The Rev. Harry Stock Restored to the Priesthood

Almost 40 years after he was removed from ministry in The Episcopal Church due to his sexual orientation, the Rev. Harry Stock has been restored to the priesthood. The Restoration of Holy Orders took place on Saturday, October 26, 2024 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Virginia, with the Rt. Rev. Matthew Cowden, VIII Bishop of West Virginia, officiating. The service was an ecumenical gathering and included members and leaders from around The Episcopal Church, including the Rt. Rev. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in The Episcopal Church, and the Very Rev. Ian Markham, Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary. Both Robinson and Markham spoke during the service, with Robinson acknowledging the importance of The Episcopal Church making an apology for its treatment LGBTQ+ people and Markham offering an apology and repentance for the way Virginia Theological Seminary treated LGBTQ+ students in the past. The service also included many participants from the wider Church, including the Rev. Brian Hamilton, Pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. where Fr. Stock has served as a Parish Partner in recent years. 

The Rev. Harry Stock was born in Steubenville, Ohio, and raised near Follansbee, West Virginia. From a young age, his parents encouraged him to explore different Christian traditions. He spent his early years in the Roman Catholic Church, which his mother attended, serving as an altar boy while struggling to reconcile his sexual orientation with the teachings of the Roman Catholic tradition. His faith-filled curiosity led him through the Presbyterian, Methodist, and charismatic churches before he wandered into Trinity Episcopal Church, Morgantown, where he studied at and later worked for West Virginia University. The familiarity of the liturgy, so similar to the Roman Catholic cathedral of his childhood, combined with Trinity’s warm community, led him to claim The Episcopal Church as his home. He credits the Rev. John Glover, Trinity’s then-rector, and the Rt. Rev. William Campbell, then-Bishop of the Diocese of West Virginia, as important figures in welcoming him as an Episcopalian and supporting his early formation for ministry. While attending Trinity and working for WVU, he completed three years of study in the West Virginia School for Religion and discerned a call to the priesthood, entering Virginia Theological Seminary in 1975.

His time at Virginia Theological Seminary was often difficult. In a recent conversation, Fr. Stock reflected, “I’m amazed VTS never asked me to leave.” He was, to his knowledge, the first openly gay student at the seminary at a time when The Episcopal Church was often hostile to LGBTQ+ persons and Integrity USA, the organization advocating for LGBTQ+ inclusion in The Episcopal Church, was still brand new. The kindness of a few close seminary friends and then-Bishop of West Virginia, the Rt. Rev. Robert P. Atkinson, known to many as “Bishop Bob” helped Fr. Stock make it through. After graduating from VTS in 1978, Fr. Stock stayed in Washington, D.C., working a secular job and serving as a lay assistant at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Foggy Bottom, where he had served as a seminarian.

On November 12, 1980, Bishop Atkinson ordained Fr. Stock as a deacon at St. Mary’s. On October 27, 1981, he was ordained as a priest at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Charleston, West Virginia. While Bishop Atkinson had long-known that Fr. Stock was gay and did not determine that to be a barrier to ordination, he also knew no church in the Diocese of West Virginia would call a gay priest and so Fr. Stock continued his ministry in Washington, D.C.. For the next several years, Fr. Stock continued to face barriers to his ministry and could not find a welcome congregation in The Episcopal Church where he and his husband Mark could make their home for him to live out his priesthood. 

After facing countless barriers in The Episcopal Church, they found a place where Fr. Stock could minister as his fully authentic self: the Metropolitan Community Church, for which LGBTQ+ inclusion is central to its mission. At the time, ministering in the Metropolitan Community Church as an out gay man meant an end to his ordination in The Episcopal Church. On April 22, 1987, Bishop Atkinson removed Fr. Stock from the priesthood in The Episcopal Church. While Fr. Stock was deprived of the right to exercise the gifts and spiritual authority in The Episcopal Church, The Episcopal Church was deprived of Fr. Stock’s pioneering ministry over the next several decades.

Fr. Stock went on to serve Washington D.C.’s Metropolitan Community Church: Church of the Disciples for twenty-one years. In that time, he founded Scrolls Revealed Ministries, and, through this ministry, traveled around the country leading a seminar entitled, “Biblical Translation for Gay Liberation: How the Bible Does Not Condemn Homosexuality, An in-Depth Study.” He also found himself pastoring to those dying of AIDS. He recalls, “When AIDS first hit, clergy wouldn’t go to the hospitals to visit the young men because there was a fear and no one knew what it was. I would get calls from nurses asking me to come visit AIDS patients. I would visit 10-15 guys a day, running from hospital to hospital. I was averaging 6-7 funerals a week, sometimes more than one a day. I was fortunate because I chose my CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) site to be at Children’s Hospital; I figured if I could deal with children dying, I could probably deal with anything in the church. That time there, dealing with those young children on the terminal ward, ministering and pastoring to their families, helped me face the AIDS crisis. It gave me the mental and spiritual equipment to face the AIDS crisis.” 

After retiring from Church of the Disciples, Fr. Stock was ready to “just sit in the pews.” Fr. Stock and his husband, Mark, found a home at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C.. Soon enough, the Westminster’s leadership learned of Fr. Stock’s ministry and asked him to share his gifts by becoming a “Parish Partner.” While he doesn’t offer sacramental ministry at Westminster, Fr. Stock has preached, assisted with pastoral counseling, and led Christian education classes.

After all this time, Fr. Stock never imagined he would return to the denomination that had first ordained him. Yet, in 2023, after connecting with Bishop Cowden, the Bishop felt called to correct this injustice. Over the past year, the Diocese of West Virginia and Fr. Stock navigated the canonical process to restore him to the priesthood-a process requiring consent of the bishops in surrounding dioceses and approval from the regional disciplinary board. Earlier this fall, the approvals were finalized and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Alexandria, near to where Fr. Stock and Mark live, was selected for the service of Restoration of Holy Orders. The rector, the Rev. Oran Warder, was also ordained out of the Diocese of West Virginia. 

“We were not ready for Fr Harry Stock 40 years ago and missed a great opportunity for his witness and leadership in The Episcopal Church. With the restoration of his orders, we offer some measure of healing and reclaiming his voice and his story among us,” remarked Bishop Cowden. On Saturday, October 26, filled with those celebrating, the church restored Stock to the priesthood and celebrated The Episcopal Church’s welcome of LGBTQ+ clergy and laity. Reflecting on the last 45 years and coming to this point, Fr. Stock summed up his journey saying, “This isn’t just about me. This is a testimony that The Episcopal Church won’t put up with oppression of anyone based on their sexuality.”