News
2007-03-02
Episcopal head
seeks gay compromise
Appearing on a
live Webcast, the Episcopal Church's presiding bishop
began the painful task Wednesday of persuading members to
roll back
Appearing on a
live Webcast, the Episcopal Church's presiding bishop
began the painful task Wednesday of persuading members to
roll back their support for gays—at least for
now—so the denomination can keep its place in
the world Anglican fellowship.
The Most Reverend
Katharine Jefferts Schori, who personally supports
ordaining partnered gays, told a studio audience, callers,
and those who submitted questions by e-mail that they
should make concessions that Anglican leaders are
seeking to buy time for reconciliation.
''To live
together in Christian community means each member takes
seriously the concerns and needs of other members,''
Jefferts Schori said. ''If we can lower the emotional
reactivity in the midst of this current controversy,
we just might be able to find a way to live
together.''
Asked whether she
was abandoning gay and lesbian Christians, Jefferts
Schori said, ''My view hasn't changed, but I'm called to be
pastor to the whole church.''
Anglican leaders
emerged from a closed-door meeting in Tanzania last week
with an ultimatum for the U.S. denomination: They gave
Episcopalians until September 30 to unequivocally
pledge not to consecrate another partnered gay bishop
or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples. If
the church refuses, it risks a much-reduced role in the 77
million–member Anglican Communion.
The Episcopal
Church, which represents Anglicanism in the United States,
caused an uproar in 2003 by consecrating its first openly
gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson. The decision put the
liberal Christian focus on social justice directly at
odds with the traditional biblical view of sexuality.
On Tuesday,
Robinson made his first public comments on Anglican demands,
saying the church should reject the ultimatum and instead
''get on with the work of the Gospel'' no matter how
communion leaders react. Several other Episcopal
bishops have issued similar statements.
Most of the calls
and questions submitted during the Webcast were equally
fraught.
One woman said
her daughter is a lesbian seeking to become an Episcopal
priest who was ''brokenhearted'' by the restrictions on
gays. Another asked whether Anglican leaders were
actually promoting division instead of healing.
Jefferts Schori
answered each in the same calm, measured tone, saying
that ''an ethic of justice and inclusion would seemingly
also urge us to include the dissenter.'' Theological
conservatives are a minority in the 2.3
million–member church but are the majority among
Anglicans overseas.
The presiding
bishop cautioned that a rush to break from other Anglicans
would hurt Episcopal humanitarian work, disconnecting the
U.S. church from sister churches overseas. She said
she understood the fear created by the crisis, but
added that a split would not solve the problem.
''We are being
pushed toward a decision by impatient forces within and
outside this church who hunger for clarity. That hunger for
clarity at all costs is an anxious response to
discomfort in the face of change which characterizes
all of life,'' she said. ''The impatience we're now
experiencing is an idol—a false hope that is
unwilling to wait on God for clarity.''
The Episcopal
House of Bishops will take up the proposal for the first
time at a closed-door meeting in March. Jefferts Schori said
she was also trying to find a way that the House of
Deputies, which represents clergy and lay people,
could weigh in on the decision without calling a special
convention, which would be expensive and time-consuming.
(Rachel Zoll, AP)
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