240 WHERE IS EVANGELICAL FEMINISM TAKING US?
the denomination as a whole was allowing any local church to give a
blessing to homosexual unions (they stopped short of officially calling
it homosexual “marriage”).
Then in June 2006, the Episcopal Church elected Bishop Katharine
Schori as the first woman presiding bishop in the history of the worldwide
Anglican Communion (of which the Episcopal Church in the U.S. is a
part). She said in an interview that it was not a sin to be homosexual and
that “some people come into this world with affections ordered toward
other people of the same gender.”^7 Bishop Schori preached a sermon in
praise of “Mother Jesus” shortly after she was elected.^8 The same con-
vention refused the demands of the worldwide Anglican Communion that
it “repent” of the ordination of a homosexual bishop, saying instead that
it would “exercise restraint” in appointing any more gay bishops. The
Times of London reported, “The Episcopal Church in America descended
into chaos last night after leading bishops on both the liberal and conserv-
ative wings disassociated themselves from a last-gasp effort to avert a
schism with the worldwide Anglican Communion.”^9 It looks increasingly
likely that the worldwide Anglican Communion will divide over this issue
(it has already excluded the church in the U.S. from some committees and
functions), and also likely that the conservative churches in the Episcopal
Church in the U.S.—numbering perhaps as many as 2,000 of the 7,000
congregations in the denomination—will separate from the more liberal
group and constitute a new denomination. This fracturing of the Episcopal
Church is the culmination of a trend to reject the Bible’s teachings on man-
hood and womanhood that began a few decades ago. The final end of the
slippery slope is the destruction of a denomination.
2. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH–USA
At least 113 PCUSA congregations in 30 states have designated them-
selves “More Light Presbyterians” (MLP). Membership in the group,
which seeks “full participation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgen-
der people of faith in the life, ministry, and witness of the Presbyterian
(^7) From a CNN interview Monday, June 19, 2006, reported at http://www.newsmax.com/archives/
ic/2006/6/19/214551.shtml?s=ic, accessed 6/23/06.
(^8) http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2237322.html, accessed 6.22.06.
(^9) Ibid.