In the Courts of the Lord: A Gay Priest's Story

In the Courts of the Lord: A Gay Priest's Story
ISBN-10
0824513916
ISBN-13
9780824513917
Category
Biography & Autobiography / General
Pages
231
Language
English
Published
1994
Publisher
Crossroad
Author
James Ferry

Description

In February 1992, The New York Times reported: "Before an ecclesiastical tribunal known as Bishop's Court, an archaic forum used by Anglicans to hunt down heretics and other miscreants since the time of King Henry VIII, lawyers for the Bishop of Toronto began the trial of the Rev. Jim Ferry". This extraordinary court, the first of its kind in over forty years, found James Ferry guilty of willful disobedience and disrespectful conduct toward his bishop. But the real issue the court faced was that James Ferry was in a loving homosexual relationship while ministering to the spiritual needs of his Unionville, Ontario, parishioners. James Ferry lost his parish, his livelihood, his privacy - and the man he loved - but he remains a priest, and an articulate advocate for gays and lesbians who yearn for full inclusion in the church. In the Courts of the Lord chronicles the anguished process by which, after the failure of his marriage to an evangelical Christian woman and several loving but fragile relationships with men, Ferry came to terms with his sexual orientation. Ferry describes the history of his devotion to the church, his successful work in one of the more difficult parishes in Toronto, and his election to the Unionville parish where his clerical career was abruptly halted. His account of how a homophobic member of his congregation encountered his partner while snooping around the rectory, and then agitated for James Ferry's removal, is both vivid and shocking. With pain, compassion, and deep insight, Ferry explains the moral dilemma in which the church now finds itself: on the one hand committed to accepting gay people within the church and society; on the other hand requiring thatthey refrain from entering into loving relationships. James Ferry writes with compelling honesty about an issue that has troubled and divided Christian denominations for more than fifteen years. In the Courts of the Lord is an important book about love, morality and freedom not just within the church but within society at large.

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