Episcopalians Consider Split Details

[Bruce S]

Today: October 08, 2003 at 5:14:25 PDT



Episcopalians Consider Split Details

By BOBBY ROSS JR.
[size=-2]ASSOCIATED PRESS[/size]





DALLAS (AP) -

Emboldened by an opening day of prayer, singing and inspiring words, an insurgent conservative movement within the Episcopal Church next tackles the nuts and bolts of a possible split with the denomination.

Nearly 2,700 conservatives from across the country began a three-day meeting Tuesday with the goal of shaping plans for Episcopalians who oppose the church's increasing acceptance of gay relationships. Among those in attendance are 46 of the denomination's 300 bishops.

One panel Wednesday was expected to brief participants on the practical details a split would entail for such issues as church law, clergy pensions and property rights.

"The idea of a split is very devastating," said Christopher Culpepper, 33, a seminary student from Nashotah, Wis. "But I think it would be very difficult to remain in communion with the Episcopal Church."

At its national convention in Minneapolis this summer, the church confirmed the election of a gay bishop living with his partner and voted to recognize that its bishops are allowing blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples.

The Rev. Rick Kramer, one of about 800 priests attending the Dallas meeting, said he came in hopes of "taking back the church," even if that means severing ties with the denomination.

That's a prevailing message at the meeting, as conservatives claim the church's liberal wing has abandoned a message of repentance and forgiveness for an anything-goes brand of religion.

"It is the gospel of affirmation rather than the gospel of salvation," said the Rev. Kendall Harmon, canon theologian for the Diocese of South Carolina. "We have moved from sinners in the hands of an angry God to clients in the palm of a satisfied therapist."

Some Episcopalians who support the Minneapolis decisions are operating a hospitality suite at the hotel where the meeting is being held.

The Rev. Susan Russell, president of Integrity, a caucus for 2,500 Episcopalians who support gay and lesbian rights in the church, said the meeting "represents a tiny but vocal minority."

"The schism is infinitely avoidable," she said, "but if it happens it will be minor. The church is smarter than that and stronger than that."

A draft version of a declaration the meeting will issue at its conclusion Thursday commits participants to withholding money from the national church and dioceses that support the Minneapolis decisions.

It also calls on the archbishop of Canterbury and the 37 other leading bishops in the Anglican Communion, of which the Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch, to create an undefined "new alignment for Anglicanism in North America."

Those 38 leaders will hold an emergency meeting in London next week to debate what to do about the possible Episcopal split and disagreement in the Anglican Church of Canada over gay relationships.

Many U.S. conservatives want their wing of the Episcopal Church to be declared the nation's only authentic branch of Anglicanism, in effect suspending or expelling the rest of the denomination. The proposed statement also would ask the world leaders to authorize surrogate bishops for conservative congregations even if the resident bishop opposes such intervention.

 

[Bruce S]

Posted on Wed, Oct. 08, 2003

Split in Episcopalian church expected
[size=-1]By Larry B. Stammer[/size]
[size=-1]LOS ANGELES TIMES[/size]

DALLAS - Two months after the Episcopal Church confirmed the election of an openly gay priest as bishop, more than 2,600 conservative Episcopalians gathered here Tuesday to stand against the action in what could presage a formal split in the church.

The Episcopalians, meeting at a conference sponsored by the conservative American Anglican Council, were poised for an open break in one of the United States' oldest and most influential denominations. A theological divide in the 2.3 million-member church widened after its highest legislative body, the General Convention, met in August in Minneapolis and confirmed the election by the diocese of New Hampshire of the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson as its next bishop. Robinson, an openly gay priest who has been in a relationship for 13 years, is scheduled to be consecrated bishop in November.

"We are coming here to stand," the Rev. David Roseberry, a keynote speaker declared to enthusiastic applause. "There is great virtue in just being able to stand. You remember the words of the Apostle Paul: 'Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes you will be able to stand your ground.'"

The conservative conference came just a week before the world's highest-ranking Anglican archbishops convene in London for an emergency meeting with the archbishop of Canterbury over the unfolding crisis in the Episcopal Church, which is a self-governing member of the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion.

It is uncertain what the Anglican primates -- the archbishops of national churches -- will do at the London gathering. But conservative Episcopalians here are expected to urge them to intervene. They want the 37 primates to persuade the archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head of the communion, to create a "new alignment" that could result in a parallel church in the United States and Canada for "biblically orthodox" Anglicans.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, primate of the mother Church of England, has ultimate authority to decide which churches are in communion with him and therefore considered Anglican.

The conservative rank-and-file Episcopalians and their clergy meeting in Dallas said the church had been reeling since two crucial votes by the General Convention in August.

In addition to confirming Robinson's election, the national church also tacitly approved allowing local bishops to authorize marriage-like blessings of committed homosexual couples.

The conference, sponsored by the conservative American Anglican Council, drew 2,674 participants, including 46 bishops and 799 priests. In total there are 10,465 active clergy, including priests and bishops, in the Episcopal Church, a church spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Speaker after speaker here condemned the recent decisions and called on the church to repent.

"We have dropped the ball. We live in a time and in a church under judgment," said the Rev. Kendall S. Harmon, a theologian from the Diocese of South Carolina. The Rev. David H. Roseberry, rector of Christ Church in the Dallas suburb of Plano, said the Episcopal Church must be "rebuked, rejected or corrected in some way."

In asking for a realignment of the church, Roseberry compared the worldwide Anglican Communion to a constellation. He said the star representing the Episcopal Church had moved away from historic Christian teaching against homosexuality and the primacy of Scripture.