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Loading ...Leader Calls For Curb On Gay Bishops
08.04.2008 7:46am EDT
(London) The spiritual leader of the world’s Anglicans urged church leaders Sunday not to consecrate any other gay bishops for now, as he ended a once-a-decade Anglican assembly that was dedicated to preventing schism in the troubled fellowship.
“A fellow Christian may believe they have a profound fresh insight. They seek to persuade others about it. A healthy church gives space for such exchanges,” he told the 650 bishops at the meeting in Canterbury, England. “But the Christian with the new insight can’t claim straight away that this is now what the Church of God believes or intends.”
The 77-million-member Anglican Communion has been splintering since 2003, when the U.S. Episcopal Church consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
Williams barred Robinson and a few other bishops from the assembly, and designed the event without legislation or votes, instead focusing on rebuilding frayed relationships.
Still, more than 200 theologically conservative bishops boycotted Lambeth, which ran for 20 days. In June, just before Lambeth began, these same bishops formed a new global network within the communion that challenges Williams’ authority but stops just short of a permanent split.
Williams does not have the authority to force any agreement among the conflicted groups. The 38 Anglican national churches, including the U.S. Episcopal Church, are self-governed and loosely connected by shared roots in the missionary work of the Church of England.
But the bishops at Lambeth said Sunday in a statement that they called their “reflections” on the meeting that “there is widespread support across the communion” for an extended moratorium on gay bishops and on blessing ceremonies for same-gender couples.
Williams and the bishops also indicated support for an extended moratorium on church leaders taking oversight of breakaway parishes in an Anglican territory that is not their own.
Since Robinson was consecrated, conservative Anglican leaders from Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and elsewhere have taken authority for seceding Episcopal parishes in the U.S.
Although the exact figure is in dispute, Episcopal officials say that fewer than 100 of the more than 7,000 U.S. Episcopal parishes have voted to split off.
Still, the entire Diocese of San Joaquin, based in Fresno, Calif., voted to withdraw from the denomination and align with another Anglican province, sparking a lawsuit. The Dioceses of Pittsburgh and Fort Worth, Texas, are poised to vote on whether to break away this fall.
Robinson traveled to Canterbury even though he wasn’t invited, trying to meet with overseas bishops and be what he called a “constant and friendly” reminder of gays in the church.
On Sunday, the advocacy group Integrity, which represents gay and lesbian Episcopalians, said in a statement that “there is no theological defense for sacrificing a minority of the baptized” for the sake of unity.
No one expected the Lambeth Conference to definitively heal the divisions among Anglicans.
The bishops did discuss a proposed global covenant that would set some requirements for membership in the communion. Williams said Sunday he plans to convene a meeting of the 38 Anglican national leaders, or primates, early next year. But it could be years before any agreement on a covenant is reached.
“We may not have put an end to all our problems,” Williams said, “but the pieces are on the board.”
RJB: you misunderstand the polity of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, to use its full title, and indeed of Anglicanism. Anglicanism’s structure is related to the autocephalous national Eastern Orthodox Churches’ form of government, NOT Rome’s. We settled THAT in 1531. The BIBLICAL requirement for the election of a bishop is this: the people of the diocese nominate and elect; the NEIGHBORING bishops give their consent (in this case, the U.S. Province); the Presiding Bishop or Archbishop consecrates him/her, assisted by other bishops. We have NEVER been consulted about the appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury; NONE of the African bishops have ever looked to the U.S. Episcopal Church for advice and consent on THEIR elections; by the same token, until now, NO “foreign prelate” has EVER dared to tell a brother/sister bishop what to do, much less a Presiding Bishop / Archbishop or an entire PROVINCE. Anglicanism HAS no Pope, no College of Cardinals, no General Synods, and it was set up that way on purpose. Messy and inefficient? To be SURE! But it also prevents the kind of coalition and seizure of power that the bishops of the “global south” are attempting. And make no mistake: they are being PAID by conservative Americans like Ahmanson and Scaife and the other members of the Nine Families. Google “Larry Kramer Cooper Union Speech” for details about that.
Father Raymond
Superior, Retired
Community of the Resurrection
San Diego CA
to rjb….
Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I disagree. Social progress often has meant the shoving of issues into the face of those good people who are so stuck on the old ways, and fearful of the new, that they can’t change, especially if it shows how wrong they have been in the past. We’ve been here before in the USA, re women voting, inter-racial marriage, ending the hatred against Jews, ending slavery and segregation, etc., etc. Sometimes you just have to force, nicely, people out of their comfort zones.
And I’ve attended one gay wedding, in an Episcopal church in Washington DC, for two friends. It was a very nice ceremony, with parents, grandparents, friends, co-workers, etc present. The only shames were that they had to call it a committment ceremony, and that it is still not recognized here. Real Shames, for two perfectly decent good Americans.
Adam and Eve – hmmm. The Adam in the old testament is the Hebrew for for ‘all the people’, not a name of someone.
