The first from the Christian Science Monitor for May 4, the second from a recent Associated Press report:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0504/p02s01-ussc.html
Episcopalians face key votes over gays
An election Saturday of a California bishop may force the hand of the US church, set to decide its stance in June.
By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Several Christian and Jewish denominations have been divided over issues of homosexuality, but none has come as close to schism as the global Anglican community, and its US branch, the Episcopal Church.
For three years since the US church approved the ordination of a gay bishop, the worldwide Anglican Communion has sought ways to avoid a devastating split. It has called on the church to express regret and to refrain from such steps in the future.
Next month, the church's 2006 general convention will meet and decide on a response, but parishioners in California could force its hand as early as this weekend. The Diocese of California votes Saturday to elect a new bishop and, in what some view as a provocative step, three of the seven nominees are gay or lesbian pastors living in committed relationships.
"The diocese has sent an important message to the church, that it was committed to presenting the best possible slate of qualified nominees and ... that gays and lesbians should not be excluded," says the Rev. Susan Russell, president of Integrity, a church group advocating gay inclusion.
The Episcopal convention must approve or disapprove the choice.
Conservative groups in the US, long distressed over failure to stop the ordination of gay and lesbian priests, were outraged by the nominations, calling them an act of defiance.
"California is at risk of making a really bad situation even worse," says the Rev. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian of the South Carolina diocese. "A determined minority in the leadership is committed to this new theology. We are part of a worldwide family, and the vast majority not only don't embrace this theology, they don't begin to understand it."
After the 2003 convention confirmed an openly gay bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, and voted to allow dioceses to perform same-sex unions, a small group of US conservatives formed the Anglican Communion Network.
Refusing to accept the leadership of bishops who approved actions they viewed as contrary to Christian doctrine, they established close ties with Anglican leaders in developing countries, who felt similarly betrayed.
With the majority of the 77 million Anglicans now residing in the developing world, Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola became the most prominent spokesman for conservatives. The leaders warned of schism unless the US church repented and adhered to traditional teaching.
To head off a break, a 2004 Communion report proposed a course of action involving a "pilgrimage toward healing and reconciliation." Along with proposals for a new covenant among Anglicans, it rebuked the Episcopal Church and called for an apology and a commitment to moratoriums on ordaining gay bishops and rites for same-sex unions.
While the intensity of the reaction stunned some in the church, others see it as a repeat of the debate over ordination of women in the 1970s.
"We recognize [gay ordination] is a minority perspective in the Anglican Communion, but so was our position on women's ordination in 1974," says Ms. Russell. "To go back to Scripture, 'If it's of God, it will flourish,' and I would say those '70s decisions have flourished in the church." Episcopalians recently selected their 13th female bishop.
Many Episcopalians feel caught in the middle, perhaps concerned about events but prizing unity. At Church of the Good Shepherd in Brentwood, Tenn., "some members left after the 2003 convention because I disagreed with the action, and others because I didn't rant and rave about it enough," says the Rev. Randall Dunnavant. "But I'm not going to leave the church over it."
To prepare for the June meeting, a special commission has drawn up 11 resolutions designed to "maintain the highest level of communion within the Anglican Communion given the different perspectives." On the election of bishops, the resolution proposes "exercising very considerable caution" in selecting people whose "manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church." The resolution on public rites of blessing for same-sex unions calls for "not proceeding to authorize public rites ... until some broader consensus" emerges in the global body. It suggests that bishops who have already authorized such rites "heed the invitation to express regret.
Dr. Harmon calls the document "a giant fudge ... which essentially says 'We really care about the Communion, but we're going to continue doing what we want,' " though he sees small steps toward accommodation.
The Rev. Ian Douglas of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., a commission co-chair, says the aim was simply to get the convention conversation started. "We've been accused of fudging by one side and selling out by the other," he says. "People ... want to draw a line in the sand, to create a win/lose situation, but it's a more complex and dynamic process of discernment we're engaged in to be faithful to what it means to be part of a global body of Christ."
If California selects a gay or lesbian bishop, the win/lose situation looks unavoidable. If it does not, the convention will have to sort out the ambiguities.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Communion, was far from ambiguous in a recent speech: "If there is ever to be a change in the discipline and teaching of the Anglican Communion on this matter, it should not be the decision of one Church alone."
http://www.csmonitor.com | Copyright © 2006 The Christian Science Monitor.
