US bishop defects to Catholic Church in row over gays

In the most high-profile American defection to date in the row over gays in the Anglican Church, a diocesan bishop has explained why he is to be received into the Roman Catholic Church.

The Bishop of Rio Grande, the Right Rev Jeffrey Steenson, who was educated at Oxford and is in the Anglican Catholic tradition of the Church, said that to remain in his post in the Episcopal Church may lead him "to a place apart from Scripture and tradition".

In a statement to American bishops meeting in New Orleans in an attempt to avert schism, in which he requested permission to resign both from his post and his orders, the Right Rev Steenson said: "I am concerned that if I do not listen to and act in accordance with conscience now, it will become harder and harder to hear God's voice."

He said that he had already received counsel and prayers from the Presiding Bishop, the Right Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori. "Now I come before you, asking that you give me the necessary canonical permission to resign as ordinary of my diocese. I should like to do this by the end of this year, and afterwards, in proper order, to be released from my ordination vows in the Episcopal Church." ...

He said: "I hope my decision will encourage others who believe they can no longer remain in the Episcopal Church, to respect its laws and to withdraw as courteously as possible for the sake of the Christian witness."

Referring to another meeting of the Church's bishops this year, he said: "I was more than a little surprised when such a substantial majority declared the polity of the Episcopal Church to be primarily that of an autonomous and independent local church relating to the wider Anglican Communion by voluntary association. This is not the Anglicanism in which I was formed, inspired by the Oxford movement and the Catholic Revival in the Church of England. Perhaps something was defective in my education for ministry in the Episcopal Church, but, honestly, I did not recognise the church that this House described on that occasion."

Committing himself to seeking unity with the Catholic Church, he accused the Episcopal Church of making a "decisive turn away" from efforts to preserve the communion. He said: "It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the Episcopal Church has rejected the discipline of communion but wants it only on its own terms."

  US bishop defects to Catholic Church in row over gays
Times Online, UK