Gwen Fry

Integrity Renamed “The Episcopal Rainbow”

on July 9, 2018

Integrity USA, the unofficial LGBT caucus within the Episcopal Church, has announced a new name and new president for the 43-year-old activist organization.

The Rev. Gwen Fry, who identifies as a transgender woman, will lead the group under a new name, The Episcopal Rainbow, beginning in October 2018. Integrity officials explained that the organization needed to transition to a name which indicated its Episcopal identity. The name change takes effect at the conclusion of the church’s 79th General Convention meeting this week in Austin, Texas.

The announcement was made during the group’s Integrity Eucharist on July 8. The service of Holy Communion is held concurrently with General Convention every three years and attended by several hundred LGBT persons and supporters at the JW Marriott near the Austin Convention Center.

Gwen Fry
The Rev. Gwen Fry (Photo: Rolling the Stone Away gathering)

The former Greg Fry was a priest in Arkansas when in 2014 he shocked his Pine Bluff parish by identifying as a transgender person and was removed from his position by Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas Bishop Larry Benfield. Fry previously served as Diocesan Coordinator for Integrity USA and is a member of TransEpiscopal, representing the group at the 2015 Episcopal General Convention in Salt Lake City. Fry also has connections with the broader Religious Left, serving as a panelist at a Wild Goose Festival 2015 session entitled “LGBTQ Lives: Hurt & Healing.” IRD’s Matthew Maule profiled Fry as one of several prominent transgender clergy, a report that you can read by clicking here.

Integrity transitioned in the past year to operate as an all-volunteer organization, saying goodbye to paid staff after the organization secured its place following the election of an openly gay bishop in 2003 and the enactment of trial rites for same-sex marriage in 2015. The move was also prompted by a decline in operating funds.

“Work remains when people in eight dioceses of the church cannot marry those they love,” insisted outgoing Integrity President Bruce Garner. The Integrity Eucharist took place the same night that the church’s House of Deputies, composed of clergy and lay members, began debate around resolution B012, “Marriage Rites for the Whole Church”. As amended by committee, the resolution would effectively remove bishops’ authority to proscribe use of the trial rite and mandate its use across all domestic Episcopal Church dioceses. Debate is scheduled to continue on Monday. If adopted by the House of Deputies, the church’s House of Bishops would need to concur in order for the resolution to be finalized.

At the service, Garner presented House of Deputies President Gay Clark Jennings and Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry with the Louie Crew Award, named for a long-serving Convention deputy and gay activist from the Episcopal Diocese of Newark who led the organization for many years.

“There are times when I’ve wept at what has happened to some of you, and yet you’re here,” Jennings shared appreciatively to the gathered LGBT activists.

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then we will all know peace,” declared Curry, quoting musician Jimmy Hendrix.

The evening’s sermon was delivered by The Rev. Carlye J. Hughes, Bishop-Elect of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark and current rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, Texas.

Preaching from Ruth Chapter 1 verses 15-18, Hughes extolled Ruth’s commitment to Naomi: “Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

“Do you know in your gut that we are loved?” Hughes asked, describing the gut as “that place that needs tending — the deep well of love that is Jesus Christ.”

Hughes asserted to the gathered activists that “we have this way of understanding the breadth and wideness of the love of God [for all LGBT persons], but missing that with ourselves.”

The Integrity Eucharist has previously showcased liturgical innovations, and the 2018 service was no exception. The celebration opened by substituting “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” for a modalist interpretation of the Trinity: “Creator, Redeemer, and Giver of life”. An “affirmation of faith” replaced the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds during the service liturgy.

Singing “Christ has Broken Down the Wall” by hymn writer Mark A. Miller, an Assistant Professor of Church Music at United Methodist Drew Theological School, the gathered congregation sang “Peace and love, freely offered here; cast aside your doubts and fears.” The phrase “We’re accepted as we are” was repeated several times in the song.

The group read a collect, praying: “Almighty God, you endowed the abbot Aelred with the gift of Christian friendship to lead others in the way of holiness: Grant to your people the same spirit of mutual affection…”

English writer St. Aelred of Rievaulx authored the treatise “On Spiritual Friendship” and is claimed by some in the gay community for his own deep friendships with men.

