THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH, USA
AND HOMOSEXUALITY
STATUS AT THE STARTUP OF THE
YEAR 2003 GENERAL CONVENTION
Sponsored link.
The 2003 General Convention, in Minneapolis, MN, started on 2003-JULY-30
and will end on AUG-8. Two tasks are
liable to create an explosive atmosphere at the Convention.
Conservatives are outraged at two items on the agenda: 1
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The Diocese of California has created resolution C005 which
would direct the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music to
"prepare a rite or rites" for the Book of Occasional
Services that supports "couples living in life-long committed
relationships of mutuality and fidelity outside the relationship of
marriage." 2 |
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On 2003-JUN-7, Canon Gene Robinson, an openly gay male in a 14 year committed
relationship, was elected as New Hampshire's next diocesan bishop by the
clergy and delegates of the state Diocesan Convention. His
election must be affirmed or rejected by the Convention. The last
time that a bishop was rejected by a general convention was in the
1870's. |
The world outside of the convention:
As the Convention opened:
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The Vatican issued a document asking
Roman Catholic lawmakers to vote against any legislation that would
recognize same-sex marriages. |
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Fifty days had passed since the
groundbreaking decision by the Ontario Court
of Appeal which required the Government of Ontario in Canada
to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and to record their
marriages. Many committed gays and lesbian couples, presumably
including some church members of the Episcopal Church, USA, have come
to Ontario to be married. |
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The Supreme Court of Massachusetts is expected to issue a
similar ruling at any time. |
Status of ritual blessing gay and lesbian unions and marriages:
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Bishop John Chane of Washington, DC predicted in 2003-JUNE that
Episcopalians will approve a liturgical rite for same-sex marriages. Bishop Chane told 60
Episcopalians at an evening prayer service at St. George's Episcopal
Church in Glenn Dale: "We've been discussing the issue of same-sex
blessings since 1972 in the Episcopal Church. I think we've spent enough
time discussing. For those who say our theology is thin, I would respond to
that and say, 'Your faith is thin and your fear is thick.' ...There may be
some bishops who walk off the floor of the house. We're going to see some
hissy fits. We'll see a lot of strange behavior." 3 | |
The Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton, rector of St. Paul's in Chatham, NJ and
a deputy from the Diocese of Newark said: "I think it is time. What
we have been doing with the issue of homosexuality is a sin. I am
tired of participating in this corporate sin of avoidance. And the
thing we have been avoiding is the deeper, more difficult issues of
the Gospel." She feels that justice for the church's gay and
lesbian members is "an important gospel project." However, she
added, that the church as decided to stall on matters related to human
sexuality and thus avoid debate on more difficult issues. She
concluded: "I am tired of it. I want to get off the dime. I want to
do this. I want to move on, and I think other people are there as
well." 2 | |
The Committee on Prayer Book, Liturgy and
Music has received four resolutions concerning the creation of a liturgy
to bless same-sex unions. 10
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Resolutions C005, D022 and C051 would have
a ritual prepared for "...rites of blessing for committed relationships
outside marriage..." |
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Another resolution, B007, is an attempt to satisfy bishops on both
sides of the issue by introducing a type of local option procedure. It
is sponsored by bishops of Province IV and was authored by Bishop Stacy
Sauls of Lexington. "...the resolution acknowledges that no consensus
exists on how the participation of gays and lesbians is ordered by the
church’s doctrine, discipline and worship. It further states that the
unity of the Episcopal Church depends on compliance with its
constitution and canons and that legislation attempted in the absence of
consensus on homosexuality would 'imperil the unity of the church'."
Bishop Sauls testified that it would offer: "...a way in which a
bishop such as myself can allow blessings of same-sex unions to take
place as a matter of pastoral care in my diocese without requiring a
bishop who is opposed to have such blessings take place in his or her
diocese." 10 |
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About the affirmation of Canon Gene Robinson's as bishop:
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The Rev. Robert Taylor, dean of St. Mark's Cathedral in Seattle
and the church's first openly gay man called to serve as a cathedral
dean, called New Hampshire's decision "a Holy Spirit moment."
He said that Robinson was elected not because of his sexuality, but
for his gifts "and the depth of his ministry as a pastor,
reconciler, and proclaimer of the good news of Jesus Christ."
2 |
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The conservative American Anglican Council (AAC) posted a
statement on its website that Robinson's election was "yet another
unfortunate day for the Episcopal Church [and further evidence of how
far the church] has moved out of the thriving mainstream of worldwide
Anglicanism." |
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Bishop John Chane predicted that the
Convention will give consent to the election of canon and bishop-elect Robinson as bishop
coadjutor.
