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About 4,000 Episcopalians from New Hampshire and beyond gathered at a university ice-hockey arena on Sunday afternoon to enact what they decided during the summer: that an openly gay man is a wholesome example to his people and should become a bishop of the church.

Once again, conservative Episcopalians appealed to the church's historic teaching in pleading with church leaders not to consecrate Gene Robinson as the next bishop of New Hampshire. Once again, they cited statements by Anglican primates warning about the divisive nature of consecrating Robinson.

Once again, Episcopal leaders responded that they've given ample consideration to such concerns, and—to quote the formulaic response used at all protested consecrations—"We will proceed."

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold asked the assembled to listen with respect as their fellow Episcopalians expressed objections to Robinson's consecration.

The Rev. Earl Fox began those dissents on a scatological note, saying that most homosexual men engage in oral sex, anal sex, or mouth-to-anus sex. His remarks were causing scattered laughter when the presiding bishop intervened.

"Father Fox, would you spare us the details and come to the substance of your remarks?" Griswold said.

Two other protesters, who (unlike Fox) were working with the American Anglican Council, appealed to theological and ecclesial arguments.

"This is the defiant and divisive act of a deaf church," said Meredith Harwood, a parishioner at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Ashland, New Hampshire, who read from a prepared statement. "The clear teaching of Holy Scripture in both testaments without exception is that sexual activity outside of marriage is wrong for the people of God, yet we are deaf to the Bible. The vast majority of Anglicans worldwide have told us not to take this step, which many of them see as a scandal, yet we are deaf to their cries."

David Bena, suffragan (assistant) bishop in the Diocese of Albany, New York, also stressed the consecration's divisive fallout as he read a statement from 36 American and Canadian bishops.

"This consecration poses a dramatic contradiction to the historic faith and discipline of the church," the statement said. "We join with the majority of the bishops in the Communion and will not recognize it. We also declare our grief at the actions of those who are engaging in this schismatic act."

Griswold, saying he felt he could speak for the primates, said they have expressed concern for "maintaining the highest levels of communion" and have recognized that the church functions differently in different parts of the world.

Griswold quoted one primate—without naming him—as saying, "The Holy Spirit can do different things in different places."

Robinson's predecessor, Bishop Douglas Theuner, preached a consecration sermon that highlighted the theological conflicts inherent in the debates about Robinson. Theuner said he read through all four gospels to prepare his sermon, and he summarized what he called the whole gospel, the full message of Jesus.

"Our Lord's attention was directed entirely to the outcast and the marginalized," Theuner said. "His wrath was reserved for the religious leaders of his own faith. They were chastised by our Lord because they thought that people were made for their religious institutions and not that their religious institutions were made for the people."

Theuner alluded to opponents of Robinson's consecration by reading aloud, with ever-louder drama, from a 19th-century pastor in South Carolina who said that all Christian truth relied on the Bible supporting slavery.

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November (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47