NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Controversy has escalated in the Episcopal Church after the denomination that three years ago ordained an openly homosexual bishop chose a woman as its national leader — a move that observers predict could signal a major global split within the larger Anglican Communion.
Katharine Jefferts Schori, bishop of the Diocese of Nevada, is the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church after a vote by delegates to the Episcopal General Convention in Columbus, Ohio, June 18. Schori said she voted to confirm Bishop V. Gene Robinson in 2003, and she has said she does not believe homosexuality is a sin.
“Some people come into this world with affections ordered toward other people of the same gender and some people come into this world with affections directed at people of the other gender,” Schori told CNN.
Schori, 52, is married and has a daughter. Raised a Roman Catholic, the new presiding bishop is also a marine biologist with a doctorate specializing in squids and oysters, Reuters news service reported. She has been ordained for a decade.
The Bible was written in a very different historical context by people asking different questions, Schori said in response to a question about how she reconciles her position on homosexuality with God’s Word.
“The Bible has a great deal to teach us about how to live as human beings,” she said, according to Reuters. “The Bible does not have so much to teach us about what sorts of food to eat, what sorts of clothes to wear — there are rules in the Bible about those that we don’t observe today. The Bible tells us about how to treat other human beings, and that’s certainly the great message of Jesus — to include the unincluded.”
Some Anglicans now are predicting a split. The Episcopal Church is the American branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
“I think this fully shows a noncompliance of spirit with the rest of the communion,” Andrew Carey, son of a former archbishop of Canterbury and a commentator on Anglican affairs, told the Associated Press. He added that Schori was “the most liberal of the lot” of candidates for the post, which also included six men.
Already since Schori’s election, the Fort Worth, Texas, diocese, which opposes women bishops, has asked permission to leave the liberal Episcopal Church, which has seen declining membership for years and has experienced particular internal turmoil since Robinson’s ordination. Other dioceses are expected to depart the denomination in response to the latest leadership decision, observers say.
“Sometimes you have to recognize that there are two irreconcilable positions and you have to choose between them,” Michael Nazir-Ali, the bishop of Rochester in England, told The Daily Telegraph. “The right choice is the line with the Bible and the church’s teachings down the ages, not some new-fangled religion we have invented to respond to the 21st century.”
SCHOOL BOARD RETAINS CHRIST REFERENCES — Kentucky’s board of education has reversed an earlier decision and voted unanimously to continue using only B.C. and A.D. as official date markers in the state’s public school curriculum.
In April, the board had opted to add the secular B.C.E. (Before Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) to date references, in addition to the traditional Before Christ and anno Domini, Latin for “In the year of the Lord.” Their reasoning was that Kentucky students needed to be familiar with the new markers in case they encountered them on college entrance exams.
But the state received more than 900 letters and e-mails on the matter, many from people upset that the board was attempting to strike references to Christ, the Associated Press reported.
“It’s part of a larger effort to expunge religious references in our culture,” Martin Cothran, a policy analyst at The Family Foundation in Lexington, told the Associated Press. “I think it’s not something that’s coming from regular people. It’s coming from certain other sectors of our society who think that we ought not to talk about religion in our public life.”
Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican and an ordained Baptist minister, appointed six new board of education members after the original vote, and during the reconfigured board’s first meeting June 14 they voted 10-0 to stay with B.C. and A.D.
“The B.C./A.D. connotation have served civilization quite well for a couple of millennia now and I saw no compelling reason to change,” board member David Webb told AP.
NEA POISED TO ENDORSE ‘GAY MARRIAGE’ — The National Education Association, with its 2.8 million members, is set to endorse “gay marriage” at its June 29-July 6 annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., with a revised diversity resolution, according to news reports.
The educators’ stance on diversity currently states in part, “The National Education Association believes that a diverse society enriches all individuals. Similarities and differences among races, ethnicity, color, national origin, language, geographic location, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identification, age, physical ability, size, occupation, and marital, parental, or economic status form the fabric of a society.”
But the proposed text to be added to the resolution goes a step farther: “The Association believes that legal rights and responsibilities with regard to medical decisions, taxes, inheritance, adoption, legal immigration, domestic partnerships, and civil unions and/or marriage belong to all these diverse groups and individuals.”
Sissy Jochmann, a leader of the NEA’s Conservative Educators Caucus from Pennsylvania, as well as a teacher and a yearly delegate to NEA conventions, called the proposal “unbelievable.”
“Please consider challenging Christian public school employees everywhere to pay careful attention to what’s happening with our union dues,” she said. “We’re in for a real battle this year.”
The American Family Association sent a mass mailing to its supporters June 19, urging public school teachers to be aware of the NEA’s actions and consider joining an alternate teacher group. AFA also asked parents to be watchful.
“Translated, that means the NEA will promote homosexual marriage in every avenue they have available, including textbooks, to all children at all age levels and without the permission or knowledge of parents,” AFA said.
NEWDOW LOSES BID TO STRIKE NATIONAL MOTTO — Michael Newdow, the atheist who fought two years ago to remove the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, has been denied an attempt to strike the phrase “In God We Trust” from United States coins.
U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. in Sacramento, Calif., ruled June 12 the words amounted to a secular national slogan that did not trample Newdow’s religious views, according to the Associated Press.
“There is no proper allegation that the government compelled the plaintiff to affirm a repugnant belief in monotheism,” Damrell wrote.
Newdow said he would appeal.
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