It is now more than evident that insofar as adhering to the Scriptural
admonition regarding homosexuality is concerned, the Episcopal Church is a
lost cause. As the following news article makes clear, the liberals have
gained control of that church.

However, what I find even more worrisome is the following paragraph:

----- Begin Quote -----

The battle over homosexuality in the Episcopal Church has been watched
closely by other mainline Protestant churches. They are looking to the
Episcopal Church as a bellwether that could foretell whether their
denominations can survive the storm over homosexuality intact.

----- End Quote -----

In other words, once they have ascertained that the Episcopal Church is
going to survive this decision to ordain gays and lesbians, and to marry
gays and lesbians, other Protestant churches will follow suit, and will
begin to do the same. Going by what I have read in the past, I imagine that
the Methodists will be one of the first to do so.

Following is the complete NYT article:


Episcopal Bishops May End Gay Ban

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN - NYT

July 14, 2009

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The Episcopal Church voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to open
the door to consecrate more bishops who are openly gay, a move that is
likely to send shock waves throughout the Anglican Communion, the global
network of churches to which the Episcopal Church belongs.

By voting to affirm that "any ordained ministry" is open to gay men and
lesbians, the Episcopal Church effectively ended what many regarded as a
moratorium on ordaining gay bishops, which the church passed at its last
convention three years ago.

The moratorium was adopted in what proved to be a largely unsuccessful
effort to calm conservatives in the Anglican Communion, which has torn
itself apart in the last six years since the Episcopal Diocese of New
Hampshire elected the communion's first and only openly gay bishop, Bishop
V. Gene Robinson.

The battle over homosexuality in the Episcopal Church has been watched
closely by other mainline Protestant churches. They are looking to the
Episcopal Church as a bellwether that could foretell whether their
denominations can survive the storm over homosexuality intact.

Many delegates to the church's convention here characterized the action not
as an overturning of the moratorium, but as simply an honest assertion of
"who we are." They note that the church, which claims about two million
members, has hundreds of openly gay laypeople, priests and deacons, and that
its democratic decision-making structures are charged with deciding who
merits ordination.

"It's not an attempt to fly in the face of the Anglican Communion," said
Bonnie Anderson, who as president of the House of Deputies, which represents
laypeople and clergy members, is one of the church's two top officers. "It's
an attempt to deepen relationships with the rest of the communion, because
real relationships are built on authenticity."

But some at the convention warned that the Episcopal Church could pay a
price for snubbing its global partners.

The Rev. Shannon S. Johnston, coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Virginia,
who will take office as bishop on Oct. 1, said in an interview that he voted
against it because "I thought we would be seen as uncooperative and not a
team player in the Anglican Communion."

Zack Brown, a youth delegate from the Diocese of Upper South Carolina,
begged the House of Deputies just before their final vote, "Please don't
vote in a way that makes more conservatives feel the way I do now: like I'm
the only one left."

The vote in the Houses of Bishops and Deputies was more than two-thirds in
favor and one-third opposed or abstaining.

The House of Bishops also took up a measure that would create a liturgy to
bless same-sex couples. Such blessings are already being done in many
dioceses, without official sanction. "It is time for our church to be
liberated from the hypocrisy under which it has been laboring," Bishop Stacy
Sauls of Lexington, Ky., told his fellow bishops on Tuesday.

The Episcopal Church acted despite a personal address at the start of the
convention from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who as head of
the Church of England is considered "first among equals" among the
communion's archbishops. "Along with many in the communion," the archbishop
said, "I hope and pray that there won't be decisions in the coming days that
will push us further apart."

The resolution passed Tuesday was written in a way that would allow dioceses
to consider gay candidates to the episcopacy, but does not mandate that all
dioceses do so. It also emphasizes that the Episcopal Church has "an abiding
commitment" to the Anglican Communion.

It says that many gay men and lesbians are already ministering in the church
and that "God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained
ministry in the Episcopal Church, and that God's call to the ordained
ministry in the Episcopal Church is a mystery which the church attempts to
discern for all people through our discernment processes acting in
accordance with the constitution and canons of the Episcopal Church."

Pamela Reamer Williams, a spokeswoman for Integrity USA, an advocacy group
for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender members of the church, said: "The
church has stated very clearly that all levels of the ministry in the
Episcopal Church are open to the L.G.B.T. baptized. It is a change in the
sense that it supersedes the effective moratorium."

Conservative provinces in the Anglican Communion, especially some in Africa,
broke their ties with the Episcopal Church after it consecrated Bishop
Robinson.

The moratorium adopted three years ago urged Episcopal dioceses to restrain
from consecrating bishops whose "manner of life" posed a challenge to the
rest of the Anglican Communion. In fact, a few openly gay candidates were
considered for election in the last three years, but none won sufficient
support, and the moratorium was never tested.

In the end, the moratorium pleased no one: neither conservatives who
observed that some in the church did not really intend to abide by it, nor
liberals who saw it as a codification of discrimination and injustice to gay
clergy members who otherwise were qualified to be considered as bishops. The
moratorium also did little to forestall the fracturing both within the
Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Communion. Conservatives in both bodies
have formed their own alliances in the last three years, asserting that they
represent the true Anglican tradition.

In the United States, four dioceses -- Fort Worth; Pittsburgh; Quincy, Ill.;
and San Joaquin, Calif. -- have voted to split from the Episcopal Church
(although some parishes within those dioceses elected to remain).

Last year, they joined with other disaffected parishes and groups that had
splintered from the Episcopal Church over many years to form the Anglican
Church in North America. That group held its first convention, in Texas,
last month. They claim 100,000 members.

The new group says that Scripture clearly prohibits homosexual
relationships. Church liberals, meanwhile, insist that the Anglican tent is
large enough to tolerate multiple approaches.

The debates at the convention in Anaheim over the last few days have made it
clear that the liberals increasingly have the upper hand within the
Episcopal Church. At a debate over whether to develop formal rites for
same-sex weddings, 50 people testified in favor and 6 against.

"It's a clean sweep for the liberal agenda in the Episcopal Church," said
David Virtue, editor of VirtueOnline.org, a conservative Web site. "The
orthodox are finished."


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