Sat, Sep 06 2008
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Published July 11, 2008 01:37 pm - The global Anglican Communion was in an uproar over the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Long-simmering differences over Scripture and the global Anglican fellowship erupted into a threat of full-blown schism. AP: U.S. Episcopal leader defends church's actions to Anglicans The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori was installed as head of the U.S. church less than two years ago, inheriting a mess not of her own making. The global Anglican Communion was in an uproar over the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Long-simmering differences over Scripture and the global Anglican fellowship erupted into a threat of full-blown schism. Jefferts Schori, a theological liberal who supported Robinson’s election, has tried to ease the tensions in meetings with other Anglican leaders. Starting next Wednesday, she will be explaining the church’s actions in her broadest venue yet: the Lambeth Conference, a once-a-decade meeting of Anglican bishops from around the world. Jefferts Schori said she’s looking forward to the “face-to-face conversation” at the event. “We’re far more diverse than we’re presented in some quarters,” she said in a recent interview with The Associated Press at Episcopal headquarters in New York. “We have people all over the theological spectrum and liturgical spectrum.” It won’t be an easy sell. About 200 conservative Anglican bishops won’t even be there. They are boycotting the 18-day event outside London because the U.S. bishops who consecrated Robinson were invited. (For the sake of unity, the Anglican spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, barred Robinson and a handful of other bishops from the assembly.) But that won’t mean a conflict-free Lambeth for Episcopal bishops. Tradition-minded church leaders who want the Anglican family to stay together despite its rifts will attend. They will undoubtedly ask Jefferts Schori about complaints that the 2.2 million-member U.S. church is mistreating its conservative minority. Of the tensions within the American church, Jefferts Schori said “we’ve attempted to deal with it in the Christian community” but haven’t always been successful. Although the exact figure is in dispute, Episcopal officials say that fewer than 100 of the more than 7,000 U.S. Episcopal parishes have voted to split off since Robinson was elected. The entire Diocese of San Joaquin, based in Fresno, Calif., voted to withdraw from the denomination, and the Diocese of Pittsburgh, is poised to do the same this fall. The national church is suing to retain hold of the San Joaquin diocese and its many millions of dollars in property. Another lawsuit is moving through the courts over 11 breakaway churches in Virginia. Critics have called the legal fights “un-Christian” and have asked Episcopal leaders to halt the lawsuits. But Jefferts Schori said, “We really don’t have the authority or the moral right to give away those gifts that have been given by generations past and for the benefit of generations now and the benefit of generations to come.” 
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