Bishops’ Ordination Divides Episcopalians

A move by conservative Anglican bishops, gathered in Singapore, to defy church norms and ordain as bishops two American priests who oppose liberal trends in the Episcopal Church is creating deep divisions within the denomination.

While several liberal trends in the church are at issue, the chief division regards how the church should respond to homosexuality.

The normal procedure in the worldwide Anglican Communion is for each national church--the Episcopal Church in the case of the United States--to control its own ordination of bishops.

In this case, Archbishops Emmanual Kolini of Rwanda and Moses Tay of Southeast Asia joined four other bishops to consecrate the Rt. Revs. Charles H. Murphy III of South Carolina and John H. Rodgers Jr., the retired dean of an Episcopal seminary in Pennsylvania.

Both men are leaders of American groups that oppose moves to ordain gay men and lesbians as Episcopal priests and to solemnize gay weddings.

Episcopal leaders made clear their opposition to any move by the two men to exercise the authority of bishops. Archbishop of Canterbury George L. Carey, the worldwide leader of the 70-million-member Anglican Communion, called the ordinations irresponsible and warned that they “only harm the unity of the communion.”

The Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold III, presiding bishop and primate of the 2.4-million-member Episcopal Church in the United States, said he was “appalled.”

“What I could see happening,” he added, “has happened before, namely new denominations get formed.” Few Episcopal parishes would join a breakaway denomination, he predicted.

The new ordinations seem likely to be debated next month when the primates of the 37 self-governing provinces of the Anglican Communion meet in Portugal. Carey, Griswold and the two archbishops who ordained the U.S. priests are all scheduled to be present.