Episcopalians to Install First Gay Bishop
By RICHARD N. OSTLING, AP
DURHAM, N.H. (Nov. 2) - After anguished debate, Episcopalians gathered Sunday to consecrate openly gay cleric V. Gene Robinson as a bishop - a first for any major Christian denomination and perhaps the beginning of the end for their denomination in its current form.
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The ceremony was being treated as a landmark event for gay activists, U.S. Episcopalians, their 75 million fellow Anglicans in other nations and Christianity in general. About 4,000 people were expected to attend the ritual at a university sports arena.
Though there have been gay bishops in the past, all were closeted when they were elevated to their posts. Robinson has been open about his 14-year relationship with his partner throughout the process in which he won election to the new post.
A standard part of the consecration of an Episcopal bishop is an invitation for objections. Unlike most consecrations, however, this time formal objections were planned by New Hampshire Episcopal dissenters and assistant Bishop David Bena of Albany, N.Y. Bena represents a newly formed alliance of conservative bishops, the Conference of North American Anglican Bishops.
AP
Robinson, a 56-year-old father of two, has lived with his male partner for 13 years.
The head of the 2.3 million-member church, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, would deal with objections in a dignified way, said James Solheim, a national church spokesman. If there were more than a handful, or if the objectors became unruly, they could be asked to register their complaints in another room.
Dissenting traditionalists planned a competing Communion at a nearby church.
The title being conferred on Robinson, a longtime assistant to New Hampshire Bishop Douglas Theuner, is ``bishop coadjutor,'' meaning he automatically becomes head of the diocese when Theuner retires March 7.
A national association for conservatives opposed to ordaining gays, the American Anglican Council, says parishioners already were drifting away in protest of Robinson's elevation. It seeks to hold the denomination's conservative flank together by building a network of ``confessing'' dioceses and congregations.
The network will exist more or less separately from the national denomination, claiming to preserve the traditional beliefs of the Episcopal Church and the international Anglican Communion of which it's a part.
Some predict this will develop into the worst Episcopal split since the denomination was founded in 1789. And depending on the shape things take, a spate of church lawsuits may well result.
But Griswold, the leader of the 2.3 million-member U.S. denomination, minimizes the negative fallout. He said two weeks ago that members who oppose Robinson's elevation ``for the greatest part ... are committed to remaining within the Episcopal Church'' and living with ``divergent points of view.''
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Anglicanism's spiritual leader, said Saturday that he believes divisions within the worldwide Anglican Communion over Robinson's selection will eventually heal.
``And one day we shall be led, in both thankfulness and repentance, to share with one another what we have learned apart, to bring to one another a history not without its shadows and stresses, but still one in which something quite distinctive has been learned,'' Williams said in London.
The 37 top bishops of the world's 77 million Anglicans met last month to affirm the faith's opposition to gay clergy and same-sex behavior. They also warned that churches in many nations would refuse to recognize Robinson as a bishop and would suspend ties with the Episcopal Church.
On the Net:
American Anglican Council: americananglican.org
Episcopal Church: episcopalchurch.org
Diocese of New Hampshire: nhepiscopal.org
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
11/02/03 12:07 EST
Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. |
