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Continued: Time for a Christian truce by Christopher Grabiec

I hate to admit it but when Archbishop Bothwell ordained the first women in 1976, I was so sure that he had dealt a death blow to the very life of the church and its future. I was an idealistic young Roman priest and I was certain that I was right. Well, the fact is that I was wrong. The archbishop was brave and insightful. He along with a few other bishops paved the path for one of the most important developments in justice within the Christian church--the full inclusion of women. I have learned my lesson.

It is true; I am in a same-sex union. I can also say that in my prayer life I know with certainty that my God truly blesses our union. I feel the presence of God and I know God's blessing. No human being from any church will tell me differently. This union has brought me more understanding of God's love than anything else in my journey. Having said that, I can live with members of the network who choose not to understand that union or to see God's blessing in it--even if I feel offended by such a belief. I believe we should still be one Christian community without division.

None of us want a repeat of the Christological heresies or the east-west divide or the battles that followed the reformation, the Crusades, the Inquisitions and all the other embarrassments to Christianity that we know of in history. The time is here for us to turn out swords in ploughshares. It's time for the wolf to lie down with the lamb. It's time for us to take the most important words of Christ seriously. It's time for us to stop looking so foolish before the world around us and to live what we have always preached. Jesus is Lord of all: women and men, sinners and saints (if such truly exists), homosexuals and heterosexuals, divorced and those in life long relationship--and all other people on this planet. He is our Christ and God is our creator and their Spirit fills us all.

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