, a sanctuary reconsecrated to the work of God’s kingdom. A victory over the darkness.

For me it was a victory over the particular prejudice against gay people that had been the hallmark of the previous rector’s thinking. He had some years ago, suggested a debate over the issue of homosexuality and the church, and a number of us took him up on his idea. We formed a committee to engage speakers, and we found a neutral place where the debate would take place. The rector had the imprimatur of the man who was bishop at that time; he would oversee the proceedings.

The morning session of that debate moved along with both sides giving their various views; scripture came first, and a wide interpretation of these ensued. Then came the history of the church, strangely much more vague than even the biblical interpretations. The morning session concluded with Bill Countryman’s very moving and reasoned position that centered around the all-embracing love announced in the Gospels. Then it was lunch time. The bishop got up to give the blessing for the noon meal and to wrap up the morning’s work. In essence he derailed every pro-gay argument: “Of course, we must apply to the entire Anglican Communion for permission before going forward,” or something to that effect.

Many of us wondered why we had been brought to this debate if one side of it could so easily be dismissed and dissolved. I met the bishop at the door. “I want to take issue with what you just said by reminding you that the Episcopal Church of the United States did not wait for the Church of England to give permission for heterosexuals to divorce and remain communicants of the church. Neither do we need the C of E’s permission on this issue. You have essentially ended all debate here today.”

His rejoinder: “You are always in my face about this, Robert. If you don’t like the way things are going for you here, perhaps you’d better leave.”

“I have no intention of leaving, Brother Hughes. I want to see what other damage you plan to do to a large part of God’s people.” With that we all went to an uncomfortable lunch.

The afternoon session went on with the biblical traditionalists losing more points as their appeal to their long-held and generally indefensible beliefs became more and more transparent. Nevertheless, nothing positive in behalf of gay and lesbian people in the Diocese of San Diego happened as a result of that debate. We were to wait for some years and for a new bishop.

That program had been planned on the grounds of Holy Trinity in Ocean Beach, and thus it was with a great deal of joy that I sat in the nave of that church today and saw the fruition of our efforts all of those years ago. Something else happened. I am not a believer in ghostly visitations per se, but I am a believer in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is my custom after taking communion that, once having returned to my seat, to open the Prayer Book to the psalms. Any will do, and whatever I turn to continues my meditation while communion concludes. Today I did just that. Psalm 37 flopped open and I quote several verses here:

4 Take delight in the Lord,

And he shall give you your heart’s desire,

5 Commit your way to the Lord and put your trust in him,

And he will bring it to pass.

10 For evildoers shall be cut off,

But those who wait upon the Lord shall possess the land.

I do not go so far as to say that the former congregation of Holy Trinity or its rector are ‘evildoers’; I would not like to take it upon myself to make such a judgment. Suffice it to say that they have been misled, darkened in mind by their determination to preserve what they believe to be sacred tradition. I leave it to them, their conscience and their place before God to unravel the heavy shroud with which they have prepared their brand of religion for burial.

Meanwhile, we go on in the name of Christ, avoiding undue pride in the victory over darkness and prejudice that God has given us, and instead clothing ourselves in the virtues of humility and love, and thus preparing ourselves to worship and to serve.

–Robert Heylmun

Photo: the community of Holy Trinity Church, with well wishers from St Paul’s and Bishop James Mathes, on Sunday 1/9/11