Church confronts choice
Sexuality dispute tops agenda as thousands gather
Friday, June 09, 2006
Dennis M. Mahoney
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A potential controversy at next week’s Episcopal convention in Columbus was averted last month when the Diocese of California did not elect one of three openly gay candidates to be its next bishop.
LEE MARRINER ASSOCIATED PRESS
V. Gene Robinson was invested as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire in March 2004.
DISPATCH
At the Greater Columbus Convention Center, John Montgomery of Labor Team dusts the floor as the registration area for the Episcopal Church’s General Convention is readied.
V. Gene Robinson knew that if he were confirmed as New Hampshire bishop by the 2003 General Convention of the Episcopal Church USA, some people wouldn’t be happy.
But he was taken aback by the ferocity of the reaction to his becoming the denomination’s first openly gay leader.
"Both I and the Diocese of New Hampshire knew that there would be people that would be less than comfortable with my election and consecration," Robinson said. "But I don’t think any of us thought it would have the breadth and depth that it in fact has."
Three years later, as the Episcopal Church comes to Columbus for its 75 th triennial convention, the 2.2 million-member denomination finds its relations strained with the Anglican Communion, the worldwide body of 77 million members to which it belongs, over Robinson’s consecration.
Internally, a small but vocal minority of conservatives, also spurred by the 2003 action, have taken on the denomination, raising the specter of a split.
This year’s convention, which opens Tuesday at the Greater Columbus Convention Center Downtown, will vote on the church’s response to criticism from its sister churches in the communion.
In 2004, a commission representing Anglican leaders around the world wrote the Windsor Report, calling on the U.S. church to stop consecrating gay bishops for now and asking dioceses not to authorize same-sex union ceremonies. It also asked the church to express its regret for the turmoil from Robinson’s election.
In turn, the church developed a document, "One Baptism, One Hope in God’s Call," with several resolutions that will be debated in Columbus and will help mold the response to the Windsor Report.
Among the proposed resolutions:
• The church apologizes "for having breached the bonds of affection in the Anglican Communion by any failure to consult adequately with our Anglican partners" before acting in 2003.
• In electing bishops, dioceses should use "very considerable caution" in choosing those whose "manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church."
• Dioceses should defer same-sex union ceremonies until the Anglican Communion reaches consensus on the issue, and bishops who have approved such ceremonies should apologize.
• The church reiterates that gays are "by baptism full members of the Body of Christ and of the Episcopal Church" and "are entitled to equal protection of the laws."
Hoping for compromise
The Rev. Rosemari Sullivan of the Virginia Theological Seminary, a former General Convention secretary and executive officer, was a member of the commission that wrote "One Baptism." She said its resolutions ask the denomination "to go more slowly, more carefully, more mindfully in terms of the communion."
She expects that whatever emerges from the convention won’t satisfy everyone.
"But I think, by and large, a two-thirds majority of the communion will say: ‘The Episcopal Church has really expressed regret; we’re all one in Christ. While we’re still perplexed by this crazy Episcopal Church, we understand it better and we’re glad we’re all together.’
"And others will say, ‘My way or the highway.’ "
The Rev. James Rosenthal, spokesman for the London-based Anglican Communion, could not say what action the convention must take to satisfy communion members. But he said the Episcopal Church has been responsive to its sister churches’ concerns.
Anglicans throughout the rest of the world have "made it absolutely clear that the desire is for the communion to remain as one," Rosenthal said.
During the last three years, the Episcopal Church also has been dealing with internal divisions.
Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, who was among those who voted against Robinson in 2003, has been a leader of the Anglican Communion Network, which opposes the church’s direction. The network says it has the support of 10 dioceses and about 200,000 Episcopalians.
Duncan accused the majority of church leaders of being "disrespectful and disdainful of what we’re doing." He said his allies have had a particularly strained relationship with Frank Griswold, the church’s presiding bishop.
At the Columbus convention, the church needs to accept "without reserve" everything the Anglican Communion has asked, Duncan said, or the split between the two will widen.
Duncan dismissed talk of conservatives leaving the denomination and said it is the national church that is teetering on the brink.
"The question is, who’s got the future? " he said. "I don’t believe this anomaly, this aberration from Christian norms is actually going to produce a church with any strength at all. Quite the contrary. It’s producing a church that’s disintegrating."
Conservatives ’ ire
The national church also has taken shots from the conservative American Anglican Council, an Anglican Network ally opposed to the church’s direction.
Cynthia Brust, spokeswoman for the council, said the debate is not about Robinson or sex but about whether the church is really Christian.
"It’s about, is Jesus Christ the son of God, is he the only means of salvation? " she said. "This warm, fuzzy Universalist theology has taken over the Episcopal Church."
Robinson agreed that the debate is about more than him.
