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D.C.'s Episcopal Bishop intends to authorize blessings of gay unions
It looks like the race launched when the Episcopal Church USA's General Convention passed a resolution on blessing same-sex unions is going to be won by Washington, D.C., bishop John Chane.

"Local faith communities are operating within the bonds of our common life as they explore and experience liturgies celebrating and blessing same-sex unions," the General Convention's resolution said. That resolution would be much bigger religion news, and certainly a major point of contention within the Anglican Communion, if it weren't for this Sunday's consecration of openly and practicing gay bishop Gene Robinson.

Chane interpreted the ECUSA resolution in a letter to the American Anglican Council, the large orthodox group that's opposing Robinson's consecration and gay unions in the church. The statement "permits the [bishop] of the diocese to set a standard of authorizing local or diocesan rites for congregations that may wish to engage in such blessings," he wrote, according to a report in The Washington Times. "You and I know of several congregations in the Diocese of Washington where this practice has been ongoing for some time long before my election as bishop of Washington."

Therefore, Chane said, "In keeping with good Anglican liturgical order, it is my intention at some point to form a task force to study those liturgical rites that have clearly been in use for some time within the Diocese of Washington to see if there is a form that could be uniformly used by parishes, should they request it."

The letter was in response to a question from four AAC members who asked Chane whether they would be forced to perform and recognize same-sex blessings. Chane promisd that they would not: "This is clearly a local option that is left open to the pastoral judgment of the priest of a congregation, the vestry and parishioners. It is not a requirement for any congregation in this diocese, nor is it a requirement to be followed by any priest in this diocese."

That's not as bad news as it could have been. Somewhat like the news that Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has announced the commission requested by the primates (national church leaders) earlier this month. Yes, the chairman is a liberal,• Ireland's Robin Eames, but orthodox leaders from both the West and the Global South are thoroughly represented.• Drexel Gomez, Primate of the West Indies, has been one of the chief critics of Robinson's consecration, as has Bernard Malango, Primate of Central Africa. The Church of England's only representative on the panel is N.T. Wright, one of the great evangelical New Testament scholars of our day.

The panel is due to report "on the legal and theological implications" of the Episcopal Church's gay unions and a Canadian diocese's support of same-sex unions, by September 30, 2004.

Robinson's consecration:

• Election of gay bishop disturbs Newport church | St. John the Evangelist considers withdrawing from U.S. General Convention after a gay priest was elected as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire (The Providence Journal, R.I.)
  
  
• Gay bishop vows to accept US post | Gene Robinson pledged at the weekend that he would defy the world leaders of the church and proceed to his consecration next week in the US (The Guardian, London)
  
  
• Gay bishop kept under 24-hour FBI guard | Bishop-elect Gene Robinson, who will be consecrated bishop of New Hampshire next Sunday, told a conference for homosexual priests in Manchester this weekend that there were grave concerns for his safety (The Daily Telegraph, London)
  
  

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October (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47