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Integrity—Saint Louis

Introduction

The main purpose of this article is to outline the history of the St. Louis chapter of Integrity from its inception in 1977 through 1980, in order to understand the organization as a "root of" or an influence toward the 1980 Celebration of Lesbian and Gay Pride held in St. Louis in April of that year. Additionally, since the Episcopal Church of the USA has been and continues to be a powerful influence on LGBT politics, the article hopes to be a pointer toward understanding the scope and history of this influence from the foundation of Integrity as a national organization in 1974, through the founding of The Oasis in 1989, the Oasis Missouri in 1999 and Believe Out Loud in 2010 to the present.

The Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America (ECUSA) is a provence of the Anglican Communion with over 2 million members in 2010. It is organized in nine provences of over 60 dioceses. The Diocese of St. Louis is in Provence V, which basically includes the five states of the original Northwest Territory and the eastern half of the State of Missouri. Chicago is in Provence V. The General Convention is the primary governing and legislative body of ECUSA and is composed of the House of Bishops and the House of Deputes, which convene once every three years.

The law and polity of ECUSA has supported full civil rights for racial minorites since the middle 1960s, and many Episcopal priests and laity have demonstrated for civil rights. Other ECUSA human rights milestones were permitting the ordination of women priests in 1979 and the ordination of the first openly gay bishop in 2003, Bishop Gene Robinson. A small minority of dioceses and bishops still oppose the ordination of women and homosexuals, and a few have left the provence over this and other issues.

Brief History of Integrity—St. Louis through 1980

Artifacts from and information about Integrity—St. Louis in the late 1970s are hard to come by. Still, there is a story to tell. Baker and Taylor have written a five paragraph history of Integrity's relationship to Trinity Episcopal Church in St. Louis, based on memories of parishioners and documents in the Trinity archives. Trinity has been associated with more or less welcome attendance by homosexual parishioners and groups for several decades.

Three Trinity parishioners formed a chapter of Integrity early in 1977, and petitioned the Vestry to allow them to include Holy Eucharist at a Thursday Evensong. The Vestry declined because both Bill Chapman, Rector, and the Vestry were opposed to separate, "private" services for groups or individuals. [Indeed that tradition long continued. Trinity has long been quite generous in providing meeting space for gays and other marginalized groups, yet generally opposed to permitting official but closed Trinity groups. Possible exceptions have been a women's and a men's group to study the subject of sexuality in the 1990s.] Nevertheless, the Vestry offered to hold an open Thursday Evensong, and noted that the several good men's voices in the Integrity group permitted this. The Evensong ran through 1980.

Regardless of how the Vestry viewed the nature of this Evensong, at the very least, it was, in fact, a collaborative effort between Integrity and Trinity. The November, 1977 issue of Gay St. Louis, a new expanded publication from the Metropolitan Life Services Center contains a Directory of Gay Organizations and Services with this listing:

INTEGRITY, ST. LOUIS: Trinity Episcopal Church, Washington and Euclid Ave., P.O. Box 7213, St. Louis, Mo 63177. First and third Sundays: 6:00pm Evensong, 6:45pm Program and Fellowship. For info call MLSC Gay Hotline.

Moreover, these were the days when Trinity Episcopal held an annual black coat and tie Evensong Celebration in honor of St. Cecelia. Some members of Integrity were prominent in the planning and production of this event. The November Calendar from the same issue of Gay St. Louis lists this event:

Sun	20
6:00	Integrity Evensong, St. Cecelia's Festival Banquet at 6:45 at Trinity Church (call church office for advance reservations, 361-4655), Festival Concert at 8

By early 1979, MLSC had closed its doors, and under the editorship of Bill Cordes (William Sea in the pub), Gay St. Louis had morphed into Gaylife. Bi-monthly services at Trinity for Integrity were still being announced in this publication, and Integrity was being advertised as "A Religious Organization for Episcopals and their friends."