"It is about perhaps two different views of what it means to be the church, two different ways of approaching our common life in Christ," he said.
Robinson said he supports the church commission’s proposals.
"I think it puts forward a way for us to reaffirm our commitment to being a part of the communion, which I highly support, and gives us some concrete ways of indicating that commitment," he said.
"At the same time, I believe it preserves the kind of autonomy of provinces (national churches) that has been our 400-year tradition."
The specter of a split in the church is a concern, Robinson said.
"It would be one thing if we were all working for reconciliation and were somehow unable to achieve it," he said. "But we’re not all working for reconciliation. It breaks my heart that that’s the case. But I believe that a small number of people are actually working to bring about that split."
Legislation at the convention must get the approval of two legislative bodies: the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies.
The former includes about 300 bishops, both active and retired. The House of Deputies is made up of half clergy and half laypeople; each of the 110 dioceses, most in the United States but a few elsewhere, has eight deputies.
Beyond the Windsor debate, the denomination will tackle a variety of other issues, including choosing a new presiding bishop to replace Griswold, who was elected in 1997. Bishops will meet in private at Trinity Episcopal Church Downtown on June 18 to elect the new leader, whose selection also must be approved by the deputies.
Candidates include Bishops J. Neil Alexander of Atlanta, Francisco Duque-Gomez of Colombia, Edwin Gulick of Kentucky, Katharine Jefferts Schori of Nevada, Charles Jenkins of Louisiana, Henry Parsley of Alabama and Stacy Sauls of Lexington, Ky.
Other issues that will be addressed include:
• Choosing a new president of the House of Deputies to replace the Rev. George Werner of Pittsburgh, who was not re-elected as a deputy for his diocese. He has been president since 2000.
• Affirming the church’s support for the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, aimed at battling poverty, hunger and HIV/AIDS, improving education and health care, and reducing child mortality.
• Taking a step toward full communion with the United Methodist Church by approving joint Eucharist.
• Apologizing for the church’s support of slavery and for racial discrimination after emancipation. This proposal also calls for a study to determine whether reparations should be paid to black Episcopalians.
• Affirming that evolution theory "is entirely compatible with an authentic and living Christian faith."
• Calling for an end to the U.S. sanctions against Cuba.
• Considering resolutions on the Middle East, including reaffirming the church’s commitment to ending anti-Semitism, working for the assurance of human rights of Palestinians and recognizing Jerusalem as the shared capital of Israel and a Palestinian state.
Sexuality dispute tops agenda as thousands gather
Friday, June 09, 2006
Dennis M. Mahoney
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
ASSOCIATED PRESS
A potential controversy at next week’s Episcopal convention in Columbus was averted last month when the Diocese of California did not elect one of three openly gay candidates to be its next bishop.
LEE MARRINER ASSOCIATED PRESS
V. Gene Robinson was invested as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire in March 2004.
DISPATCH
At the Greater Columbus Convention Center, John Montgomery of Labor Team dusts the floor as the registration area for the Episcopal Church’s General Convention is readied.
V. Gene Robinson knew that if he were confirmed as New Hampshire bishop by the 2003 General Convention of the Episcopal Church USA, some people wouldn’t be happy.
But he was taken aback by the ferocity of the reaction to his becoming the denomination’s first openly gay leader.
"Both I and the Diocese of New Hampshire knew that there would be people that would be less than comfortable with my election and consecration," Robinson said. "But I don’t think any of us thought it would have the breadth and depth that it in fact has."
Three years later, as the Episcopal Church comes to Columbus for its 75 th triennial convention, the 2.2 million-member denomination finds its relations strained with the Anglican Communion, the worldwide body of 77 million members to which it belongs, over Robinson’s consecration.
Internally, a small but vocal minority of conservatives, also spurred by the 2003 action, have taken on the denomination, raising the specter of a split.
This year’s convention, which opens Tuesday at the Greater Columbus Convention Center Downtown, will vote on the church’s response to criticism from its sister churches in the communion.
In 2004, a commission representing Anglican leaders around the world wrote the Windsor Report, calling on the U.S. church to stop consecrating gay bishops for now and asking dioceses not to authorize same-sex union ceremonies. It also asked the church to express its regret for the turmoil from Robinson’s election.
In turn, the church developed a document, "One Baptism, One Hope in God’s Call," with several resolutions that will be debated in Columbus and will help mold the response to the Windsor Report.
Among the proposed resolutions:
• The church apologizes "for having breached the bonds of affection in the Anglican Communion by any failure to consult adequately with our Anglican partners" before acting in 2003.
• In electing bishops, dioceses should use "very considerable caution" in choosing those whose "manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church."
• Dioceses should defer same-sex union ceremonies until the Anglican Communion reaches consensus on the issue, and bishops who have approved such ceremonies should apologize.
