It is with real regret that I share with the general public my letter of resignation from the Board of Trustees of Trinity School for Ministry. I never wanted this to be a public matter, nor did I want to do anything that would bring reproach to anyone. However, now that the matter is public, I felt it was important to share my letter of resignation.   

June 16, 2015

Dear Friends in Christ,

It is with great sadness that I am resigning, effective immediately, from the Board of Trustees of Trinity School for Ministry. Dean Terry flew down this afternoon from Pittsburgh and met me at a restaurant at the airport hotel here in Orlando. He stated that the executive committee of the board had met on Friday and it was their sense that the controversy surrounding my decision the approve of the baptism of the adopted child of two gay parents was not settled.

You who attended the most recent meeting of the board of Trustees this past May know that I raised this very subject at that meeting. I passed out to everyone there a copy of the public statement I had written. I invited conversation. Our conversation was brief, but that was because no one present voiced any objections. Quite the opposite both bishops present (Bp. Ben Quashi of Jos, Nigeria and Bp. John Rogers) expressed their support for the letter as had Ap. Bob Duncan earlier in an email to Dean Terry on which I was copied.

However, I am keenly aware that their support, as well as the support voiced by others on the Board at that time, does not represent the full spectrum of opinion among TSM’s constituents. The executive committee feels the same. Their solution is to make this subject the center of conversation at the October board meeting retreat, including some theologians and Biblical scholars who might provide input. The executive committee also wants me to take a leave of absence from the board so that they could talk this through in my absence.

I rejected Dean Terry’s and the executive committee’s invitation to take a leave of absence and chose, instead, to resign. I told Dean Terry that I already have far too many complex pressures in my life than to add to those pressures by going through the next six months with this sword over my head. I stated at the May board meeting that I had no interest in compromising TSM’s reputation, and that is a sentiment I still support. I am aware that in this heated climate of theological and moral controversy, there are fewer and fewer places within Anglicanism where we can agree to disagree.

Having still a great love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, my only prayer is that through this, somehow, Christ is honored.

With All Best Wishes and Prayers,

+Greg Brewer