Bill Chapman's attitude towards full inclusion of gays and lesbians into the life of the parish evolved from tolerant to accepting as the 25 years of his tenure as Rector there rolled by. The gay community gave him lots of opportunities for growth, just as had the original Integrity group, and indeed a chapter of the Mandrake Society in the early 1970s. Rev. Chapman certainly returned the favor. Integrity, Dignity, and Lutherans Concerned held an ecumenical Eucharist in the summer of 1978, and Bill Chapman agreed to officiate at this Eucharist.

We pick up the trail of Integrity-Saint Louis in 1979. Frank Sprayberry was interviewed in January, 2012 regarding his role as active member and representative of Integrity—St. Louis on the Magnolia Committee. Frank was born in 1974 in rural Georgia, spent time in the military, and went to college in Jacksonville, Alabama. He was familiar with and involved in civil rights issues. In 1972 he came to St. Louis from Los Angeles (and San Francisco before that) as a career move within TWA. He had become an Episcopalian while studying in Paris, France in the 1960s, but joined St. John's Episcopal Church on Arsenal in 1973. Frank became involved with Cursillo which was being held periodically in the 1970s in St. Louis, and apparently being supported by the Diocese of Missouri. He was asked to be a speaker in the Cursillo program, but some people objected to a gay person being on the staff. Nevertheless, by 1979, Frank had built a working relationship with St. John's Church and the Diocese of Missouri, in particular, then Bishop Jones. In fact, it was through the Bishop's appointing Frank to "a couple of committees" that Frank met Michael Allen, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, who was also serving on those committees.

At some point in 1979, Frank had begun to attend Integrity meetings. Frank's experience with Integrity—St. Louis was not entirely positive, but he did in fact end up being designated that group's representative to the Magnolia Committee at their first meeting on Nov. 20, 1979, and continued to work with both groups during the planning and execution of the Walk for Charity on Apr. 20, 1980. I asked Frank what it was like going to meetings with the Integrity group at that time.

Sprayberry: It was, it was a small group. Maybe ten people, and I think that probably the average attendance was probably about seven. But they were very high church. Everything had to be with smoke. And … I was not accustomed to that. So, I, I went along with the program, but that was not one of my main things about being Episcopalian. … I knew that Trinity, where Integrity was based, was a high church place, but Integrity, when I talked about the invitation to them to be a part of the Magnolia Committee, my sense was that the people in Integrity were a little bit hesitant to do that because they were sort of afraid that they’d rub some feathers the wrong way ….

But it turned out to be ok, because, Bishop Jones, who was the Bishop of Missouri at the time came to Integrity to do a Eucharist for us, and after the Eucharist, we went to Balaban’s, and we were sitting at the round table just as you go in to Balaban’s over to the right before you would go into the dining room. And the minister of the Metropolitan Community Church … Roy Birchard came in, and I went and got ‘im, and brought him over, introduced him to Bishop Jones, and we all sat and had some talking, a little bit, about the gay movement in St. Louis. And the Bishop was very uh, he listened, ah, without judgment. He was not judgmental at all about what we were doing, and so on. And that’s my first time to, I knew who Roy Birchard was, but I had not really met him until that night, and I thought that an opportune time to meet him, go get him, and bring him over to have him meet the Bishop of Missoura.

Frank also got Dean Allen involved with the Magnolia Committee, and got Integrity and St. John's squarely behind the Walk for Charity and Rally in 1980:

I don't know if he volunteered him or if I volunteered him, but he did agree to be Chaplain of the Magnolia Committee. And he came and talked to us a couple of times, because he had done some demonstrations in Selma, Alabama as part of the civil rights thing, so he knew a little bit about organizing stuff like that.

…

Always, after we had a meeting of the Magnolia Committee, … I went back to the next meeting of Integrity, I briefed 'em on everything that was going on, and by the time it came time for the Walk for Charity, most of the people in Integrity were behind it. Whereas … many of them were reluctant to begin with.