Bishop Chane said: "This church cannot not affirm the valid election of a
person I think in everyone's opinion is called to be the bishop of New
Hampshire...You vote Gene Robinson in, then the next step logically is to
address the issue of the [liturgical] texts." 3 |
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David Virtue, webmaster of a conservative Anglican web site,
www.virtuosityonline.org,
estimated that 76 of the 100 members of the House of Bishops
will vote to confirm Robinson's election. He wrote: "All that
remains is for a brief benediction to be said over the corpse of
what was once the Anglican Communion and recognize that spiritual
anarchy now reins." 4 |
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Rt. Revs. Edward Salmon Jr. and William J. Skilton, bishops of the
Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, issued a statement saying: "If Gene
Robinson's election is confirmed by General Convention, it would bring
through the back door a practice that the Episcopal Church has never agreed
to approve through the front door...We do not have a theology for same-sex
relationships, and to agree to the Robinson election would be tacitly to
sanction relationships still searching for a theology. We do not believe
such a theology is possible without doing violence to Holy Scripture."
3 |
Suggestions of a schism:
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Bishop Venables, the presiding bishop of the Province of the
Southern Cone in South America, said: "Obviously, God's will for
the church is unity, and the breakdown of that communion is a devastating
thing. But it's clear that there will be a breakdown in communion."
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Bishop-elect Robinson said: "It breaks my heart if any of them
choose to leave. But if they leave it's because they are choosing to
leave, and they are choosing to divide this communion, not me...I am not
willing to take responsibility for the future of the Anglican Church....If
there came a point where I felt like that's what God was calling me to do,
absolutely, I would do it. But I do not feel that that is what God is
calling me to do. On the contrary, I feel that God is calling me to move
deliberately forward. I work very hard to make sure
that the voice I hear in my head is God's and not my own ego doing a
fabulous rendition of God's voice." |
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The Rev. Canon Edward W. Rodman, professor of pastoral theology and
urban ministry at the Episcopal Divinity School, in Cambridge, and an
advisor to a consortium of liberal Episcopal groups said: "I never knew
that the Anglican Communion was together. That's one of the problems with
the conservatives' rhetoric. All the provinces of the Anglican Communion
are autonomous, so what is there to fracture?" |
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The Very Rev. Canon David C. Anderson president of the American
Anglican Council, said, "We've kept the Anglican family together
through thick and through thin, and the hope is that we can continue, but
realistically families come to a point where there's so much strife and
stress going on that you don't know how things will work out."
5 |
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Rev. Canon David C. Anderson, president of the conservative
group, the American Anglican Council issued a statement on
JUL-21 saying, in part:
"The AAC will launch an unprecedented mainstream Anglican
presence at General Convention designed to proclaim the Gospel of
Jesus Christ through legislative engagement, special events, worship
and prayer, and the media...We will also work diligently to prevent,
on theological and practical grounds, any attempt by General
Convention to step out of orthodoxy and affirm homosexual behavior."
In what most are calling a defining moment for the Episcopal Church,
General Convention will essentially be deciding on whether or not
the Church will remain a part of the fellowship of the worldwide
Anglican Communion. Specifically, Convention will be voting on
whether or not to give its consent to the election of Canon Gene
Robinson, the openly homosexual Bishop Coadjutor-elect of New
Hampshire. Canon Robinson is the first openly homosexual person to
be elected bishop in the Anglican Communion. Convention will also be
voting on a resolution that would authorize the development of
liturgies for the so-called "blessing" of same-sex unions.
"There are apparently many in the Episcopal Church who have decided
that homosexuality is more important than remaining a part of the
vibrant and growing Anglican family," said Canon Anderson. "Sadly
they are willing to divide the family over an issue that the vast
majority of the Communion has already concluded to be inconsistent
with the Biblical faith." 6
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Conservative Anglicans from all over the world met in 2003-JUL-23 in Washington DC for a two day meeting. Seven primates and a
number of bishops who claim that they represent most of the 75 million members of the
Anglican communion subsequently issued a letter demanding that Canon Gene
Robinson's election as bishop of New Hampshire be rejected by the
Episcopal Church's general convention. This is because Robinson is a gay
male in a committed relationship. If his election is confirmed, then
this group is "prepared to respond." They threaten to convene an
"extraordinary meeting" involving the leaders of most of the
Communion's 38 provinces to deal with a "dramatic realignment."
7 |
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Rev. Mark Harris, a priest and deputy (delegate) to the General
Convention wrote on JUL-29: "The battle on the surface is about the inclusion or exclusion of
sexually active gay men and lesbians in various holy vocations
(marriage and ordained ministry). But behind this public controversy
is a challenge of a more disturbing sort, one that strikes at a
central tenet of Episcopal Church governance. The challenge concerns
authority of national conventions.
