“I think a lot of people including myself see it as a tragedy that the Anglican community seems so split, and my heart aches having been there immediately following 2003 \u201d\u201d I know what some of these congregations are going through,” said the Rev. Cynthia Baskin, a rector at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Potomac. St. Francis was affected by the rift in 2003 after Gene Robinson, the gay bishop in New Hampshire, was consecrated. The discussions that followed about the roles of gays and lesbians in the church lead to the departure of about 50 individuals from the church of about 400. “There’s a lot of grief and a lot of loss and it’s just very difficult, like watching someone in the hospital.”<\/p>\n
While Baskin said St. Francis is more unified after the members’ departure, she said a poll of her congregants would most likely find viewpoints on the role of homosexuals in the church all over the map. The difference, she said, was that some Episcopalians use the issue as a “litmus test for faithfulness.”<\/p>\n
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say [the individuals who left the church] didn’t want to include or reach out in some kind of way to someone who was homosexual,” Baskin said. “At the same time, they felt very strongly that homosexuality is not the way God intended human being to be, and they drew a line there, and found it difficult to be part of a community that honored homosexuals and allowed for their inclusion.”<\/p>\n