19th April 2004 OXFORD, UK - As some of the leading Northern Anglican theologians gather at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford for a two day discussion on the current crisis in ECUSA, Canada and the wider church, Anglican Mainstream managed to talk to three of the leading Mainstream players in the Anglican Church: Kendall Harmon, Canon Theologian of South Carolina, Dr Paul Zahl, Dean of the Cathedral Church of the Advent, Birmingham Alabama and Dr George Sumner, Principal of Wycliffe College Toronto. Anglican Mainstream: Can you please tell us why you're here in Oxford? George Sumner: It's a gathering of theologians. Theologians have a role to play at the present moment in the church, to give a theological rationale for our Communion. We're particularly grateful to be here with someone like Chris Sugden who reminds us of the global and southern perspective and dimension of that Communion. Mainstream: Is there anything at the start of this meeting that you'd like to share with Anglicans across the whole world? Kendall Harmon: We haven't lost our Gospel hope even in a time of great crisis. God is still God no matter what. There is a sense of central confidence in the Gospel that permeates our meeting, but also a sense of the need to respond with great seriousness to the crisis we face. It's a tremendous challenge. There's also a sense of our own inadequacy which is actually a help. I was very moved by the fact that we began the day with a devotion and prayer. Mainstream: What do you hope will be the result of this meeting? Paul Zahl: First, in a state of some despair at times and "in the trenches" as many North Americans feel it is a tremendous encouragement to be with people like Alister McGrath, Chris Sugden, Oliver O'Donovan and Andrew Goddard and others who have not yet given up the fight and are really working in fellowship to affirm the Gospel in a very troubled and muddy situation. I feel strengthened by them. In a more concrete way there's a possibility that we might produce some kind of submission to the church at large, some kind of a statement that's quiet, scholarly and theological that might make an impact for good. A positive and clear statement of Gospel orthodoxy in the face of the challenges that we very much feel in our home contexts and feel to an only slightly lesser extent here at Wycliffe Hall. I agree by the way with Kendall Harmon who spoke of the devotional at the start of the day that Alister McGrath led, that assured us that the presence of the Lord was never to be questioned. He is with us in all times and places and that inevitably gives us the sense ultimately of being on the winning side as far as the Kingdom of Heaven is concerned, and that meant a great deal to me personally. Mainstream: What's the best part about having this meeting in Oxford? Kendall Harmon: Oxford is where my two youngest children were born, where I did my doctorate and I never fail to be inspired by the Spires! George Sumner: I'm taking my children home a really nice English Soccer shirt and some sharp English shoes for my daughter. Paul Zahl: The remarkable weather that totally drenched me when I arrived at the station yesterday and all my papers and all my under-things were completely and totally destroyed. I'm very glad to be home in lovely Oxford as always! Mainstream: Thanks so much for taking time out to talk to us, and our best wishes and prayers for the rest of your meeting.

BRITISH EVANGELICALS DECRY JEFFREY JOHN APPOINTMENT Jeffrey John announced as next Dean of St Albans By David Phillips Evangelical News Downing Street announced this morning (Monday 19th April 2004) the appointment of Jeffrey John as the next Dean of St. Albans. The press had leaked the appointment over the weekend. Dr John is a founder member of the group affirming catholicism. Last year his appointment was announced as the Bishop of Reading but he was then persuaded to step down because of opposition within the Diocese of Oxford and from the wider Anglican Communion. Dr John lives with his male partner although he has asserted that in recent years he has been celibate in order to live by the present policy of the House of Bishops. His partner is or has also been a parish minister in the Church of England. There is no indication that Dr John considers anything wrong with the present or past state of his relationship. The Bishop of St. Albans, Christopher Herbert, is reported as saying: "I warmly welcome this appointment. Jeffrey John has a well-deserved reputation for being a good, caring pastor. He is an intelligent, courageous priest who will follow a long line of superb Deans of St Albans and will bring to the Abbey a wide range of gifts. He is a man of prayer, a preacher and teacher of real authority and grace." The Bishop will have been actively involved in the appointment because the Dean is also Rector of the Abbey Church of which the Bishop is Patron. Previously the Bishop had appeared to sit on the fence on the issue that is tearing the Anglican Communion apart and last year called on people in the Diocese for a period of calm reflection after the appointment of Gene Robinson as 'Bishop' in New Hampshire, USA. The appointment of Jeffrey John appears to be