This book - Centro de Estudos Anglicanos

146THE EPISCOPALIANSa committed relationship with a male partner. In approaching this new challenge,the Episcopal Church continued to wrestle with issues of scriptural interpretation,theological ethics, institutional identity, and authority. Its decisions had implicationsnot only for its own self-understanding but also for its relations with theother 37 provinces in the 77-million-member Anglican Communion and for itsfuture relations with the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox churches,and other churches, both conservative and liberal.At the time of his election as bishop coadjutor of New Hampshire, Robinson,a graduate of the University of the South and General Theological Seminary, hadserved for 15 years as Canon to the Ordinary (assistant to the bishop) in thediocese of New Hampshire. A highly regarded and well-respected figure in hisdiocese, Robinson won the required majority support at the General Conventionof both the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops. The vote in the Houseof Deputies was by orders. In the lay order, diocesan delegations voted 63 yes,32 no, and 13 divided. The clergy voted 65 yes, 31 no, and 12 divided. In theHouse of Bishops, the vote was 62 in favor, 43 opposed. Presiding Bishop FrankT. Griswold was one of the bishops voting to ratify Robinson’s election as bishop.Despite pleas by church officials for unity and peace, this decision continuedto be highly controversial. Opponents of the election of an openly gay bishopargued that this action divided the Episcopal Church both from other Anglicansaround the world and from the church’s traditional teaching on marriage andsexuality. The presiding bishop acknowledged that many Anglicans would seethis decision as a historic departure from biblical teachings and the church’s traditionalpractice. He hoped, however, that the members of the Episcopal Churchcould learn to live within “the tension of disagreement.” 53 He told the 2003 conventiondelegates, “It is my conviction that different points of view can be heldin tension within the church without issues of sexuality becoming church dividing.”54 Without question, many Episcopalians knew at the end of this triennialgathering that Griswold now faced the most significant challenge of his presidingepiscopate.The response of the archbishop of Canterbury, the Anglo-Catholic theologianRowan Williams, reflected his anxiety for the future of the Anglican Communion.A liberal who personally supported the ordination and appointment of homosexualclergy, Williams nonetheless expressed his concern that the decision of theEpiscopal Church in the United States would “inevitably have a significant impacton the Anglican Communion throughout the world.” Undoubtedly having in mindmillions of more traditional Anglicans in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere,he warned that “we need as a church to be very careful about makingdecisions for our part of the world which constrain the church elsewhere.” 55 Followingthe Episcopalians’ vote at their General Convention, the spiritual leaderof the world’s Anglicans spoke of “difficult days” ahead for members of the globalCommunion. 56Bishop-elect Robinson termed his election “a huge leap for gay and lesbianfolk in the church,” and certainly his many supporters in the American branch of