Episcopal bishops seek prayer in rift over same sex unions

Posted by Kendall Harmon

The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States. In 2003, it caused an uproar by consecrating its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The following year, Anglican leaders asked the Episcopal Church to hold off on electing another gay bishop while they tried to prevent a permanent break in the fellowship.

But in July, the U.S. church's top policy making body affirmed that gay and lesbian priests were eligible to become bishops despite pressure from other Anglicans.

The Archbishop of Canterbury called for gracious restraint on the matter, but Jefferts Schori said Saturday that "there was never any time frame attached to that request."

[Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori] added that she didn't know whether six years was long enough to wait but "the church is in the process of discerning that."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams • Episcopal Church (TEC) • Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori • TEC Bishops • TEC Conflicts • TEC Conflicts: Los Angeles • Sexuality Debate (in Anglican Communion) • Same-sex blessings • * Christian Life / Church Life • Spirituality/Prayer

5 Comments
Posted December 13, 2009 at 3:10 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Brian from T19 wrote:

She added that she didn’t know whether six years was long enough to wait but “the church is in the process of discerning that.”

Well, that’s refreshingly honest,  I guess we’ll find out.

December 13, 4:50 pm | [comment link]
2. dwstroudmd wrote:

Discernment and moratoria by election.  Pardon me, but even the postmodern linguists have to reconize that non sequiter, even if the Episcopalians cannot.

December 13, 8:40 pm | [comment link]
3. Ian Montgomery wrote:

The Moratoria were meant to stay put until there was a Communion wide consensus - which there is NOT.  This is yet another rip in the fabric of the Communion as a TEC initiative.  A further attempt to create facts on the ground.  A further spin initiative by the PB and which few will take seriously and she has lost all credibility if TEC had any anyway on a Communion wide basis.  Sounds to me just like further steps away from the Communion into TEC’s own version of oblivion.

December 13, 9:17 pm | [comment link]
4. samh wrote:

So… “let’s do something we know will upset everybody, THEN discern if it was the right thing to do?”

December 14, 7:29 am | [comment link]
5. David Keller wrote:

#4—You misquote what KJS would actually say—“THEN discern that we did the right thing.”

December 14, 9:14 am | [comment link]
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