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CHARLESTON,SC: Episcopal gay issue invites scorn, scholar says
BY MICHAEL GARTLAND
Of The [Charleston] Post and Courier Staff
CHARLESTON, SC (1/8/2005)--One of the world's pre-eminent biblical scholars said Thursday that if the Episcopal Church continues to knowingly ordain gay clergy, it will turn the faith into a subject of scorn.
The Right Rev. Tom Wright visited St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Mount Pleasant on Thursday to give a lecture on resurrection, and beforehand discussed the implications a schism might have.
"A disunited church means the rest of the world can laugh at us and say you can't even agree with yourselves," he said. "If we can't be reconciled and truth-speaking to ourselves, what hope is there for truth-speaking with the rest of the world?"
Wright, a Church of England bishop, served on the Lambeth Commission. That body is responsible for resolving a dispute in which the Episcopal Church has allowed the ordination of a gay bishop, a move the rest of the Anglican Communion opposes.
As part of the commission, Wright helped author the Windsor Report, which outlines how the disagreement should be resolved. The report calls for the Episcopal Church to express genuine regret over elevating the Rev. Gene Robinson, a gay man, to bishop over the New Hampshire diocese.
The United States House of Bishops will meet next week to discuss how it will respond. Wright would not speculate on what the bishops would do, but he did say that whatever their decision, it would have significant consequences. If the Episcopal Church's response does not fall into line with what the report requests, a split is a serious possibility.
About 2.3 million Americans are Episcopalians. There are 27,558 baptized members of the Episcopal Church living in the South Carolina Diocese.
"Schism is always tragic," he said. "There are many Christian denominations, and we've got used to that, but we ought not be used to it."
Local members of the Episcopal clergy said that while Wright's visit is significant in itself, its importance is compounded by the fact that Anglican leaders will meet in late February to decide whether the Episcopal Church remains part of the Anglican Communion.
The South Carolina Diocese Canon Theologian, the Rev. Kendall Harmon, predicted that some Episcopal leaders will try to delay addressing the issue, and said that if that happens, schism will be the likely result.
"It's an absolutely pivotal time," Harmon said.
The Rev. Steve Wood, St. Andrew's rector and Wright's host, said that if a split occurs, churches that are now Episcopal would begin to align themselves with dioceses overseas.
"I don't see how you can avoid a split," he said.
If that happens, the Anglican Communion may declare North America a mission field, which means it would deal with the area much as it did during Colonial times, as a place to gain converts. Many of those potential converts are people who are now in the Episcopal Church.
"One model would be to go back to how the Church was started," Wood said.
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