[This page was adapted from an Integrity brochure.]
You were chosen by God to be whom you are--gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or heterosexual. Your choice is how you will live. The expression of your sexuality is a gift from God in the making and building of relationships.
God is concerned with the quality of relationships, whether with family, friends, lovers, church or God.
The Episcopal Church is a Christian community that draws together people from many different backgrounds. Our Church says: "Homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance and pastoral concern and care of the church."
With the aid of supportive clergy and lay people, Integrity is working to make that resolution a living reality in the daily life of the church.
Integrity is a group of gay and lesbian Episcopalians and their friends. We are a family within the church, a place to find close community and support. We offer an opportunity to find growth, education and prayer. We work with each other in service to the church and to the gay/lesbian community. We call the church to greater faithfulness to the Gospel through the full inclusion of lesbians and gay men in the life of the church.
Help yourself grow in faith. Help the church grow in understanding. Join Integrity!
In rural Georgia in 1974, Dr. Louie Crew started a newsletter for lesbian and gay Episcopalians, The Integrity Forum. In it, he called on his adopted church to show "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You." Joined by hundreds of lesbian and gay Episcopalians and friends, a year later chapters were formed around the country and a national convention held. In 1976, Integrity was represented at General Convention, where two major resolutions passed: one ". . .that homosexual persons are children of God who have a full and equal claim with all other persons upon the love, acceptance, and pastoral concern and care of the Church; "the other". . .that homosexual persons are entitled to equal protection of the laws with all other citizens, and [General Convention] calls upon our society to see that such protection is provided in actuality." Integrity has been represented at every General Convention thereafter and has attempted to see that the 1976 resolutions are fully implemented.
Although some perceive Integrity as a "lobbying organization," few Integrity members would identify with that label. In over 50 chapters in the United States (plus unaffiliated chapters in Australia and Canada) the primary focuses are worship in a supportive environment, emotional support and counseling, spiritual nourishment and Christian education, and service to the Church and the gay/lesbian community. Through Integrity's evangelism, thousands of lesbians and gay men, estranged from the Episcopal and other churches, have returned to worship and fellowship.
Members of Integrity receive the quarterly publication, The Voice of Integrity.
We are a ministry for the encouragement and nurture of gay and lesbian persons in Christian life and community; and, equally, a ministry of gay and lesbian persons, offered to the Church and to the world seeking unity and peace in the body of Christ, justice and dignity for all people, regardless of their likeness to or difference from ourselves, the end to human oppression, especially the oppression of people who are gay or lesbian; and, the building of a world and a society as safer places in which to love. We proclaim the good news that the world and all people in it have been liberated and redeemed by Jesus Christ.
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