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New Hampshire Episcopalians Choose Gay Bishop, and Conflict
The New York Times ^ | 6/8/03 | Laurie Goodstein

Posted on 06/08/2003 12:31:17 AM PDT by ppaul

The New York Times Sponsored by Starbucks


June 8, 2003

New Hampshire Episcopalians Choose Gay Bishop, and Conflict

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

CONCORD, N.H., June 7 — Episcopalians in the Diocese of New Hampshire today elected as their leader the first openly gay bishop anywhere in the worldwide Anglican communion, a step likely to roil the church in the United States and England, and deepen the disaffection of the more conservative Anglican churches in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The bishop-elect, the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson, who had developed a loyal following here in 16 years as assistant to the current bishop, was elected from among four candidates on the second round of balloting at St. Paul's Church.

He received 58 of 77 votes from members of the clergy and 96 of 165 votes from laypeople. A majority in each group is needed for election.

When the tally was announced, the clergy and lay delegates leaped to their feet and applauded as Bishop-elect Robinson came to the front, stood before the altar rail and embraced his two grown daughters, his son-in-law and his partner.

He acknowledged that his election could precipitate outrage and division in his denomination. The Episcopal Church has 2.3 million members in the United States, while the Anglican Communion, a global association of churches that trace their heritage to the Church of England, has about 79 million members internationally.

But he urged the delegates who elected him to be "kind and sensitive and gentle" to believers who "will not understand what you've done here today."

"The world is hurting out there, and the Episcopal Church and the Anglican communion worldwide are divided by lots of things," he said to the delegates.

He said the rift could be healed if believers focused on God and the sacraments. "We can get through this if we keep coming to the altar rail," he said.

His election now forces a showdown in the Episcopal Church in the United States, which like most mainline Protestant denominations has been torn over the issue of homosexuality over the past two decades.

Bishop-elect Robinson cannot be ordained as bishop until he wins the consent of bishops and diocesan representatives at the General Convention, which begins on July 28 in Minneapolis.

The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Frank T. Griswold III, declined, through a spokesman, to comment on today's development. But church members say they anticipate that the decision here could pose doctrinal problems for some Episcopalians who believe that the Bible prohibits homosexuality.

"The bishops and the delegates at General Convention are snarled up on the whole issue of whether to ordain gays and lesbians, and there is considerable opinion in the church, particularly emanating from the South and Southwest, that this should not happen," said the Rev. Dr. John E. Booty, a former historiographer of the Episcopal Church and an emeritus professor of Anglican studies at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn.

"My hunch is that Gene will get enough votes, but there will be people working furiously on either side of this to gather the votes for or against," Dr. Booty said in a telephone interview.

James Solheim, the church's press officer, said in a telephone interview tonight: "Reaction is already coming in by e-mail, and it is mixed. Some people are already announcing that this is the last straw, they're leaving the Episcopal Church."

The election is likely to be contentious in the Anglican Communion, which covers 38 regional churches in 164 countries, said the Rev. Dr. Ian T. Douglas, professor of mission and world christianity at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.

The growth in the church in the developing world is tipping it toward theological conservatism on some issues, including homosexuality, but it is a mixed picture, Dr. Douglas said. At the last Lambeth Conference, a gathering of Anglican bishops from around the world, in 1998, conservatives passed a resolution saying the church recognized only heterosexual, married relationships, Dr. Douglas said. But he also noted that at the same conference, a committee issued a report urging dialogue on the issue.

Bishop Douglas E. Theuner, the current bishop of New Hampshire, has championed gay causes in the church and approves of commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples.

Bishop Theuner said in an interview that there was no organized opposition in his diocese to Mr. Robinson's election. He said he believed Mr. Robinson was elected as bishop because the the delegates trusted him and were familiar with him, not that they wanted to make him a cause célèbre.

"His election pushes the envelope, but certainly that was not our intention in New Hampshire," Bishop Theuner said. "The people of the diocese are aware that they're part of the larger church, and value that, but we're selecting a bishop to be our bishop."

The Rev. David P. Jones, rector of St. Paul's Church and co-chairman of the search committee for the next bishop, said, "Ten years ago I would not have been happy about this because I would have felt it's clearly contrary to the Bible, contrary to the traditions of the church.

"It's all because I've experienced the ministry of this man and a couple of others that I think I was mistaken," Mr. Jones said.

