Episcopal panel seeks slowdown on new gay leaders - Church to be urged to repent for electing Gene Robinson

Episcopal panel seeks slowdown on new gay leaders - Church to be urged to repent for electing Gene Robinson @ San Francisco Chronicle

By Wyatt Buchanan

A special commission of the Episcopal Church will recommend that the church slow its acceptance of gays and lesbians as leaders in a report to be published any day, according to church leaders briefed on its contents.

The commission, made up of clergy, lay people and theologians, will urge church members to repent for electing a gay man as bishop in New Hampshire three years ago, according to two bishops, one of them the Right Rev. William Swing, bishop of the Diocese of California.

The commission also will advise using "considerable caution" when contemplating the election of any new gay or lesbian bishop and will advise ceasing same-sex union ceremonies, at least for now, Swing and Bishop Kirk Smith of Arizona said. It will not recommend a ban on gay bishops, however.

"They're not saying, 'Don't do it.' I was waiting for them to say that," said Swing, who attended a briefing on the report last month.

Swing will retire this year, and three of the seven candidates nominated to replace him leading the diocese are gay.

"We're always seriously cautious; it doesn't say a whole lot more than that," Swing said Monday.

Swing and Smith, who reported the contents of the briefing in an e-mail to his congregants, both said the other bishops at the briefing seemed unlikely to confirm any new gay or lesbian bishop.

Denying anyone confirmation would be unprecedented, said Swing, who is the longest-serving bishop in the United States.

Smith said in his e-mail that it will be recommended that the bishops put same-sex unions on hold "until a broader consensus emerges in the communion."

"Bishops who have authorized such are to apologize for their actions," Smith wrote.

The report is the work of the Special Commission on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, which was formed to lead the church in the United States in its response to the global uproar caused by the election of the Rev. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire.

"I think one might say this represents a 'go slow' approach for our church," Smith wrote in his e-mail, which he called an "E-pistle." "Without backing away from the decisions we have made, it is nonetheless a clear messages that we will work to conform to the requests of the majority of the Anglican Communion."

The recommendations of the report will be considered as resolutions at the Episcopal Church's General Convention, set for June in Columbus, Ohio. And whomever the Diocese of California, which includes San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa and Marin counties, elects as bishop next month must be confirmed at that meeting.

Since leaders of the Diocese of California announced the nominees to replace Swing in February, many Episcopalians in this country and Anglicans worldwide have predicted that the election of a gay or lesbian bishop would dramatically deepen the schism growing in the Anglican Communion over same-sex unions and gays and lesbians serving in the clergy. The Anglican Communion is the association of Anglican and Episcopal churches worldwide.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the symbolic head of the Anglican Communion, has called a series of meetings to deal with "the next critical months in the Anglican Communion," according to the Times of London.

The special commission's report, which was finished last week and is awaiting printing, is intended to help the church avoid any crisis, said the Rev. Ian Douglas, a professor at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass., who is co-chair of the special commission.

"The report addresses the question of how to help the Episcopal Church live to the highest degree of communion possible, not whether we should or not. That was not even part of the question," Douglas said. He cautioned against strict interpretation of the document.

The leader of the Diocese of California's gay and lesbian ministry organization, called Oasis California, said the resolutions that come from the report, especially the call for repentance, are unlikely to pass through the general convention this summer.

"That would be saying consenting to Gene Robinson's election was a mistake; in fact it would be stronger than that, it would be saying that was a sin," said the Rev. John Kirkley, president of Oasis California and rector of the Episcopal Church of St. John the Evangelist in San Francisco. "I don't think that's what a majority of deputies and bishops believe in their hearts."