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Gay Bishop Will Make Union with Partner Official http://www.beliefnet.com/story/217/story_21727_1.html Associated Press Concord, New Hampshire - The Rev. V. Gene Robinson became the Episcopal Church's first openly gay bishop. Now, he and his partner want to be among the first gay couples in New Hampshire to officially unite under a soon-to-be-signed civil unions law. New Hampshire is set to become the nation's fourth state to offer civil unions for gay couples after legislation approved by the state Senate on Thursday was sent to Gov. John Lynch, who has said he would sign it. "I think this moves us one step closer...

Episcopalians Begin Considering Response to Moratorium http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070412/26840_Episcopalians_Begin_Considering_Response_to_Moratorium.htm http://tinyurl.com/2mzvet By Lillian Kwon Christian Post Reporter Thu, Apr. 12 2007 09:19 AM ET Episcopal leaders have begun considering a potential response to requests from Anglican leaders to not consecrate another openly gay bishop. An appointed Executive Council work group convened for the first time early this month to begin discussion on a report responding to the communiqué that was issued by the Anglican Communion's Primates in February. The Episcopal Church was given a Sept. 30 deadline to respond to a moratorium on the consecration of gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex...

FRESNO, CA--An Episcopal diocese in California overwhelmingly passed a series of resolutions yesterday that position it to secede from the Episcopal Church and affiliate with conservatives in the global Anglican Communion. If the Diocese of San Joaquin affirms the move in a second vote next year, the small diocese, with 48 parishes and 7,000 members, would be the first to try to break from the Episcopal Church, which has been torn by conflict since the consecration of a gay bishop in 2003. Until now, only individual parishes have severed ties. The vote by the diocese is one more step in...

Episcopal boredom http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50644 http://tinyurl.com/p3s8y Posted: June 15, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Hans Zeiger Let me see if I can capture the mood at the 75th General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio. The main thing about it is the generation. It is a gathering, chiefly, of baby boomers on the older end of their cohort. If they preceded the boom, they at least participated in the '60s. I half expected the long hair and dope to flow with the crowds that came yesterday to hear the debates about homosexuality and the consequently precarious relations of the Episcopal...

Virginia's largest Episcopal parish, in a letter to the church's 2,200 members, yesterday called on Virginia's the Rt. Rev. Peter J. Lee to "repent and return to the truth" over supporting the ordination of the openly homosexual bishop of New Hampshire. Leaders of the Falls Church Episcopal said in their eight-page, single-spaced letter that "no compromise on this issue is possible," although they refrained from specific threats. In the past, the parish's rector has threatened schism. "A Christian leader does not approve of sin, or purport to declassify it," the letter said to Bishop Lee, who backed the 2003 consecration...

The first openly gay Episcopal bishop insisted Wednesday he was not encouraging Roman Catholics to leave their church when he criticized its view of homosexuals during a recent speech in London. New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, at a service Friday commemorating the 10th anniversary of Changing Attitude, a British group which advocates full inclusion of gays in the Anglican faith community, noted during his talk that many Catholics in his home state were becoming Episcopalian. "Pope Ratzinger may be the best thing that ever happened to the Episcopal Church," Robinson said, referring to former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who is...

Twenty Episcopal bishops at odds over homosexual clergy will attempt to reconcile their differences next month, but church conservatives say the meeting's real business is to start discussions on how to divide their assets in the event of a split. If differences between Episcopal liberals and conservatives are quickly determined to be "irreconcilable," says retired Diocese of Florida Bishop Stephen Jecko, the discussion will switch to engineering a breakup without running up millions of dollars in lawsuits. The Los Angeles gathering would be the first admission of schism by the 2.2-million-member denomination. "It'll be who gets the money and who...

(WTNH, Apr. 18, 2005 11:20 PM) _ A meeting between six Episcopal priests and Connecticut's Bishop has ended with no decision being announced. The six have been in the spotlight ever since they took a stand against the church's first openly gay bishop. The six are Reverend Christopher Leighton, rector of St. Paul's Church in Darien, the Reverend Mark Hansen of St. John's Church in Bristol, the Reverend Ronald Gauss of Bishop Seabury Church in Groton, the Reverend Gilbert Wilkes of Christ and the Epiphany Church in East Haven, the Reverend Don Helmandollar of Trinity Church in Bristol and the...

MANCHESTER, N.H. - The first openly gay Episcopal bishop says he is being deluged with angry messages after being falsely accused of suggesting that Jesus might have been homosexual. ``I can assure you with absolute certainty that was not my implication, and certainly not anything I ever said,'' Bishop V. Gene Robinson told the New Hampshire Union Leader in a story published Tuesday. ``I am furious for my remarks to be interpreted in a way as to mean something I never said.'' Religion writer David Virtue apparently was the first to suggest otherwise in a Web log entry based on...