So there are lots of interpretations possible here, but 4000 year old writings that call for murder should be dropped from the bible. They are the true Abomination before God.
Hasn’t the church been here before – formed from the need to break away from the most backwards large institution in the western world, Rome, 500 years ago.
Hasn’t the church been here before, over the issue of women priests. And now the US Episcopal church is headed by a woman.
And it is time to consecrate more Gay bishops, and for the ones still terrorized into the closet and come out and say “Free at Last….”, as another, perhaps America’s greatest patriot, Dr. Martin Luther Kings, said decades ago.
And it is time, if Rowan William is such a pansy as he appears to be, to tell him to step aside, if he can’t do what is right.
And I might add that Jesus never said anything about gays. And what is said in the bible about them comes from patriarchialism – the old idea that men control, and women submit. If you want a good example of that, just go look at Saudi Arabia, where raped women often get whipped, while the man gets a slap on the hand. Do we in America want to propagate ideas related to that, I ask?
Thank you to everyone for your comments towards Mr/Ms Kay. I’m glad to see that some of you understand where I’m coming from.
And just remember Mr/Ms Kay, God also created ME in HIS image. Hey, guess you’re the one who’s queer after all.
And yes, dear, I’ll pray for you too.
PAUL KAY:
You seem to forget that your ‘God’ made the Hermaphrodite too. Ooops. There’s a little wrench in your sound-bite theory, huh? You know what that is, bible boy? Thats a person born with BOTH sets of genetalia. Now who is He/She supposed to marry? And if you just think they are freaks-of-nature, then welcome to the Darwin Club. Otherwise sit down and shut up. Not everybody in the world is a christian or even cares what christians think. I certainly don’t. And your religion will NOT decide what I can and cannot do.
Paul Kay, it’s not Adam and Steve, sweetie, it’s Adam and Steven!
P.S.: I’ll say a prayer for you to overcome your hatred, intolerance, prejudice, and stupidity. Judge not so that ye not be judged.
Paul Kay, please don’t patronise us by praying for us. Pray for yourself instead. Read the whole of Leviticus and see what abominations you indulge in. Adam and Eve? You still believe that codswallop in the light of scientific evidence of the evolution of man? Just crawl back under that 16th century rock you are living under and leave us alone.
Paul Kay, Please educate yourself before firing off the standard homophobic blather of the religious right – with that tell-tale cliche about “Adam and Steve”, always delivered as if we’ve never, ever heard that one before. We gay Christians have heard it all before, we’ve given answers to the same questions as yours again and again, but we never get so much as “let’s agree to differ”. Here’s a couple of handy links so you can start to educate yourself: http://www.whosoever.org/bible/
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/argu.html
By his statements, it’s obvious who Williams sides with. The conservative extremists came out of the conference with a 100% victory. The only question now is whether the liberals in the Episcopal Church will stop kidding themselves and have the courage, self-respect and integrity to leave the Anglican union.
Glen, God bless your heart but you must understand the God that you profess to serve? what blessing did God place on man after creation, is it not ‘be fruitful and multiply’, is it not that ‘a man would cleave to his wife’, is it not Adam and Eve that was created and not Adam and Steve? pleeaase answer these questions sincerely and take a decision, someone over here is praying for you. God bless You. THANKS
As a non-American Anglican, I sympathise with the Episcopalian position, and respect the broadly principled stand taken by ECUSA within itys own boundaries. It has become quite clear, however, that it has acted in the past without due consideration for the effects of its actions on other churches in the Communion (something American bishops have admitted), and in doing so I believe it has actually set back the cause of liberal Anglicanism throughout the Communion. The presence of +Gene Robinson at Canterbury is just another example of tactlessness and ham-fisted dealing by the Episcopalians. Americans may see his presence as “a constant and friendly reminder of gays in the church,” but to many of us (and certainly to many conservatives) his presence looks like a deliberate provocation. Please understand, we do things differently here. Less grandstanding, less uncompromising rhetoric, and – yes – perhaps more hypocrisy and less pure Christian principle. But certainly more consideration for the feelings of those with whom we disagree. I can admire ECUSA’s moral stance at the same time that I despair of its actions.
As an openly-gay member of the Anglican Church of Canada, and in a leadership role with my church (no, I’m not a priest) I must admit that I am not surprised with the outcome of Lambeth.
I am, however, disappointed to the point that I will be leaving the Anglican Church. As a church member it is very easy to understand why the majority of our society do not take part in organized religion. You’ve never seen so much bickering, loathing, and back-stabbing as you do in the average mainstream church, and, frankly, my partner and I have had enough. After 23 years together we still can not have a blessing in our own church, yet they will marry any straight couple who comes up the driveway, whether a church attendee or not.
Well, enough is enough. We will now worship God in our own way, and do our best to live our lives the way Jesus intended — to “love thy neighbour as thyself”.