An article in the Concord Monitor claims that the real issue in the Episcopal Church isn’t the election and consecration of an openly gay bishop. The author argues that the actual problem is that the Episcopal Church is not being able to respond to the real challenges it is facing in a rapidly changing world because conservative voices keep the focus on Robinson rather than on the larger issues.
From the beginning of the article:
“Is the Episcopal Church’s impending schism really about the theological rift that sprung up after the consecration of its first openly gay bishop, the Rev. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire?
Or is the brouhaha really about a church in battle with itself about how to be financially solvent and theologically relevant in today’s competitive religious marketplace?
Last weekend, the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh voted in favor of separating from the national church over theological beliefs on homosexuality. ‘What we’re trying to do is state clearly in the United States for the authority of Scripture,’ Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh said after the vote.
But ‘authority of Scripture’ doesn’t hold weight here because the Episcopal Church has always been challenged on this issue.
In the 1970s, the argument for authority of Scripture came up with the ordination of women – and so, too, did the threat of a schism. But in 1989, the church consecrated its first female bishop, Barbara Harris.”
Read the rest here.