Courage to Love: A Gay Priest Stands Up for His Beliefs [Hardcover]

Barry Stopfel (Author), Will Leckie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 1997

No one should have to endure what Rev. Barry Stopfel and his gay companion Will Leckie have. As a Christian, Stopfel loves God; so much so that he committed his life to serving the church as an Episcopal priest. He has also committed himself to a relationship with the person he loves, Will Leckie. In his eyes, loving God and loving Will need not be mutually exclusive. And Barry and Will have paid a high price for their love of God and each other.



Until 1995, the personal cost was a private matter, which took its toll on each individually and on their relationship. But then the Episcopal Church decided to put retired Bishop Walter Righter on trial for heresy, because he had ordained Barry as an openly gay priest. All Barry wanted to do was serve the Lord he loved through full-time ministry in the church, yet his openly homosexual lifestyle forced him into the spotlight of theological and public debate.



Stopfel and Leckie's life together is a microcosm of our turbulent times. Homosexuality is a hot-button issue for us, and raises questions about legal recognition of same-sex marriages, health care and benefits for same-sex partners, job discrimination, homophobia, AIDS. This book boldly tells of the personal struggles of the authors and draws in readers with its wide-ranging implications.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It is one thing for a television personality to openly proclaim her homosexuality; it is another for a priest to do the same. As homosexuals are increasingly gaining acceptance by secular society, organized religions face the options: accept, ignore, or condemn. When Barry Stopfel forced the Episcopal Church to decide, "ignore" was no longer an option. Under the polished writing of Will Leckie, Stopfel cuts a compelling figure, and as a catalyst in the Episcopal struggle, we see the dual story of a man's love for his Christian church and his church's difficulty with Christ-like reciprocation.

From Library Journal

Homosexuality and the position of various Christian denominations regarding it has been a source of controversy for several decades. Together with partner Stopfel, the rector of St. George's Episcopal Church in Maplewood, New Jersey, actor and author Leckie has written a moving account of their heroic struggle to see Stopfel through to ordination in the Episcopal Church. An openly gay man, Stopfel was ordained in 1995 by a bishop who was subsequently brought to a church trial in preparation for charging him with heresy. The bishop was absolved by the church court, and Stopfel is today a working pastor. The authors offer a moving story, engagingly written from the perspective of passionate commitment to homosexual rights. Recommended for all academic and larger public libraries; for a sensitive account from a different perspective, see Thomas Schmidt's Straight & Narrow? (Intervarsity, 1995).
-?Charles V. Cowling, SUNY at Brockport Lib.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (May 19, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385486723
• ISBN-13: 978-0385486729
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,947,634 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended (and recommended...and recommended...)!, June 29, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Courage to Love: A Gay Priest Stands Up for His Beliefs (Hardcover)

I just finished reading "Courage To Love" for the SECOND time (not bad, considering that I only purchased my copy a week ago!), and I have been enthusiastically recommending it to gay and straight friends of all denominations on discussion boards all over the Internet. This is truly a love story. Not only in the "traditional" sense (though it is that too...the love between Leckie and Stopfel comes through loud and clear on every page), but also in a much broader sense. The love of two men for their God and their faith, the love of the Christian people who rallied around them, the love of God for ALL His children...it's all there, beautifully written in a style that makes all the players come alive for the reader. No longer are "Stopfel," "Leckie," "Righter" and "Spong" mere names on a piece of paper...they are real people with real emotions and strong convictions. This is also truly a book about courage...courage that goes beyond even the incredible courage it takes simply to live as an openly gay person in today's society. The stakes for all the players were unbelievably high...loss of love, loss of personal security, loss of faith, loss of power and position. I think that anyone who thinks he or she is alone in the struggle against prejudice and fear would draw strength from Stopfel and Leckie's story. Most of all, however, this is a book about integrity. Despite the seemingly unsurmountable obstacles, Stopfel refused to repudiate either his calling or his being. At any time, he could have left Leckie, or claimed to be celibate, and his ordination would have proceeded without comment. At any time, he could have denied his calling to the priesthood and fallen back on a fairly lucrative career. At any time, Spong and Righter could have done the safe thing and washed their hands of the whole "issue." Instead, all involved found that the need to be true to their convictions outweighed the need to "play it safe." Mostly, this is a book about rights...not civil rights, but God's rights. Specifically, it is about God's right to call whom He will...his right to love and employ all his children despite the box in which society would like to confine Him. As I said, I have recommended this book highly to a lot of people...but mostly to straight people who are still struggling, in spite of themselves, with issues of homophobia. It is hard to read this book and maintain an "us-and-them" sort of dichotomy. The overwhelming message is, all people love and are loved. All people are, when all is said and done, simply people. And God, who made us all, loves us all.