Posted on 11/03/2003 12:08:07 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Sunday's consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop will more than likely create a nationwide split among the church's 2.3 million members, church leaders say, and the effects are being felt at one South Florida parish.
More than 40 members have left Holy Sacrament Episcopal Church in Pembroke Pines and split from the Diocese of Southeast Florida.
The diocese oversees Episcopal churches from Monroe to Martin County.
The group, under the name The Anglican Church of the Word, held Sunday service in the cafeteria of Chesterbrook Academy in Pembroke Pines, presided over by the Rev. Bill Eaton.
Members formed a vestry and registered with the state as a nonprofit organization, moves that confirm its eventual separation from the larger church.
''Three months ago, I don't think there was a person in this room who expected to be here,'' Eaton told the congregants.
Division over the consecration of V. Gene Robinson, 56, who formally became a bishop at a Sunday afternoon ceremony in Durham, N.H., could lead to the most significant changes in the church since the Anglican reformation of the 16th century, Eaton said.
''This is another little reformation,'' Eaton said in an interview with The Herald this week. ``There's no question about it. We're making history.''
The Episcopal Church USA was formed in 1776 as part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Eaton, a pastor who is canonically resident with the Pittsburgh diocese, said he expects the new church to become part of a new province seceding from the Episcopal Church.
It may also choose to align itself with other nationwide churches under the Anglican Communion -- the worldwide body that governs the Episcopal Church.
''Another province will be formed,'' Eaton said.
Robert Duncan, the bishop leading the Pittsburgh diocese, has been one of the most outspoken against Robinson's consecration. Eaton said he agrees with Duncan's stance.
''The problem for me is not homosexuality,'' said Eaton, 69. ``The problem is the authority of the Scripture, the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, and the unity of the church. All three, they have violated at this point.''
Goodwill between Holy Sacrament parishioners and those who left the church has not been lost.
''It hurts to see people you've gone to church with all this time leave,'' said Scott Kinzel, a member of Holy Sacrament's vestry. ``But we fully respect their decision.''
GLOBAL CONFLICT
After a divisive August vote, where diocesan bishops confirmed Robinson's ascension at a national convention, debate spread globally and into the Anglican Communion, the 77 million-member worldwide body that the Episcopal Church belongs to. And it came to South Florida.
Bishop Leo Frade, leader of the Diocese of Southeast Florida, cast the only vote among Florida's five diocesan bishops approving Robinson's consecration.
In a telephone interview this week, Frade said he expected differences of opinion to surface.
''This is part of the landscape of American religion,'' Frade said. ``There are people who will not agree with a certain policy.''
Frade, who on Sunday presided over services at All Saints Episcopal Church in Jensen Beach, said Holy Sacrament has seen the most drastic change among the 82 churches in the diocese.
''Every single parish has people that are upset with this,'' Frade said. ``I have no problem with them thinking differently than the majority do here. We can live in unity even within diversity.''
HEALTHY DEBATE
Richard Hamlin, rector of the 500-member St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in South Miami-Dade, said there's been healthy debate over Robinson's consecration.
''It's a matter of the family coming together and being able to talk about these important things,'' Hamlin said.
Some of the nation's most conservative dioceses -- in Pittsburgh, Dallas/Fort Worth, and South Carolina -- plan to split from Episcopal Church USA in the coming weeks.
On Thursday, a high-ranking member of the Colorado Diocese called for the resignation of the Rev. Frank Griswold, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.
Rev. Kendall Harmon, a canon theologian with the Diocese of South Carolina who opposes Robinson's consecration, preached in New Hampshire Sunday two miles from the ceremony.
''Serious, solemn and divided is the way that it feels on the grounds,'' Harmon told The Herald in a telephone interview.
``There are people who are extremely sad and resolute on this day.''
Margaret Hesford, who hosted the first service away from Holy Sacrament last Sunday in the patio of her Cooper City home, said fellow congregants asked Eaton to join them.
''This is not a homosexual issue. This is a sanctity of marriage issue,'' said Hesford.
``You don't want people living in sin in a leadership position.''
***A national association for conservatives opposed to ordaining gays, the American Anglican Council, says parishioners already were drifting away in protest of Robinson's elevation. It seeks to hold the denomination's conservative flank together by building a network of "confessing" dioceses and congregations.
The network will exist more or less separately from the national denomination, claiming to preserve the traditional beliefs of the Episcopal Church and the international Anglican Communion of which it's a part.
Some predict this will develop into the worst Episcopal split since the denomination was founded in 1789. And depending on the shape things take, a spate of church lawsuits may well result. ***
God, for one.
He has already addressed this issue.
Mr. Frade might wish to review his Bible for a little refresher course.
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