Below is the letter to the editor my Integrity chapter recently sent to our local newspaper:

To the Editor:

We members of *** Integrity read with interest ***'s report on the recent meeting at the Episcopalian Cathedral in Bedford, Texas, aimed at forging a coalition of North Americans with Anglican roots upset by the Episcopal Church's "liberal" direction.

*** Integrity is the local chapter of a national grassroots organization advocating the full inclusion of lesbian and gay people in the Episcopal Church and our equal access to its rites. In Jones' report, Bishop Ackerman, one of the organizers of this new conservative coalition, states that one of its goals is to encourage "Episcopalians who have felt there's no place left for them." We certainly know what that feels like.

Among the group signing this letter we include a couple whose life became untenable at the parish where they had been active members for years after one stood up at a diocesan convention to give a human face to the gays and lesbians being denigrated there. One is a mother whose gay son has been alienated from the church by the bigoted policies of the local diocese. Another is a man whose faithful partner of thirty-five years recently died without their ever having been able so much as to go forward in the church to which they had actively contributed for decades for a commonplace anniversary blessing. One of us is a former Episcopal seminarian whose bishop abruptly withdrew sponsorship for his candidacy to the priesthood when he asked for a church blessing on his relationship with his partner, though he had consistently been frank with the bishop about his orientation. Another is a father who has left the church in which he was baptized, raised and confirmed, because he found no way to answer his daughters' questions about why others were married in their church, but their father and his partner could not be. Our group is not allowed to meet at even the most "liberal" of our local Episcopal churches, due to the rector's concern over the reprisal he fears would occur from Bishop *** and his supporters.

Our stories are only the tip of the iceberg. Among our friends and acquaintances, we count others, be they gay, lesbian, or their friends and family, who have left the Episcopal Church in this diocese because they found "there's no place left for them" there. Of course, we vocal ones are a small minority. Larger is the number of local gay and lesbian Episcopalians who remain in fearful silence, including the youth subjected Sunday after Sunday to the message--often subtle, too often overt--that their capacity to love is an abomination in God's eyes. Forgive us if we remain unmoved by the complaints of our bishop, ***, and his fellow-travelers, who would rather split from the Episcopal Church than grant us full inclusion within the life of the church.

[Seven signatures]