Griswold: gay vote true to Bible reading

Christian Century, Sept 20, 2003

The top bishop of the Episcopal Church has told Anglican leaders around the world that his vote to confirm an openly gay priest as a bishop was not "unfaithful to an authentic way of reading scripture."

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, writing to counterparts elsewhere in the Anglican Communion, said he was also bound to respect the decision of New Hampshire Episcopalians to elect V. Gene Robinson as the church's first openly gay bishop.

"I must say in the strongest possible terms that if I believed in any part of my being that the consent to this election was unfaithful to an authentic way of reading scripture and contrary to the leading of the Holy Spirit, I could no longer serve as presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church,'" Griswold wrote August 19 in a letter to fellow primates.

Robinson's confirmation in early August, along with a resolution that recognized same-sex union ceremonies as part of the church's "common life," angered conservative primates in Africa, Asia, South America and Australia. The leader of the Auglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, has summoned the 37 primates to an emergency meeting in London in October to discuss the issue.

Griswold argued, however, that the votes endorsed neither homosexuality nor same-sex unions. "It is my prayer that you will see what has occurred in the life of the Episcopal Church in its complexity, and not dismiss it as an instance of infidelity to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, or disregard for the bonds of communion we share," he said.--RNS