DIOCESE OF ONGS HAT and all NEW JERSEY
The Most Rev. +Don Stouder
Convening Bishop, The Thomas Christians Community
(Successor Entity to Saint Mikhail's Community of the Love of Christ)
Mon, 13 Aug 2001 09:48:44
Michael Lewis Itkin was born on February 7, 1936, in New York City. Both his parents were Jewish, and his father was a Russian immigrant.
He was raised in the tumultuous environment of depression and war-time New York, and was enthralled by the variety of political and religious activities available to him.
At various times he was involved with such disparate organizations as the Communist Party USA, and the Jehovah's Witnesses, among many others. Such was the nature of his never ending search for new knowledge and experience, likely reflected in the presumption that he had ADHD and bipolar disorder. His parents experience and influence must have played a part as well.
At the age of sixteen, Michael was ordained a minister for the People's Institute of Applied Religion/The Way, an organization committed to social activism. Two years later, on June 16, 1954, Michael was baptized into The Episcopal Church.
In the early fifties, Michael became aware of his homosexuality, and experienced the bashing and persecution, both individual and institutional, that this brought him. He was torn between his love of the drama of the liturgy, especially the eucharist, and the traditional stand on sexuality taught in the churches he attended. Then he heard of the Eucharistic Catholic Church.
This Independent Catholic body, under the direction of Bishop George Hyde, is claimed by some to have been the first gay-centered religious body in the United States. The church had been founded in 1946 with an inclusive ministry that specifically welcomed gay men and lesbians into membership. Already interested in a liturgically centered spirituality, Michael was enchanted with this catholic church.
He joined the church, became active in worship and study, and was ordained a priest by Bishop Hyde on May 6, 1957.
It was around this time that Michael began using the Russian version of his name, Mikhail. Always willing to defy the institutional structure, Father Mikhail felt his superiors were not moving fast enough on social issues. He worked hard at developing a ministry that was both open to gays and lesbians as well as deeply committed to pacifism and social justice. Over time he began to develop a small base community of followers, and which gradually moved away from Bishop Hyde's organization.
After meeting another bishop and seeking to move forward with his own community, Mikhail was consecrated a bishop by Carl Jerome Stanley on November 12, 1960.
His scattered nature and inability to settle down led him to change his small group's name frequently, which matched the rapid evolution of his theological thought.
Mikhail was conditionally consecrated eight more times during his life, in an attempt to build an "ecumenical" episcopate. Although he had little formal education, Mikhail was a voracious reader, and most of his peers considered him quite brilliant. Most of his peers also considered him somewhat unstable, and because of his manic-depression he collected SSI disability benefits for most of his adult life.
Eventually, he founded the Evangelical Catholic Community of the Love of Christ, which in the form of The Thomas Christians continues today. He also authored a pivotal work in gay-centered theology, "The Radical Jesus and Gay Liberation", in 1972. Throughout his adult life, Mikhail had very few steady constants. One was the Community of the Love of Christ. His other great interest was the early 20th century work of Bishop Ulric Vernon Herford. He felt a deep connection to this historical Independent Catholic figure, and believed he was connected to him though the tradition of apostolic succession. While this claim is doubtful, it is certainly true that Herford's successors gave their blessing to Mikhail to continue Herford's work in the United States. For Mikhail, this gave even more meaning to his own inner call to the causes of peace and justice.
Bishop Itkin's many contributions to the cause of inclusion, peace, and justice include authoring the resolution on gay rights adopted by the American Sociological Association, the first such resolution adopted by an American scholarly or professional association.
He co-founded the Committee of Concern for Homosexuals which established the first Gay Switchboard in the San Francisco Bay area, where he had finally settled in the late seventies. He also celebrated a weekly eucharist at the AIDS Vigil held in San Francisco in the early to mid 1980's.
Bishop Mikhail Itkin died of complications of AIDS on August 1, 1989. His funeral mass was held at St. John's Episcopal Church in San Francisco on August 12, 1989. Participants described it as " all the grandeur of a full pontifical mass, with clouds of incense and heaven-bound hymns and prayers".
The homilist was Mikhail's chosen successor as leader of his community, The Most Reverend Marcia Herndon. Bishop Herndon herself succumbed to cancer in 1997, and The Most Reverend Donald Bruce Stouder was chosen to succeed her. Among the congregation at Mikhail's funeral were representatives of the city government, San Francisco's gay community, ministers from several denominations and others who had been touched in some way by the life of Bishop Mikhail Itkin.
As a part of the service, participants were invited to speak about the bishop. A number in succession volunteered that "Mikhail was a pain in the butt". But each quickly added that all his life Mikhail was in the forefront of social concern.
His advocacy of the rights of the poor and disenfranchised, of women, of racial and sexual minorities was constant and unwavering.
For his efforts he suffered persecution and ridicule.
Most who spoke freely acknowledged Mikhail often did not seem to know where he was going, and stories of sexual indiscretions circulated just below the surface. It seemed that because of this uncertainty or indecision he often ended up in places that he did not want to be. His correspondence and journals are filled with backtracking and "corrections", and explanations of earlier statements of position, frequently accompanied by bitter denunciations of those who still held these now repudiated positions.
But it was just as freely acknowledged by his impromptu eulogists that he always tried to go toward the good.
All agreed he always tried to serve God and humanity.
Bishop Itkin had suffered the ravages of AIDS for several years, even while watching so many of his friends succumb to the illness. Still, he seemed to know what lay ahead for him, as is illustrated in this 1983 excerpt from his personal journal:
"I returned from the annual Memorial Service for Harvey Milk and George Moscone at Grace Cathedral last night to find Edric (his cat) ill, and soon became quite ill myself. Vomiting and diarrhea kept me up much of the night. Through this illness, in which I feel myself ripped apart, there are still occasional moments of incredible light. I know what Goethe desired on his death bed, calling for light! more light!, but it is not mine yet. I have the memory of an earlier vision, and it must suffice for now. The Christ himself, our Lord Jesus, appeared to me, both suffering and glorified, and told me he has saved the whole creation, even me. It is enough. God has blessed me and I should be satisfied."
