Bishops and Mates
LeBlanc, Douglas
Bishops and Mates by Douglas LeBlanc The defendant was late when the Episcopal church's Court for the Trial of a Bishop convened shortly before last Christmas. The presiding judge, a fellow...
...There, the Standing Liturgical Commission will present a paper on the wisdom of blessing same-sex unions...
...Moreover, the assemblage will address, perhaps once and for all, the momentous question previewed in the Righter case: the ordination of actively homosexual clergy...
...The lone dissenter sounded the traditional argument that the church's doctrine of marriage prohibits the ordination of active homosexuals as clergy...
...And there is little reason to believe that this trend won't continue at the next General Convention, scheduled for July 1997 in Philadelphia...
...The presiding judge, a fellow bishop, asked him to introduce himself...
...smart money says the commission will seek authorization to prepare the corresponding rites...
...it is roiled now...
...John in Wilmington, Del., after the court spent two hours explaining its decision, a regional leader of Integrity, the church's homosexual caucus, broke into the doxology, the brief song of praise to "Father, Son and Holy Ghost...
...Bishop Righter had no worry that he would be boiled in oil or have his fingernails pried off...
...On May 15, the church's court announced that it could find no fault in Righter-no "core doctrine" transgressed, no "discipline," or lesser teaching, that would have forbidden Stopfel's ordination...
...I'm Walter Righter," he said-"heretic...
...One editorialist from Michigan, writing in that state's largest Episcopal publication, likened Righter's accusers to the assassin of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin-for which the Associated Church Press, a guild of mainline religious publications, gave him an award...
...The orthodox play their part as frustrated and maligned holdouts, while the revisionists, ever in the vanguard, confidently gain ground...
...The judges wrote that "for most of its history the Church understood slavery as normative in society and acceptable within Christian life and practice...
...Consider the presiding judge in the case...
...The priest turned out to be too much even for Spong when he declared that Mother Teresa "ought to get laid...
...In the Cathedral of St...
...Three days later, one of the judges oversaw the ordination of an openly homosexual man to the priesthood in Los Angeles...
...These members were aggressive and sharp-elbowed throughout the affair, denouncing the orthodox as "schoolyard bullies" and worse...
...Revisionists had long before gained the upper hand, thanks in large measure to maverick ordinations and the accompanying erosion of the orthodox consensus...
...The matter of closure...
...This was just a bit of theater, of course...
...The majority, by contrast, demoted marriage from what it called a "core doctrine" to a "doctrinal teaching," on a par with just-war theory, slavery, divorce, and remarriage...
...At the church's triennial convention in 1991, he admitted to ordaining non-celibate homosexuals...
...Two decades have passed since the church was roiled by the ordination of women...
...It struck me early on in the proceedings," he said, "that this was a time of rejoicing and closure...
...For others in the church, the path to the next General Convention will be anything but a time for rejoicing...
...But the judges declined, stating, "The Court polled its members and each and every Judge confirmed that he is, in fact, unbiased and impartial regarding the case at hand...
...We can now sit back and discuss the issues openly and comfortably, and without rancor...
...Two others signed a statement in 1994 pledging the ordination of homosexual priests and the blessing of same-sex unions...
...Thus, the court's unprecedented decision represents a historic victory for the Episcopal Left...
...In fact, it wasn't a "heresy" trial at all-that was simply the media's eyecatching characterization...
...Again challenged by the prosecution, this particular judge recused himself...
...Douglas LeBlanc edits United Voice, the national newspaper of Episcopalians United...
...It was an ecclesiastical trial requested by 10 other bishops who protested that Righter taught doctrine contrary to that of the Episcopal church and that he had violated his vows by ordaining one Barry Stopfel as a deacon...
...The church advocate, or prosecutor, asked that these judges recuse themselves, owing to their obvious predisposition...
...Even so, the court ruled to exonerate Righter on a 7-1 vote...
...Another bishop-judge ordained such a homosexual as a priest in March 1995, after the 10 protesters had filed their motion...
...Righter performed the ordination at the behest of his friend and ally John S. Spong, the notorious bishop of Newark, who in 1989 made news by ordaining the first openly practicing homosexual priest in Anglican history...
...Similarly," they said, ". . . we have come to see and understand that marriages can die and even be places of destruction which may justify their termination...
...That we will soon know...
...furthermore, they would "judge this case on its merits, in a fair and balanced manner, and not on any preconceived ideas they may have about the issues involved...
...The ruling came as no surprise to those who had been following the case, and the course of mainline Protestantism generally...
...The judges' ruling seems a green light for official sanction, but, within Episcopal governance, it is the General Convention that issues the final word...
...Stopfel is-in the church's current parlance-"a non-celibate homosexual person living in a committed same-gender sexual relationship...
Vol. 1 • June 1996 • No. 37