St. John's Episcopal, left, Sprayberry residence, right

I was really surprised, though, that there were a lot of parishioners at St. John's Church who—non-gay people—who walked in the March for Charity. A lot of them, I mean, there must have been 15 or 20 people from the church. Who were not gay. The Rector [Dorman "Bud" Ball] walked. His oldest son wa a … marshal. We had a troop that was to keep order, … to make sure that the people who were in the march stayed within the boundaries of where they were supposed to be and to make sure that the people who were passing were not going to be harming us.

I asked Frank if he had any outstanding memories of the Magnolia Committee that he would like to share.

Well, [the Walk for Charity] turned out to be one of the greatest things that ever happened in the City of St. Louis. … I remember going down Lindell Boulevard and as you get going up to crossing Skinker, going up the hil, like, to the University, looking back and seeing nothing but a sea of people behind you, coming up and there were already people there. It was awesome. It was just awesome.

I also asked Frank how long he remained involved with Integrity after the Walk for Charity. He replied, "Not too long after that." However, he did remain active in the Diocese of Missouri in a number of ways. He especially recalled that during the Diocesan Convention in 1981 there was a resolution about "openness to gays" that was before the Convention, and the rector of Epiphany in West County was "dead set against it." As Frank heard this rector give his negative speech before the convention, his own rector, Ball, left the conference for another matter. Frank felt deserted over that. However, "in spite of this priest's resistance to the gay issue, the Diocesan Commision, I was elected … an alternate delegate to the General Convention in 1982. Which I went to New Orleans for that. Bishop Tutu spoke at that convention. So did George H. W. Bush, who was Vice President at the time.

Brief History of the National Integrity Organization through 1980 and at Present

Founding in 1974-1979

Dr. Louie Crew (1997), Emeritus Professor of English at Rutgers, writes about his founding of Integrity in 1974. "It was not new that lesbian and gay Episcopalians got together in 1974: for at least a century earlier, certain parishes and cathedrals were rumored to be relatively gay friendly. What was new in 1974 was our organizing and our announcing it to the world." Crew founded Integrity as a newsletter in rural Georgia in February, 1974, and by the end of that year, the first chapter of a dozen members of Integrity had been formed in Chicago, where a "critical mass" of gay priests ready to organize a movement had accumulated. The first national convention of Integrity was held at the Cathedral of St. James in Chicago within six months of its formation. Crew also drafted a constitution for the organization, which specified male and female co-presidents. James Wycliff, in whose apartment the first Chicago Integrity meeting was held, and Ellen Barrett, a candidate for priesthood in New York City, were the first co-presidents. "Irregular" ordinations of women had been occurring in ECUSA since 1974, and the 1976 General Convention made the ordination of women priests permissible. Barrett was then ordained in January, 1977.

In 1975, Integrity members had met with The Standing Committee on Human Affairs and had proposed a resolution that "Homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim … upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church." This resolution passed the 1976 General Convention. However, Ellen Barrett's ordination caused a Communion-wide debate, since she was completely open about also being a lesbian. The House of Bishops in particular condemned homosexuality as "unbiblical" and asserted that homosexual relationships could not be blessed. They also passed a "conscience clause" which allowed individual bishops to refuse to ordain women. The consciences of some bishops, however, also permitted them to continue to ordain homosexual priests.

Dr. Crew writes, "At the 1979 General Convention, the Commission on Human Affairs, now chaired by the Rt. Rev. Robert Spears, Bishop of Rochester, presented an extremely positive report that called for the ordination of qualified lesbians and gays and was favorable to blessing same-sex unions." Although the Convention approved a resolution saying it was not appropriate to ordain anyone sexually active outside the bonds of heterosexual marriage "over three dozen bishops plus scores of lay and clerical deputies" dissented as an act of conscience. A consequence of these events is that from 1979 on, select dioceses quietly condoned the ordination of openly homosexual priests, who numbered nearly 100 towards the end of the 1990s.

