Posted on 08/01/2003 12:10:34 PM PDT by sitetest
MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - U.S. Episcopalian leaders moved closer on Friday to approving the church's first openly gay bishop, a step that church conservatives warned could shatter unity among the world's 77 million Anglicans.
After a fierce public debate, Episcopal leaders attending the church's triennial convention voted behind closed doors to recommend ratification of New Hampshire bishop-elect Eugene Robinson, a divorced father of two. The vote count was not made public, and the debate participants were urged not to cheer after the terse announcement was made.
Robinson's expected elevation to his post by the full convention on Sunday will be followed by another vote on the controversial issue about whether to approve liturgy allowing American clergy to bless same-sex unions.
Robinson attended the debate with his longtime partner, Mark Andrew.
Figuring in the debate was the Roman Catholic Church's strong denunciation of gay marriage on Thursday, in which the Vatican (news - web sites) called homosexual sex "deviant behavior" and urged authorities not to put same-sex unions on the same legal footing as marriages between a man and a woman.
President Bush (news - web sites) also weighed in this week on the side of conservatives, and spokesman Scott McClellan said a proposed Constitutional amendment that would sanction only heterosexual marriages would be looked at by administration lawyers.
Robinson's elevation and the proposed liturgy governing homosexual unions have each prompted threats of a schism in the Anglican Communion that unites the world's 77 million congregants. The conservatives are led by bishops representing 20 million African and Asian members, many recent converts.
In Britain, a similar controversy triggered a decision by gay bishop-elect Canon Jeffrey John to withdraw his name.
Priests, bishops and churchgoers both for and against Robinson's ordination spoke passionately during the debate, with liberals who dominate the 2.3-million-member U.S. church arguing that Christianity be viewed as a fluid, evolving religion that seeks to be inclusive.
"If you only followed scripture then you'd better be prepared to endorse slavery and the submission of women," said James Bradbury, a Virginia parishioner. "We have to evolve."
Massachusetts Bishop Thomas Shaw likened the controversy to the church's decision three decades ago to ordain women, saying that Robinson's ordination will "make us a stronger church."
Randy Dales, a priest from New Hampshire for the past 34 years, echoed these sentiments, saying: "I'm here to assure you that in this conservative state there was no gay agenda. We are calling Gene for his humanity, not his sexuality."
If Robinson is rejected, it would be the church's first rejection of a candidate since the 19th Century.
Several speakers warned of the consequences of Robinson's elevation for the church as a whole.
"We will lose vast numbers of congregants," said Bishop David Bena of Albany, New York.
"There is no one at this convention, there is no one, I suspect in the Episcopal church, who does not understand that confirmation of Canon Robinson's election ... would constitute a historic break with the teaching of this church," said Bishop John Howe of Florida.
I looked to see if this had already been posted, and didn't find it. If this has already been posted, I apologize.
Therein lies the problem.
Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold said he was undecided on his vote to grant or withhold consent to Gene Robinson's election as bishop. Nonsense. Griswold's wife is seen at the convention sporting an "Ask Me About Gene" button. He's voting for the Sodomite.
As a lifelong traditional/conservative Episcopalian, I'm disgusted. Homosexuals are the Socialists' "battering ram," knocking down the pillars of our culture and society. Undecided about leaving ECUSA or continuing the fight from inside. Either way, they no longer will get my money -- best way to choke off the leftist reprobates in the clergy [majority] and the laity [small minority].
What this does is basically ensure that the most of the Primates of the Anglican Communion will break communion with ECUSA. A schism, in other words.
Many American parishes will be left to decide whether to reject this General Convention's authority and remain in communion with the (orthodox) world; or to acknowledge the validity of this General Convention, and thus accept schism.
The middle way is to remain as legal members of the ECUSA, but to ignore the Convention -- instead focusing ourselves on following, and supporting the spiritual leadership of Orthodox Anglicanism. The basic tactic will be to focus on doing God's work, leaving it up to the bishops to force the issue of homosexuality onto the parishes -- something they cannot afford to do.
The focus for that effort is in something called Anglican Mainstream.
Schism is next. Traditionalists met in Northern Virginia in late July and have developed a strategy to break away after the convention. Probably involves affiliation with the Anglican Mission in America, an organization sponsored by the conservative African & Asian Primates and bishops. Ironic that the 3rd World should have to lead the way for the USA in matters of morality.
I left 20 years ago; since then I've been quite at home in the Anglican Provice of Christ the King. (I did have to re-learn the 1928 BCP, but that was a blessing...)
Here is something by Ephraim Radner, a jaw-droppingly brilliant fellow from my diocese who should have been the next Bishop of Colorado. (We got the gay agenda candidate instead.)
By the Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner
Bishops of ECUSA and Anglican Primates who uphold the Communion's teaching on sexuality have already made plans of response to any action of General Convention that may contradict this teaching. These plans are founded on the conviction that any such actions by GC will violate ECUSA's Constitution - which commits the Episcopal Church to the upholding of the "historic Faith and Order" of the "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church" within the "Anglican Communion" (Preamble) - and will render illegitimate the 2003 GC itself in some fashion and threaten the integrity of the structures GC supports.
