Well, I have mixed feelings actually. I am not a part of the Episcopal Church, I am a part of ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). However, my best friend is an Episcopal deacon, studying to be a priest. My main problem is not so much with the ordination of a gay bishop but that he left his wife and kid and that a lot of people closer to the situation have seriously questioned his ability to be a bishop and have an effective ministry (totally apart from him being gay). Sometimes we can be so eager to give positions to minority people that we give them to people who are otherwise unqualified, if this makes sense. And yet, its not my place to judge him or say that God cannot use him. So I have a "wait and see what happens" approach.
Just to confirm that Gene Robinson did not leave his wife for another man as I understand it, they were already separated by mutual agreement and his former wife was already in a relationship with someone else when Gene became involved in his current relationship.
Unlike the UK (where I am from), Gene Robinson was duly elected by a rigorous search process and then elected by his own diocese with overwhelming support un line with the canons of the ECUSA. This whole process was scrutinised and endorsed by the clergy, laity and bishops at the General Convention. There is no hint of this being done to please a minority, merely that he was selected on a track record of ministry and was selected because he would be a good bishop with his sexuality as irrelevent to this process.
Actually I see no eagerness to give gay people positions so I doubt this is at work. Indeed we are still treated as lepers by the majority of the Church. ECUSA is one of the very few provinces to proclaim the full humanity of gay people - all power to them!!
Appointment Of Bishop Of New Hampshire
in Progressive Christianity
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Just to confirm that Gene Robinson did not leave his wife for another man as I understand it, they were already separated by mutual agreement and his former wife was already in a relationship with someone else when Gene became involved in his current relationship.
Unlike the UK (where I am from), Gene Robinson was duly elected by a rigorous search process and then elected by his own diocese with overwhelming support un line with the canons of the ECUSA. This whole process was scrutinised and endorsed by the clergy, laity and bishops at the General Convention. There is no hint of this being done to please a minority, merely that he was selected on a track record of ministry and was selected because he would be a good bishop with his sexuality as irrelevent to this process.
Actually I see no eagerness to give gay people positions so I doubt this is at work. Indeed we are still treated as lepers by the majority of the Church. ECUSA is one of the very few provinces to proclaim the full humanity of gay people - all power to them!!