Alabama’s new bishop looks to future of Episcopal Church

A ‘trying decade’
by Brett Buckner

Known across the Episcopal landscape simply as “Kee,” Rev. John McKee Sloan is the new Alabama bishop-elect of the Episcopal Church, overseeing some 91 parish churches in the state.

Sloan was elected on July 16 in Birmingham from a field of four nominees to replace the Rt. Rev. Henry Parsley, who will be retiring in January after 15 years of serving as bishop. the rest

Q: What are your thoughts on gay clergy and same-sex marriages, as the issue continues to rage within other denominations?

A: That’s one of the real challenges of our time. The church is not … we don’t know. We have not made a decision about that. It’s something we’re still praying about, and that’s frustrating for some people. There are people who are frustrated that we are talking about this at all; they wish it would go away. There are others who wish we would get moving, that it’s something we shouldn’t be dragging our feet about. It’s a difficult, thorny issue.

We do have a diversity of theological positions in the church, which is the nature of our faith – that people have different ideas that are not lightly held. When they disagree … what do you do?

The inclination of this culture is to declare a winner and a loser, which is pretty good as long as you’re the winner, but that means leaving someone out.

This is something we need to work through together and we can’t do it in a hurry.

What I want most of all is for us to remember who we are and to love each other even if we disagree, be faithful and believe that the Holy Spirit is still part of the church. God has not abandoned us. We have not abandoned God. God is still working through us.