a provocative act. Why is this a problem? The Church of England affirms the supreme authority of Holy Scripture in all matters of faith and conduct and expects it clergy to uphold the teaching of Scripture. The Church of England asserts that the Bible is the Word of God and in our Homilies, which serve to clarify and contextualise the doctrinal standard of the Church it is very simply states that the Bible is God's infallible Word. In matters of sexual conduct the Bible is very plain, there is only one proper place for sexual intercourse, namely the covenantal relationship between a man and woman. This is what marriage represents, it is part of God's creation plan, ordained from the beginning, and can be seen in some form in all human societies. This view was clearly endorsed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Anything outside of this, whether it be sex before marriage, homosexual sex, adultery, bestiality, or whatever, is wrong. Indeed, in various places in both the Old and New Testament God declares that such things are an abomination. In his first letter to the Corinthians the Apostle Paul writes the following: "Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers-none of these will inherit the kingdom of God." Because Christians have always believed the Scriptures to be God-breathed they have always taken this statement very seriously. God does not here say that sexual sins are worse than greed, habitual drunkenness or theft. Rather, all who practice these things, and remain unrepentant in them, will not inherit the kingdom of God. There have been attempts by some to question whether the reference to sodomites in this verse really means homosexual practice. However, despite the efforts made the meaning will not change and honest interpreters and commentators have had to admit this fact. They may not agree with what is said in the verse, but they cannot deny what it says. For those who believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and this ought to include all loyal members of the Church of England, this makes the matter very plain. To practice these things and to remain unrepentant in them is to but shut out of the kingdom of God. Therefore, this is an issue of salvation as has been clearly stated by some of the churches in Africa. The heart of the Christian faith is that all people have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are all under God's just condemnation and are deserving of death and eternal destruction. The glorious message of the Christian gospel is that through faith in Christ and because of His sacrifice on the cross, we sinners can be saved, our sins can be reckoned to Christ and therefore through Him we can inherit eternal life. These facts are borne witness to by the doctrinal standards of the Church of England. What this means is that all, from the greatest to the least, are called to repent of their sins and believe in Christ. To continue knowingly and willingly in doing what God declares to be wrong is to reject the message of salvation. The issue in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion today is very simple. God declares in His word that certain behaviour will mean that people do not inherit His kingdom, but we have teachers and leaders who are saying that this behaviour is acceptable. Sometimes they even go so far as to say that such conduct is honouring to God. Those who teach these things and those who support and encourage them are setting themselves against God, they are deceiving people and leading them to destruction. Underneath all this lies the issue of the nature and authority of the Bible. Christians through the ages have always declared the Bible to be the Word of God and have therefore accepted its authority. This has been the teaching of Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox alike. Today in the western world the dominant religion in many churches is liberalism. By and large liberalism has had the effect of strangling to death once vibrant churches. Liberals do not believe the Bible to be God-breathed and therefore although some may have an attachment to the norms of the institutional church, or to beliefs and practices of Christians in the past, at heart they believe that they have the authority to decide which parts of the Bible are relevant for today and which simply serve to show how people in the past understood God and their faith. Liberalism is in effect idolatry since the individual becomes the one who determines what God is like and what He expects of people today. David Phillips General Secretary, Church Society General Synod Representative for St. Alban's Diocese

