Free Republic

<p>A Maryland clergyman is the first Episcopal priest in the nation to resign in response to the denomination's approval last month of its first openly homosexual bishop.</p> <p>The Rev. Steven R. Randall's resignation, effective Monday, came in a four-sentence letter addressed to his bishop, the Rt. Rev. Robert Ihloff. His farewell sermon at St. Timothy's Church, a historic parish in downtown Catonsville, Md., will be Sunday.</p>

Congregation leader in Catonsville expects many members to follow In one of the most tangible pieces of fallout from the Episcopal Church's confirmation of its first openly gay elected bishop, the rector of St. Timothy's Church in Catonsville is resigning and says he expects to take much of his congregation with him. The Rev. Steven R. Randall, who announced this month that the parish would withhold its $5,000 monthly dues from the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland in protest, said he could no longer submit to the authority of the denomination and is resigning to end the turmoil in his congregation...

<p>The following are excerpts from a sermon given recently by the Rev. Steven R. Randall at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in Catonsville, Md.</p> <p>Our country was shocked and shaken down to our very core [on September 11, 2001] as terrorists who had no regard for the lives of thousands of people but served a false god of violence and blind destruction attacked our country.</p>