What Resources and Sections Are Available on claimingtheblessing.org?
Updated
claimingtheblessing.org is the home of Claiming the Blessing (CTB), a collaborative convened in 2002 within the Episcopal Church to advocate for the full inclusion of all the baptized in all sacraments. The site is organized as a small set of named pages plus a standard blog structure, so you can either read the advocacy history in sequence or follow ongoing posts by date, category, or archive. It is a resource and advocacy site rather than a service portal — there is no indication of gated content or paid access in the available material.
Main sections of the site
The navigation shown on the homepage lists five named areas:
| Section | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Home | The current landing page, with the organization's mission and a running account of its advocacy from 2002 onward |
| History | Background on CTB's formation and its place within the Episcopal Church |
| Resources | Reference and supporting material related to the advocacy work |
| Voices of Witness | First-person testimony content, based on the section name |
| Where do we go from here | Forward-looking material on next steps for the work |
The homepage text itself functions as a condensed history: it describes CTB as "an intentional collaborative of organizations and individuals within the Episcopal Church," naming Integrity, Oasis, Beyond Inclusion, and the Episcopal Women's Caucus as partners alongside the Witness magazine and individual leaders.
Following new content
Below the main narrative, the homepage uses a conventional blog layout:
- Recent Posts — the newest entries, listed in reverse chronological order
- Recent Comments — the latest reader replies, useful for seeing which posts are drawing discussion
- Archives — posts grouped by date, for reading back through the site's output
- Categories — posts grouped by topic, the fastest way to pull together everything on a single theme
- Meta — the standard site administration and feed links
A search box is also present, so if you already know the term you want — a resolution, a convention year, a specific liturgy — searching is quicker than browsing categories.
What the advocacy content covers
The homepage summarizes the arc of CTB's work, which is the main subject matter you will find across the site:
- Liturgies for the blessing of same-sex relationships
- Equal access to all orders of ministry for qualified gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender candidates
- Support for civil and sacramental marriage equality
It marks 2015 as a turning point, noting that the 78th General Convention in Salt Lake City adopted resolutions amending the church's marriage canons and approved liturgies for equal use by same- and opposite-sex couples. The account then moves to 2018 and the 79th General Convention in Austin, where the focus shifted to securing and implementing those advances — including equal access to marriage across the Episcopal Church and amplifying voices in the eight of 101 dioceses that dissented. The stated ongoing commitment is to "living it out incarnationally," a phrase worth reading alongside the "Where do we go from here" section.
Participating in the site
The homepage includes sharing controls for X and Facebook and a comment form with a "Leave a comment" prompt and a cancel option, plus a trackback URL for linking from other sites. In other words, you can respond to a post directly or share it outward. If you want to follow the discussion rather than just the posts, the Recent Comments list is the practical entry point.
How to use the site depending on what you need
- If you are new to CTB: start with Home for the mission statement, then History for how the collaborative formed.
- If you want the theological and personal dimension: go to Voices of Witness.
- If you are researching a specific convention or resolution: use the search box or Categories rather than scrolling the Archives.
- If you want to track the work going forward: watch Recent Posts and the "Where do we go from here" section together.
One caveat: the available material describes the site's structure and its own account of its advocacy, but it does not detail what is inside the Resources or Voices of Witness pages, how often new posts appear, or whether comments are moderated. Treat the section descriptions above as a map of where to look, not a summary of contents you have not yet opened.