OHIO: Episcopal bishop installed David Briggs Plain Dealer Religion Reporter 4/18/2004 Hundreds of voices sang in hushed reverence Saturday, asking for the coming of the Holy Spirit, as the Venerable Mark Hollingsworth Jr. prepared to be consecrated as the 11th bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio. Those in attendance declared earlier in one voice that it was their will to ordain the former archdeacon from Massachusetts, who now was being surrounded by 30 bishops for the ancient ritual of the laying on of hands. Applause broke out after Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church; Barbara Harris, the first female bishop; and the other prelates together asked God to make Hollingsworth a leader in the church. Then for a few shining moments, with his wife and four children gathered around him, Hollingsworth, 50, broke out in a broad smile and basked in the adulation pouring toward him throughout the Cleveland State University Convocation Center. Now comes the hard part. The diocese that he takes over has shrunk rapidly from 74,000 baptized members in 118 northern Ohio parishes in 1966 to 32,000 baptized members in 2002. Of those, only 24,000 are communicants, or more active members in the diocese's 103 parishes. And Northeast Ohio is a flashpoint in the turmoil over the national church's decision to ordain Robinson and to acknowledge the blessing of same-sex unions. Last month, five diocesan churches that uphold traditional teachings on sexuality brought in conservative bishops for a confirmation service in a borrowed church. Last week, the five churches announced they have their own conservative bishop and asked Hollingsworth, a strong supporter of Robinson, to stay out of their parishes. But Saturday's consecration was not disrupted by any protest. Many Episcopalians think they have the right guy in Hollingsworth, who is used to deflecting shots as a goalie in adult hockey leagues. He endeared himself to churchgoers even before his election with his admission that he has already overcome one tough opponent - alcohol addiction. "Sobriety saved my life," he said in a recent interview. The strength he was given to battle alcoholism two decades ago as a young priest is a gift Hollingsworth said he hopes to offer back to others in the church. With the church growing grayer as well as smaller, many also see in Hollingsworth, a father of children ages 4 to 13, the chance for greater outreach to youth. "He's going to bring some youth and an appeal to younger people," Marjorie McDougle, 45, senior warden of St. Timothy Church in Macedonia, said after the service. Certainly, for one lovely spring morning in a once-in-a-decade changing of the spiritual guard, there was a spirit of celebration. The audience was energized by the procession of bishops and clergy in colorful robes as well as by the Trinity Chamber Orchestra and a 240-voice choir that presented a beautiful array of liturgical music from black spirituals to classical and folk offerings. At one point, Bishop J. Clark Grew II, retiring as bishop of Ohio after a decade, danced and encouraged people around him to sing. Amid the pageantry, Hollingsworth added personal touches. He selected a layperson, Massachusetts state legislator Byron Rushing, to give the sermon. At one point, Rushing asked Hollingsworth to turn 360 degrees, reminding the new bishop and his flock, "You are in this together." And, after he was made a bishop, Hollingsworth gathered children around him, assuring them the church is not complete without their presence. "In Jesus' love of us and in our love of Jesus, we're all tied together . . . people we agree with, people we don't agree with," he told the children. Afterward, when he was asked if the Holy Spirit was present, a jubilant Hollingsworth pumped his fists in the air and said, "Absolutely. Absolutely." But the new bishop is being thrust immediately into the episcopal fire. One of Hollingsworth's first decisions will be whether to go ahead in the next month with long-planned pastoral visits to three of the five churches that have asked him to stay away - St. Barnabas in Bay Village and the Church of Holy Spirit and St. Luke's, both in Akron. "Bishop Hollingsworth faces an uphill battle to avert the crisis and curb the mounting membership and money losses in the diocese," the Rev. R. James Tasker of St. Barnabas said in a written statement. Tasker was not in attendance Saturday. "It will take nothing less than a return to biblical faith to restore trust and any sense of normalcy." In earlier interviews, Hollingsworth said he would like to meet with leaders of the five churches. He said he is willing to go as far as he can to meet the needs of conservative parishes while preserving unity in the diocese. It's not the easiest assignment for any new bishop, Hollingsworth acknowledged. But he said it is the right one for him. "While I regularly have self-doubt and insecurities, I haven't for once doubted this is a faithful thing to do," he said. "It's not self-confidence that draws us deeper into faithfulness. It's God-confidence. "I have confidence in God that the people of the Diocese of Ohio and I can make a worthy thing together of our companionship in Christ." The Rev. Nancy Roosevelt of Christ Church in Shaker Heights, a longtime friend, said Hollingsworth is "the man for the hour." She has several friends in alcohol recovery, and like many of them, she said, Hollingsworth is an open, honest person. He will work hard to find common ground in the diocese, she said. When she has helped churches choose new clergy, Roosevelt encouraged members to ask themselves, "Who would you want to die with?" The 11th bishop of Ohio is one of those persons, she said. "I would trust Mark with my soul," she said. "Mark would be someone I'd want to die with."