• The church reiterates that gays are "by baptism full members of the Body of Christ and of the Episcopal Church" and "are entitled to equal protection of the laws."
Hoping for compromise
The Rev. Rosemari Sullivan of the Virginia Theological Seminary, a former General Convention secretary and executive officer, was a member of the commission that wrote "One Baptism." She said its resolutions ask the denomination "to go more slowly, more carefully, more mindfully in terms of the communion."
She expects that whatever emerges from the convention won’t satisfy everyone.
"But I think, by and large, a two-thirds majority of the communion will say: ‘The Episcopal Church has really expressed regret; we’re all one in Christ. While we’re still perplexed by this crazy Episcopal Church, we understand it better and we’re glad we’re all together.’
"And others will say, ‘My way or the highway.’ "
The Rev. James Rosenthal, spokesman for the London-based Anglican Communion, could not say what action the convention must take to satisfy communion members. But he said the Episcopal Church has been responsive to its sister churches’ concerns.
Anglicans throughout the rest of the world have "made it absolutely clear that the desire is for the communion to remain as one," Rosenthal said.
During the last three years, the Episcopal Church also has been dealing with internal divisions.
Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, who was among those who voted against Robinson in 2003, has been a leader of the Anglican Communion Network, which opposes the church’s direction. The network says it has the support of 10 dioceses and about 200,000 Episcopalians.
Duncan accused the majority of church leaders of being "disrespectful and disdainful of what we’re doing." He said his allies have had a particularly strained relationship with Frank Griswold, the church’s presiding bishop.
At the Columbus convention, the church needs to accept "without reserve" everything the Anglican Communion has asked, Duncan said, or the split between the two will widen.
Duncan dismissed talk of conservatives leaving the denomination and said it is the national church that is teetering on the brink.
"The question is, who’s got the future? " he said. "I don’t believe this anomaly, this aberration from Christian norms is actually going to produce a church with any strength at all. Quite the contrary. It’s producing a church that’s disintegrating."
Conservatives ’ ire
The national church also has taken shots from the conservative American Anglican Council, an Anglican Network ally opposed to the church’s direction.
Cynthia Brust, spokeswoman for the council, said the debate is not about Robinson or sex but about whether the church is really Christian.
"It’s about, is Jesus Christ the son of God, is he the only means of salvation? " she said. "This warm, fuzzy Universalist theology has taken over the Episcopal Church."
Robinson agreed that the debate is about more than him.
"It is about perhaps two different views of what it means to be the church, two different ways of approaching our common life in Christ," he said.
Robinson said he supports the church commission’s proposals.
"I think it puts forward a way for us to reaffirm our commitment to being a part of the communion, which I highly support, and gives us some concrete ways of indicating that commitment," he said.
"At the same time, I believe it preserves the kind of autonomy of provinces (national churches) that has been our 400-year tradition."
The specter of a split in the church is a concern, Robinson said.
"It would be one thing if we were all working for reconciliation and were somehow unable to achieve it," he said. "But we’re not all working for reconciliation. It breaks my heart that that’s the case. But I believe that a small number of people are actually working to bring about that split."
Legislation at the convention must get the approval of two legislative bodies: the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies.
The former includes about 300 bishops, both active and retired. The House of Deputies is made up of half clergy and half laypeople; each of the 110 dioceses, most in the United States but a few elsewhere, has eight deputies.
Beyond the Windsor debate, the denomination will tackle a variety of other issues, including choosing a new presiding bishop to replace Griswold, who was elected in 1997. Bishops will meet in private at Trinity Episcopal Church Downtown on June 18 to elect the new leader, whose selection also must be approved by the deputies.
Candidates include Bishops J. Neil Alexander of Atlanta, Francisco Duque-Gomez of Colombia, Edwin Gulick of Kentucky, Katharine Jefferts Schori of Nevada, Charles Jenkins of Louisiana, Henry Parsley of Alabama and Stacy Sauls of Lexington, Ky.
Other issues that will be addressed include:
• Choosing a new president of the House of Deputies to replace the Rev. George Werner of Pittsburgh, who was not re-elected as a deputy for his diocese. He has been president since 2000.
• Affirming the church’s support for the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, aimed at battling poverty, hunger and HIV/AIDS, improving education and health care, and reducing child mortality.
• Taking a step toward full communion with the United Methodist Church by approving joint Eucharist.
• Apologizing for the church’s support of slavery and for racial discrimination after emancipation. This proposal also calls for a study to determine whether reparations should be paid to black Episcopalians.
• Affirming that evolution theory "is entirely compatible with an authentic and living Christian faith."
• Calling for an end to the U.S. sanctions against Cuba.
• Considering resolutions on the Middle East, including reaffirming the church’s commitment to ending anti-Semitism, working for the assurance of human rights of Palestinians and recognizing Jerusalem as the shared capital of Israel and a Palestinian state.