Update: Two years after this post was originally published, Integrity USA continues to identify with it’s historic name rather than “The Episcopal Rainbow” announced at the 2018 Episcopal General Convention. The Episcopal News Service (ENS) reports that Gwen Fry resigned from the organization in November 2019 after criticism from members over perceived mismanagement. Fry was replaced in January 2020 with seminarian Ron Ward and currently serves in the Episcopal Diocese of Maine as well as on the church’s Task Force to Develop Model Anti-Sexual Harassment Policies & Safe Church Training. Several former Integrity USA officials have called for the organization’s dissolution.

  1. Comment by Scott on July 10, 2018 at 12:22 pm

    All Methodists take heed. This is our future if the progressives have their way. The only thing that would make them happier is if we merged with the Episcopalian church. I have heard that comment made multiple times.

  2. Comment by Malcolm Thornton on July 14, 2018 at 11:19 am

    The politicization of the mainline Protestant churches has been underway for MANY decades now. We can and should relate to this occurrence in the same way as Marxists-it is the “march through the institutions.” People with political agendas go to seminary and then emerge as “forces for change” within their denominations. The pastoral concerns of a given congregation must then take a back seat to the inclusionism of the latest social trend. What is next to be included, one might ask?

  3. Comment by Pam Puckett on July 14, 2018 at 3:52 pm

    As a Methodist, it worries me that our denomination is heading in the direction of the Episcopalians and Presbyterians. Apparently Scripture doesn’t matter anymore.

  4. Comment by ELIZABETHANN BARDSLEY CORDOZA on July 17, 2018 at 4:28 am

    I cannot believe the three previous posts that I read! I am a straight, married, CIS gender, senior citizen. I am also a STR8 ALLY of Integrity USA the Episcopal Rainbow. Many of the leaders of this group are personal friends of mine. I can assure you, there’s not a person who went to Seminary to promote a “political agenda” in the group. Lord, help the Methodists. Apparently they need it a lot.

  5. Comment by Michael Moore on July 19, 2018 at 8:58 am

    The Methodists do not need your kind of help. Nor do they need to go the way of permitting and promoting perversion in the house of the Lord.

    Apparently, the Lord has written Ichabod over the house of the Episcopal Church. What a shame that a once great American church has fallen to such depths of carnality and disgrace.

  6. Comment by Debra on January 17, 2019 at 4:04 pm

    Dear UMC,

    As a former, beaten to death UMCer, who has now become an Episcopalian… all I can say to you is this. God has never felt more alive to me, than the day I walked away from the denomination I was born into, baptized in, and raised to believe that I was loved and accepted in.

    The UMC mantra of OPEN Hearts OPEN Minds OPEN Doors, is a lie. The hearts of the UMC are only open to those whom are heterosexual. If you are any form of LGBTQ, you need not apply because you are not welcome.

    I was a voting member of my conference and stuck it out as long as I could. I finally saw the writing on the wall and said goodbye.

    There is a song called, Say Something, by A Great Big World and it says something that the UMC should listen too…

    Say something, I’m giving up on you
    I’ll be the one, if you want me to
    Anywhere, I would’ve followed you
    Say something, I’m giving up on you

    Dear UMC… Please say something and do it quickly before you lose all those that matter, both Hetero and LGBTQ, give up on you and leave.

    God Bless You All

  7. Comment by Omg on September 29, 2020 at 2:51 am

    This article didn’t age well in light of Integrity’s ongoing meltdown of finances, communications, transparency…a case study in how NOT to wind down a ministry after accomplishing your goals.

    Will Juicy Ecumenism write an update?

  8. Comment by Jeffrey Walton on September 29, 2020 at 10:43 am

    The article aged just fine, although we cannot say the same for the organization. It is odd how the new name completely disappeared with barely a trace. It’s still “Integrity USA” several years later. If the organization re-enters the news, I’ll certainly write an update. At the moment, the caucus is basically a non-entity (although many people formerly with Integrity USA are still relevant).

  9. Comment by Omg on September 29, 2020 at 3:48 pm

    Being a non-entity hasn’t stopped Integrity leadership from targeting its own membership:

    https://www.reddit.com/r/Episcopalian/comments/ireydy/integrity_president_threatens_clergy_for_alerting/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

The work of IRD is made possible by your generous contributions.

Receive expert analysis in your inbox.