Church fire ruled arson Blaze destroys sanctuary; no suspects named By Gerald Ensley DEMOCRAT SENIOR WRITER A fire that destroyed a recently controversial Tallahassee church early Friday has been ruled arson, after investigators found evidence of burglary and vandalism. Though police had no suspects Friday, current and former church officials said they don't think the fire was related to their recent dispute. The Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit on Kerry Forest Parkway had its 6,000-square-foot sanctuary building destroyed by the fire, which was discovered shortly before 2 a.m. Friday. An adjacent administration building suffered smoke and water damage but was otherwise unharmed. The church was founded 20 years ago and is one of eight Episcopal churches in Tallahassee. In February, its Rev. Dennis Ackerson resigned in a dispute over the direction of the Episcopal Church and its recent ordination of an openly gay bishop. Two-thirds of the 150-member congregation joined Ackerson in leaving Holy Spirit to start a new church. But neither Ackerson nor Sterling Henderson, who along with her husband, Michael, serves as priest-in-charge of Holy Spirit, was willing to think Friday that any of their members were involved in the fire. Both pastors said the church division was over theological issues and produced no personal animosity among members. Both pastors were on the scene in the pre-dawn hours Friday while firefighters worked to put out the blaze. Numerous current and former members of the church stopped by throughout the day. "None of us are bitter or harbor any ill feelings toward the Church of the Holy Spirit; we all have wonderful memories of the church," said Ackerson, who spent more than three years as pastor. "I would be very surprised if anyone who left the church started the fire." Sterling Henderson agreed. "Certainly, there was sadness by those who left, just as when a family no longer lives together," Henderson said. "But there was no rancor, no anger, no good-guy/bad-guy thing. I don't know of any political issues that would have driven someone to do this. If someone's angry, they're angry at God." The blaze was reported at 1:53 a.m. by a resident of the nearby St. Ives Lane subdivision. Six units of the Tallahassee Fire Department, with 20 firefighters, had the blaze extinguished by 2:55 a.m. By 8 a.m., the fire scene was being combed by investigators - including agents from the FBI and federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, state fire marshal, TFD and Leon County Sheriff's Office. The interagency investigation is a requirement of the National Church Arson Task Force, established in 1996. By early afternoon Friday, investigators had not determined the cause of the fire, and the investigation is expected to take several days. But they had found evidence of burglary and "criminal mischief," or vandalism, in excess of $200 damage. Both charges are felonies, and any fire that occurs during a felony - whether intentional or accidental - brings a felony charge of arson. Lt. Linda Butler, spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office, said no suspects have been identified and no items appeared to be stolen from the church. But she would not release the details of the vandalism. "When we find people we think may be involved, those will be details we'll be able to ask them about that only they would know," Butler said. Butler said the estimated damage to the church was $750,000, not including furnishings, which included 14 stained glass windows, an altar, pulpit and numerous crosses made by church members. Paul Van Brunt, spokesman for Florida Diocese of the Episcopal Church, said the church is fully insured through the diocese. The Church of the Holy Spirit planned to hold a special service in the parking lot Friday evening, then gather there Sunday for its regular service. Henderson said the church spent nearly a decade in temporary locations, ranging from storefronts to the Bradfordville Hunt Club (itself destroyed by fire in 2002), before moving into the Kerry Forest church in 1992. The church, which now has about 50 members, may rent a temporary location until the is rebuilt. "The roots of this church are gypsy; we'll tent worship if we have to," Sterling Henderson said. "But we'll rebuild here without a doubt." Ackerson said he and the members who left the church in February were spurred by what they felt was the Episcopal Church's departure from adherence to Biblical scriptures, a trend they felt was underlined by the the church's acceptance of same-sex marriages and the ordination of a gay pastor, the Rev. V.G. Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire. Ackerson congregation now worships in the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Capital Circle Northeast and is considering affiliation with an Anglican church. "Most of us (in his congregation) are sad today," Ackerson said. "We still have friends at Holy Spirit, and we'll be at their service (Friday) to support them." Though members of Holy Spirit also were saddened by Friday's fire, they predicted it would make them stronger. "I think this is going to rev things up," said Judy Welch, one of the church's founding members. "All the other (local Episcopal) churches have been supporting us (since February) to make sure we have what we need to rebuild. "But as things happen in a tragedy, this will bring more cohesion and support."

"True Love Waits" Lowers Teen Birth Rate Ethics & Religion by Michael J. McManus Ten years ago Southern Baptist churches began asking their teenagers to sign a "True Love Waits" pledge of chastity. This was derided by groups like Planned Parenthood who argued that it was unrealistic to expect teenagers to remain chaste till marriage. Planned Parenthood's answer is comprehensive sex education which assumed teens would be sexually active, and urged them to have "safe sex" with condoms. It did not work. In 1970, only 29 percent of females aged 15-19 had premarital sex. By 1991, the figure shot up to 54 percent. The greatest increase was among the youngest teens. In 1970, less than 5 percent of 15-year-olds had experienced sex. That soared five-fold to 26 percent by 1988. The consequences have been devastating. There were only 59,000 births to unmarried teens in 1950 which skyrocketed ten-fold to 522,000 by 1990. And that is in spite of 364,000 abortions to teenagers in 1990, which were virtually zero before 1970. When teaching contraception increased teen pregnancy, sex educators got birth control clinics opened nearby, then moved into the schools, finally simply handed out condoms. All of this with federal funding. The emotional impact of premature sex has been devastating. Teen rates of depression have soared and teen suicides quadrupled from 2.7 per 100,000 in 1955 to 11.1 in 1995. Amidst this moral chaos, Southern Baptists lit a candle of hope, that teenagers might be persuaded to remain chaste. Specifically, Baptist youth groups were urged to sign a "True