32: APPROVAL OF HOMOSEXUALITY 239eral denominations regarding homosexuality, then at the end I look at
two more conservative groups.
1. EPISCOPAL CHURCH
The Episcopal Church in the United States has now approved the
appointment of V. Gene Robinson as its first openly homosexual bishop,
by a vote of 62 to 45 in their House of Bishops.^4 As recently as 1998,
this same denomination had approved a resolution calling homosexual
activity “incompatible with Scripture.”
Even secular newspapers noted the parallels between the homosex-
ual ordination controversy and the earlier controversy over the ordina-
tion of women. The New York Times reported:
Bishop-elect Robinson’s opponents said he would bring to the
broader church schism, pain and confusion.... Other people called
the warnings overblown. Look, they said, at other controversies that
were also predicted to split the church like the ordination of women
in 1976 and the ratifying of a woman, Barbara Harris, as Bishop, in- This evening, Ms. Harris... said the church had survived and
would once more. “I remember well the dire predictions made at the
time of my election consent process,” she said. “The communion,
such as it is, a loose federation of autonomous provinces, has held.”^5
Conservatives who did not leave when a woman was ordained as
an Episcopal priest, and who did not leave when a woman was selected
as a bishop, would probably not leave at the approval of a homosexual
bishop either, or so the supporters of Bishop Robinson claimed.
A day after the House of Bishops approved Robinson’s appoint-
ment, the leaders of the Episcopal Church approved a “compromise”
resolution at the insistence of conservatives within the denomination.
The compromise allowed local dioceses the option of whether or not to
bless same-sex unions in their churches.^6 But what this meant was that
(^4) “Episcopal Church Elects First Openly Gay Bishop” (www.foxnews.com, Tuesday, August
5, 2003, accessed 8-5-03).
(^5) New York Times, August 6, 2003, A12.
(^6) “Episcopal Vote Allows Blessings of Gay Unions,” http://www.washingtonpost.com, August 7,
2003, A-1.