The Episcopal Church's Move to Embrace Gays and Sliding Membership

The Episcopal Church, convening this week for its tri-annual convention, has moved to permit the ordination of more openly gay bishops and is poised to formally permit bishops to allow gay marriage ceremonies. The New York Times has the story.

The Episcopal Church would be the second mainline Protestant denomination to recognize gay marriage, after the United Church of Christ. Other mainline denominations, like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Presbyterian Church (USA), may soon move to ordain gay clergy.

One big question these changes raise is whether they'll affect the dramatic decline of membership in mainline churches. The U.S. churches experiencing growth right now—those in the evangelical, nondenominational, and Mormon traditions—condemn homosexuality.

At the same time, the Roman Catholic Church's conservative social stances are taking a major toll on its U.S. membership. A recent Pew study found that roughly 6 in 10 former Catholics who are now religiously unaffiliated say they left over dissatisfaction with Catholic teachings on abortion and homosexuality.

Mark Silk of Spiritual Politics argues that the Episcopal Church must change to remain current:

In a word, the Episcopalians are moving with all deliberate speed to fully normalize the status of gays and lesbians within their church. More conservative religious bodies will of course regard this as surrendering to the culture, but the truth is that all religious bodies must slow march to the beat of the culture if they expect to remain relevant to the lives of their members—that is, unless they want to relegate themselves to sectarian status. The Episcopalians are more willing to own up to this than most; indeed, they are doing so precisely by citing the changes in civil law respecting same-sex marriage.

But the churches most open to homosexuality are shrinking fastest.

On the other hand, most mainline churches have occupied an in-between ground, neither loudly condemning nor embracing gays and lesbians. By adopting an unequivocally pro-gay position, mainline churches might attract liberals who've abandoned the Catholic Church and other socially conservative traditions.

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