Episcopal Church OKs Gay Bishop

Overcoming last-minute allegations of misconduct, the first openly gay bishop in the history of the Episcopal Church -- and perhaps of any Christian denomination -- was confirmed here Tuesday.

The vote by the nation’s Episcopal bishops to confirm the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson as the next bishop of New Hampshire set the stage for a new and pivotal struggle within the 2.3-million-member church over homosexuality and its place in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Robinson, a 56-year-old divorced man with two adult children, has lived with his partner, Mark Andrew, for 13 years. He was elected bishop earlier this summer by the priests and lay leaders of the Diocese of New Hampshire. Under Episcopal Church rules, the election of bishops by local dioceses must be approved by a majority of the nation’s dioceses.

Robinson’s confirmation -- approved on a 62-43 vote with two abstentions, with 54 needed for approval -- sent a shockwave through the Anglican Communion. Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, who voted for the confirmation, told reporters that he believed Robinson’s election marked the first time that an openly gay man had been elected bishop of any church in 2,000 years of Christianity.

Immediately after the vote, 19 conservative bishops approached the podium and pleaded publicly for Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, and the world’s Anglican primates to intervene in what the bishops called a “pastoral emergency.”

“This body, in willfully confirming the election of a person sexually active outside of holy matrimony, has departed from the historic faith and order of the church of Jesus Christ. This body has denied the plain teaching of Scripture and the moral consensus of the church throughout the ages. This church has divided itself from millions of Anglican Christians around the world,” they said in a statement that was read by Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh.

But gay rights advocates hailed the vote.

“This is another historic moment for the church, just like when we last gathered in Minneapolis in 1976 and took that historic step forward on behalf of the fuller inclusion of women into the ministry of the church,” said the Rev. Susan Russell, executive director of Claiming the Blessing, a gay and lesbian group based in Pasadena.

“We have now taken a similar step on behalf of gay and lesbian people,” she said.

In London, Archbishop Williams said in a statement that “difficult days lie ahead.” He said the U.S. church’s decision “will inevitably have a significant impact on the Anglican Communion throughout the world.” But he said it is too early to say what that might be.

Williams’ press spokesman, who was present at the convention here, said Williams would be open to a meeting of the standing committee of the world’s Anglican primates to review the matter.

The Episcopal Church is one of 38 self-governing national churches within the Anglican Communion, which claims 77 million members. The Anglican churches share common doctrines and practices and recognize the archbishop of Canterbury as their spiritual leader, but do not have a centralized hierarchy in the manner of the Roman Catholic Church.

Conservatives in the U.S. church as well as archbishops of Anglican churches in Africa, Southeast Asia and South America have warned of a “major realignment” of the church that could result in the creation of a parallel Anglican denomination in the United States.

Griswold said he would be in touch with Williams and other primates. Griswold left open the question of whether he would support the call by conservatives for a meeting of the world’s primates. But he noted that only the archbishop of Canterbury could call an official meeting.

“It is my own conviction that different points of view can be held in tension within the church without issues around sexuality becoming church-dividing,” he told reporters. “This is not a time for either triumph or desolation. Our community has the particular task of reaching out to those who are unsettled by this decision,” he said.

Robinson’s victory came less than four hours after the church reported that a man who had accused Robinson of inappropriate touching had declined to sign a formal church complaint against him.

David Lewis of Manchester, Vt., made the accusation in e-mails that he sent to numerous bishops Sunday night. The accusations forced a day’s delay in a confirmation vote by bishops while the church opened a preliminary investigation.

On Tuesday, Bishop Gordon Scruton of western Massachusetts, who led the investigation, told a hushed House of Bishops he could find no reason to further delay their vote after speaking with Lewis and Robinson.

He said that Lewis, a married man who in years past had unsuccessfully sought to become an Episcopal priest, told him that during two conversations with Robinson in 1999 at a public church gathering that Robinson had made him uncomfortable by touching him.

The physical contact, Scruton said Lewis told him, involved Robinson touching Lewis’ arm, forearm, shoulder and upper back at the Mont Marie Conference Center in Holyoke, Mass. Scruton said Lewis regretted having used the word “harassment” to characterize the physical contact in his e-mail.

Scruton also said there was no evidence Robinson had any connection with a Web site for young gays and bisexuals that contained a series of links that led to an unrelated pornography site.

Robinson, who had security around him and who was wearing a bulletproof vest at the convention, told reporters that he had no recollection of the encounters with Lewis. But he said he had been vindicated by the investigation.

“Today is a very good day because Jesus is Lord,” he said. “Yesterday was a terrible day but I made it through yesterday because Jesus is Lord. Yesterday, it occurred to me that I worship and love a Savior who knows what it’s like to be unjustly charged and wrongfully accused.”

The church’s House of Deputies, which is made up of priests and lay members, had approved the election of Robinson by roughly a 2-1 margin in a vote on Sunday.

The debate by bishops was civil but intense. Often, bishops didn’t mince words.

“If we confirm Gene Robinson as a bishop of the church the unity of this house will be shattered forever,” Bishop Edward Little of Indiana declared.

“If we give our consent for the consecration of this bishop, the Episcopal Church will emerge from this convention broken, wounded, divided and more desperately polarized. If we give consent, portions of our beloved [Anglican] communion will disown us forever,” he said.

But Bishop J. Jon Bruno of Los Angeles, who voted for Robinson, called for reconciliation. “In my life I have tried to follow the reconciling nature of Jesus. In doing that I think we’re doing the work of God. We are reaching out to one another and trying to hold on to one another,” he said.

Bishop Peter H. Beckwith of Springfield, Ill., said he has often questioned how the communion holds together.

“I wonder often whether I am on the same page relative to the many issues which signal, at least for me, the drift and direction of the Episcopal Church away from the church catholic.... Today I question not whether we are on the same page or even the same book, but rather whether we are in the same library,” he said.

Bishop Richard L. Shimpfky of the Diocese of El Camino Real, which includes the Monterey, Calif., area, spoke out against what he said was fear-driven opposition to Robinson.

“Our Lord, unfortunately, never said a word about homosexuality. I wish he had,” Shimpfky said. He said Jesus did promise that he would leave the church with the Holy Spirit who would lead the church “into all truth.”

The first female Episcopal bishop, the Rt. Rev. Barbara Harris, now retired, who was ordained in 1989, underscored the point in Tuesday’s debate.

“I remember well the dire predictions made at the time of my own election,” she said.

“There were threats of schism, impaired communion and further erosion of our relationship with Rome. And while there has been some impaired communion around women in the episcopate and other issues, the Anglican Communion ... has held [together] 13 or 14 women bishops later,” she said.

Indeed, other Anglican churches, including the Church of England, have followed the the example of the U.S. church and have begun ordaining women as well.

Opponents of Robinson said called the seating of a gay bishop in a committed relationship with another man a radical departure from tradition.

Various scenarios are possible, the Rev. Canon David Anderson, president of the conservative American Anglican Council, said Tuesday.

“What is pretty clear is it will not be business as usual. There’s going to be a structural realignment within the Episcopal Church and the guys wearing the purple [bishops] and the people in the House of Deputies don’t seem to get it.”