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By KIM CURTIS
What's left of unity in the Episcopal Church is at stake heading into a weekend election for bishop of California that sets up a major clash over gays' role in the church.
Three of the seven candidates are openly gay, and choosing one of them to head the Diocese of California would further alienate Episcopal conservatives already feeling betrayed that the church approved a gay bishop three years ago. It could also fracture the strained relationship between America's 2.3 million Episcopalians and their parent body, the worldwide Anglican Communion.
A vote against a gay bishop would likely preserve the fragile truce.
The Rev. Paul Zahl, dean of the conservative Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry in Ambridge, Pa., likened the election of a gay bishop in California to "a terrorist bomb, which is timed to destroy a peace process."
Anglicanism, which includes the U.S. Episcopal Church among its 77 million followers in 164 countries, has been torn over the issue of gay clergy for years.
In 2003, New Hampshire Episcopalians elected the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, who has a longtime male partner, as their bishop. A year later, an international Anglican panel asked U.S. dioceses to stop installing bishops in same-sex relationships for now, and requested that the Episcopal Church show "regret" for the turmoil its actions had caused.
On Saturday, about 700 priests and lay people will gather for a special diocesan convention at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco to elect a new bishop to replace the retiring Rev. William Swing.
Among the candidates they'll consider will be two gay men — the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe of San Francisco, and the Very Rev. Robert Taylor of Seattle — and a lesbian, the Rev. Bonnie Perry of Chicago. All three live openly with same-sex partners.
The four other candidates are: the Rt. Rev. Mark Handley Andrus of Birmingham, Ala.; the Rev. Jane Gould of Lynn, Mass.; the Rev. Donald Schell of San Francisco; and Canon Eugene Taylor Sutton of Washington National Cathedral.
The delegates know their actions will be closely watched by Anglicans around the world. But conservative Canon Bill Atwood of the Ekklesia Society, an Episcopal aid network based in Carrollton, Texas, predicts the Californians will "totally ignore the consequences" of their actions.
"I don't think there's any question they'll be compelled to elect a partnered gay," Atwood said. "I think they've got a mistaken understanding of issues of justice. Huge portions of the Episcopal Church are theologically adrift.
"I'm not saying there isn't religion, but it's not the historic Christian faith."
Episcopalians who support ordaining gays disagree. They say that in biblical times, there was no understanding that homosexuality was a natural orientation and not a choice, and that Scripture condemning homosexuality should not be interpreted as barring monogamous gay relationships.
The Rev. Susan Russell of Integrity, the national gay and lesbian Episcopal caucus, said the Diocese of California has no obligation to elect a heterosexual as the Communion struggles to remain unified. She argued that a "radical conservative fringe" within Anglicanism is determined to bring about a split no matter what concessions the American church makes.
"For any elector to allow the current political climate in the global church to hamstring the Holy Spirit would be working against who we are when we're at our best as a church," Russell said.
The seven nominees spent much of April touring churches and meeting parishioners. They were asked not to give any interviews in the week before the election.
On Saturday, delegates will cast their ballots until one of the candidates gets a simple majority of the votes. If no winner is declared, voting will continue the following Saturday, May 13.
The winner cannot be consecrated without approval from the Episcopal church's legislative body, the General Convention, which meets in June.
The Convention has a long history of deferring to dioceses' choice of leadership, but the head of the denomination — Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold — warned last month it would create "definite difficulty" between Episcopalians and the rest of the Anglican Communion if California elects the church's second openly gay bishop.
The Communion lacks an authoritative leader, someone who functions as the pope does for Roman Catholics, for example. Each province within the Anglican Communion can make its own decisions and Griswold, whose term ends later this year, has repeatedly expressed the desire to remain part of the Communion.
An Episcopal panel studying the issue proposed last month that dioceses use "very considerable caution" in electing bishops with same-sex partners, but it stopped short of a moratorium. That recommendation is among several the General Convention will consider at its meeting June 13-21 in Columbus, Ohio.
On the Net:
http://bishopsearch.org
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.
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