I like that Greg points out that she doesn’t really want a dialogue:

Dialogue, after all, implies that once the matter has been sufficiently discussed, there is more than one acceptable answer to your request, one of which is “no.” We all know that’s not the case, so spare us the farce of claiming you want to “start a dialogue.”

My problem with the article is that it implies she is being denied a license to minister because of her sexual orientation, i.e., because she is a lesbian. However, the bishop is emphasizing that “he’s following a policy that stresses fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those not called to marriage.” So, something else must be going on here. Is it that she is sexually active or has told the bishop she would be if she found a willing partner?

Either that, Deja Vu, or perhaps she is pursuing a strategy to set a precedent that will encourage other homosexual priests to file discriminatory suits (or force ‘dialogues’) in other orthodox dioceses.  Is North Dakota a strongly orthodox diocese??????

I’d love to leave this alone, getting ready for evening service and all, but...Bishop Smith is a good, godly and orthodox Bishop.  No doubt he is being tested, if only spiritually.

Bishop Smith is a good man, he was one of the only leaders in the Diocese of Minnesota to stand againest the whole Gene Robinson thing,before he was elected Bishop of North Dakota. This surely is a deliberate act of attack and provocation. He is also a Windsor Bishop and this proves that in the end, TEC will eventually go after them, just it has with Bishops Duncan,Cox and MacBurney. South Carolina, Central Florida and Dallas you are next, what you gonna do? There will be no mercy for you in the TEC cult, today Bishop, tomorrow it will be you! What sayeth the ACI now?

What indeed, Jihadi… what indeed.

She said the bishop’s refusal to deny her a license “needs to be challenged.”

Er, doesn’t the author of the article mean to say: She said the bishop’s refusal to give her a license “needs to be challenged”?

Baldwin says she was ordained long before she realized she identified herself as a lesbian. She said the bishop’s refusal to deny her a license “needs to be challenged.

This doesn’t pass the smell test...she realized she identified herself as a lesbian?
Of course, one does not wish to be unkind, but this seems like more guerilla warfare by the homosexual lobby, gearing up to use the courts as a weapon...again.

Just briefly googling Gayle Balwin and found that she is actively undermining the bishops “policy that stresses fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those not called to marriage.”

1) a news article that indicates she does seem to be in a same sex relationship which she ascribes to God’s will:
“She agreed to stop working there as a priest when she came out as a lesbian, after meeting the woman she feels God called her to love.”
“She was called to be a priest long before she felt called to be in a relationship with another woman, Baldwin said.”

2) a public relations piece that says she is writing a book called Bone of my Bone, Flesh of my Flesh: the Challenge of Alternative Sexual Relationships to the Religious Imagination .

Hmmm, once again we see that public conflicts with religious authorities will provide publicity for the promotion of a book. (I’m thinking of VGR hawking his book at the Lambeth Marketplace.) I wonder if she is aiming to have hers out for summer 2009.

Honey, let me save you some trouble: THE DIALOGUE STARTED A LONG TIME AGO.

*snort* - I nominate this for understatement of the year.

And here she has written an article saying that “for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people it is not the Christian identity but the Queer identity that brings wholeness.” Surely that alone disqualifies her from a license as a Christian Minister.

Smuggs,

You’re correct. Main post edited.

About twelve years ago, when Mrs. Rider and I lived in the north woods of Minnesota, we got to know Mike and Lisa Smith when they were pastoring to the Breck Memorial Mission in Ponsford, among other callings.  They had just answered the call and moved from Oklahoma, if I remember correctly.  Mrs. Rider and I both were awed at the depth of their faith and commitment to Jesus.  We are honored to have known them, even the little that we did.  We rejoiced when he was called to North Dakota and they are blessed to have him as their leader. 

Posse Rider

So Gayle Baldwin tells ECUSA leaders that the bishop’s refusal to give her a license “needs to be challenged”?

But what about . . . polity?

I’m seriously wondering if there are any heterosexual men and women entering the priesthood anymore.  It’s long been suspecte that many of the more liberal priests in TEC are ex-draft dodgers who fled to the seminary to avoid Vietnam.  So now are the homosexuals flocking to the seminaries to push for legitimization of their sexual orientation so they can preach it from the altar?  Doesn’t anyone go to Seminary anymore to be a servant of God PERIOD.

DJ,
It was very hard, but I, a married man with two great kids and a loving wife was just ordained in December, and we have three more from our parish, including Anglo-Catholic Jihadi, all hetero men and women.  Of course, we are all sinners saved by a merciful God.  This would be our common identity.

DJ,

Yes, I am in seminary and want to serve God.

Well, IMHO, if she was ordained long before she “realized that she identified herself as a lesbian”, she should have also realized that the only honorable and Biblical thing to do when she had that “realization” would be to tender her resignation as a priest, in accordance with Timothy 1, Chapter 3.

DJ,
I’m conservative, I serve on Commission on Ministry in an extremely liberal diocese, and they take discernment quite seriously. Often as not, gay people are turned out of the process...it simply isn’t a factor, either for or against, here. I can’t speak for everywhere, of course.

I’ll say it again.....come GC09 this will be manditory. You will allow gay priests, open or celibate, into your diocese to minister & celebrate or else!
The Worldly Political Episcopal Church USA will be the force to reckon with!

E P I S C O P A L V I S I T O R S A R E C O M I N G

Intercessor, lol… nice… got me laughing out loud with that one.

Before the days of “political correctiveness” people used to say what they really felt. Now we lie so people won’t think ill of us, or we simply don’t say anything at all.  On the other hand, we have the practicing homosexuals and lesbians, now out of the closet and apparently unhindered by the PC word, have stepped to the front of the line and demanded that we allow them to preach to us from the altar. 
Personally I am looking forward to the day when this thing runs full circle and we get back to the point where it’s OK to say, ..."Shut up and sit down.”

Re; One Day Closer’s comment #19--
I have no problem with celibate celebrants, gay or straight in “orientation"-- the issue isn’t what or who you desire; it’s what you do about it.  The ‘rule’ is simple: no sex, with anyone of whatever gender, outside the bonds of marriage.  And the “bonds of marriage” are those of the Church Catholic, not the civil marital contracts of the government.

Or, to put it monosyllabically, until the ring is on, so are the pants.