1980-1989

At the beginning of the 1980s, ECUSA had a broad spectrum of beliefs about the ordination of women and homosexuals ranging from traditional to progressive. Members of Integrity continued to lobby for full inclusion for gays and lesbians in all of the sacraments of the Church. The number of ordained gays and lesbians continued to grow as certain dioceses opened the ordination process to these people. In 1985 one of the original dissenters from the 1979 Convention statement stating the inappropriateness of ordaining sexually active priests outside the bonds of heterosexual marriage, Rev. Edmond Browning, became Presiding Bishop. Integrity—after first having been excluded from a Church-wide listening process instituted by Browning, requested and began a series of regular meetings with him in which specific requests were made, and contacts with appropriate church representatives were arranged.

In the mid-1980s organized opposition also arose to the full inclusion of "lesbigays" (to use Louie Crew's coined term) in the Church sacraments and life. In particular, Rt. Rev. William Frey, Bishop of Colorado and a candidate for Presiding Bishop in 1985 (and others) led the formation of "Episcopalians United for Revelation, Renewal, and Reformation (EURRR). From the beginning, the group aggressively opposed the ordination of lesbians and gays and the blessing of our relationships" [And attacked Integrity in nearly every issue of their publications.]

Integrity continued to work toward encouraging dialog within the church, even though two successive General Conventions in 1985 and 1988 called for dialog on these issues that did not occur. Integrity launched an effort to encourage dialog at the local level which did occur in many parishes. According to Crew, Integrity spent around $40,000 on these conventions, which went to support an extremely well-organized and connected effort.

Integrity membership eventually continued to expand during the 1980s and 1990s, according to Dr. Louie Crew. "Integrity has grown unevenly. In 1984, after ten years, we had about 1,200 members, the same number we had by our second anniversary in 1976. However, in the second ten years we doubled our numbers. We began 1995 with seventy-five chapters and about 2,500 members."

In the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in 1989, the Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris became the first woman Bishop—she was also African-American—ordained in Anglican history. 1989 was also the year when Rt. Rev. John Spong, Bishop of Newark, launched what has become the very important Oasis movement by starting The Oasis in the Diocese of Newark, and appointing an openly gay partnered priest he ordained, Rev. Robert Williams, to direct the organization.

1990-1999

The early 1990s were marked by a widening rift between opponents and advocates of the ordination of openly gay or lesbian priests and bishops. In 1991 heresy charges were brought against Rt. Rev. Walter C. Righter for ordaining an non-celibate, openly gay priest. The charges were signed by a quarter of the 300 bishops of ECUSA. It was five years before the charges were dropped.

Still the 1991 General Convention instituted a process whereby parishes were invited to have discussions of human sexuality and report back through dioceses to the national church. As many as 30,000 parishioners are estimated to have participated in this dialog, and 77 percent of the dioceses. Integrity members participated in the local dialogs as individuals.

By the 1994 General Convention inclusion of gays and lesbians fully into the church had begun to sprout and grow in a few places, e.g. under Spong's leadership in the Diocese of Newark. Although 106 bishops had signed a statement opposing both the ordination of lesbians and gays and the blessing of same-sex couples, 88 bishops eventually signed John Spong's Statement of Koinoia, presented to the House of Bishops on Aug. 25, 1994. According to Crew, this 1994 convention resulted in the study of the form lesbian and gay blessings might take, church lobbyists support in Washington on lesbigay issues, and materials to educate parents on teen suicides. Additionally, it was simply more inclusive.

