The Episcopal Church's Bellwether Conflict

On the last full day of their nine-day triennial gathering, members of the Episcopal Church decided to “exercise restraint” on the consecration of gay bishops, falling short of the outright moratorium on the consecration of gay bishops that the Anglican Communion, the worldwide organization of 38 church bodies to which the Episcopal Church belongs, had required of them.

They also voted not to “repent” for the elevation of the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, bishop of New Hampshire, as their first openly gay bishop in 2003--another request of the Anglican Communion, which claims 77 million adherents. And a proposal to cease blessing same-sex unions--a third request of the Anglican Communion--was dropped entirely.

But these decisions came more by default than by design. Torn over the language of their response to the Anglican Communion–were they sincerely repentant? Or too haughty?--they first let die motions to declare a moratorium on gay bishops and a ban on same-sex unions. The final agreement came only after the church’s outgoing presiding bishop, the Rev. Frank Griswold, called on a joint session of the church’s two presiding houses on Wednesday morning to reach a compromise.

The resulting policy is non-binding and leaves individual Episcopal dioceses to determine how far they want to include gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered (GLBT) persons in the life of the church.

No matter how they came about, the convention’s decisions–including Sunday’s historic election of the Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, bishop of the diocese of Nevada, as the first woman to head the 2.3-million member church and the first female primate in the worldwide Anglican Communion–threaten to further widen the fissures in this already highly polarized denomination.

They also offer a glimpse into the future not only of the Episcopal Church, which, along with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted this week to leave gay ordination up to local church leaders, but into the country’s broader culture wars over homosexuality and same-sex unions.

“This [Episcopal conflict] is indicative of [America's] broader polarization,” said Ian Markham, dean of Hartford Seminary and a candidate for Episcopal holy orders, who estimates that church membership is 80 percent progressive and 20 percent conservative. “The Episcopal Church is predominantly blue state. So what this is indicative of is the growing polarization of America over this question. You have half the country impatient to move ahead, saying this is a justice issue and the world ought to acknowledge the rights of all individuals while the other half saying this is indicative of a country that is increasingly depraved. That is where the battle lines are.”

Continued on page 2: As the church goes, so goes the nation? »