Mar 12, 2004   | COMMENTS     

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — With three mighty thumps on the church door Sunday, V. Gene Robinson knocked and was welcomed into St. Paul’s sanctuary, where he officially became the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop. Later in the investiture ceremony, retiring Bishop Douglas Theuner handed Robinson the ceremonial staff that transferred the Diocese of New Hampshire into his hands. Robinson’s selection and confirmation last year has rocked the Episcopal Church. He and Theuner have shared leadership of the diocese since Robinson was made a bishop in November. Theuner officially retired Sunday. Robinson is the first openly gay man to be elected as a bishop, both in the national Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion of which it is a part. Earlier in the week, Robinson said he is declining all overseas speaking engagements until a commission studying the effect of his consecration as the Anglican Communion’s first openly gay leader finishes its work.

Gay pastor approved by Minneapolis Lutherans
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — Bethany Lutheran Church of Minneapolis this week became the third Twin Cities congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to vote in favor of a pastor who is openly gay, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. The national church policy prohibits ordination of anyone in a same-sex relationship, the Tribune reported. Bethany congregants plan to ordain Jay Wiesner in July; he currently is on the church staff, according to the newspaper. Rev. Steven Benson will work with Wiesner, the Tribune reported. “We hope this action will have a positive effect” on the national church, Benson told the newspaper, although the congregation has “some worry about creating a backlash,” he added. “We also realize that no liberation movement has happened by people remaining quiet,” Benson told the Tribune. Craig Johnson, bishop of the church’s Minneapolis Synod, had urged Bethany leaders to wait until after next year’s national church meeting, where the issue of gay pastors will be addressed, the Tribune reported.

Episcopal leader opposes amending U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage
LONDON (AP) — The leader of the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he opposed moves to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gay marriage. President George W. Bush has called for swift action on such an amendment, citing decisions by Massachusetts’ top court that prohibiting same-sex marriages would violate that state’s constitution. But Frank Griswold, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, criticized the president’s stance. “I think it would be unwise at this point to pursue a constitutional amendment because the debate both within churches and certainly within civil society needs to continue,” Griswold told British Broadcasting Corp. TV’s “Breakfast With Frost” program. “I’m fearful that a constitutional amendment at this time would preclude the continuation of that debate,” he said in the interview, recorded in London.

Mo. judge to decide who controls Episcopalian church
TOWN AND COUNTRY, Mo. (AP) — A judge has been asked to decide who should control an Episcopal church’s assets in this St. Louis suburb, ostensibly to settle the flap rooted in debate over a gay Episcopal bishop in New Hampshire. An Episcopal bishop from Missouri and the priest of the Church of the Good Shepherd agreed this week to settle the property dispute during a July bench trial before Mary Bruntrager Schroeder, a St. Louis County associate circuit judge. On Feb. 29, some 84 of 98 members attending a Good Shepherd parish meeting voted to break away from the Episcopal Church and join the Anglican Mission in America, a different group. That decision was prompted by the consecration of openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson last November. On March 1, lawyers for the Rev. Paul Walter, rector at Good Shepherd, and Bishop George Wayne Smith of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri agreed to a temporary restraining order leaving things as they are until Schroeder rules.

Episcopal church in Kentucky objects to vote for gay bishop
PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (AP) — An Episcopal church in Lexington has stopped giving money to the Lexington dioceses and the Episcopal Church USA as a means to object to the consecration of openly gay bishop Gene Robinson. In addition, leaders of the Church of the Apostles would not share communion on Saturday with Lexington Bishop Stacy Sauls during the diocese’s annual convention in Prestonsburg. Rev. Martin Gornik and four members of his congregation declined to take bread and wine that Sauls had consecrated. They sat in silence while others went forward. It was the second parish to publicly challenge Sauls. Saint John’s Church in Versailles split in January after diocesan leaders dismissed that church’s governing board. The conservative board had clashed repeatedly with Sauls because Sauls voted to approve the election of Robinson, a Lexington native, as bishop of New Hampshire. Many members of St. John’s formed a new church.