Editor’s note: Washington Bishop Mariann Budde and Washington National Cathedral Dean Randy Hollerith issued parallel apologies late Feb. 10 for allowing popular evangelical pastor Max Lucado to preach. [Episcopal News Service] The invitation came on short notice. In an afternoon phone call Feb. 6, the Very Rev. Randy Hollerith, dean of Washington National Cathedral, asked the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson if he would come to the cathedral and preside at the next morning’s service. In accepting, Robinson also offered to speak about the controversy surrounding the cathedral’s guest preacher for that same service. At the Feb. 7 service, during announcements made after the peace, Robinson addressed the more than 6,000 people viewing the cathedral’s livestream. “To those of us who are LGBTQ, while a lot of us are still in pain, while a lot of us have experienced some awful things in our lives” – Robinson paused before emphasizing his central message – “we’ve won.” “We’ve won. We know how this is going to end,” he continued. “This is going to end with the full inclusion of gay and lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer people, nonbinary people, all kinds of people, in the church and into the society. We work every day to make that true, but we know how it ends.” Robinson is revered in The Episcopal Church as its first openly gay bishop, consecrated in 2003 in New Hampshire. Now retired and living in Washington, D.C., Robinson told Episcopal News Service he wanted to show his support for the cathedral as it faced criticism for inviting the Rev. Max Lucado, a popular and prolific evangelical author and pastor who once called homosexuality a “sexual sin.” Though Robinson joined efforts by cathedral and diocesan officials to respond to the backlash, supporters of full LGBTQ inclusion in the life of The Episcopal Church and society continued in the days after the service to question why the cathedral would turn its pulpit over to someone they accuse of causing deep harm, specifically with an article he wrote in 2004 against same-sex marriage. An online petition drive against the decision to invite Lucado to preach at the cathedral was still growing Feb. 9. Some of those critics, while affirming their respect for Robinson, said they disagreed with his defense of the cathedral. “I have deep love and respect for Gene. He’s one of my closest friends and colleagues and allies,” said the Rev. Susan Russell, a longtime leader in the push for LGBTQ equality in the church, but she wasn’t mollified by Robinson’s participation in the service. “I might have made a different decision than Gene did, not that they would have invited me.” Despite Robinson’s presence and Lucado’s avoidance of any mention of homosexuality or same-sex marriage in his prerecorded 22-minute sermon, the damage was done, critics say. “What he said in the pulpit had absolutely nothing to do with my objection. It was the fact that he was in the pulpit and what he represents,” said Russell, who serves as the Diocese of Los Angeles’ canon for engagement across difference and as co-chair of The Episcopal Church’s Communion Across Difference Task Force. “This is a person who’s on record as saying LGBT people are outside God’s saving grace. That, in and of itself, incarnationally represents something that is antithetical to the Gospel we have proclaimed now for decades in the church.” Last Friday, as criticism began to mount, Hollerith acknowledged those concerns while framing Lucado’s invitation as part of the cathedral’s efforts to encourage openness to different perspectives. He again responded to the controversy in his opening welcome to viewers of the Feb. 7 online service. Lucado “has said some things in the past about the LGBTQ community that have caused deep pain,” Hollerith said. “I don’t agree with those statements, and the cathedral does not agree with those statements. Our LGBTQ brothers and sisters and siblings are the beloved children of God just as they are.” He also announced that Lucado had agreed to join him and others for “a public conversation” about the hurt caused by Christian churches and opportunities for healing. Details about that conversation, including a date, have yet to be determined. In a Facebook post hours after the service, Washington Bishop Mariann Budde offered her own defense of the cathedral’s decision, though she also apologized “for my part in the pain caused today” to the LGBTQ community. Speaking by phone with ENS a day later, Budde expressed personal anguish as she carefully described her evolving understanding of the past several days. She said she continued to face a barrage of emails and phone messages since the service, many of them from people angry with her for allowing Lucado’s sermon. “I’m not asking people to agree with our decision at this point. I’m very sorry for the hurt that it’s caused,” she said. “My biggest mistake was not reaching out to some of my colleagues who are LGBTQ.” If she had taken more time to talk through the issue with them, she said, she might have asked the cathedral not to include Lucado. “I would do it differently now,” she said. Budde also endorsed Hollerith’s efforts to organize a follow-up discussion with Lucado because she sees opportunities to bring the church’s message of inclusion to the evangelical world that Lucado represents. “I pray that we actually can have that conversation with Max and others,” she said, “to wring some redemption out of this.” Criticism of Lucado focuses on 2004 article against same-sex marriage Lucado is not a household name in The Episcopal Church. Robinson had never heard of him until last weekend. Russell said she only knew of him as “an evangelical self-help” writer who has sold “a bunch of books” – more than 120 million copies, according to Lucado’s website. But Lucado’s vast audience of readers includes Episcopalians, among them Hollerith, the National Cathedral dean. “I have found many of his writings to be spiritually nourishing,” … Continue reading Fallout from Washington National Cathedral guest preacher a ‘teachable moment’ for the church