Episcopalians plan Salt Lake session to take on same-sex furor

After nearly a year and a half of dealing with the fallout over the ordination of the faith's first openly gay bishop, the Episcopal Church's top leaders will gather in Salt Lake City next week to discuss how to respond to the outrage of millions of fellow Anglicans worldwide.

The Episcopal House of Bishops — made up of scores of U.S. church leaders — will convene here Wednesday and Thursday, and the top items on their agenda include two proposed moratoriums: one on the future ordination of gay bishops living in a same-sex relationship, and another on formal blessing rites for same-sex couples.

The bishops will also consider whether to issue — and if so, how to word — a formal apology for the uproar their decision in August 2003 has caused within the 77 million member worldwide Anglican Communion.

The Episcopal Church is one small division within Anglicanism, representing some 2.3 million members. Largely conservative in membership, the majority of Anglicans view the action by American bishops as an act of hubris that defies biblical teaching against homosexuality.

Eighteen months ago, the group voted to allow ordination of V. Gene Robinson as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire, despite the fact that he is openly gay and living in a longtime relationship with his partner. Bishop Robinson was formally installed in his new post last year. He is viewed as a high-profile advocate for gay rights.

After several states voted on measures to ban same-sex marriage in November, he told students at Colby College in Maine, "I think it's arrogance and hegemony and a simplistic and moralistic view of the world," according to a story in the Bangor Daily News. "There's a lot in Scripture about arrogance. It seemed to be the thing that made Jesus the angriest of all."

The bishops' discussions will be based on recommendations issued by the Anglican Communion's top leadership last fall, dubbed the "Windsor Report," calling for the moratoriums and an apology from the U.S. bishops. While discussions have been under way within the church since the report was issued, the meeting here will be the first to formally address the report's recommendations.

While Bishop Robinson said he was initially stunned by the recommendations of the Windsor Report, he told the New York Times in October that he is hopeful about the U.S. bishops' response to it, saying the wording "leaves (some) 'wiggle room' to continue blessing same-sex couples." He also said the report asks bishops to express regret for the turmoil caused by their decision, but not for the decision itself.

Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish, leader of Utah's Episcopal Diocese, has been vocal in her support for both Robinson's ordination and the church's blessing of same-sex unions. In fact, she commissioned the creation of formal blessing rites for same-sex couples within the diocese last year.

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