06/02/2026
It was a single sentence, adopted 50 years ago by General Convention meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Today, LGBTQ+ Episcopalians credit that sentence with opening the door to five decades of progress toward full inclusion in The Episcopal Church.
This is the text of Resolution A069 in full: “Resolved, That it is the sense of this General Convention 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.”
Now, as The Episcopal Church approaches the 50th anniversary in September of the passage of that resolution, church leaders are planning a three-day conference on the past, present and future of LGBTQ+ involvement in the life of the church. The conference is scheduled for Sept. 3-5, and it will be held where it all began, back in Minneapolis.
The event, “Full & Equal: 50 years in Pursuit of a Promise,” will be structured as a gathering for worship, workshops and storytelling. Planning has been led by the church’s Task Force on LGBTQ+ Inclusion, chaired by the Rev. Susan Russell, a Diocese of Los Angeles priest and prominent LGBTQ+ church leader. Other scheduled participants include the Rev. Michael Hopkins, the Rev. Miquel Escobar and the Rev. Cameron Partridge. The event will also include a multimedia presentation on 50 years of struggle and success, produced by Diocese of Texas lay leader Katie Sherrod.
It may be hard for today’s church to recall how revolutionary those words once were. At that time, in a denomination and a society still mostly unaccepting of LGBTQ+ individuals, the unequivocal acknowledgement that gay people were “children of God” and deserving of “full and equal” welcome was a ground-breaking step forward.
“I think we look back at that 1976 resolution as really the beachhead of the struggle,” Russell told Episcopal News Service in a recent interview. “Up until then, it was not even possible to talk about inclusion. It was not even possible to imagine where we are today.”
Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe is expected to join one of the panel discussions this September and will be the celebrant at a concluding Holy Eucharist at St. Mark’s Cathedral. The preacher will be the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, who became the church’s first openly gay bishop when he was consecrated by the Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003.
Accommodations are still being finalized, and the church will be opening registration soon.
The 65th General Convention met in Minneapolis from Sept. 11-23, 1976. It already was primed to be a momentous convention, with both the authorization of women’s ordination and the first approval of a new edition of the Book of Common Prayer on the agenda.
The additional consideration of resolutions that would nudge the church toward LGBTQ+ inclusion followed a growing gay rights movement in the United States. Some gay Episcopalians also had mobilized to promote change within the church through what was then the newly formed advocacy group Integrity USA.
Members of Integrity, including its founder, Louie Crew Clay, had advised the Joint Commission on the Church in Human Affairs, which drafted several resolutions for General Convention in 1976 related to the church’s stance on homosexuality.
“Our awareness and concern in these areas arises from within our own experience as a Christian community in ministry and dialogue with one another,” the commission said in its report. “We are conscious of the personal suffering experienced by many homosexual persons and the various unnecessary ways in which society contributes to that suffering.”
When the House of Deputies took up Resolution A069 on Sept. 13, 1976, some deputies proposed amendments seeking to dilute or alter the resolution’s significance. One suggested saying that “all” people are children of God, rather than singling out gay people. Another proposal would have added language saying that gay people were deserving of “forgiveness.” Both amendments were defeated.
The deputies then adopted the resolution in the language originally proposed, and it was forwarded to the House of Bishops to concur. The bishops took it up on Sept. 22, 1976. The official journal of the 65th General Convention records only that the measure passed, with no reference to debate by the bishops.
Russell, who led Integrity from 2003-2009, said the organization sometimes was accused of “incrementalism” by people who wanted the church to change more rapidly, but the steady approach of “set audacious goals and celebrate incremental victories” got results.
After 50 years, Russell and other leaders note that many of the battles for full inclusion in the church have been won. In particular, the church now celebrates both the ordination of gay clergy and the marriages of same-sex couples. (Integrity USA officially dissolved in 2022.)
With this fall’s conference in Minneapolis, “we’re excited to be going back to where the initial resolution was adopted,” Russell said, while also acknowledging “some of the damage that has been done to LGBTQ people.” Participants also hope to discuss how churches can remain committed to future justice work.
Rowe underscored some of the same themes in a statement to ENS about the anniversary of the 1976 resolution.
“As we celebrate that milestone, we also acknowledge that the journey to achieve full inclusion for all of God’s children is not yet over,” Rowe said. “As Pride Month begins, I am praying especially for our LGBTQ+ siblings, who are too often in harm’s way and targeted for their identity and gender expression. Their struggles reveal to us the kingdom of God, and we are committed to standing in solidarity with all those suffering from the evil of hatred and discrimination.”
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at [email protected].
[Episcopal News Service] It was a single sentence, adopted 50 years ago by General Convention meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Today, LGBTQ+ Episcopalians credit that sentence with opening the do…