The major question before this General Convention is whether or not
the Episcopal Church has any right to make decisions contrary to the
commonly accepted (read: traditional) interpretation of Scripture.
Do we have the authority to vote to do something we understand to be
right and just--even if contrary to or not addressed by Scripture?"
8 |
Comment by Dean Gene Robinson:Canon and bishop-elect Gene Robinson, 53, revealed what he considers
the future of the Church of England and the rest of the Anglican
communion. He said: "I personally can see a time when there is an
openly active gay bishop in the Church of England...It really is a very
small step isn't it, between having someone who everyone knows is gay
but no one talks about it to accepting that someone is gay and talking
about it?" He added that the Church's has had a tradition of
gradually becoming inclusive of groups that were previously excluded on
the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation: "I think God has
taught us something about people of color, God has taught us something
about women, and now God is teaching us something about gay and lesbian
people. It will not be too many years before we look back on this recent
controversy and think: 'My goodness, how misled we were.'....We are all
going to be in heaven together some day and we are all going to get
along because God wouldn't have it any other way, so we should start
practicing now....I must say that we are intent on tearing ourselves
apart around the sexuality issues. Young people who have already decided
about this issue and moved on with their lives find that ridiculous. For
them the Church now looks hopelessly irrelevant....I do not think the
current controversies will cause us to come apart. This notion of having
to find our unity in unanimity is misplaced and is not the Anglican
tradition. We have always been separate, independent provinces that are
in some way related to each other, because each of us is related to the
Archbishop of Canterbury....The Archbishop of Nigeria, who has been very
vocal on this issue, has no authority over any province of the Church
other than his own. Neither does the meeting of the primates who have
spoken out on this issue....We all know we have had gay priests and gay
bishops for ever. The only thing new about me is that I have been honest
about that. When the other nominees during the contest brought their
spouses, I brought my partner along. The experience of people here is:
'Oh my goodness, there is nothing earth-shattering about this. They are
two normal human beings. They seem to be faithful and honest and there
is no big deal'....I was chosen as bishop by a totally democratic
process which is very different from how things are done in Britain. Not
a single bishop had a role to play in my selection....The strength of
what we do is that we trust the clergy and laity of a diocese to have a
sense of vision for where we want the diocese to go and we trust them to
choose the person they feel is best able to lead them in that direction."
9 Robinson commented on the recent abortive attempt to appoint Canon
Jeffrey John to the post of bishop in the Church of England. John is a
celibate homosexual. Robinson said: "It is very sad what has
happened to Jeffrey and his boyfriend. My heart goes out to them. It
just seems the Church of England was about to do something that might
have helped it break through and take it forward but in the end was not
able to do it." 9
References used:
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"Impact of gay issues on Episcopal
church policy," WNET, week of 2003-JUN-13, at:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/
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David Skidmore, "Sexuality issues still
high on the agenda of General Convention," Episcopal News Service,
2003-JUN-12, at:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/
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Julia Duin, "Episcopal bishop presses
for same-sex 'marriage'," Washington Times, 2003-JUN-23, at:
http://www.washtimes.com/
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Michael McManus, "Episcopalians risk schism. Diocese elects an openly
gay man as bishop, but will it be approved?," The Charlotte Observer,
2003-JUN-16, at:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/6098149.htm
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Laurie Goodstein, "Homosexuality Issue Threatens to Break Anglicanism
in Two," The Ledger Online, 2003-JUL-19, at:
http://www.theledger.com/
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"AAC Poised to Take Stand for Mainstream
Anglicanism and Biblical Orthodoxy at Episcopal Church's 74th Annual General
Convention," American Anglican Council, 2003-JUL-21, at:
http://www.americananglican.org/
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Jonathan Petre, "American
gay bishop 'would shatter Church'," Telegraph.co.uk, 2003-JUL-24, at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
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Rev. Mark Harris, "A Sense of Impending Struggle.
Notes from the front lines of the Episcopal Church General Convention,"
Beliefnet, 2003-JUL-29, at:
http://www.beliefnet.com/ (This report was subsequently taken offline)
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Chris Hastings and Elizabeth Day, "God
'wants openly gay priests in C of E'," Telegraph.co.uk, 2003-JUL-20, at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
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David Skidmore, "Committee
prepares same-sex blessings resolution for bishops,"
Episcopal News Service, 2003-AUG-2, at: http://gc2003.episcopalchurch.org/
Copyright © 2003 by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2003-AUG-1
Author: B.A. Robinson
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