An prominent Episcopal bishop ripped a female cleric’s collar off after she briefly forgot her words at an LGBT-friendly Easter Vigil that was emceed by a drag queen.
A video captured the jaw-dropping moment when Bishop Alan M. Gates snatched the collar from Reverend Tamra Tucker’s neck during the service at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Boston on March 30.
In the footage, Rev. Tucker, who is the leader of The Crossing, an LGBTQ-inclusive congregation, explained to the attendees that they will now be ‘communing’ with one another.
‘It’s going to go very simply,’ the reverend said as she began to break down the ceremony to the audience, which consisted of several congregations and other Protestant denominations.
Bishop Alan Gates (in white chasuble) ripped the clerical collar from Rev. Tamra Tucker’s neck after Tucker (left of Gates) forgot the words to the church service
‘We’re going to allow somebody to take their own piece of bread, and you will say to the person taking the bread this.’
At this point in the video, Rev. Tucker apparently forgot the words for the ceremony.
She looked at the Bishop, and then turned to the crowd and said with her palms up: ‘Wait what is it? I’ve been gone for a while.’
Then she seemed to remember the words and said with visible relief: ‘The body of Christ.’
The reverend smiled, and the people standing on the dais behind her laughed.
‘It’s very simple. The body of Christ, that’s all you got to do,’ Rev. Tucker said.
Moments later, Bishop Gates, who had been smiling good-naturedly at her brief gaffe, lunged toward her and pulled the reverend’s clerical collar from her neck.
People initially laughed boisterously at the surprise gesture. A woman at the end of the dais stared with her jaw open, and the drag queen clapped.
Reverend Tucker appeared to be annoyed, and Bishop Gates, realizing that he had crossed a line, returned the collar to her.
‘Just kidding,’ the bishop said.
‘Thank you,’ the reverend said as the bishop put his arm around her should apologetically.
People initially laughed but soon after the act, the church was quiet and individuals were visibly uncomfortable with the act
But the church was silent and the other people on the dais appeared to be uncomfortable.
‘Dang,’ Reverend Tucker said, stunned by what had just happened.
After the incident, the reverend proceeded with the ceremony but her shock appeared to linger.
Bishop Gates’s action, playful in intention, angered members of the faith.
Rev. Rita Powell, chaplain for the Harvard Episcopal Community, told the Boston Globe, ‘It was just really sad that an occasion that is supposed to be joyous had to be marked by the specter of long-term misogyny that is pretty essential to Christianity, even in a church that feels like it has advanced past that.’
The highest ranking official in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, Bishop Gates released a formal apology on April 12, nearly two weeks after the incident occurred. He has led the diocese, which contains 180 congregations, since 2014.
Bishop Gates referred to his action as ‘an instant of altogether misguided mischief.’
The penitent bishop observed that Rev. Tucker ‘had a moment – familiar to every worship leader – in which she blanked on the next line.’
The woman on the far right laughed in amazement, and the drag queen, who emceed the event, laughed too
Bishop Gates said that removing her clerical collar was ‘a devastating and demeaning act, which I regret with all my heart.’
The spiritual leader called Rev. Tucker ‘a valued colleague and fine priest whose leadership it has been my honor to affirm.’
He stated further stated that it ‘was not and would never be’ his intention to humiliate the reverend.
‘By my action I misused my authority, failed to extend episcopal grace, and transgressed personal space and boundaries. I am deeply sorry.’
Reverend Tucker hasn’t spoken publicly about the incident yet, and it is unclear whether or not she’s accepted his apology.
Tracy J. Sukraw, a spokesperson for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, said that the bishop was contrite and had reached out to the reverend ‘to express his regret and seek to make amends.’
The bishop seemed to regret his action immediately. He said he was joking and put his arm around the reverend’s shoulders
‘It was in the light-hearted context of a non-traditional service, but it was ill-considered, and no one thinks it was a good thing to have done, including Bishop Gates,’ Sukraw said.
‘His sincere desire is to make apology and repair, and that is what he’s now working to do.
Revered Rita Powell agreed that Bishop Gates’s intention was not to humiliate Rev. Tucker, but that the circumstances of his action made it ‘an act of symbolic violence.’
The day after the incident, Reverend Jay Williams, who is the lead pastor of Union Combined Parish, where Rev. Tucker’s wife is an executive pastor, condemned Bishop Gates’s action.
Rev. Williams said that the incident was an example of ‘violent patriarchy and sexism.’
The reverend reproached Gates, saying that he ‘literally stripped’ the reverend ‘of her clergy collar in public.’
‘The male bishop tried to say it was a joke and apologize in public, but it’s no joking matter when a man publicly violates the personal space of a woman and symbolically strips her of her sign of ordination,’ the reverend fulminated.
The service continued without a hitch after the incident. But the bishop’s action drew serious criticism from other members in the religious community
Reverend Karen Coleman, speaking on behalf of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Massachusetts, publicly defended the embattled bishop, hailing him as ‘a conscientious and compassionate pastor and colleague.’
Rev. Coleman stated that Bishop Gates has been ‘a consistent supporter and ally of the Rev. Tamra Tucker, The Crossing congregation that she pastors, and groups who are on the margins.’
In his apology, Bishop Gates said: ‘I extend my remorse and apology to the Rev. Tamra Tucker; to the Crossing community; to the Cathedral community; to other communities present; to ecumenical companions who had joined us at the Vigil; and to those in the wider church and community whom I have hurt.’
‘In our baptismal covenant we pledge to “respect the dignity of every human being.” I seek forgiveness for my failure to keep this pledge, and God’s grace to renew that commitment.’