2. Introduction
[2.0] The Episcopal Church in the United States, the worldwide Anglican Communion, and many other Christian Churches and other faith traditions, are engaged in a debate over issues surrounding human sexuality. Our age has experienced new challenges in the understanding of the meaning of sexuality and its ordering for the good of persons and society. Scientific research into the complexities of human sexual behavior and technologies such as birth control and in vitro fertilization are changing how many in our world view human sexuality. We believe sexuality is one of Gods wonderful, complex, confusing, and, sometimes, dangerous gifts. At the same time, we have been made freshly aware of how sexuality can be cheapened and exploited in human society and made an occasion of sin, hurt, and disorder, rather than the blessing God intends it to be.
[2.1] One of the more challenging areas of human sexuality in our Church is homosexuality. A certain percentage of human beings experience and understand themselves to be homosexually oriented. Homosexual persons are increasingly visible in our society, our churches, and our communities, bringing particular challenges and gifts to Christian ethical and theological understanding.
[2.2] The Christian community, from generation to generation, must address the new spiritual and moral concerns that emerge in the experience and understanding of Gods people. The right ordering of human sexual behavior has always been an aspect of the Jewish and Christian visions of the good for human life and society. In relation to new and emerging learning about the experience of homosexually-oriented persons, our Church especially struggles with two related questions: (1) Is it ever appropriate to pronounce the Churchs blessing on same-gender relationships as we do on heterosexual marriages and, if so, under what conditions? (2) Is it ever appropriate to ordain non-celibate homosexual persons, and thereby commend them as wholesome examples to the Church and society, and, if so, under what conditions?…