N.H. Episcopal church members reject gay bishop

Most parishioners at the Church of the Redeemer in Rochester, N.H., have walked out rather than accept the leadership of openly gay bishop V. Gene Robinson. Parishioners voted 36-3 Wednesday night to leave Redeemer and found a new church outside the control of the Episcopal diocese of New Hampshire. Robinson said he was stunned by the vote. "I'm heartbroken over this. I thought I was going with an offer they simply could not refuse." Disaffected Episcopalians in the state are asking the world Anglican leader, the archbishop of Canterbury, to accept them as Anglicans outside the authority of the Episcopal Church USA. "It would be an unprecedented thing," Robinson said Thursday. Though other churches call themselves Anglican, the Episcopal Church is the only denomination in the United States included in the worldwide Anglican Communion. Parishioners' decision to break away from the Episcopal diocese comes after months of negotiations. The majority of the members of Redeemer had opposed Robinson's consecration as bishop, saying his life as an openly gay man--he has lived with his partner for 15 years--violates scripture and makes him unfit to lead the diocese. Robinson granted the church's request for a conservative bishop and a conservative priest to conduct services at Redeemer, but he says church law requires him to maintain some relationship to the parish and to approve any priest who serves it. Redeemer members asked him for two years of independence from the diocese, but Robinson rejected that request. Robinson said Thursday the diocese will support the remaining members of the Rochester church "as long as it takes" to rebuild membership. Robinson's assistant, the Reverend Tim Rich, will preach at Redeemer on Sunday. The building also will remain open to a small Presbyterian congregation and a local nonprofit that use it, he noted.