Rememberg Frank Griswold, an Epispal bishop who champned gay rights : NPR

Contents:

• REMEMBERG FRANK GRISWOLD, AN EPISPAL BISHOP WHO CHAMPNED GAY RIGHTS
• GAY BISHOP, WHOSE NOMATN SPL CHURCH YEARS AGO, VISS FALLS CHURCH
• EPISPAL CHURCH ORDAS 2ND OPENLY GAY BISHOP
• FIRST OPENLY GAY EPISPAL BISHOP TO DIVORCE HBAND
• EPISPALIANS CONSECRATE FIRST OPENLY GAY BISHOP
• ALL 4 NY EPISPAL BISHOP NDIDAT WILL ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE IF ELECTED

REMEMBERG FRANK GRISWOLD, AN EPISPAL BISHOP WHO CHAMPNED GAY RIGHTS

In 1989, he was the first to orda an openly gay man.

GAY BISHOP, WHOSE NOMATN SPL CHURCH YEARS AGO, VISS FALLS CHURCH

You were ordaed a gay man shortly after the Epispal Church said that was OK to orda non-celibate homosexuals. JOHN SHELBY SPONG: The first homosexual person that I ordaed knowgly was a man named Robert Williams. And this me after I had wrten a book lled "Livg In S" on the whole gay issue as well as some other patterns human sexual life that I thk we need to look at and reasss om a different perspective than the tradnal one.

We had opened a mistry to gay and lbian people out of Hoboken, N. J., which has a very strong and very large homosexual populatn. And he began to work among the people, most of whom are eply alienated om the church bee the only msage they've ever heard om the church is that God hat homosexual people and that they ought to eher be nverted to beg heterosexuals or be thrown out of the church or even executed, as the Book of Levic You end up - We wound up ordag him to the prithood 1989 December.

EPISPAL CHURCH ORDAS 2ND OPENLY GAY BISHOP

And he blew his ol and began to say thgs that ma his mistry and the Dce of Newark - we were right far out on a le to support him - almost impossible to said that monogamy was a heterosexual practice and should never be imposed upon homosexual people. Well, that jt blew headl across the, he had been ordaed to open a mistry to gay and lbian people the Dce of Newark so that we uld hold up to the gay and lbian populatn the mol of a fahful, mted lifetime partnership.

FIRST OPENLY GAY EPISPAL BISHOP TO DIVORCE HBAND

And then he began to say that he did not thk fahfulns to a partner was a virtue that homosexual people ought to be held to, and that he began to prcribe sexual activy sort of random or promiscuo.

And there is no way that I, as a bishop or our dce, was prepared to support promiscuo sexual activy on anybody's part, whether 's homosexual or What was like for you to go out on a limb to orda a gay prit and then have to ask for his rignatn? Robert Williams tght me far more about the meang of homosexual persons and the value that they have to brg to the life of the church than he ever hurt me.

EPISPALIANS CONSECRATE FIRST OPENLY GAY BISHOP

And he was clearly HIV posive and head toward his soon to be that Robert, for me, was symbolic of the fact that gay and lbian people have been so abed by the church.

And Robert opened the door to enormo numbers of gay and lbian people to fd their way back to the church that will be an acceptg muny. And we today have a signifint number of gay and lbian prits servg the Dce of Newark wh credible most recent one that's been volved the ntroversy was Barry Stopful (ph), who was ordaed prit by me, but ordaed an by Bishop Reer (ph).

And then we looked at the gay and lbian populatn that unr the laws of the stat of the Uned Stat of Ameri and every untry of the world are not given the privilege of a legal relatnship. Griswold, who died March 5, prid over the ordatn of the church's first openly gay bishop.

ALL 4 NY EPISPAL BISHOP NDIDAT WILL ALLOW GAY MARRIAGE IF ELECTED

When Gene Robson beme the first openly gay bishop of the U.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)GROSS: How has the ntroversy over gay bishops affected your relatnship wh other bishops?

Sortg and siftg all that and tryg to fd what is God's larger purpose is certaly where I've put my bt energi over the When Bishop Robson was ordaed and beme the first openly gay Epispal bishop, to the ordatn ceremony, you wore a flak jacket, as, I believe, did he.