Love Waits" pledge card that states: "Believing that (ital) true love waits, (close ital) I make a commitment to God, myself, my family, those I date, my future mate, and my future children to be sexually pure until the day I enter a covenant marriage relationship." In 1994 I remember seeing a sea of 211,643 pledge cards displayed in neat rows of plastic holders over acres between the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol. Ten years later, a total of 2.5 million teens have pledged "True Love Waits." What has been the impact of this inspiring commitment of young people to moral lives? First, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the percentage of sexually active high schoolers has fallen from 54 percent to 46 percent. And the greatest drop has been among boys! Second, teen birth rates have fallen 31 percent. Chastity is the only real form of "safe sex." Third, teen suicides have fallen 13.5 percent. Fourth, True Love Waits launched an abstinence revolution, moving Congress to appropriate funds for sex education programs that not only make a case for chastity, but teach skills to teenagers on how to resist the lines of the MTV culture: "You would, if you loved me" can be countered, "If you loved me, you would not ask." Unquestionably, the declines in teen sexuality are partly due to providing $144 million to promote abstinence. For example, there is now an Abstinence Clearinghouse that provided many of the statistics you are seeing in this column (abstinence.org) Yet federal and state governments still spend $1.73 billion to promote contraception. "Overall, government spent $12 to promote condoms and comprehensive sex-ed for every dollar to encourage abstinence," reports Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation. These priorities are upside down, according to parents. A Zogby poll found that 85 percent of parents said the emphasis placed on abstinence for teens should be equal to, or greater than the emphasis on contraception. What can be done? First, more parents need to attend School Board meetings to demand that abstinence education replace comprehensive sex ed. Second, citizens ought to swing behind the President's attempt to nearly double federal funds for abstinence which are a part of the welfare reform bill that died on the Senate floor two weeks ago, thanks to Democratic opposition. This is the same bill which provides the first major funding for marriage education. The bill will surface again in June. Write Democratic Senators. Or better, send teenage pledgers to meet their Senators! Most important, religious youth group in other denominations should go to truelovewaits.com to order pledge cards, father-daughter rings and other material to promote God's plan of chastity. Southern Baptists are organizing an international display of commitment cards on August 22 at the Olympics. Two hundred thousand have already been collected in South Africa. Will your teenagers or those from your church have their pledges displayed in Athens? That is up to you! END TXT. Copyright 2004 Michael J. McManus

African Archbishops reject US cash in gay clergy row By Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent THE TELEGRAPH 4/17/2004 African archbishops representing more than half the worldwide Anglican Church are to refuse millions of pounds a year from their US counterparts in protest at its first openly gay bishop. Archbishop Akinola said the church's leaders should be disciplined for allowing a gay bishop to be consecrated. The conservative archbishops, who opposed the consecration of Canon Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire in November, said that they would not sacrifice their faith and conscience on the altar of money. Their action will be seen as another step towards schism over the issue of homosexuality. Many of them are disillusioned with the efforts of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams to keep the worldwide Church together, and they are making preparations for a rival Church with an alternative leader. The most likely candidate, the Primate of Nigeria, Archbishop Peter Akinola, said the liberal leadership of the American Episcopal Church must be disciplined for supporting the consecration. The archbishop, the chairman of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA), said that the Episcopal Church leadership had three months in which to "repent" or the CAPA bishops, representing about 40 million Anglicans, would feel free to take action.

ANGLICAN JOURNAL April 18, 2004 Delegates to the meeting of General Synod will have a slate of four candidates to choose from for their next primate. The 40 bishops of the Anglican Church of Canada, meeting in Regina for their regular, twice-yearly meeting, nominated five candidates for the primatial election, but one bishop declined the nomination. The candidates are: • Bishop Ronald Ferris, 55, of the diocese of Algoma. Before becoming the ninth bishop of the northern Ontario diocese of Algoma in 1995, he served as bishop of the diocese of Yukon from 1981 to 1995. His area of expertise is episcopacy and transition into episcopacy, with course work in Anglican theology, contextual theology, and the church and law. • Bishop Andrew Hutchison, 65, of the diocese of Montreal. Described by his peers as "an astute and experienced spokesman for the church in the political arena," he was consecrated as a bishop in 1990. He is an outspoken advocate for minorities, refugees, and human rights in church and state. • Bishop Caleb Lawrence, 59, of the diocese of Moosonee. He heads the diocese which covers the second largest land area (next to the diocese of the Arctic), and where about half of the parishioners are indigenous Canadians, mainly of the Cree nation. A strong advocate for the rights of aboriginal Anglican clergy, he was consecrated as bishop in 1980. • Bishop Victoria Matthews, 49, of the diocese of Edmonton. Elected the first female bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada in 1993, she is the country's only female diocesan bishop. After serving as suffragan (assistant) bishop of Credit Valley, diocese of Toronto, she became bishop of the diocese of Edmonton in 1997. From 2003 to early 2004, she chaired the house of bishops' task force that examined alternative episcopal oversight for clergy and parishioners who strongly object to church decisions. If elected, Bishop Matthews would be the first woman primate in the Anglican Communion, a federation of 38 provinces around the world. Also nominated as a candidate was Bishop Fred Hiltz, diocesan bishop of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Bishop Hiltz declined the nomination, with the consent of the house of bishops (by church law, the house may compel a candidate to stand in a primatial election). The 310 delegates to the triennial meeting of General Synod will elect the primate, or leader of the denomination, on Monday, May 31 at Brock University, in St. Catharines, Ont. General Synod meets from May 28 to June 4.

