What Has Claiming the Blessing Advocated For in the Episcopal Church?

Claiming the Blessing (CTB) is a collaborative of organizations and individuals within the Episcopal Church that has advocated since 2002 for the full inclusion of all the baptized in all sacraments. Its specific advocacy has centered on three areas: liturgies for blessing same-sex relationships, equal access to all orders of ministry for qualified LGBTQ candidates, and civil and sacramental marriage equality. The timeline below shows what changed at each General Convention.

Founding and Core Focus (2002)

CTB was convened in 2002 as an intentional collaborative. Its founding partners included leading Episcopal justice organizations — Integrity, Oasis, Beyond Inclusion, and the Episcopal Women's Caucus — in partnership with The Witness magazine and other individual leaders in the Episcopal Church.

The collaborative framed its work around three stated goals:

• Promoting wholeness in human relationships
• Abolishing prejudice and oppression
• Healing the rift between sexuality and spirituality in the Church

These goals set the direction for the specific legislative and liturgical advocacy that followed.

Advocacy Priorities

Across its history, CTB's advocacy has included:

• Liturgies for the blessing of same-sex relationships — working toward authorized rites, not only informal or local practices
• Equal access to all orders of ministry — supporting qualified gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender candidates for ordination
• Civil and sacramental marriage equality — supporting both legal recognition and church blessing of marriages

The 2015 Turning Point: 78th General Convention

CTB describes 2015 as a watershed year. At the 78th General Convention, meeting in Salt Lake City, the convention:

• Adopted resolutions that amended the canons on marriage
• Approved liturgies for equal use by same-sex and opposite-sex couples

In the same year, civil marriage equality came to the United States. CTB frames these two developments together — sacramental marriage equality in the Episcopal Church and civil marriage equality in the country — as the culmination of years of advocacy.

CTB is explicit, however, that this did not mean the work was finished. It notes that homophobia and discrimination against LGBTQ people remained in both the church and the world.

2018: Securing and Implementing the Advances — 79th General Convention

After 2015, CTB's work shifted from winning legislative change to securing and implementing it. A central concern was geography: making sure, in CTB's words, that "your zip code does not define whether or not your marriage receives equal blessing by the church or equal protection by the Constitution."

At the 79th General Convention in Austin, that work included:

• Advocating for legislative advances guaranteeing equal access to marriage across the Episcopal Church
• Amplifying the voices of those "left behind" in the eight dissenting dioceses (out of 101)

CTB describes much as having been accomplished in Austin, and characterizes its posture afterward as having "claimed the blessing" legislatively while continuing the work of "living it out incarnationally."

How to Read This Timeline

If you want to verify or follow this work directly, the site's own navigation includes History, Resources, and Voices of Witness sections, plus an archive of posts by category and date. Those are the primary places to check for CTB's own account of its advocacy and for any updates beyond the 2018 convention.