- DURHAM, N.H. (Reuters)
-- The Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson was consecrated on Sunday as the first
openly gay bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church, a move condemned as "heresy"
by conservative opponents who said it would tear apart the worldwide Anglican
community.
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- The Most Rev. Frank Griswold, presiding bishop of the
U.S. Episcopal Church, consecrated Robinson amid cheers and applause from
the estimated 3,000 people who gathered under tight security for the ceremony
in a college sports arena.
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- Robinson, his voice trembling, told the congregation
he felt deeply honored but also urged compassion toward church members
angered and upset by his consecration.
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- "Our God will be served if we are hospitable and
loving and caring toward them," said the new bishop, wearing a robe
of gold, red and green. "If they must leave, they will always be welcomed
back into our fellowship."
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- Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader
of the worldwide Anglican faith, said divisions arising from the appointment
were "a matter of deep regret."
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- The conservative American Anglican Council condemned
the consecration of an openly homosexual bishop as "heresy, blasphemy
and sin," and vowed to create a new "mainstream" Anglican
church in the United States.
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- "Today is a grievous day in the history of our Church.
Heresy has been held up as holy. Blasphemy has been redefined as blessing,"
the American Anglican Council said in a statement. "Holy scripture
has been abandoned and sin celebrated over sanctification."
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- "Our family is now split and the whole cloth of
the Anglican Communion is torn. Realignment has begun," added the
council, an alliance of bishops, clergy, and 600 Episcopal churches committed
to "preserving Biblical orthodoxy."
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- PROTEST AND PAGEANTRY
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- Robinson, who has lived with his male partner for 13
years, has pleaded for unity. But his installation may split the 70-million-member
Anglican Communion.
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- The church's Lambeth Conference of 1998 held that the
Anglican communion regards homosexual practice as "incompatible with
scripture" and condemned the blessing of same-sex unions.
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- Earlier, in a sanctioned but tension-filled protest before
the consecration, opponents formally voiced their objection to installing
an openly gay man as bishop.
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- Griswold interrupted one cleric, the Rev. Earle Fox of
Pittsburgh, as he launched into a graphic description of homosexual acts.
Another woman said that consecrating Robinson would tear at the fabric
of the worldwide church.
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- "To press forward with this consecration will be
to turn our back on Almighty God," she said. "The vast majority
of Anglicans worldwide have told us not to take this step."
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- The opponents walked out after making their statements.
Moments later, Griswold asked those remaining if Robinson, a 56-year-old
divorced father, should be ordained a bishop.
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- "That is our will!" the congregation chanted
loudly.
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- Outside the arena, mounted police stood by as protesters
sounded off. Some, including members of a Baptist church from Kansas, shouted
insults at participants and waved neon-colored placards with homophobic
messages like "God Hates Fags."
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- But an even larger group of demonstrators -- mostly students
from the University of New Hampshire -- cheered in support of the congregation.
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- Some members of the U.S. church have said they plan to
ask the Archbishop of Canterbury for permission to separate from the Episcopal
Church.
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- Archbishop Williams, who believed Robinson should not
have been elected a bishop because he is a practicing homosexual, said
in London: "It will not be possible for Gene Robinson's ministry as
a bishop to be accepted in every province in the communion."
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