Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 2, 1991 TAG: 9103020096
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The 2.5 million-member denomination, which will consider the report at its July convention in Phoenix, Ariz., has generally followed a 1979 convention resolution specifying that it was "not appropriate" to ordain active homosexuals even though the issue remains hotly debated.
"I think the church is ready to take a little more progressive stance," said Bishop George Hunt of Providence, R.I., head of the Standing Commission on Human Affairs that proposed the new policy.
The proposed resolution says that "each diocese of this church . . . is fully competent to determine whom best to ordain . . . in the light of the qualifications presented for ordination."
Hunt said he believes that passage of the resolution would negate the 1979 resolution. His commission "heard from virtually every perspective available on the subject" during its three-year study, he said, and "mirrored the feelings that exist in the church at large."
The recommendation was criticized Friday by Ted Nelson of Dallas, board chairman of Episcopalians United, a conservative group, as "a flagrant attack" on church unity. Nelson said that the Episcopal Church "has no right to thumb our noses" at the rest of the Anglican churches worldwide by taking an unprecedented step.
The resolution "has a chance" of passage, Nelson predicted. The measure would have to pass both the House of Bishops and the House of (clergy and lay) Deputies at the bicameral Episcopal General Convention to be adopted. Nelson thought it would have its toughest test in the clergy and lay house.
Some church leaders expect delegates to make counter-proposals to revise canon laws specifically forbidding ordination of active homosexuals, thus stiffening the current convention stand.
The commission report also recommends that the church consider blessing the relationships of committed gay and lesbian couples, but does not ask definitive action about it, and suggests further study.
by CNB