Dispatch: Praise the Lord and Pass the Condoms
"Southern Hemisphere primates warned that approving Gene Robinson would place the church outside most of the world's 72 million Anglicans. You'll get over it, responded about 60 percent of the House of Deputies"
Douglas LeBlanc | posted 8/01/2003 12:00AM
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The Rev. Altagracia Perez of Inglewood, California, said that she often votes to approve bishops about whom she knows nothing, and that her diocese usually waits a month to make sure no scandalous news emerges about a bishop-elect. This time, she said, she could vote with a clear conscience to approve Robinson, because she has worked with him and found him trustworthy.
The Ven. Mark Hollingsworth of Boston cited Barbara Harris, the sharp-tongued first woman bishop in the Anglican Communion. "The issue was not gender, but power," when Massachusetts elected Harris as its suffragan (assistant) bishop, he said. "The issue today is not human sexuality, but power."
Liberals in the House of Deputies had the power on the first Sunday in August, 2003, and they exercised it with little apparent concern for the consequences.
Douglas LeBlanc is an Associate Editor of Christianity Today.
Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere
Other LeBlanc dispatches appearing on our site today include:
Gene Robinson Takes Questions in a Church called Gethsemane | Speaks on reparative therapy, potential schism, and whether he really "/left" his wife for his male lover.
What in the World Is God Doing? | For Episcopalians, the night may be darkest before the dawn.
Deputies Slice into the Gordian Knot | The Episcopal Church's House of Deputies approve Gene Robinson as New Hampshire Bishop. The House of Bishops will vote today.
See LeBlanc's earlier dispatches from the General Convention:
Gene and Me | My history with the openly gay man elected bishop of Rochester
Integrity Doles Out God's Not-So Inclusive Love | The Integrity Eucharist has become a triennial sort of mass pity party.
Gay Rites Would Not Bless Ecumenism | Could also impair Anglican work overseas.
More coverage of the General Convention is available from the ECUSA website, which has streaming video. Conservative and orthodox perspectives are available from Classical Anglican Net News, the American Anglican Council's A Place to Stand, and David Virtue's Virtuosity.
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