The Bishop of Lichfield has said a rift in the Church of England over the issue of gay bishops is likely to lead to a permanent split.
The Rt Rev Jonathan Gledhill said the American Churches were wrong to appoint a gay bishop and said 95 per cent of the Anglican Community would agree.
Churches in America have been given until September 30 to reverse their stance on gay bishops by the Anglican Communion.
Religious leaders in the UK have said it could split the Church of England.
The Bishop of Lichfield told the Express & Star he had a traditional view of homosexuality and viewed the appointment of gay bishops as wrong.
He said: “I have friends who are gay and I am very fond of them and life is very complex for them.
“I don’t want a split at all but the reason for it not so much the moral issue, it is the fact the Americans have gone ahead without a debate. We need to have a debate, that’s the real cause of the split.
“It may be that the American churches are allowed to split and get on with it while the rest of the church gets back to debating it.
“Appointing a gay bishop, in my view, was wrong and I think 95 per cent of the Anglican Communion would agree with me.”
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, met with America’s bishops this week in a last-ditch effort to keep the church in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
The Americans had been asked to stop electing and consecrating non-celibate gay priests as bishops, discontinue performing same-sex marital blessings and offer a sincere expression of regret for “tearing the fabric” of the communion by consecrating Reverend Canon Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire.
A lesbian is also being considered as Bishop of Chicago.
See also: Biking bishop hits the road
23 Comments
Who cares if it does spilt the church. What relevance does it have in todays society, how does it touch us in every day life. I would say it doesn’t on both things, it’s about time the human race moved on from the dark ages, worshipping gods, with homophobic doctrines & moved in to the 21st century.
The American Church (Episcopal Church) does not “appoint” bishops as in other parts of the Anglican Communion. Bishop V. Gene Robinson was elected bishop by the Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003 and subsequently his election was approved by the House of Bishops. It always takes one branch to make the bold moves in the Communion, and eventually others follow. Otherwise, we’d still be upholding slavery, subjugation of women, etc. I’m proud to be a member of the Episcopal Church of the USA.
Im withRed
Ellecting Gene Robinson was wrong. He is not a bad person but you are suppose to give up the sin if you accept JC, this man still lives a sin full life and so has not fully been forgiven for his sins and thus cannot receive communion or should be a preist or a bishop. Period. Outsiders can say what they want, but to be Anglican is to follow the true Catholic faith of Christ Jesus as he gave to us, not a new inserted revolation.
Gene Robinson is a little selfish weasel. He care about no one but his own self and sexual desires. If someone told me that I was going to split up 80mm people, I think i would have the common decency to resign.
An ever shrinking Episcopal Church that has turned away from the faith of centuries, from the Gospel of Christ and instead succumbs to secular humanism and moral relativism. Sin is now subjective, what matters more is social consciousness and the Episocal Church is here to lead the way with unilateral decisions.
TEC has really been nothing more than congregationalists with a Catholic liturgy. Soon they’ll relegate themselves to the protestant gay church with unitarian beliefs. May God have mercy.
I agree, PLease send help to the ones here that wish to be Anglican.
All the comments above about how the election of Gene Robinson violates Biblical injunctions against sexual sin demonstrate just how baldly the so-called “orthodox” are willing to thumb their nose at Christ’s Gospel.
Why should The Episcopal church be required to promise to do something which it has not officially sanctioned? The local blessing of gay unions is in keeping with Lambeth 1.10 which allows local pastoral responses to the spiritual needs of GBLT people. Has anyone actulally read the report that is commended in the first section of Lambeth 1.10? That report specifies that there is NO concensus (and thus no teaching) about same sex unions. Lambeth 1.10 is thus internally contradicotry and more ambiguous than now claimed. Furthermore, why should TEC be required to promise it will not do something that parishes in the Church of England and other provinces are already doing without being told to go sit in the corner as a “bad” church? Friends of mine living in England part of each year have witnessed such blessings at the parish church they attend in England.
If all the churches don’t get their heads round equality for women and gays they will die out completely in the next few decades. To “roman”: the RC church is dying fast in the West because it teaches a morality on gender and sexuality which is totally out of step with what people actually believe nowadays. TEC is showing the way that the other churches will have to travel if they want to speak the language of 21st c society.
Who are you people?
If you are representative of Christianity in your small-minded, petty, ignorance, then I’m happy not to be a member of your feeble club.
All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small,
all things wise and wonderful
The good Lord made them all.
Unless you are gay then it would seem that the church will not accept this !
Jesus never married and was said to have loved some male disciples more than others. Respected medical opinion has reinforced my personal conclusion that homosexuality is not a choice–it’s as naturally inborn as hair color or being better in maths than geography. Given that homosexuals have always been so inexcusably horribly treated, why would any sane person “choose” to live as a gay man or woman (or both)? There are so many other issues that bleed and cry for attention and resolution in this world today that it makes as much sense to try to “counteract” homosexuality as it does to try to rid the world of redheads or people with allergies or inherited diseases or bad singing voices. Final questions: what is it about someone else’s being a homosexual that is (1) anyone else’s bloody business!; (2) so deeply threatening or frightening to some people who were not born homosexual? Dear Homophobes: do yourself and the world a favor and put all that hateful (and ultimately wasted) anti-gay energy and money and whingeing to some useful purpose–like finding a cure for cancer or feeding starving children. God bless us –every one.
will this never end?