It seems very clear that during the 1990s that it was the hard work of members of Integrity and pioneer bishops such as John Spong of the Diocese of Newark that resulted in ever increasing statements of support from General Convention, including the amazing apology to the gay and lesbian community in 1997:

That this 72nd General Convention apologizes on behalf of the Episcopal Church to its members who are gay or lesbian and to lesbians and gay men outside the Church for years of rejection and maltreatment by the Church; . . . That this Church repents of its sins committed against lesbian and gay people—physical, psychological and spiritual—through covert and overt action and inaction. We seek amendment of our life together and we ask for God’s help in sharing the Good News with all people.

Founding of Oasis Missouri, 1999-2001

Teri Smith has written a brief history of the founding of the Oasis Missouri. Bishop Hayes Rockwell had attended the 1998 Lambeth Conference, where a resolution passed stating that homosexual practice was incompatible with the scriptures. Bishop Rockwell was one of the 188 signers of a pastoral statement calling on the Anglican Communion to continue continue prayerful and respectful conversation on the issue of homosexuality. Upon Rockwell's return a Diocesan meeting was held where the Resolution was discussed. Out of that meeting grew a meeting at the home of Teri Smith and Kathy Jones to discuss the development of an Oasis program in the Diocese of Missouri. About ten people attended from Trinity St. Louis, Transfiguration of Lake St. Louis, Advent of Crestwood, and Christ Church Cathedral. Materials from Oasis California were reviewed and modified. A meeting with Bishop Rockwell was requested. Rockwell was supportive in several ways, but he requested that a firmer foundation be developed.

A group decision was made to present a workshop at the next Diocesan meeting, and too that end they undertook study, including woring through the discernment process of the Diocese of Newark. More members augmented the group to about 15, and included representatives from St. Marks. In Fall, 1999 the Diocesan workshop was given, a display table was staffed, and Amy Lawrence of Oasis California spoke at two workshops.

2000 marked a pivotal year in the growth of Oasis Missouri. Introductory presentations were made at St. Mark’s, St. Louis, Advent, and Transfiguration; Oasis discernment workshops were given at Transfiguration, Lake St. Louis, Advent, Trinity, and Christ’s Church Cathedral. Oasis Congregations were present at Pridefest. Trinity, Lake St. Louis and the Cathedral had become Oasis congretations. By October, 2000, Oasis Missoury had achieved status as a Diocesan ministry.

In addition to the leadership of Bishop Hayes Rockwell, priests and laity worked together to bring this achievement about, including Rev. Jennifer Phillips, Rev. Bill and Fritzi Baker, Teri Smith and Kathy Jones, Anne and Charlie Watts, and Keith Welsh (Trinity, St. Louis), Rev. Jason Samuel and Joe Doyle (Transfiguration, Lake St. Louis), Linda Belford and Lydia Ruffin (Christ’s Church Cathedral), Rev. Lydia Speller and Carol Wesley (St. Marks, St. Louis), and Rev. Dan Handschy, Heidi and Mike Clark (Advent, Crestwood).

The work of Oasis continued in 2001, with more Diocesan workshops at St. Mark's and St. Francis, Wildwood, with St. Mark's becoming an Oasis congregation. In mid-2001 the organization was renamed The Oasis Missouri and monthly rotating meetings at particpating churches were scheduled. Jason Samuel was approved to continue as the organizational person.

The current link to The Oasis Missouri is here.

2002-2009

ECUSA's ever-increasing embrace of inclusion for lesbian and gay people came to a crisis of sorts in 2003 when the General Convention ratified the election of an partnered, openly gay man, Gene Robinson by the Diocese of New Hampshire. The move nearly caused a schism in the Anglican Communion. Dioceses ceded from it and formed bizarre partnerships with dioceses in the homophobic African provence. The Archbishop of Canterbury issued the Windsor Report, among other things, asked for a moratorium on further such consecrations, which the General Convention acceded to in 2006 and then reversed in 2009.

2010-present

In 2010 Mary Glasspool, a partnered lesbian was made Suffrigan Bishop of the Diocese of Los Angeles. At the General Convention in 2012 in Indianapolis, ECUSA became the first U.S. denomination to approve a liturgy that clergy can use to bless same-sex unions, including gay marriages in states where they are legal.

