leaders come out about gays and the Episcopal Church
By Donna C. Gregory
 

Custer

Local church leaders have mixed reactions to a U.S. Episcopal Church resolution that urges bishops and diocesan committees to refrain from electing additional homosexual bishops.

Adopted during the Episcopal Church's general convention earlier this month, the resolution calls for restraint "by not consenting to the consecration of any candidate [for bishop] whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on communion."

While the resolution fell short of the moratorium some denomination leaders were requesting, Dale Custer, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Chester, says it was a good compromise, giving leaders more time to discuss an issue that's divided the church along conservative and liberal lines.

"The resolution that was passed was very Anglican in that it tried

Custer to find a place where all can be comfortable," says Custer. "It's my hope that we'll take seriously the pain that we have caused, and will do what we have done well in the past, and that's take time now to really listen to each other."

The worldwide Anglican community has been in turmoil since the U.S. Episcopal Church elected its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, three years ago.

Jenkins

Just days after the resolution's approval, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, proposed a plan that might force the U.S. Episcopal Church to either renounce gay bishops or give up membership in the Communion.

Provinces that approve of electing gay bishops would lose their decision-making power in the Communion and become "churches in association" while those in opposition would retain their status as "constituent churches."

"No member church can make significant decisions unilaterally and still expect this to make no difference to how it is regarded in the fellowship," wrote Williams.

The proposal would allow local churches to separate from the U.S. Episcopal Church and instead join an American faction that stays within the Communion.

Custer, of St. John's, was in favor of the moratorium proposed during the convention. He also opposed Robinson's election.

"I was opposed to it because we had failed to listen to one another," he explains. "The Episcopal Church of the USA ran ahead of everyone else. I certainly have my personal opinions [about homosexuality], but as a parish priest, the thing that disturbs me the most is the process of not listening."

Gatto

Congregation members at St. John's have talked very little about the resolution, says Custer.

"My energy is not so much on spending a lot of time wrestling with this," says Custer. "I am much more interested in seeing that the broken world, the body of Christ, is looked after, because God's going to take care of the rest of this stuff."

Martha Jenkins, vicar of St. Matthew's

Jenkins Episcopal Church in Chesterfield, agrees.

"We are a young congregation, and there's a real sense of community, and they [her congregation] are not split on issues like that," says Jenkins. "I think their focus is different. I think their focus is on what God is asking us to do right now on Beach Road in Chesterfield County. We have to live where we are."

Jenkins favored the adopted resolution.

"The end result was a compromise that was acceptable to a vast majority of the people who were there," she asserts. "I fully support what they did. I think it was the best they could do under the circumstances, and I really think St. Matthew's will agree with that. I'm very pleased with what's happened."

Jenkins takes a more relaxed view on the issue of electing gay bishops.

"If you're forward-thinking, it often means you're by yourself. I think that we're willing to take chances, knowing that God will correct us if it's something that is not of His will," she says. "God is bigger than any of us, bigger than the Episcopal Church, and He loves us and He knows that we don't always get it right."

St. Matthew's lost a couple of members shortly after Robinson's election due to the U.S. Episcopal Church's liberal stance on homosexuality.

Robinson's election caused other congregations to split from Episcopal leadership altogether, including one local church.

In January 2005, Father Joe Gatto and half of the congregation of the former St. Joseph's Episcopal Church denounced the U.S. Episcopal Church to form Christ Church, a mission church affiliated with the Anglican Church of Rwanda. With 78 members, Gatto's congregation now meets at Clover Hill High School on Hull Street Road.

"We disassociated with them because they don't hold to the traditional faith of the church," says Gatto. "I wouldn't say we left because of say we left because of the homosexuality issue. Homosexuality is a minor thing. The main issue is scripture and the authority of scripture. If you accept [the election of gay bishops], then you're saying the scripture is not true. We left because the Episcopal Church no longer accepts the Bible as the supreme authority and doctrine for morals."

Gatto says he hasn't followed the issue closely since leaving the U.S. Episcopal church.

"What the Episcopal Church does now is not of particular concern to me. It's just another religious cult."

The recently adopted resolution is pointless, he adds.

"It's a meaningless resolution," says Gatto. "If it's not binding, it means everyone is going to do what he or she pleases."