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COLUMBUS, OHIO (6/16/06)-Over 1,000 homosexual and pro-homosexual clergy, bishops, and laymen of the Episcopal Church celebrated Eucharist Friday evening at Trinity Episcopal Church, just blocks from the site of the 75th Episcopal General Convention.
"This is a small taste of what heaven must be like," said the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Bishop of New Hampshire, as he began his sermon to the prolonged cheers of the adoring congregation. Then Robinson was brought to tears as he thanked his homosexual partner Mark, three years after the Episcopal Convention at which Robinson's election as bishop was affirmed.
Sponsored by the homosexual pressure group Integrity, the gay-themed Eucharist stretched on for about two hours and 20 pages in the Eucharist program. The service began with a prelude on the church's massive pipe organ and concluded with a resounding rendition of "Amazing Grace" by the congregation. Around 600 communicants took places in the pews, while hundreds more sat in folding chairs, packed into the balconies, and flowed into the basement, the foyer, and out the doors.
Bishop Robinson said that he was primarily addressing the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender members of the Episcopal Church who were gathered there, adding, "I do invite those of you who are, shall we say, 'homosexually challenged,' to listen it."
Virtue Online spoke with Dr. Crew after the Homosexual Eucharist on Friday evening. Louie Crew founded Integrity in 1974 as a caucus for "full inclusion of LGBT persons in the Episcopal Church and our equal access to its rites." Asked how the movement he founded had become so successful, Crew replied, "I only listen to the Holy Spirit. It's much bigger than I am, and I knew that right at the beginning."
