The Episcopal Church’s split with the Anglican Communion widened this week as two dioceses announced slates of candidates for the episcopate that include three gay and lesbian clergy.
The news comes less than a week after the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams held that gay clergy were out of bounds for Anglican Churches. It was improper for any member of the clergy to be “living in a sexual relationship outside the marriage bond,” Dr Williams said, adding that the homosexual or unchaste heterosexual “chosen lifestyle is not one that the Church’s teaching sanctions, and thus it is hard to see how they can act in the necessarily representative role that the ordained ministry, especially the episcopate, requires.”
On Aug 1 the Diocese of Minnesota released its list of approved candidates standing for election on Oct 30: the Rev Bonnie Perry, rector of All Saints’ Church, Chicago; the Rev Mariann Edgar Budde, rector of St John’s Church, Minneapolis, and the Rev Brian Prior, rector of the Church of the Resurrection, Spokane Valley, Washington.
Well, it is certainly not descriptive only as some have argued…it is a fact on the ground that all must face.