Church experts say that the Episcopal Church has had gay bishops before and does now, but none who have made their sexual orientation known before they were elected.

The only gay bishop to disclose his sexuality before now is retired Bishop Otis Charles of Utah, who sent a letter to the church's House of Bishops in 1993 sharing his experience as a closeted gay churchman watching the bishops wrestle with the issue.

On Friday, the Daily Telegraph in London reported that leaders of the Church of England have known for years that Bishop Jeffrey John, a newly ordained suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Oxford, had been living with his gay partner of 25 years.

Bishop-elect Robinson, who is 56, is originally from Kentucky. He worked previously at a church in Ridgewood, N.J., and has run ministries for teenagers, AIDS patients and congregations going through conflicts.

He said in an interview after the vote that he came out as a gay man in 1986 and soon after divorced his wife, with whom he had two daughters.

He said he believed the Anglican church should be able to accommodate people who have opinions other than his on issues like homosexuality.

"I'm certain that I want to be in a church with them," he said. "I'm just not certain they want to be in a church with me."

In the history of the church in the United States, only one bishop-elect did not win affirmation by the General Convention, and that was in 1875, he said. He likened his election to that of Bishop Barbara Harris, the first woman bishop in the Episcopal Church, elected in 1988 in Massachusetts.

"There were dire predictions of schism then, and today the gifts of women in ministry are almost universally accepted," he said. Only 3 of the 100 Episcopal dioceses in the United States now do not ordain women.

The other candidates, who were not present for the election today, were the Rev. Pamela Jane Mott of Portland, Ore., and two supervisors of groups of parishes in Pennsylvania, the Very Revs. Robert L. Tate and Ruth Lawson Kirk. Another candidate withdrew after being selected as bishop of Nebraska.

As the clergy and laypeople here today left the service that followed the election, some said they had favored Bishop-elect Robinson because of his pastoral skills, his preaching and his devotion to the church. If confirmed by church officials, he would be only the ninth bishop in the history of the diocese, which dates to 1802.

"We made history," said Bayard Coolidge, a retired software engineer and a delegate from St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Pittsfield.

"Everybody is going to be making a lot of the fact that he's gay, but that's not the point," Mr. Coolidge said. "The point is, he's well qualified."



The "Reverend" Canon V. Gene Robinson
was elected on Saturday. Behind him is
his "partner", Mark Andrew.



TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: New Hampshire
KEYWORDS: apostacy; apostate; deviancy; deviants; episcopal; fudgepakers; gay; hersheyhighway; homo; homos; homosexual; homosexualagenda; homosexuals; perversion; pervert; perverts; queer; sexualdeviancy; sin; sodom; sodomites; sodomy
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Totally reprobate apostacy.
1 posted on 06/08/2003 12:31:17 AM PDT by ppaul
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To: ppaul
He should be burned at the stake. It would set a good example.
2 posted on 06/08/2003 12:38:24 AM PDT by Paleo Conservative
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To: ppaul
Would the last Christian to leave the Episcopal Church please turn out the lights.

What? He already has? Well, that explains it then.

3 posted on 06/08/2003 12:56:49 AM PDT by FormerLib
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To: ppaul
"Everybody is going to be making a lot of the fact that he's gay, but that's not the point," Mr. Coolidge said. "The point is, he's well qualified."

What are the qualifications?

4 posted on 06/08/2003 1:21:08 AM PDT by Bogey78O (check it out... http://freepers.zill.net/users/bogey78o_fr/puppet.swf)
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To: Bogey78O
The qualifications? He left his wife and 2 children for a man. He cares about others and is a nice person. No wonder people are backing away from organized religion.
5 posted on 06/08/2003 4:51:33 AM PDT by oldironsides
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To: FormerLib
LOL

Actually, when the last Christian has left that church, he's taken the Light of the World with him.

6 posted on 06/08/2003 5:19:04 AM PDT by Hebrews 11:6 (Look it up!)
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To: oldironsides
He still has to be approved by the Diocesan Standing Committees and Bishops of the rest of the Episcopal Church. Which is probably likely.

Assuming he's approved, will the parts of the Anglican Communion that actually believe in the Bible - Africa, Asia and South America - stand for this? Time will tell.

Soon Episcopal Churches will be empty only kept going by old Foundation Money. They claim 2 Million. I would postulate there are less than 1 million people going to Episcopal Churches on any given Sunday.

7 posted on 06/08/2003 5:22:49 AM PDT by Credo
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To: Bogey78O
What are the qualifications?

