Bishop V.Gene Robinson

By Adelle M. Banks

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE

(2003)

Bishop V. Gene Robinson, elected in June as the first openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church, was named the Religion Newsmaker of the Year by members of  the Religion Newswriters Association. His approval and consecration, and the ensuing threats of schism in the U. S. church and the wider Anglican Communion, were collectively cited as the top religion news story of 2003 -- a ranking shared with criticism of the Anglican bishop of Vancouver, British Columbia, who approved same-sex unions.

About a third of the 240 members of the Religion Newswriters Association took part in the annual survey. More than 80 percent of these selected Robinson as the top newsmaker.

The top 10 religion news stories were ranked as follows

1. Turmoil mounts within the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion after Robinson approval and consecration, and Vancouver Bishop Michael Ingham’s action.

2. The pending war in Iraq split religious communities, with mostly mainline Protestant denominations opposing it and many evangelicals supporting it.

3. The definition of marriage becomes a key area of controversy after Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules gay couples have a right to civil marriage and the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down a ban against homosexual sodomy.

4. A Ten Commandments monument is removed from Alabama State Judicial

building and the man who got it installed there, Roy Moore, is removedfrom his post as the state’s chief justice.

5. Roman Catholic Church efforts to implement plans combating priestly sex abuse draw praise and criticism. Archbishop Sean OMalley succeeds Cardinal Bernard Law as leader of the Boston Archdiocese.

6. Pope John Paul II marks the 25th anniversary of his election amid growing concerns about his health and debate over his eventual successor.

7. Slumping economy prompts budget cutbacks in many denominations.

8. Presbyterian Church (USA) keeps  fidelity and chastity clause, maintaining its ban on noncelibate gay clergy. The denomination elects its first woman pastor as moderator.

9. The U.S. Supreme Court decides to hear a California case challenging the inclusion of the words under God in the Pledge of Allegiance.

10. The suspension of Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod official David Benke of New York, for participating in a post-9/11 interfaith service, is overturned.

Officials of Valparaiso University issued an apology to the denomination members after holding an interfaith service marking the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

END