Anglican parley reaffirms curb on homosexuals

By Christine J. Jindra

Delegates to the convention yesterday of the Ohio Episcopal Diocese reaffirmed the church's exclusion of homosexuals from the priesthood and its ban on homosexual marriages.

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At the same time the delegates approved a conciliatory statement that homosexuals are God's children who have equal claim on "the love, acceptance and pastoral concern and .care of the church" and are entitled to equal protection of society's law.

This dual position on homosexuality is identical to that stated last October at a meeting of the church's

House of Bishops at Port St. Lucie, Fla.

The Rev. Terry Hunt of Toledo was among those, urging the delegates at the convention in the Bond Court Hotel to reject the bishops' position. This stand will bring persecution of homosexuals within the church, he warned.

The Rev. Charles M. Irish of Bath, O., said passage emphasized the church's position that homosexuality is a sin.

Only 42 of the 80 clergy members voting approved the homosexual ban. The 300 lay delegates approved it

by a two-thirds margin. The nearly

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even split among the ministry en couraged the homosexuals lobbying against the ban.

"Under the church's position now, the only way that I as a homosexual can avoid being in the state of sin, is to abstain from sex," homosexual from Akron said. "They accept me as a member, but they castrate me."

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He asked not to be identified, saying he would lose his job in education if his employer learned he was at homosexual.

Homosexuals will be accepted

within the Episcopal Church in a few years, predicted Mel Boram, a Cleveland homosexual. Church approval to ordain women did not come on the first vote, he noted.

The church will come to recognize that its position that homosexuals damage family life is an erroneous position, Boram said.

Now many homosexuals try to deny their sexual preference and marry and have children, he said.

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"Yet their homosexuality keeps bubbling up inside them, until it, breaks out like a volcano," Boram said. "It would be nice if society

would recognize the homosexual preference before innocent outsiders, including children born to homosexuals, are involved."

The delegates also voted to write letters to manufacturers of infant formulas to protest their advertising. methods underdeveloped countries.

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By encouraging the use of powdered formula to replace breast milk, the manufacturers contribute to the high infant mortality rate in undeveloped countries, the convention said.

Mothers in these countries do not have the fresh water, sanitary procedures, money or sufficient literacy to prevent the misuse of formulas, delegates said.

Church members will be urged to write congressmen, requesting controls on the sales and advertising of formula manufacturers.

The convention also set up study groups to research tax abatement, high unemployment and the flight of industries from cities. These groups were directed to make recommendations to next year's convention.