No unified plan of response, however, has been made for individual deputies, clergy, and parishes who may also understand any consent to a non-celibate homosexual bishop's election or authorization of rites for same-sex blessings to be unconstitutional. In view of this lack, the following plan is offered to help clarify the intentions of others and, if possible, provide some potential guidelines for a common witness.
- Should send resolutions to their bishops and deputations urging them to withhold consent to Gene Robinson's election and to vote against proposals that would authorize same-sex blessings.
- Pray for Convention and all its members - for godly wisdom, charity, for faithfulness in the Gospel and teachings of the Church Catholic, and for courage.
- Pray in particular that GC will maintain and uphold the catholic and evangelical faith of the Communion, especially on the matter of sexuality. Although some think this is a lost cause, our Lord urges us to pray openly, in faith, and "never to give up" (Luke 18:1).
- Pray for God's mercy on the Episcopal Church, its members, and the Anglican Communion at large, should GC lapse into unconstitutional actions, seeking humility, patience, and forthright and faithful witness by all.
- Study and pray over the book of Jeremiah, as an instruction in God's mercy and judgment in relationship to an erring people, and as an elucidation of the vocation of those who would be truthful and steadfast in the midst of such a people. Further, meditate upon St. Paul's Letter to the Philippians, in order to renew a sense of Jesus' own ministry of suffering service and of the joy attendant upon following Him faithfully in this.
- Seek during Convention to be attentive and rested, staying away as much as possible from the frenetic and often self-regarding busyness of political strategizing, and being given over to the quietness of a prayerful and listening spirit.
- Should seek - alone or with or following others - to give public voice to the conviction that GC has taken a step into constitutionally and evangelically illegitimate actions which cannot and must not be followed, and whose activities and budget no longer warrant support. The language here is important: it is GC that will have moved beyond and outside the Catholic faith that upholds and embodies Christian "communion", while others will have chosen to remain within it. While there are many who will claim that orthodox Episcopalians are "breaking communion" by their dissent from GC, this judgment is not only wrong but must be continually refuted.
- Having been "left" by General Convention, there will be no choice but to leave the proceedings that constitute this abandonment.
- Those who leave the proceedings should gather and pray with others whom GC has left behind. The gathered should pray for forgiveness and for repentance (for ourselves and the GC), for direction and protection, and for a spirit of humility and hope.
- Deputies will return home as soon as possible.
It will take several months for American bishops and Communion Primates even to clarify their views and stands, formally and legally. For parishes and clergy this will mean an extended time of waiting for direction, since the resolution of the constitutional crisis of the Episcopal Church must come from the larger Communion's direction, and cannot be based on the independent decisions of ECUSA clergy and parishes. During this time of waiting:
- Clergy and vestries should become affiliated by name with others who will not follow GC outside the Communion's faith and order. An unaffiliated website at www.CommunionParishes.org is being made available for this purpose.
- With other affiliated churches and clergy, appeal to the conciliar organs of Anglicanism, including the Primates and the Archbishop of Canterbury, for their immediate leadership and help in resolving the constitutional crisis of ECUSA and for protecting, through their moral authority, the witness, ministry, and even property of "communion parishes and clergy."
- Clergy and vestries should seek to redirect funds that would otherwise go to support the apparatus of GC towards other local, national, and international ministries associated with the Communion.
- Clergy and vestries should engage all persons of ECUSA and of the Communion in the work of restoring GC's legitimacy and reconciling ourselves in Christian truth and unity.
- Within our own dioceses we should continue to engage in common life and witness, insofar as it does not involve the support of GC or its apparatus.
- Should the bishop, Standing Committee, or convention of our particular diocese publicly and knowingly join themselves to the actions and commitments of GC that have transgressed our Constitution and "historic faith and order", those clergy and vestries in such a diocese should find ways to disengage ministry and funding from any implicated support of such agreement. This will require humble and careful discernment, which probably cannot be uniformly outlined across parishes and dioceses, and that must always seek ways to maintain the reality of membership in ECUSA in general as long as the status of its membership in the Communion remains formally unresolved.
- All clergy and vestries should continue respectfully to support their bishop's ministry under all circumstances during this period, by at least offering hospitality, supporting his salary, and receiving his counsel; even while responding always to the duty to refute error openly as necessary.
- All clergy should seek to inform their parishes fairly of the realities and struggles of our common life, of what is at stake, and of what choices confront us. They should also seek to protect the consciences of members from the scandals of confusion over teaching and of Christian division, attempting at all times to be a witness not only of faithfulness but of charity, humility, and hope.
- All clergy, vestries and congregations should continue to pray for ECUSA, its bishops, clergy, and laity as a whole, and to seek Christ's directing and transforming mercy in our common lives, remaining open to any way in which we might be a vessel of such grace.
Maybe. It's not the case in my parish -- my Rector is very active with the Anglican Mainstream group, along with Ephraim Radner.
This problem is so pervasive and not simply a catholic one.
My heart and prayers go out to our Christian brothers who are helpless to stop this debacle.
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