Episcopals consider gays in Calif. bishop election

Episcopals consider gays in Calif. bishop election

By Duncan Martell

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When the Episcopal Diocese of California elects a bishop on Saturday, it could widen the rift over homosexuality within the global Anglican Communion because three of the seven candidates are openly gay.

No gay or lesbian cleric has been elected bishop since the consecration of Eugene Robinson in 2003 as bishop of New Hampshire threw the U.S. church and the worldwide family of Anglican churches into turmoil.

"This is being watched internationally," said Cynthia Brust, a spokeswoman for the American Anglican Council, a group of parishioners, churches and dioceses unhappy with Robinson's consecration. "We're just watching and waiting."

Robinson is the first bishop known to be in an openly gay relationship in more than 450 years of Anglican history.

The issue has been simmering since at least 1979, when the Episcopal Church's General Convention resolved that the ordination of gays was inappropriate. Robinson's eventual consecration prompted some U.S. churches to leave the Episcopal Church and affiliate themselves instead with a network of fast-growing Anglican churches in Africa.

"There is a diversity of opinion within the Episcopal Church about the understanding of human sexuality," said Canon Robert Williams, director of communications for the Episcopal Church. "The church, locally and internationally, is committed to a process of understanding and ongoing discovery."

The roots of the Episcopal Church -- also known as the Via Media, or "Middle Way" -- in the United States are as old as the country and eight of the first 14 presidents were Episcopalian. The church has long prided itself for including both liberal and more conservative ideologies.

Last month, the Special Commission of the Episcopal Church composed of clergy and laypeople and formed to address divisions caused by Robinson's consecration recommended that the church be very cautious about doing so again and make a fresh statement of apology and repentance.

The group's report said its members were divided over whether to go further and instruct the 2.3 million-member church to "refrain" from putting gays into the episcopate, but in the end settled on telling members to use "very considerable caution" before installing another gay bishop.

WORLDWIDE CONTROVERSY

The commission was formed last year amid the acrimonious debate within the 77 million-member Anglican Communion caused by Robinson's consecration.

The worldwide church leadership called on the U.S. church to cease and express regret, and a year ago the U.S. bishops did issue an apology. They also agreed not to consecrate any more bishops, gay or straight, until at least the church's next convention in June, called the General Convention, and to put a moratorium on blessing same-sex unions.

The commission said it "was not of one mind on the use of the words 'exercise very considerable caution,' with some members instead recommending the words 'refrain from.'"

Church members and clergy meet at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, the seat of the Diocese of California, the state's oldest. They will elect a successor to longtime and beloved Bishop William Swing, who is retiring.

The candidates are the Right Rev. Mark Handley Andrus of Alabama; the Rev. Canon Michael Barlowe, who is gay and works in the Diocese of California; the Rev. Jane Gould of Massachusetts; the Rev. Bonnie Perry of Chicago, who is gay; the Rev. Donald Schell of San Francisco; the Rev. Canon Eugene Taylor Sutton; canon pastor of Washington National Cathedral; and the Very Rev. Robert Taylor of Seattle, who is also gay.

Diocese clergy and laypeople will have multiple ballots until a candidate emerges with 51 percent of the vote. If a gay candidate is elected, the June convention will have to decide if he or she is consecrated.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Site feed @ http://www.oasiscalifornia.org/news/atom.xml