Local Episcopalians were briefed this week on where the long-simmering dispute involving the church’s stance on homosexuality stands, specifically the ordination of homosexuals.<\/p>\n
The Rev. Lewis Payne of Quincy, a retired Anglican priest, presided over a general information meeting.<\/p>\n
“It was nothing major, there was nothing new,” Payne said. “These kinds of meetings are always held a couple of weeks before the (state) convention in each of the deaneries, or regional units.”<\/p>\n
This year’s convention is scheduled for Oct. 19-20 in Moline.<\/p>\n
The dispute over homosexuality in the church, which has been going on for at least 30 years, has worsened in part because of a larger clash about biblical interpretations. Tensions heightened in 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay man, V. Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire.<\/p>\n
At that time, St. John’s Episcopal Church of Quincy was part of a growing number of churches, parishes and dioceses around the country taking the first steps toward breaking away from the mainline denomination and placing themselves under the authority of a foreign bishop, most of them in Africa.<\/p>\n