ECUSA Leader Doesn't Grasp Seriousness of Rift, Conservative Says
by Jim Brown
January 13, 2004
(AgapePress) - The leader of the Episcopal Church USA continues to downplay divisions in his denomination over the consecration of an openly homosexual bishop.
Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold helped consecrate New Hampshire Bishop Vicki Gene Robinson in November, despite the opposition of conservative Episcopalians and many Anglicans worldwide. In his sermon on Sunday at Washington National Cathedral, Griswold said Episcopalians who believe the Bible condemns homosexuality may be deceived.
"Satan frequently masquerades as an angel of light," Griswold said, adding: "Beware of zeal in the name of righteousness, devoid of mercy and compassion. Beware of visions of an unblemished Church built upon judgment rather than love."
However, Rev. Martyn Minns with the American Anglican Council says Griswold underestimates the extent of the rift over Robinson's ordination.
"I don't sense yet whether or not he has fully grasped the problem that we're in," Minns says. "And I'm still not convinced that he recognizes the offense [that] both the action that has been taken and the way it has been taken [have] brought to the wider Anglican Church -- and to those of us who disagree with it."
Three-thousand conservative Episcopalians met over the weekend in Virginia to consider their place in the denomination in the wake of the decision by ECUSA's leadership to consecrate Robinson. Minns says that action has left many traditionalist Episcopalians uncertain about their future.
"We're currently inside -- and where the future goes, I'm not sure," he says. "[A]t this point we are organizing those within the Episcopal Church who cannot continue to support some of the decisions that the Episcopal Church has [made]. Now that in itself is somewhat of a contradiction, but it's one that we're prepared to live with, at least for the short run."
A new Network of Conservative Anglican Dioceses and Parishes will be meeting next Monday and Tuesday in Plano, Texas, to formalize the group.