IntegrityUSA has continued to be influential towards the goal of full inclusion of lesbian and gay people into the church until the present day. Their website shows a map of over 400 Believe Out Loud Episcopal congregations, concentrated heavily on the East and West Coast, liberally in the Midwest and less frequent throughout the rest of the USA. Believe Out Loud parishes go through a three step process to certify that they welcome and affirm LGBT people. Oasis Missouri is one of several diocesan level organizations furthering this goal.

A Connection between the Episcopal Church and Lesbian, Gay and Transgendered Rights?

As details of the time period prior to the Walk for Charity have become available, it appears that this chapter of Integrity was having a significant impact on at least three parishes in the Diocese of Missouri, St. John's Episcopal Church, Trinity Episcopal Church, and Christ Church Cathedral. Clearly, Frank Sprayberry was an instigator and a catalist for this situation. But beyond this, it would seem appropriate to attempt to give some account of this fact. It may well be that similar stories could be told by other denominations, but those stories may have to be told by those in them.

When the Rev. Anne Kelsey of Trinity Episcopal was asked informally to comment on the question, she brought up an aspect of the topic that needs at least to be broached. "If one may generalize about such things," she began, an outgrowth of the Oxford Movement was towards the aesthetic dimension in worship and led to an emphasis on beauty of liturgy, of religious music, of vestments. Gay men tend to be attracted to this high church aspect of worship. [I am giving the sense of her comments.] Building on her thoughts, then, while being cautious about possibly stereotyping a whole class of people, it does seem that there is a breed of gay man that one meets amidst the high church millieu. One frequently meets them doing altar service or in the sacristy, one meets them in the choir or behind the organ bench. One or more may emerge as "the" person to ask about the proper or traditional way of doing worship or as an indispensable aid to the clergy. Again, to use Rev. Kelsey's phrase, if one may generalize about such things, it would seem that this role within the church has emerged, if you will, as a "lifestyle vestment" that conveys respect to the so vested individual from the assembled community. On the other hand, assuming such a position as guardian of honored and beautiful traditions has its limits.

It may well be, in fact, that many roles emerge as possible lifestyle choices for marginalized groups of people, ways of behaving that at once mark them off definitively and offer nurture and protection and legitmacy. Perhaps more importantly they allow a form of socially accepted legitimacy within a more or less monolithic culture. One thinks of camp humor, drag, leather, Castro clone in this connection. One also thinks of millenia where sons not designated for marriage or military career made their mark in the Church.

Another aspect of this question has to do with the urban nature of the three parishes involved. Gay communities frequently emerge on marginal strips between poverty and wealth or along fine and large city parks. The reason is not far to seek—in an oppressive society, it is hard to find places to be oneself. St. John's is on the north side of Tower Grove Park, where now, LGBT pride activities are held. Trinity is in fact the northernmost gatehouse of the Euclid strip. Christ Church Cathedral is in downtown St. Louis and overlooks fine buildings—and a park inhabited by homeless people. No doubt, the involved rectors were remarkable. Bill Chapman, of Trinity, dedicated his life to progressive causes, helping and feeding the needy, reducing crime, supporting black-white interaction in his parish. Dorman "Bud" Ball also touted progressive causes, even while some of his personal choices were less than appropriate. Michael Allen; a staunch defender of progressive issues. Still, where did they find their natural homes? In these three urban churches.

While details of specific connections between the Social Gospel movement of the turn of the 20th Century and specific Episcopalian persons or organizations are unclear, it is worth realizing that it probably had some influence on the more progressive thinkers of the Church.

In the United States, prior to World War I, the Social Gospel was the religious wing of the progressive movement which had the aim of combating injustice, suffering, and poverty in society. In this context, it is seen as having provided the philosophical underpinning for the New Deal. After the war, the movement shifted its focus to the civil rights arena, and later, became outspoken in its opposition to the Vietnam War.