We are a group of Anglicans from the Dioceses of Athabasca and Edmonton. We live out our Christian faith in a variety of contexts, yet we find the common ground of our Anglican identity in the Person and Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are united in our commitment to the authority of Holy Scripture and our desire to see the Anglican Church of Canada submit itself willingly to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of its life. In faithfulness to the call of Christ and the teaching of Holy Scripture, we cannot support the resolutions regarding the Blessing of Same Sex Unions sent by the Council of General Synod to General Synod 2004 on the following grounds: 1. On the grounds of Christian love. We believe Jesus clearly proclaims that the love of God calls us to holy living, and that to go against, or to advise others to go against, Jesus' call to holy living would be an offense against the law of love - both love of God and love of our neighbours. The most loving action is that which empowers a neighbour to grow closer to God. We see these motions as hindering that growth in God's love. 2. On the grounds of Christian repentance. We believe that we as a church need to repent of our neglect of proper pastoral care to our members who have struggled with the desire for a sexual relationship outside the bounds of a Christian and heterosexual marriage. We have not fully listened to the voices of our brothers and sisters who have chosen to leave the gay and lesbian lifestyle, nor are we currently doing enough as a church to provide training and resources for clergy and laypeople involved in those ministries, and support for those members of our church who choose to leave the gay and lesbian lifestyle. We have not proclaimed, or have silenced, the Gospel of healing for those members of our church. 3. On the ground of our communion with each other and our fellowship with all baptised Christians. The proposed Framework for the Anglican Church of Canada speaks of our baptismal covenant, and rightly so. Yet the Framework states that within the ACC, we differ on our "reception of the apostles' teaching" [Framework, pg. 8]. We find it contradictory to propose that we as individual members of a church can receive or not receive the apostolic teaching, and yet at the same time hope to continue unimpaired in "the fellowship, the breaking of bread and the prayers". Through faith and baptism we are indeed members one of another in Christ Jesus, not only with Canadian Anglicans but with all baptised Christians throughout the world. We desire to remain in communion with our fellow Anglicans around the world and to preserve and strengthen that fellowship which we share with our fellow-Christians of other denominations. We are persuaded that to proceed with the blessing of committed same-sex relationships can only serve to further impair that communion and fellowship. 4. On the ground of honesty. We believe that it is time to stop using the euphemism 'blessing of committed same-sex relationships'. Many of the people who wish to take advantage of such blessings will have been through a civil marriage. To persist in pretending that what the Church is proposing to ask God to bless is not marriage is to be dishonest to God and to ourselves. We believe that the continued use of this euphemism is designed solely to lessen the offense to people of traditional theological conviction in the church. The debate is about the permissibility of gay and lesbian marriages, and should be named as such. 5. On the ground of Christ's high priestly prayer. In John 17 Jesus calls us not only to unity, but also to faithfulness to the truth and holiness of life. To exalt our Lord's call to unity over the other two calls is to make it an idol. A true Anglican balance can be seen in the Intercession in the BCP service of Holy Communion: 'And grant that all they that do confess thy holy Name may agree in the truth of thy holy Word, and live in unity and godly love'. Where Christians are not in agreement in the truth of God's holy Word, there is no true unity, whether or not they inhabit the same institutional structures. The unity referred to in these proposed resolutions is a unity based on structural and canonical allegiance, not on faithfulness to Christ and his word. As such, it is not in any way a biblical unity to which we can pledge ourselves. The resolutions also fail to represent the truth about Canadian Anglican unity: that it is already shattered, with only an illusion of unity remaining. We are not called to the illusion of unity but to that real unity which alone can bring freedom (John 8:31-32). 