His parish and those of other local priests are part of both the international Anglican Communion as well as the Episcopal Church.

"We share the same rituals and the same structure and the same worship," Whaley said of the worldwide Anglican Communion. "We're pretty good at wrestling with these issues without vilifying each other."

But, he added, "There already has been division. Only time will tell how all of that will unfold."

The Episcopal Church welcomes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals to worship. It consecrated its first openly gay bishop in 2003, and, in 2015, at its national convention held every three years, approved trial liturgies for same-sex marriage ceremonies.

Most Anglican branches in other countries condemn homosexual relationships and define marriage as between a man and a woman.

After more than a decade of tensions, archbishops in the Anglican Communion limited the Episcopal Church's involvement in the international community for the next three years.

"The international community would prefer that we slow down," Whaley said, a sentiment that his congregation shares.

Members wonder what will happen at the Episcopal Church's general convention in 2018, when the trial liturgy used to conduct same-sex marriages could be approved for permanent use.

Whaley thinks that could alter the relationship between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion even more, and should there be a split, he's not sure what his church would do.

The Episcopal Church is divided into dioceses, including six in Texas. The diocese allows its 153 parishes to choose whether to conduct same-sex marriages. Only about half a dozen now do, said Carol Barnwell, diocesan communication director for the Diocese of Texas.

Both Whaley's parish and that of Rev. Scott Thompson - Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Sugar Land - have opted not to.

Despite this, Thompson said that leaving the Episcopal Church because of an issue like same-sex marriage is out of the question. But it hasn't always been at Holy Cross, which has slightly more than 200 members.

About 10 years ago, before Thompson became rector, Holy Cross' priest and a third of its congregation left because of the Episcopal Church's liberal stance on gay marriage, nearly ending the parish's existence, Thompson said.

"Most people who wanted to leave have pretty much left," Thompson said.

The rest are willing to stick out the next three years of the Episcopal Church's limited involvement in the international community.

Despite his loyalty to both the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, Thompson said, "I haven't got a clue" about what will happen after that.

As Whaley and Thompson await the 2018 national convention, they've focused on their local ministries, from weekly church services to outreach, ranging from offering services to incarcerated individuals to providing meals and shelter for needy children and families.

As the 2018 General Convention nears, Whaley said his congregation will make their thoughts known to their bishop, and the delegation from their diocese who will attend.

Though Whaley joked there would have to be divine intervention for him or members of his parish to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies, he said loyalty to the Episcopal Church is an integral part of his faith.

It's also important to Rev. Bert Baetz, the rector at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Richmond, which has several hundred members.

"I follow the direction of my bishop," he said, and in the future, "we will continue to look to our bishop and follow his lead."

*****

OHIO: Church divide for local Episcopalians
Life goes on in wake of suspension from global group

By T.K. BARGER
THE TOLEDO BLADE
http://www.toledoblade.com/Religion/
January 30, 2016

When the high bishops of the Anglican Communion recently suspended the Episcopal Church -- the U.S. branch of the worldwide Christian denomination -- for three years from some Anglican Communion activities and decision making, it had little effect locally.

The American church approved of same-sex marriage, but some members of the global communion actively oppose it, and that issue led to the suspension.

"I think if I hadn't brought [the bishops' action] up [Jan. 17] and addressed it, it would have been a nonissue, totally," said the Rev. Jeff Bunke of St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in Perrysburg. "Once again there's controversy on the global level, but I don't hear any sense [from congregants] of 'We're taking our toys and going somewhere else.' "

The Rev. Father Jeff Bunke said that the Episcopal Church remains a member of the Anglican Consultative Council, where work and relationships among communion members are coordinated more than with the bishops.

The Rev. Jennifer Leider of St. Michael's in the Hills Episcopal Church, Ottawa Hills, said, "We talked about it ... and had some good conversation around what this means for us, and that ultimately the work of the gospel goes on."

The Rev. Carlton Kelley, the interim rector at Trinity Episcopal Church, said, "Trinity Church has many gay and lesbian members, and Trinity is a very welcoming place across the board. ... If anything, it's made them sad, and they've said, 'Oh, this again. Another slap in the face from people who are supposedly well intentioned.' "

"For me, the first reaction is sadness," said the Rev. Elizabeth Hoster, the former rector of Trinity. "I also recognize that change occurs by somebody playing forward on the team, so for me, [as U.S. Presiding Bishop] Michael Curry said, part of our vocation may be to lead in this way."

"What's saddest for me," Father Kelley said, "is that this church has not threatened to pull away from [the Anglican Communion] over a whole host of things that we could have done, and we want to stay in conversation. We want to be in communion. I don't know what they think they're going to achieve, because nothing is going to change."

"From a little more conservative perspective," Father Bunke said, "those of us in at least this part of the Western version of the Anglican Communion have wandered on the fringes for awhile, and sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally, not watched what the implications of some of our decisions and actions have been in the worldwide communion.

"That doesn't mean we've done things wrong and shouldn't be moving out in witness and taking a position, but sometimes we forget that people literally die because others in the ... world are associated with Anglicans, and the powers that be in their culture can't live, literally, with a reality of anyone associated with what they consider to be unclean."

As a result of the Episcopal Church's previous actions of accepting homosexuality and consecrating women as bishops, some church leaders and congregants left the Episcopalians and allied themselves with the Anglican Church in North America and the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, which is affiliated with the Anglican Church of Nigeria.

The Most Rev. Foley Beach, archbishop of the Anglican Church in North America, said on Jan. 14, "The sanctions are strong, but they are not strong enough. ... This is a good step back in the right direction, but it will take many more if the Communion is to be restored."

The Venerable Paul Aduba, archdeacon and rector of Toledo's Anglican Church of the Pentecost, said that his church in Toledo began in 2008.

Father Aduba, who is from Nigeria, had been the priest at St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Bowling Green in 2004 and 2005 before he joined with the Nigerian Anglicans in the United States.

The Church of the Pentecost, he said, is "multiracial, multiethnic. ... It's for everybody willing to come and listen to the Bible. We preach the Bible; that's the point."

The Revs. Bunke, Hoster, Kelley, and Leider said that they, too, are Anglicans who preach the Bible.

"What would make me happier is that if both sides of the argument understood that we're both operating out of our cultures," Father Kelley said. "One is not theologically pure and one corrupt. That's just not so."

Father Kelley added: "I think the Episcopal Church in the United States is the focus for everybody's dissatisfaction. We have lots of money, we have lots of influence, and we [make] unpopular decisions. So this is where it comes."

END