Jesus stretched out his arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that “WE ALL” might come within the reach of His saving embrace.
Even those I don’t like, whose actions I don’t like, whose politics I don’t like, who dress funny, and have strange ideas, those conservatives, those liberals, … you know, “THEM”!
Jesus was much more radical than any of us hope to have a clue about and while he has no one who is overly homosexual among his immediate followers, Jesus does tell that centurion, that he will go with him, to his house, to cure his slave boy, in the Synoptic Gosples.
I believe you are all upset over what is but the first act in what will become much more interesting.
The Membership of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire elected Gene Robinson to lead them. The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church acknowledged that election with confirmation. And the Church leaders of the Global South all said “not in my church”.
I say this is but Act one, because I am under the distinct impression that the Commons, you remember them; the guys in that Gothic buildng on the Thames in London with the Big clock tower, have enacted something that looks like and sounds like a Same Sex Marriage act. Seeing as how His Grace the Rt Honorable and Most Reverend R.D.Williams Archbishop of Canterbury was nominated to his present position by the PM and appointed by the Crown, he is a member of the govenment no matter what position he holds.
If Commons has said members of the same sex may marry each other and some of them would desire this to happen in Church, how can His Grace or any member of clergy deny them the legal action they are requesting?
At the bottom line, the American Episcopal Church is but the prototype of what will happen. And once the American Church is dealt with, eliminated, or destroyed and the presedents are established, then the guns of the global South will be pointed at Lambeth.
The church is not splitting over gays, the Church is splitting over who is to be included and who is to be excluded from the Reach of Jesus, because we know he really doesnt want “THEM” included - the problem with the split is that it is all just so bogus because Jesus can reach us all and does, even if you dont want him to reach “THEM”.
Well I continue to find traditionalistic comments like the bishop’s rather puzzling. He still wishes to believe entirely negative things about queer folks, just because of their sexual orientation, while his straight sexual orientation gets a free pass automatically. He realizes that life is pretty complicated for queer folks, but he mentions nothing about his own religious leadership role in helping to proclaim and maintain negative beliefs about queer folks that, no doubt about it, continue to make ordinary citizen life - well, pretty complicated.
On top of that, the bishop believes that he really loves his gay friends or acquaintances.
So. What - again we might ask - is the rationale for treating queer folks fairly outside of church life, while still holding special straight privileges to trash talk them and by clear implication treat them unfairly inside church life?
And. Just how - exactly, yet again - does this ever so loving Anglican bishop - square the many numberous real world competencies of those queer folks (including their frequent commitments to high ethics, and one or another form of local to world service) - with one or another of his roundly negative evaluations of them?
Gene Robinson is a “little selfish weasel?”
I guess so. After all, the clergy and elected delegates of the Diocese of New Hampshire were surely looking for a “little selfish weasel” when they got together, prayed a lot, and then elected him to be their next bishop.
And the fact that he was prepared to face death threats - and wore a bullet-proof vest to his consecration was all part of his weaselly selfishness.
I grow tired of hatemongering and bigotry passing themselves off as orthodoxy.
There are thoughtful and sincere conservatives on this issue.
None of them have commented on this article.
If JC came back to life today, he would be dead within 24 hours from a fit of continous vomiting.
Nasty conservatives - go to heaven!!
Jesus was a liberal Jew! Amen.
The Episcopal Church in the USA has degenerated so badly that like the former USSR, it is now headed toward the ash heap of history.
In my area of Chicago, yet another Episcopal congregation left en masse last week and relocated to a building of their own choosing.
This is terribly unfortunate, because the C of E and members thereof, played a pivotal role in the establishment and maintenance of this great nation.
In Dante’s parlance, there is a special circle of hell reserved for the self-indulgent egoists who precipitated this.
I have joined a breakaway Conservative Anglican congregation in Evanston, IL.
I applaud the efforts of those in the UK who are trying, however belatedly, to bring about a restoration.
The C of E is a critical pillar in the maintenance of Western Christendom and essentially civility.
I cannot be allowed to fail.
As for the onanistic forces who have undermined the Church: “By their fruits, you shall know them.”
It is not just the House of Bishops that consented to the election of the Bishop of New Hampshire. It was the General Convention, which voted for this in both the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops. We have a bicameral legislature, and both Houses need to approve legislation at the same convention for it to pass.
As a (lay) Deputy, I was honoured to vote in favour of the confirmation.
The church is full of hypocrites! They preach about acceptance of others, forgiveness of sins and treating people as you would wish to be treated yourself, but do they accept? No! Gone are the days when homosexuality was unspoken about and brushed under the carpet. These days you are encouraged to be true to yourself. If they haven’t alienated the young people of today already with their double standards then this will certainly help. It’s not like homosexuality doesn’t exist in the church already…
Which rule book are the church “elders” using when women are allowed to the priesthood but homosexual people are not?
It is not about homosexuals, it is about Biblical authority. The Anglican Communion agreed in 1998 that homosexual behavior is contrary to Scripture. TEC says Scripture is wrong. That is what the row is about. TEC inventing a new religion.