Sixteen years service in the diocese.

8 posted on 06/08/2003 5:24:22 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur
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To: ppaul
The Rev. David P. Jones, rector of St. Paul's Church and co-chairman of the search committee for the next bishop, said, "Ten years ago I would not have been happy about this because I would have felt it's clearly contrary to the Bible, contrary to the traditions of the church.

Rom 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

1 Cor. 6:9 ¶ Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Jude 1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Heb 13:4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

"It's all because I've experienced the ministry of this man and a couple of others that I think I was mistaken," Mr. Jones said.

Acts 20:30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

Eph 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

9 posted on 06/08/2003 5:44:35 AM PDT by miner89
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To: Bogey78O
"Everybody is going to be making a lot of the fact that he's gay, but that's not the point," Mr. Coolidge said. "The point is, he's well qualified."

Well qualified, meaning ignoring parts of scripture this B.S. Church doesn't agree with, nor like!

10 posted on 06/08/2003 5:50:23 AM PDT by sirchtruth
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To: ppaul; scripter
Bump & Ping
11 posted on 06/08/2003 6:28:13 AM PDT by EdReform (Support Free Republic - Become a Monthly Donor)
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To: ppaul
"Everybody is going to be making a lot of the fact that he's gay, but that's not the point," Mr. Coolidge said. "The point is, he's well qualified."

Sheesh. When they elected their first black woman bishop they made much of her black and a woman -- while ignoring the fact that she was totally unqualified.

12 posted on 06/08/2003 7:09:20 AM PDT by Eala ("Here in France I feel at home." --Madonna. So go already.)
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To: Credo
If confirmed, he will not be the first homosexual bishop. In fact, he will probably not be the only serving homosexual bishop. He will, however, be the first acknowledged, opening practicing homosexual bishop. And one who abandoned his wife and children to boot.

What this says about the Episcopal Church of the United States is profound. It has been for some time a church that has abandoned the beliefs, doctrine, creed, and liturgy of its tradition. It has embraced secular humanism and moral relativism. It has abandoned God. I doubt that a majority of its clergy believe that there is a God. Certainly the bishops don't. This is why many, including myself have walked away. The institution will hang on because of the property that it owns and its endowments - but it is already dead as a House of God.
13 posted on 06/08/2003 7:12:12 AM PDT by centurion316
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To: ppaul
the Episcopal Church and the Anglican communion worldwide are divided by lots of things," he said to the delegates.

And he's just supplied one more big division.

How interesting that members of the worldwide Anglican communion (from Africa and Asia) now have missions in the United States - the Anglican Mission in America.

14 posted on 06/08/2003 7:13:31 AM PDT by Eala ("Here in France I feel at home." --Madonna. So go already.)
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To: ppaul
From the piece:

"But he urged the delegates who elected him to be "kind and sensitive and gentle" to believers who "will not understand what you've done here today.""

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Wow....there's a Freudian..if there ever was one.

15 posted on 06/08/2003 7:23:58 AM PDT by Osage Orange (Hillary Clinton: "She makes a hornet look cuddly.")
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To: ppaul
The American Episcopalians have turned their back on God's Word, and instead chosen to follow the Gospel of John Spong. Where is church discipline when you need it?
16 posted on 06/08/2003 7:34:51 AM PDT by Kuksool
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To: ppaul
"Everybody is going to be making a lot of the fact that he's gay, but that's not the point," Mr. Coolidge said. "The point is, he's well qualified."

I can't get over these nitwits - they base their faith on a book that they dismiss whenever it says something inconvenient - like the fact that homosexuality is immediate and final grounds for preventing one from serving in a position of Church leadership.

These "Christians" need to face the truth and call their group something else.

17 posted on 06/08/2003 7:47:08 AM PDT by txzman (Jer 23:29)
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To: centurion316
Will they will renamd the church the house of fudge?
18 posted on 06/08/2003 8:07:44 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: miner89
If one rejects both Scripture and Tradition,or the universal belief of mankind that homosexuality is wrong then on what principle does one stand? The obvious answer is, none whatsoever: simply the shifting tides of public opinion.
19 posted on 06/08/2003 8:10:28 AM PDT by RobbyS
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To: ppaul
What do you expect from heretics?

They reap what they sow.

20 posted on 06/08/2003 9:00:40 AM PDT by Rome2000 (Convicted felons for Kerry)
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