During the past four decades, most North American mainline denominations have been challenged by and have responded to shifts in the cultural landscape. The civil rights and women's liberation movements caused churches to reconsider the ministries that racial minorities and women exercise in their churches. Modernism in general has raised the question of how Christians ought to pray, resulting in important revisions in liturgy and music. Churches, however, have often been reluctant to embrace the presence and contributions of gays and lesbians in the life of the church to the same extent that our society has begun to do. Indeed, questions relating to human sexuality, particularly the fitness of homosexual persons for ordained ministry and whether churches should bless same-sex unions, have constituted an unprecedented threat to the unity of the church. By drawing on my experience in (and previous publications about) the Episcopal Church, conducting research, and interviewing faculty and students at Episcopal and Anglican seminaries, I hope that the book emerging from this project will demonstrate how forthrightly addressing this issue will have implications for all churches' understanding of Scripture, spirituality, authority, ethics, pastoral theology, evangelism and ecclesiology.