Episcopal Church Panel Recommends 'Caution' in Appointing Gay Bishops

Source: Focus on the Family. www.family.org

Episcopal Church Panel Recommends 'Caution' in Appointing Gay Bishops

by Pete Winn, associate editor


The American branch of one of the largest Christian denominations is in danger of decertification.

A special advisory committee is recommending that the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA) exercise "considerable caution" from now on before electing homosexual bishops.

The commission also recommended that the American church offer "apology and repentance" and stop holding blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples, at least for a while.

The Rev. Dr. Kendall Harmon, a church law expert and theologian for the ECUSA's Diocese of South Carolina, said the committee report is another salvo in a dispute over homosexuality that threatens the relationship of the 2.3 million-member American church to the worldwide Anglican Communion — the world's third-largest Christian denomination at 88 million.

He compared the church's relationship to the Communion to a rocky marriage.

"This is a marriage that's in full separation," he said, "and it's in danger of divorce."

ECUSA has been at odds with the worldwide church since 2003, when the American church allowed V. Gene Robinson — a practicing homosexual — to become the bishop of New Hampshire.

As a response to Robinson's elevation to bishop, Harmon said a "high-stakes marriage counselor" was brought in to try to mend the rift. The Eames Commission, as it was called, asked the American church to stop appointing gay bishops and sanctioning same-sex marriages.

"That commission's report — The 2004 Windsor Report — said basically what we need to do is create space," Harmon said. "What we need to do is stop any more movement. We need you (ECUSA) to have a moratorium on what you've been doing."

This new ECUSA report, he added, is the American response "to pleas of the Anglican Communion that we need some space."

"It's a long, long way short of what's being asked for," he said.

The Rev. Dr. Ephraim Radner, one of the church's most important theologians, said it's important to know that the ECUSA panel does not set policy for the overall American church — its role is advisory only.

Still, the church's bishops may entertain and pass some of the proposals at ECUSA's general convention in June. If they do, the worldwide church could refuse to accept the action — and the divorce may become final.

"There's a big difference between not doing it at all (appointing gay bishops), and just doing it with caution," Radner said.

The proposal, he explained, takes on added significance since next month the diocese of California is going to have an election for bishop, and three of the candidates have same-sex partners.

"They've already, said, 'Yeah, we'll exercise caution, and if we choose to elect any of these people, we will go ahead and do it,' " Radner noted. "That's a huge loophole."

Harmon said the relationship between the American church and the Anglican Communion was headed the wrong way long before the American church OK'd the election of a homosexual bishop.

It began in 1998 at the Lambeth Conference, the once-every-10-year gathering of all Anglican bishops from around the world, who come to London at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop, the titular head of worldwide Anglicanism, makes his home at Britain's Lambeth Palace.

Led by the bishops of the "global South" — Africa and Asia — the Lambeth Conference passed a resolution which said, "Homosexual practice is incompatible with Scripture."

"It passed by a huge majority of the bishops who were present there," Harmon said, "and it reflected the vast majority of the Communion's belief."

The resolution did not, however, reflect the beliefs of some of the most important bishops in the Western churches — namely in the U.S. and Canada.

"The bishop of Los Angeles actually came home and said, 'The Holy Spirit was not there,' " Harmon said.

As a result of what happened in 1998, the Western churches moved towards embracing what Harmon called "various nonbiblical practices of human sexuality" — culminating in the election of Robinson.

For Radner, there are two possible outcomes to the crisis.

"One is that the Episcopal Church will have to be disciplined in some way — their bishops will not be invited to the Lambeth Conference in 2008, and there are some legal implications of that which are unclear," he said. "This would cause chaos in the American church."

The other possibility? That the worldwide church would accept the American response.

Things could shake out by the end of the summer, he said.