Episcopalians open doors for gay bishops
Only days after Archbishop Rowan Williams of the worldwide Anglican Communion cautioned Episcopalians against making decisions "that could push us further apart," delegates at their July 8-17 convention in California voted—swiftly and by a large majority—to open the doors for gay and lesbian bishops.
The 2003 Episcopal convention's approval of an openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, had fueled anger in the many Anglican churches in the global South that consider it unbiblical and heretical for homosexuals to serve as clergy.
Under pressure from Williams, Anglicanism's spiritual leader, and other institutions of the distressed Anglican Communion, the 2006 triennial Epis copal General Convention passed a last-day measure urging U.S. dioceses of the 2.1 million-member Episcopal Church to "restrain" from electing gay bishops for the sake of Anglican unity.
But this year, on July 12 in Anaheim, the clergy-lay House of Deputies approved by a nearly three-to-one majority a resolution that skirted the appeal for restraint, affirming the Epis copal Church's loyalty to the Anglican Communion while noting that "God has called and may call such individuals [gay and lesbian Christians] to any ordained ministry" in the church.
Within two days, the bicameral convention had agreed on the final version—even while many news reporters were belatedly arriving in Anaheim, knowing from past experience that at church conventions controversial issues usually are not decided until the last few days. See Episcopalians open doors for gay bishops The Christian Century - -
The 2003 Episcopal convention's approval of an openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, had fueled anger in the many Anglican churches in the global South that consider it unbiblical and heretical for homosexuals to serve as clergy.
Under pressure from Williams, Anglicanism's spiritual leader, and other institutions of the distressed Anglican Communion, the 2006 triennial Epis copal General Convention passed a last-day measure urging U.S. dioceses of the 2.1 million-member Episcopal Church to "restrain" from electing gay bishops for the sake of Anglican unity.
But this year, on July 12 in Anaheim, the clergy-lay House of Deputies approved by a nearly three-to-one majority a resolution that skirted the appeal for restraint, affirming the Epis copal Church's loyalty to the Anglican Communion while noting that "God has called and may call such individuals [gay and lesbian Christians] to any ordained ministry" in the church.
Within two days, the bicameral convention had agreed on the final version—even while many news reporters were belatedly arriving in Anaheim, knowing from past experience that at church conventions controversial issues usually are not decided until the last few days. See Episcopalians open doors for gay bishops The Christian Century - -
posted by Tom Jackson at
7/21/2009 07:35:00 PM
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