With the ascendancy of the "Christian right" beginning in the 1980s, the Social Gospel agenda declined in the United States, but examples of its continued existence can still be found, notably the organization known as the Call to Renewal. (Theopedia article)

One final possible aspect of the Episcopal Church of the USA caught my attention in rereading Louie Crew's 1997 article Changing the Church. First a quote from that article, then a questioning comment:

From the beginning, Integrity has been blessed with numerous leaders who know how the Episcopal Church works, persons willing to invest the enormous amount of time and effort to connect. One of the reasons lesbians and gays have succeeded in the Episcopal Church is that we spend time learning how it operates, and then we teach one another. Almost every one of our leaders knows who's who in the Church in her diocese, in her parish, and in the Episcopal Church Center. We know how to serve these people.

Episcopalians are blessed with an open political process. Many of the same persons who shaped the Constitution of the United States shaped the Constitution of the Episcopal Church. In our Church, it is okay to respect political processes. Episcopalians believe in the Holy Spirit not as an icon chiseled into stone at Pentecost and allowed to say no new word, but as God's living presence among us. We believe that God expects us both to listen and to think.

For current purposes, one well might take these paragraphs from Crew's article in reverse order. Our political process is today in the USA quite flawed by the presence of mammon and those whe are all too ready to serve it. Still, I learned early in my schooling that the cost of freedom is both vigilance and the willingness and ability to act in its service. The Constitution of the United States does indeed have mechanisms built into it that—to be sure, can be misappropriated, but—by and large provide a scaffold for the earnest pursuit of civil rights for all. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, John Hancock, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton were Anglicans. It is not at all hard to imagine that the same zeal for freedom that motivated the founding of the United States of America has left strong residues in the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. Nevertheless, from the earliest times of this church, there was strong division between those who would preserve tradition and monarchy and those who would take a progressive approach to the solution of social problems. The Church was born in division, and so it continues.

If gays and lesbians through the diligent work of their leaders in the organizations of first Integrity and then The Oasis have faired comparatively well in at least some dioceses and parishes of ECUSA, it is because they found a place to stand within the Church itself, and from which place they could enter into the political process of the Church. And the Church itself has been blessed by their presence and hard work, coming to a new understanding of human sexuality and gender and, indeed, the meaning of human existence itself.

References

IntegrityUSA, Wikipedia article

Frequently Asked Questions, IntegrityUSA website.

Interview of Frank Sprayberry on 1/16/2012 by Jim Andris.

Baker, Martha K. and Etta Taylor, A History of Trinity church, St. Louis 1975-2005.

Crew, Louie, A Brief History of Integrity, First appeared in Integrity Forum 4.2 (December, 1977-January, 1978.

Crew, Louie, Changing the Church: Lessons Learned in the Struggle to Reduce Institutional Heterosexism in the Episcopal Church, Combating Homophobia, edited by James Sears & Walter Williams, Columbia University Press, 1997: 341-353.

Kirkpatrick, Frank G., The Episcopal Church's History in Promoting Civil Rights, Integrity/Connecticut

Norgard, David, The Future of Inclusion - Part One, address to the students and faculty of Virginia Theological Seminary, March 4, 2010.

Norgard, David, The Future of Inclusion - Part Two, address to the students and faculty of Virginia Theological Seminary, March 4, 2010.

Oasis Commission, Wikipedia article.

Righter, Walter C., Wikipedia article.

Social Gospel, Theopedia article.

Smith, Teri, A Working History of the Oasis MIssouri, unpublished document.

The Oasis Missouri, website

Timeline comparing what was happening in Oasis, the Church, and the World from 1989-present, Web document

Walking with Integrity, Blog associated with IntegrityUSA, 2007-present.

Who We Are, The Oasis: The LGBT Ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark. Internet Document.