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Objectors expected at gay bishop's consecration
CONCORD, New Hampshire (AP) -- After five months of controversy over making an openly gay man an Episcopal bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson will face two more objections at his consecration on Sunday.
The ceremony traditionally provides an opportunity for objectors to speak, and two people -- both representing larger groups -- plan to do so.
Kathy Lewis and her daughter Jillian of the Church of the Redeemer in Rochester will be in a group of lay people, one of whom will read a written statement objecting to Robinson's elevation.
"It is in direct violation of holy Scripture," Lewis said in a telephone interview Friday. She said members of her group plan to stand for the objection and then leave for an alternative service two miles away in Durham.
Voicing the same basic objection for a group of U.S. and Canadian bishops will be David Bena, the assistant bishop of the Diocese of Albany, New York.
The objectors will not be disruptive, said Canon Kendall Harmon of South Carolina, the preacher at the alternative service, in a Friday telephone interview.
"Our goal is just to witness to the truth and to do it in a loving way," said Harmon, an Episcopal theologian.
But Harmon had strong words about the harm he sees to his church.
"The Episcopal Church as we know it is dying," he said. "This is really a debate about the shape of Christianity."
In consecrating Robinson, who has lived with his partner for 14 years, the New Hampshire diocese is breaking with the longstanding Christian, Jewish and Muslim teaching that sex is for men and women joined in marriage, Harmon said.
Rev. Michael Hopkins, one of Robinson's 13 "presenters" at the consecration, is past president of the Episcopal gay rights group Integrity. Hopkins called Harmon's view blatantly unfair.
"You can't tell us we can't get married and then punish us for not being married," he said.
With both sides saying they welcome gays in their churches, the disagreement about Robinson's consecration centers on what is regarded as immoral behavior.
"Where we disagree is that I don't consider Gene's relationship with his partner as an expression of sin," Hopkins said.
Robinson and many of his supporters say there was no understanding of homosexuality as an "orientation" in biblical times so those engaged in a homosexual acts were thought to be acting against their nature.
"We're asking the Bible to give us guidance about something it knew nothing about," Hopkins said.
Harmon, however, said the Greeks and Romans knew plenty about homosexuality. Since most of the world's Anglicans uphold biblical tradition, American liberals have "an incredibly arrogant Western way of looking at the world," he said.
Some Robinson supporters say they don't understand why New Hampshire's choice of a bishop is considered an imposition on other Episcopalians and the rest of the Anglican Communion.
But Harmon said, "When you elect a bishop, you elect a bishop for the whole church."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast....ap/index.html
CONCORD, New Hampshire (AP) -- After five months of controversy over making an openly gay man an Episcopal bishop, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson will face two more objections at his consecration on Sunday.
The ceremony traditionally provides an opportunity for objectors to speak, and two people -- both representing larger groups -- plan to do so.
Kathy Lewis and her daughter Jillian of the Church of the Redeemer in Rochester will be in a group of lay people, one of whom will read a written statement objecting to Robinson's elevation.
"It is in direct violation of holy Scripture," Lewis said in a telephone interview Friday. She said members of her group plan to stand for the objection and then leave for an alternative service two miles away in Durham.
Voicing the same basic objection for a group of U.S. and Canadian bishops will be David Bena, the assistant bishop of the Diocese of Albany, New York.
The objectors will not be disruptive, said Canon Kendall Harmon of South Carolina, the preacher at the alternative service, in a Friday telephone interview.
"Our goal is just to witness to the truth and to do it in a loving way," said Harmon, an Episcopal theologian.
But Harmon had strong words about the harm he sees to his church.
"The Episcopal Church as we know it is dying," he said. "This is really a debate about the shape of Christianity."
In consecrating Robinson, who has lived with his partner for 14 years, the New Hampshire diocese is breaking with the longstanding Christian, Jewish and Muslim teaching that sex is for men and women joined in marriage, Harmon said.
Rev. Michael Hopkins, one of Robinson's 13 "presenters" at the consecration, is past president of the Episcopal gay rights group Integrity. Hopkins called Harmon's view blatantly unfair.
"You can't tell us we can't get married and then punish us for not being married," he said.
With both sides saying they welcome gays in their churches, the disagreement about Robinson's consecration centers on what is regarded as immoral behavior.
"Where we disagree is that I don't consider Gene's relationship with his partner as an expression of sin," Hopkins said.
Robinson and many of his supporters say there was no understanding of homosexuality as an "orientation" in biblical times so those engaged in a homosexual acts were thought to be acting against their nature.
"We're asking the Bible to give us guidance about something it knew nothing about," Hopkins said.
Harmon, however, said the Greeks and Romans knew plenty about homosexuality. Since most of the world's Anglicans uphold biblical tradition, American liberals have "an incredibly arrogant Western way of looking at the world," he said.
Some Robinson supporters say they don't understand why New Hampshire's choice of a bishop is considered an imposition on other Episcopalians and the rest of the Anglican Communion.
But Harmon said, "When you elect a bishop, you elect a bishop for the whole church."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast....ap/index.html
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