Conservativ alienated over the ordatn of an openly gay bishop said they would create a rival nomatn.
Contents:
- EPISPAL CHURCH SPLS OVER GAY EQUALYEPISPAL CHURCH SPLS OVER GAY EQUALY
- EPISPALIANS RISK SPL OVER GAYS
EPISPAL CHURCH SPLS OVER GAY EQUALYEPISPAL CHURCH SPLS OVER GAY EQUALY
* episcopal church splits over gay equality *
SocietyFeatureDecember 29, 2008Epispal Church Spls Over Gay EqualyThe Epispal Church’s promotn of an openly gay clergyman has created a ser rift wh the relig muny, threateng the future of the nomatn. Gene Robson, the first openly gay Bishop the Epispal church, has been given the honor of kickg off Obama’s guratn wh a prayer. Rick Warren to give the gural nvotn speech has prompted an outcry om progrsiv and gay activists, all of whom who have nounced Warren’s antigay rhetoric and role the passage of Proposn 8.
After Gene Robson, an openly gay man wh a longterm partner, was elected Bishop of New Hampshire 2003, Anglin bishops om all over the world quickly cried the move. Some aligned themselv wh the Anglin Church of Nigeria and s outspoken homophobic lear, Archbishop Peter Akola. The Anglin nservativ have argued that the Epispal Church acted too rashly s acceptance of gays and lbians to the learship of the church.
EPISPALIANS RISK SPL OVER GAYS
Followg a requt om the Lambeth Commissn, the Epispalian Church published a 135-page document etled “To Set Our Hope Christ, ” which tailed how the church had e to clu homosexuals as equal members of the ngregatn. Prentg both a theologil and legislative argument for gay and lbian equaly, the document clus a long list of missn fdgs and refully word rolutns statg repeatedly how the Epispal Church is “not of one md” on matters of sexualy but is mted to “promot[g] the ntu[ed] e of dialogue. ” There’s the 1976 Commissn on Human Affairs assertg that “homosexual persons are children of God, who have a full and equal claim wh all other persons on love, acceptance, and pastoral ncern and re of the Church, ” or the creatn of a morately liberal gui on sexualy the 1980s.
One rare moment of drama me 1995, when the Bishop of Newark was put on trial wh the church for his ordatn of an openly gay prit.
Aga, the Epispal learship looked to fd a middle way: while “not givg an opn on the moraly of same-genr relatnships, ” refed to nvict on the grounds that “there is no re doctre prohibg the ordatn of a non-celibate homosexual person livg a fahful and mted sexual relatnship, ” and that “the Anglin tradn has enuraged theologil diversy. ” Unable to nvce nservativ wh the church of the basic equaly between heterosexual and homosexual relatnships, and unwillg to abandon s tradn of pluraly and legislative mocracy, the Epispal Church found self nonted by an irrencilable crisis spe s many efforts to avoid one. Support for LGBTQ rights has creased dramatilly sce passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when same-sex marriage was unheard of and homosexualy was wily seen as immoral.