Circumcision of Christ -- by Bartolomeo Veneto
Louvre
After
almost a year in abeyance the time has come, with the New Year, to take up this
blog yet again. 2012 was an eventful year, and in the next few posts I would
like to explore the past year. I’ll write about some of the exciting and life
changing events that have come to pass, as well as towards the future, and the
bright hopes that it holds.
Part
I
Although
I was an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I did not have a regular parish home. I
had reached a point in my life where, as much as I love the Eastern Church, I
was unable to reconcile my firmly held beliefs regarding my own homosexuality
with that Church's increasingly reactionary attitudes towards the same. I certainly had
never expected the Eastern Church to be affirming, but with the conversion of
many Protestants fleeing progressive changes in their own denominations, it
seems that the Church has, over the past two decades, become more aggressively
and vocally anti-gay. Sordid gay sex scandals in the highest ranks of some
Orthodox Jurisdictions, notably the OCA, heightened that sense of
intolerance. These scandals also made clear to me the disordered nature of the
Eastern attitude (an attitude shared with the Roman Church) that homosexuality was an
illness to be struggled against, much like alcoholism or drug addiction. By
choosing to live in a monogamous same-sex relationship I was a recalcitrant and
confirmed sinner, whereas had I claimed an attempt to be celibate while
engaging in fleeting gay sex acts I would have been guilty of sin, but like any
sin, one that could be confessed and forgiven. I knew that my relationship with my partner was
not intrinsically sinful, why should I confess something I believed not to be a
sin? I knew that God had created me as a gay man. I also knew that I was not
called to a life of celibacy. For many years I had been completely open about
my sexuality with my family, with my friends, and in the work place. In all
these venues of my life my partner was welcomed as such, and appreciated for
his individual talents, and the love and support he gives to me. The only
exception was within the Church. Why did I have to compartmentalize my life, to go temporarily back "into the closet" in order to participate in corporate
worship and parish life? Why couldn’t I participate with my partner
standing proudly at my side, just as we stood proudly before God?
