The world's first openly homosexual Episcopalian bishop has urged his American colleagues to reject a compromise intended to prevent a split in the worldwide Anglican communion.Bishop Gene Robinson, whose installation in New Hampshire precipitated a crisis in the Anglican ranks, criticized the statement approved earlier this month by Anglican leaders meeting in Tanzania. The statement called upon leaders of the Episcopal Church in the US to stop ordaining homosexual bishops and performing commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples.
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who took part in the discussions in Tanzania, had asked American Episcopalians to accept the terms of the statement, hoping that their “forbearance” would heal divisions among the faithful.
Bishop Robinson sharply disagreed. “Now is the time for courage, not fear,” he said.
"How will we explain this ’forbearance’ to all those gay and lesbian Christians who have come to the Episcopal Church?” Robinson asked rhetorically.
He added that divisions would remain even if the Episcopal Church in the US followed the directions of the Tanzania statement.
He asked: “Does anyone believe that our full compliance with the primates’ demands, our complete denunciation of our gay and lesbian members or my removal as bishop would make all this go away?’’
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