Uninvited, Gay Episcopal Bishop Attends Lambeth Conference Anyway

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Uninvited, Gay Bishop Attends Conference Anyway
By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 26, 2008; Page A08

....Since (Gene) Robinson, 61, was consecrated as bishop in New Hampshire five years ago, his presence has threatened to split the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, the world's third-largest church. A traditionalist wing of the church whose leaders include Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who condemns homosexuality as an abomination against God's teaching, has been so at odds with welcoming gay people and women that it held its own breakaway meeting in Jerusalem last month.

Rowan Williams, archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual leader of the Communion, did not invite Robinson to the church's gathering in Canterbury, known as the Lambeth Conference, in an attempt to calm any move toward formal schism. Even so, Akinola and more than 200 bishops, many from Africa, have boycotted the conference, held once every 10 years. But 650 of the 880 bishops invited did come. Robinson, with no invitation, showed up, too, though he cannot go to the official meetings....

"I would rather be on the inside. It's never okay to be relegated to the fringe by someone," said Robinson, a charismatic man with short graying hair and rimless glasses. If he succeeds in explaining how he can be "unabashedly gay and unabashedly Christian" to even one more person who cannot fathom it, he said, "it will have been worth it."

The last Lambeth conference, in 1998, produced a resolution that declared active homosexuality to be incompatible with the teachings of the Bible. Robinson's elevation to bishop five years later by the U.S. branch of Anglicanism, the Episcopal Church, accelerated the clash. More than a dozen Episcopal congregations in Virginia voted in late 2006 and early 2007 to break with the U.S. church, including the influential Falls Church in Falls Church and Truro Church in Fairfax. Most of these are now aligned with Akinola, the archbishop in Nigeria.

Moreover, the Episcopal Church is now led by a woman, Katharine Jefferts Schori. Many conservative members of the faith continue to oppose appointment of women priests and bishops, but no issue has stirred division globally as much as treatment of gays and lesbians in the church....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/25/AR2008072502828.html?hpid=topnews

[ruggerson]

1. Good

The bishops threatening to split off are a disgrace to humanity.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Downright sinful in a business which is supposed to be about inclusion and love. nt

[zanne]

3. It takes people like Gene Robinson...

It takes courageous people who'll take the brunt of criticism and abuse for demanding equality to benefit the whole world.

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. Gotta like his style. nt

[JerseygirlCT]

5. He's such a cool guy. And it's such a horrid shame that the

ABC indulged the separatists and haters by refusing to invite him - as he is a duly elected bishop in the Episcopal church.

But as I sort of expected, Gene Robinson is acting with far more grace than many.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. It has not been Bishop Robinson's presence that has threatened to split the Anglican Communion

It has been the extreme bigotry of narrow-minded people who claim that the Spirt of God works through the consensus of the Church, then refused to acknowledge that Spirit when it brought the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States to a consensus on consecrating Gene Robinson.

[kwassa]

7. a good article on Robinson from London's Sunday Times

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article4405816.ece

“I took a vow, as did all bishops, to participate in the councils of the church,” says Robinson. “I am only fulfilling my vow.” What about the vows of the 230 boycotting bishops? Haven’t you ruined the conference for them? “I can’t control their choices,” he says. “They were the ones who demanded I not be included at the table and the Archbishop of Canterbury acceded to their requests – and lo and behold that’s not enough. Even the bishops who consecrated me are found to be offensive.

(jump)

It certainly makes the Church of England’s famous reputation for tolerance seem rather weedy. While New Hampshire Anglicans have apparently celebrated their bishop’s civil union without turning a hair, the Church of England is still nervous of appearing to support the ordination of any homosexual. Robinson has been allowed to meet Williams only once – about three years ago. By comparison, he has had three one-on-one meetings with Barack Obama, the US presidential candidate.

(jump)

Are we more prejudiced over here? “I would say you are just as far along this issue as we are, only you won’t admit it,” he says. “You have so many gay clergy, gay partnered clergy, gay couples who are both clergy. The bishops know it. Their congregations know it. But can you get anyone to talk about it? Oh no. I think it’s a hold-over from Victorian times.”