Episcopal leaders won't confirm bishops

AP ^ | 3/16/5 | RACHEL ZOLL

[SmithL]

Episcopal bishops have imposed a one-year ban on approving new bishops, saying "extraordinary action" was needed to ease the crisis in world Anglicanism after the Diocese of New Hampshire elected an openly gay priest as its leader.

During a six-day retreat outside Houston, the bishops also promised not to authorize "public rites" for blessing same-sex couples for at least a year, although the wording of the pledge left open the possibility that individual clergy could hold such ceremonies in private.

"This extraordinary moment in our common life offers the opportunity for extraordinary action," the bishops said in a statement.

Episcopal leaders are striving to repair badly frayed ties with Anglican leaders over the November 2003 consecration of Bishop V. Gene Robinson, who lives with his longtime male partner. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. province of the 77-million-member Anglican Communion.

Most Anglican archbishops believe the Bible bans gay sex. In meetings last fall and last month, these leaders - called primates - requested that Episcopal bishops impose temporary bans on same-sex blessings and the ordination of unmarried bishops who are not celibate.

The primates also have asked the Episcopal Church to temporarily withdraw its representatives from the Anglican Consultative Council, a major body within the Communion. The U.S. bishops said they did not have the authority to order the delegates not to attend, but instead asked another Episcopal panel with elected representatives to take up the matter.

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, head of the 2.3 million-member Episcopal Church, said in an interview Wednesday that church leaders approved the broader moratorium on new bishops because they did not want "our gay brothers and lesbian sisters demeaned."

"I think it was an effort to say this applies to all of us and we will share this among ourselves," he said.

Six Episcopal dioceses have scheduled elections during the one-year moratorium, according to the Rev. Carl Gerdau, of the presiding bishop's office. These dioceses could still elect new leaders, but none could take office without consent from the nation's bishops.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Communion's spiritual leader, called the bishops' actions "constructive."

"There has been a real willingness to engage with the challenges posed," Williams said in a statement issued from London.

Robinson could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday, his spokesman said.

The Rev. Susan Russell, president of Integrity, an advocacy group for gay Episcopalians, said it was "hugely positive" that the moratorium applied to all candidates for bishop, not just gays. Still, she said the actions of church leaders sent a mixed signal to gays and lesbians that "the Episcopal Church welcomes you, sort of."

"It is a positive statement in that it asks the whole church to bear that burden, but at another level it still says in some ways gay and lesbian people are second-class Christians and that is not acceptable," she said.

Canon Kendall Harmon, a leading conservative from the Diocese of South Carolina, contended the bishops did not completely meet the primates' requests. Anglican leaders had asked for the bans to remain in place not just for a year, but until "a new consensus" emerges in the Communion on whether gay sex violates Scripture, Harmon said.

"Here you have apostolic leaders acting like lawyers," Harmon said. "What they did was say, `We'll set the timeline and we'll set the terms.'"

The temporary bans will remain in effect until the church's next General Convention in June 2006, a point when the church will almost certainly take up its policy on gays in the church.

[JFK_Lib]

Gene Robinson is not only homosexual, but has also abandoned his wife and children to live in an adulterous relationship.

His appointment is so poisonous in so many ways, not just the homosexuality matter, that it would seem that the majority of Episcopalians in his bishopric are not Christian anymore at its most basic moral level.

Christ's teaching on the sanctity of marriage is one of the greatest hallmarks of our faith and Robinson tramples all over it.

I pray for my bretheren in the Episcopal church daily that there is still hope for Reason and Truth to triumph over this ideologically driven moral insanity.

[Freakazoid]

because they did not want "our gay brothers and lesbian sisters demeaned."

Try this:
because they did not want "our adulterous brothers and prostitute sisters demeaned."

Or this:
because they did not want "our drunken brothers and fornicating sisters demeaned."

Or how about this:
because they did not want "our idol worshipping brothers and lying sisters demeaned."

They don't love their brothers and sisters. If they did, they would rebuke them instead of letting them not only remain in their sin but being accepting of it.

As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear. (1 Timothy 5:20)