Posted on 11/02/2003 5:07:10 PM PST by Happy2BMe
Anglican Split Feared as Gay Bishop Is Consecrated
(2003-11-02)
By Greg Frost
DURHAM, N.H. (Reuters) - The Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson was consecrated on Sunday as the first openly gay bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church, a move that threatens to tear apart the worldwide Anglican community.
The Most Rev. Frank Griswold, presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church, consecrated Robinson amid cheers and applause from the several thousand people who gathered under tight security for the ceremony in a college sports arena.
Robinson, his voice trembling, told the congregation he felt deeply honored but also urged compassion toward church members angered and upset by his consecration.
"Our God will be served if we are hospitable and loving and caring toward them," said the new bishop, wearing a robe of gold, red and green. "If they must leave, they will always be welcomed back into our fellowship."
Earlier, in a sanctioned but tension-filled protest, opponents formally voiced their objection to installing an openly gay man as bishop.
Griswold interrupted one cleric as he launched into a graphic description of homosexual acts. Another woman said that consecrating Robinson would tear at the fabric of the worldwide church.
"To press forward with this consecration will be to turn our back on Almighty God," she said. "The vast majority of Anglicans worldwide have told us not to take this step."
The opponents walked out after making their statements. Moments later, Griswold asked those remaining if Robinson, a 56-year-old divorced father, should be ordained a bishop.
"That is our will!" the congregation chanted loudly.
LIBERAL WING
Robinson, who has lived with his male partner for 13 years, has pleaded for unity. But conservatives warn that his installation may split the 70-million-member Anglican Communion.
The church's Lambeth Conference of 1998 held that the Anglican communion regards homosexual practice as "incompatible with scripture" and condemned the blessing of same-sex unions.
The Rev. Canon David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council, called Robinson's consecration "schismatic" and said his group was already preparing to lead a break from the more liberal wing of the U.S. Episcopal Church.
"I would anticipate that by tomorrow morning, statements of repudiation will be coming in from primates (church leaders) around the world," Anderson said in a telephone interview from Atlanta, Georgia.
Sky News broadcast the service live in Britain, a sign of the keen interest the event generated in the home of the 450-year-old Anglican Church.
Outside the arena, mounted police stood by as protesters opposed the church for appointing an openly gay bishop and members of the congregation hailed the historic event.
"This is a wonderful situation," said John Ebel, a Roman Catholic from Buffalo, New York. "I admire the Episcopal church for recognizing Gene's skill and ability to be bishop."
But others, including members of a Baptist church from Kansas, shouted at participants and waved neon-colored placards with homophobic messages like "God Hates Fags."
Some members of the U.S. church have said they plan to ask Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican faith, for permission to separate from the Episcopal Church.
Williams has said Robinson should not have been elected a bishop because he is a practicing homosexual. The archbishop spoke last month of a "huge crisis looming" as a result.
2 Timothy 4
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
As with all sin, nothing good can come from homosexuality or from a church leader who openly embraces it.
I hope the Christians of the Espiscopal denomination will rise up and rebuke those leaders who brought about and supported this poor decision.
What does this have to do with Christianity?
He doesn't see what he's doing as the problem, but that those who want to break away from the Church as the problem.
You would think that someone in his situation would back down if he saw a schism coming from within the Church. Doesn't the Bishop have a responsibility to his flock before himself?
Since when does it become self-serving rather than serving God?
I truly feel for your church at the moment.
You're all in my prayers.
Homosexual Advocacy in the Church
Perspective from a Fifth-Generation Episcopalian
That might have been a valid counterpoint... if the newly-formed Anglican Church hadn't kept all of the practices you cite (including the doctrine of intercession). I don't see the fact that they have "strayed" from their original practices over the past 450 years to become more Protestant as a positive point for your argument (and I have absolutely NO dog in this fight; as I'm Protestant).
1 Samuel 81. When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel.
2. The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba.
3. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.
4. So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.
5. They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have."
6. But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD.
7. And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.
8. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.
9. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do."
10. Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king.
11. He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.
12. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.
13. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.
14. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.
15. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.
16. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.
17. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.
18. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day."
19. But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us.
20. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles."
21. When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD.
22. The LORD answered, "Listen to them and give them a king." Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, "Everyone go back to his town."
Matthew 27:21-25
21. "Which of the two do you want me to release to you?" asked the governor. "Barabbas," they answered.
22. "What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called Christ?" Pilate asked. They all answered, "Crucify him!"
23. "Why? What crime has he committed?" asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, "Crucify him!"
24. When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!"
25. All the people answered, "Let his blood be on us and on our children!"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.