race launched on blessing same sex unions

With Gay Bishop Consecration Days Away, D.C. Bishop
Vows Same-Sex Blessing Rite

Compiled by Ted Olsen | posted 10/29/2003


D.C.'s Episcopal Bishop intends to authorize blessings
of gay unions

It looks like the race launched when the Episcopal
Church USA's General Convention passed a resolution on
blessing same-sex unions is going to be won by
Washington, D.C., bishop John Chane.

"Local faith communities are operating within the
bonds of our common life as they explore and
experience liturgies celebrating and blessing same-sex
unions," the General Convention's resolution said.
That resolution would be much bigger religion news,
and certainly a major point of contention within the
Anglican Communion, if it weren't for this Sunday's
consecration of openly and practicing gay bishop Gene
Robinson.

Chane interpreted the ECUSA resolution in a letter to
the American Anglican Council, the large orthodox
group that's opposing Robinson's consecration and gay
unions in the church. The statement "permits the
[bishop] of the diocese to set a standard of
authorizing local or diocesan rites for congregations
that may wish to engage in such blessings," he wrote,
according to a report in The Washington Times. "You
and I know of several congregations in the Diocese of
Washington where this practice has been ongoing for
some time long before my election as bishop of
Washington."

Therefore, Chane said, "In keeping with good Anglican
liturgical order, it is my intention at some point to
form a task force to study those liturgical rites that
have clearly been in use for some time within the
Diocese of Washington to see if there is a form that
could be uniformly used by parishes, should they
request it."

The letter was in response to a question from four AAC
members who asked Chane whether they would be forced
to perform and recognize same-sex blessings. Chane
promisd that they would not: "This is clearly a local
option that is left open to the pastoral judgment of
the priest of a congregation, the vestry and
parishioners. It is not a requirement for any
congregation in this diocese, nor is it a requirement
to be followed by any priest in this diocese."

That's not as bad news as it could have been. Somewhat
like the news that Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan
Williams has announced the commission requested by the
primates (national church leaders) earlier this month.
Yes, the chairman is a liberal,• Ireland's Robin
Eames, but orthodox leaders from both the West and the
Global South are thoroughly represented.• Drexel
Gomez, Primate of the West Indies, has been one of the
chief critics of Robinson's consecration, as has
Bernard Malango, Primate of Central Africa. The Church
of England's only representative on the panel is N.T.
Wright, one of the great evangelical New Testament
scholars of our day.

The panel is due to report "on the legal and
theological implications" of the Episcopal Church's
gay unions and a Canadian diocese's support of
same-sex unions, by September 30, 2004.



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