6. On the ground of Christian faithfulness in making disciples of all nations. In many of our churches, we are seeing people of all ages coming to a living faith in Jesus Christ. These new Christians are coming to us and asking us for instruction in Christian discipleship. We believe as Christian leaders that we have a solemn responsibility to provide accurate and faithful instruction in the way of Christ. To compromise on this instruction on the ground of inclusivity is not only an act of dishonesty, but is also perilous to the spiritual health of the members of our congregations; it is not an act of love but an act of betrayal. As pastors we desire to teach faithfully and accurately what it means to be disciples of Jesus Christ, but the passage of these motions would undercut this and make it more difficult for us to uphold biblical teaching in our parishes. Yours faithfully in Christ, From the Diocese of Edmonton: The Rev. Don Aellen The Rev. Regula Brandle Ms. Lori Calkins The Rev. Capt. Tim Chesterton The Rev. Richard Conrad The Rev. Stephanie London Crane The Rev. Clarke French The Rev. Pat Hill Capt. Kathy Hutchinson The Rev. Gordon Ingram The Rev. Sally Johnson The Rev. David Johnston The Rev. Lynette Kent The Very Rev. Greg Kerr-Wilson The Rev. Kevin Kraglund The Rev. Steve London The Rev. Wayne Masliuk Capt. Christine Pierce The Rev. Stuart Ravnsborg The Rev. Michael Sung The Rev. Joe Walker The Rev. Ralph Warnock The Rev. Mary Charlotte Wilcox The Rev. Michael Williamson From the Diocese of Athabasca: The Rev. Roy Dickson The Rev. Ken Harding The Rev. Canon Fraser Lawton The Rev. Terry Leer The Rev. Sean O'Connor END

"We will not, on the altar of money, mortgage our conscience, mortgage our faith, and mortgage our salvation." Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria Dear Brothers and Sisters, African Anglican Primates meeting in Nairobi this week sent shock waves through the Anglican Communion, but they aimed their sharpest barbs at the US Episcopal Church for its ordination of an avowed homoerotic bishop to the episcopacy. African archbishops intensified the threat to the unity of the worldwide Anglican Communion last and increased pressure on Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, by insisting that the US Episcopal Church must be disciplined within three months unless it "repents" for electing a gay bishop. Their demand preempts the Lambeth Commission set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury last October in an attempt to avoid a split. The report is due out at the beginning of next year. The major issue was whether these African leaders should go on accepting crucial funding from the U.S. Episcopal Church. After the two-day closed-door meeting of the Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA). They decided they wouldn't. African Anglicans, led by Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, fiercely protested the decision to consecrate Bishop Robinson, with some threatening a permanent schism. The official said it would not be "morally right and spiritually proper" for the African churches to accept money from people and groups who have failed to respect the word of God. "If we rejected them, then it's fair before God to say 'no' to their money. But then we must be ready to get our own funds," the official added. About 70 percent of CAPA's funding comes from rich churches in the West, particularly in the United States, home to most proponents of homosexual bishops. Conservative members of the worldwide communion also warned that the consecration of Bishop Robinson, 56, who had lived with his male partner for 13 years, would plunge the faith into the worst turmoil in its 450-year history! THE DIOCESE OF OHIO got a new bishop yesterday. He is Mark Hollingsworth (formerly of the Diocese of Massachusetts) and he was installed as Clark Grew's replacement. Just ten short days into his reign and he will meet with the Integrity crowd. A Virtuosity reader reports that The Community Alliance of Trinity Cathedral will welcome the GLBT community of the Diocese of Ohio to join them for a special Choral Evensong to be followed by a potluck. The guest speaker will be the new Bishop. The potluck will also relaunch the gay Episcopal activist organization known as Integrity. It had apparently been dormant. But after the pleasantries are over the new bishop will come out swinging because five Northeast Ohio congregations have told him to stay out of their churches. To those five parishes who don't want Hollingsworth to visit, it's been suggested they start scouting Western Reserve movie theaters and high school gyms right now. You can read the full story in today's digest.) IN THE DIOCESE OF ILLINOIS, the assistant bishop of Chicago Victor Alfonso Scantlebury came to the parish of St. Mark's, Glen Ellyn, and told conservatives to work within the framework of the ECUSA. A laywoman reader told Virtuosity that Scantlebury then went on to say that there was nothing that barred the ordination of active homosexuals to the priesthood. "I wrote back, after a friend did some research, and informed him that there is a resolution from GC 1979 that says we can't ordain active homosexuals to the priesthood. It is supremely frustrating that he wants us to follow the rules when he won't." He ignored the woman's letter. This should come as no surprise. Frank Griswold was Bishop of Chicago and he ignored the canons as well. AND