United Church of Christ: "...possession of a nuclear weapon is the best deterrent to a pre-emptive strike by the United States" November 22, 2004 - Justice and Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ issued an action alert today criticizing the United States, and particularly Colin Powell, for releasing information "alleging Iran of secret weapons facilities". The alert suggests that Powell and an exiled Iranian resistance group, which is recognized by the State Department as a terrorist organization, conspired in releasing the information simultaneously. The alert goes further and states "In the new post-Iraq war world where possession of...

The call was made by the Lambeth Commission, set up after the ordination of Gene Robinson threatened to split the worldwide Anglican church. Commission chairman Irish Anglican leader Robin Eames concluded: "There remains a very real danger that we will not choose to walk together." The report called for a moratorium on the consecration of gay candidates. It demanded an explanation from the Anglican Church in the US, known as Episcopalian, about "how a person living in a same gender union may be considered eligible to lead the flock of Christ". Scripture must be used to back up the explanation,...

Frank Griswold was in New Haven, Connecticut over the weekend to help Christ Church Episcopal celebrate its 150th anniversary. As expected, the over/under on the word "reconciliation" was through the roof: Griswold, the 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church USA, visited the Christ Church Episcopal this weekend for its 150th Anniversary. Griswold presided over the Easter celebrations for the entire weekend, starting with a mid-day Good Friday service. The power of Jesus' sacrifice to help heal wounded relationships formed the core of Griswold's sermon Friday. Griswold said he recognized the possibility of reconciliation when he was in New...

ATLANTA - Moderate and liberal Episcopalians from dioceses that oppose an openly gay bishop called Saturday for church members to find common ground and tolerate differing viewpoints so the church can remain whole. Episcopalians from 11 conservative dioceses said at the conclusion of a three-day meeting in Atlanta they are trying to move past a debate that has caused divisions in the church. "There is a place for everybody in this church," said the Rev. Michael Russell, rector of All Souls' Episcopal Church in San Diego. "Because a vote was taken that a group doesn't like isn't a reason to...

The Scriptures have always suffered the attacks of the kingdom of darkness, even as far back as the garden of Eden, when the serpent slyly asked the woman, "Indeed, has God said ...?" The Evil One knows that if he can undermine the Bible, he can undermine the Christian. For Jesus said His words are like a rock upon which a house is built (Matthew 7:24), serving as a firm foundation for His followers. Of course, Christ's words are a rock when they are obeyed. If they are discarded, it is as if a man has built his house on...

Peter James Lee was one of the sixty Episcopal bishops who voted to approve the appointment of Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as bishop of New Hampshire. Since the vote, Lee has faced stiff opposition from conservative evangelical churches in his diocese. In his speech to the annual meeting of his diocese, Bishop Lee said this, "If you must make a choice between heresy and schism, always choose heresy." I can think of nothing more dangerous. What Lee is basically saying is that we can tolerate anything within the Church just to keep the Church together. What would cause...

Vote on gay bishop still echoes in Dallas church St. Michael rector's support of Gene Robinson puts him at odds with many of his parishioners 05:39 PM CST on Friday, January 9, 2004 By GRETEL C. KOVACH / The Dallas Morning News One Sunday not long ago, James Carry stood in the pews at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church and wondered if it would be his last day as parishioner in the church he loved. Months after the Episcopal Church elected its first openly gay bishop, St. Michael, one of the country's largest Episcopal congregations, is still struggling...

<p>NEW KENSINGTON: At the center of a controversy about the place of gay clergy in the Episcopal Church, Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr. spoke Sunday about the battle that is the Christian faith. During his annual appearance at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in New Kensington, the bishop of the Pittsburgh Diocese didn't speak directly of the issue threatening to divide America's Episcopal congregations.</p>

Church unity talks fail over 'gay' bishop - By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent (Filed: 01/12/2003) Top level unity talks between the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches have collapsed after the consecration of Anglicanism's first openly homosexual bishop. In a bitter blow to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, the Vatican is preparing to suspend the talks following a final meeting in the New Year. That meeting was only rescued from a Vatican boycott by the dramatic resignation at the weekend of the senior Anglican participant, Bishop Frank Griswold. The liberal bishop, who presides over the American Episcopal Church, split...

A lifelong Episcopalian who served 24 years in the clergy is the first in the Diocese of Ohio to quit the priesthood over the election of an openly gay bishop. William Tumbleson, 63, a retired cleric who believes Scripture forbids homosexual activity, renounced his priestly orders after he decided to join St. Theodosius Orthodox Cathedral in Cleveland. As churches opposed to the ordination of a gay bishop ponder their next steps, Tumbleson said he wanted to show that some people are already taking action. "I don't ever say I've left the Episcopal Church. I just say the Episcopal Church has...

The Anglican Church of Uganda has severed all ties with the Episcopal Church in the US over the consecration of a gay man as an American bishop. The Ugandans initially cut ties only with the New Hampshire diocese following its November 2 consecration of Gene Robinson as a bishop. But 30 Uganda Anglican bishops have now decided to sever their church's ties with the entire Episcopal Church. "Any same-sex relationship is a disorder of God's creation," a spokesman said.