"Episcopal bishop sought to end conflicts, build bridges" by Lisa Wangsness | Globe Staff, January 21, 2013
He has donned a purple cassock and joined Palestinian sympathizers protesting in front of the Israeli consulate. Gay but celibate, he has immersed himself in East African cultures to better understand the antigay sentiment. Lately, he has asked his congregants — and other faith leaders — to help eradicate gun violence.
Bishop M. Thomas Shaw of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, who announced his retirement last week, leaves a singular legacy as he prepares to depart Boston’s religious scene. A soft-spoken monk who leads one of the largest Episcopal dioceses in the country, the prayerful bishop has been extraordinarily vocal — and sometimes controversial — in the public square....
Shaw’s transition into office was painful and abrupt. His predecessor, David E. Johnson, killed himself after engaging in extramarital affairs....
Really doesn't matter which church or denomination, does it?
His passionate concern about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians led him to join a protest outside the Israeli consulate during the second intifada a decade ago. The action shook interfaith relations in Boston; Jewish leaders, caught by surprise, saw the action as an affront.
Discussions between Shaw and leaders in the Jewish community since then have, to some extent, helped assuage some of the hurt feelings. About six years ago, Shaw initiated a series of regular meetings about the conflict in the Middle East between Episcopal leaders and a group of Jewish leaders, said Rabbi Eric Gurvis of Temple Shalom in West Newton, a past president of the Massachusetts Board of Rabbis.
“I think he felt that he had done some damage that he very much wanted to undo vis-a-vis his relationship with the Jewish community, and also he wanted to better understand the broader picture of the conflict,” Gurvis said.
No wonder he gets a nice front-page send of from the Globe. Sorry to be so insensitive, but I've had with Jewish whining, victimhood, and guilt trips.
Shaw has continued to speak out for Palestinian rights and for peace — recently, he has made connections in the progressive Jewish community through groups like the New Israel Fund — and says he is working on ways Christians can help end the conflict.
As if it is only through Jewish groups that one can speak out for peace?
Some Jewish leaders find it impossible to move beyond his actions in 2001, Gurvis said, but he said he found the bishop “a very sensitive, caring person” who has become more measured in his public approach to the issue.
“It takes a lot to admit, ‘I may have hurt you, and I want to understand why what I did or said hurt you,’ ” Gurvis said.
I suppose that's why Israelis never give it a thought.
Shaw’s attention to nuance was more evident as he negotiated conflicts within the Episcopal Church on whether to consecrate gay bishops and bless gay unions. A vocal advocate for gay rights in the church, and in the larger world, Shaw nevertheless made efforts to be sensitive to conservatives in his own diocese — waiting until late 2009, more than five years after gay marriage was legalized in Massachusetts, to give priests permission to officiate at gay weddings, for example. He also let a breakaway congregation in Marlborough be overseen for a time by a conservative Anglican bishop from Canada; the church eventually left the diocese, but without a fight....
Another agenda-pushing reason for the front-page farewell.
Related: Jewish Leaders Behind The Homosexual and Lesbian Movement
I didn't think so until I saw this: Boston’s gay pride parade goes marching through the rain
Then it all became clear.
Shaw did not speak publicly about his own sexuality until last year, when he discussed being gay in a documentary film, “Love Free or Die,” about New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church. The revelation was low key, and it came well after the church settled major debates about gay issues in favor of inclusion. People hardly noticed....
Because we have given up. There are far more important battles to fight.
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