Gay Bishop, Gene Robinson, Consecrated by the US Episcopal Church!

03/11/2003| IslamWeb

Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the modern history of Christianity, was consecrated last night by the US Episcopal Church before 3,000 worshippers and 54 bishops in the incongruous surroundings of an ice rink on a university campus in New Hampshire. The move threatened an immediate split in the world-wide Anglican Communion. Even before the ceremony started a number of US parishes announced that they were changing their names and setting up independently of the national church in protest at the election of Bishop Robinson, a 56-year-old cleric who has a long-term male partner. Rowan Williams the Archbishop of Canterbury, issued a critical statement as soon as the ceremony was under way - the point of no return and an open defiance by the Americans, headed by their primate Frank Griswold - to a plea by the church's leaders a fortnight ago not to proceed with the consecration. Dr. Williams said: "The divisions that are arising are a matter of deep regret. They will be all too visible in the fact that it will not be possible for Gene Robinson's ministry as a bishop to be accepted in every province in the communion." When the consecration was complete there was long and loud applause. His voice cracking with emotion, Bishop Robinson told the congregation that the service was not about him. He added: "It's about so many other people who find themselves at the margins and for whatever reason have not known the ear of the Lord's favour. Our presence here is a welcome sign for those people to be brought into the centre." But he said it was a time of "great pain and confusion for some people" who were still "wonderful Christians". To applause, he said they must be "welcomed back into our fellowship" if they so wished. Some Episcopal parishes have already made arrangement to join other churches; others are withholding contributions to their diocesan funds. Some conservative groups within the church could scarcely wait to split from their liberal bishops and start a new reformation within the 70 million-strong world-wide Anglican community. Traditionalists held their service of protest and repentance at an evangelical church two miles from where the ceremony was taking place. There were protests during the ceremony from David Bena, Suffragan Bishop of Albany, New York, on behalf of 36 other US bishops and a group of New Hampshire parishioners. He said most bishops in the Anglican Communion would not recognize Bishop Robinson as a fellow bishop. One priest, the Rev Earl Fox, was cut short by Bishop Griswold when he started describing the sexual practices of homosexuals. The priest said: "You understand what I am talking about." Bishop Griswold answered: "Yes, I think we do." The bishop was consecrated to the sound of hymns such as any traditionalist would recognize, including: The Church's One Foundation, with its prescient verse about the church being "By schism rent asunder, by heresies distressed." Bishop Robinson's appointment received the endorsement of nearly 200 church leaders of all Christian denominations from across the state. In an advertisement taken out in the local paper the Concord Monitor yesterday they stated: "We see in [his] consecration the affirmation of a caring pastor and effective administrator who has demonstrated his capability to lead the diocese faithfully." More than 50 US bishops joined the ceremony to perform the traditional laying-on of hands on the new bishop's head - a symbolic act which will automatically thrust them out of communion with their fellow bishops both in the US and across the communion. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Gay-Bishop Gene Robinson, Sunday Nov. 2, 2003 in Durham. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)