"We may be tempted to bail out [of the Anglican Communion], but we are putting others in dire straits if we do. The fall out is regrettable. But the Anglican Communion will never fall apart. The Windsor Report says that if the Episcopal Church does it [consecrate another gay bishop] the African bishops will take a walk. They can't do that as long as they are in communion with Canterbury and he [Rowan Williams] is in communion with us they can never break off."

Bennison described African Anglicans as "extreme Anglicans." The majority is black and they are tied to the Church of England more than we are. The next Lambeth Conference meets in Cape Town, but the Africans don't want to meet there; they would sooner meet in England because they want to shop at Harrods. Bennison said he had dinner recently with the Bishop of Southern Malawi where he had learned this. (Bishop James Tengatenga was forbidden to attend the Diocese of Pennsylvania Diocesan Convention by his Archbishop Bernard Malango of Central Africa.)

On the Robinson consecration, Bennison expressed regret at the "consequences of what our actions led to. It is difficult for African bishops to understand what is happening in this country. We fast forwarded a process by having the Robinson consecration. It is a theological issue and same-sex issues raise huge questions."

Bennison said gays and lesbians are gay by nature, and made by God, they are not unnatural miscreants, and should not be the object of reparative therapy. They are anointed in baptism. "If God made you to be gay that is okay. Anointing makes you free to be yourself."

Bennison said Asian, Latin Americans and African were up against the pandemic of AIDS, with thousands dying of hunger. "Every day there is a world trade center of death." Bennison said Islam was much stricter about homosexuality. Bennison said there was a lot of hostility towards gays and lesbians by Islam. Christian morality might be necessary for heterosexuals but justice demands that something "happens to gays and lesbians."

Bennison likened the issue of homosexual unions to that of slavery. "Holy Scripture said slavery was okay. Philemon justified slavery. We know now this doesn't make sense, the love of God does not make sense of slavery. A lot of things in Scripture are injunctions we don't obey any more, like slavery."

Addressing the issue of the two priests in his diocese accused of Druid activity, Bennison said that all they were doing was studying some of the their pre-Celtic roots in the British Isles, and they were not nearly as involved in Wiccan activity as the media made them out to be. Bennison cited "average parishioner David Brooks" who supported the Melnyk clergy couple.

Bennison said the African bishops had become scandalized by the actions of the Episcopal Church, "and many believe I am a lost person. I don't believe I am, I hope they are not right, time will tell." Bennison said they are acting out of love...they are holding onto their case."

Bennison said Anglicans, the second largest Christian group in the world were an idiosyncratic group. "We are the odd group, compared to the Roman Catholic Church," he told his hearers.

During a question and answer period a woman faculty member accused Bennison of being an "elitist of extreme liberal positions", with another faculty asking "do you base your positions on democratic procedure or theology?"

Bennison said the Episcopal Church was governed by two chambers, the House of Bishops and the House of Deputies, much like the Senate and House of Representatives in the government and their voted decided the mind of the church.

Another faculty person wondered aloud if in fact gays and lesbians were in fact being "colonized" by the Episcopal Church's position.

Bennison said that while he supported traditional marriage things are shifting. The pill has made an enormous difference, he said.

Bennison was brought to the campus by English professor and former Anglo-Catholic Episcopalian layman Dr. Steve Finley. In his introductory remarks Finley praised Bennison saying, "my own experience of Bennison is one of profound courage in the midst of an extraordinary campaign of disinformation against him personally as well as other bishops in the American Episcopal Church in that they have tried to find a fresh place for inclusiveness in the church. He has been a powerful experience in my own life. Bennison has had to face a level of vindictiveness that most of you can't really imagine."

Finley accused unnamed "fundamentalists and reactionary elements in the church that pour venom on the diocese." Finley said "hate websites" supported only traditional Christianity and many criticized "the Archdruid of Canterbury...such is the spirit of the contemporary church," he said.

Haverford College with its 1,100 students is an undergraduate liberal arts college founded in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). It is not now formally affiliated with any religious body.

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