IN THE DIOCESE OF FLORIDA comes word that the sanctuary of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Tallahassee was destroyed by fire. The priest and approximately 80% of the congregation had resigned and left the church, diocese and ECUSA several weeks ago. No determination as to the cause of the fire has been made. The fire, determined as arson, is under investigation by local, state and federal authorities. AND IN THE DIOCESE OF THE RIO GRANDE THE VIA MEDIA crowd proved once and for all that they are not remotely via media at all. They are so upset at the prospect of getting another orthodox bishop to succeed Bishop Terence Kelshaw that they elicited the help of Jack Spong the most revisionist bishop in the history of ECUSA to come to their aid. Spong had some nasty things to say about Kelshaw but couldn't offer much hope to the revisionists except time, which he says will show that the orthodox are nothing more than a bunch of out of date people who need to be relieved of their beliefs in order to discover the freedom from faith that Spong has discovered. V. GENE ROBINSON the newly anointed Bishop of New Hampshire told an audience in Nashua, NH that while he still has some self doubts, he vows he will continue to work for change. He says he's getting death threats, but we've heard that before. His basic argument is that his appointment shows this is about the end of patriarchy. "For a very long time, straight white men have pretty much run the world," said Robinson, who spoke of knowing "from a very early age that the liberation of people of color in the '60s, and women in the '70s, would somehow become linked to his liberation (as a gay person). "I knew that long before I could articulate it." And Blacks in ECUSA are incensed that he equates the issue of color with homoerotic behavior. The two issues are not even close they say. AND IN LONDON Jeffrey John the wannabe be Bishop of Reading will now become the next Dean of St Albans cathedral. The gay canon who was forced to stand down as Bishop of Reading, will now take this senior position in the Church of England. It's a back door attempt to mainstream homosexuality into the Church of England. His new appointment will undoubtedly cause international ructions even as the CAPA primates are meeting in Africa. They condemned the consecration of Robinson, now they will have a C of E appointment to add to the list. You have to wonder what is going on in the tiny brains of British clerics that they are willing to do these sorts of acts and hope it won't split the communion! You can read Ruth Gledhill's story from the London Times. She broke the story first in the UK. IN CANADA THE C250 BILL WHICH COULD HAVE MADE HOMOSEXUALITY A HATE CRIME could get deep-sixed permanently because its primary supporter, Burnaby, BC politician Svend Robinson admitted to stealing jewelry this week. He blames his stealing on the stress of pushing his bill through Parliament. Now there's an argument we haven't seen before. And here is what his gay lover had to say: "Svend's inner strength must be applied to a very personal inner challenge. I have every confidence that my friend Svend will overcome." HE THAT LIVES BY THE PORT DIES BY THE CLARET. In a land of sprawling vineyards and vintage claret, the Church of England is experiencing an unusually good year. A new parish has been inaugurated covering one of the most rustic regions of France, which has become the home to 25,000 expatriates who have left England for a more sedate, sophisticated lifestyle. The Rev. Michael Hepper has been installed as the chaplain for Christ the Good Shepherd in Poiteau-Charentes, and will be covering a parish the size of Wales, from Poitiers to Cognac and Limoges. Meeting in buildings lent by local French Protestant and Catholic Christians, worshippers have been reading from the Book of Common Prayer, a liturgy from a bygone past in this country. IN CANADA THEY WILL SHORTLY ELECT A NEW PRIMATE but only two candidates out of 12 are remotely orthodox. A source said that the only likely ones are Victoria Matthews who is very hard to read in her orthodoxy, and Ron Ferris who has been quite weak and invisible lately. "I don't think that any orthodox have a chance", he said. Vancouver Bishop Michael Ingham is on the short list. IN TODAY'S LEAD STORY WE EXAMINE THE TALE OF TWO CHURCHES, one in Atlanta, the other in Plano, Texas. Both are large and prosperous but both have very different theologies. One is prospering and the other is suffering as a result of the Robinson consecration. AND FROM DR. MICHAEL GREEN AN EVANGELICAL ANGLICAN LEADER IN ENGLAND COMES THIS. "I have just come off a mission in a southern town in the UK, and it was very interesting. We had Rowan [Williams] for one evening. He was simply brilliant…marvelous, [with a] fresh explanation of the gospel and a strong ransom theory on the atonement. It led some people there to commitment." THE LOS ANGELES CHAPTER OF THE AMERICAN ANGLICAN COUNCIL has announced plans for a "Plano-West" conference scheduled for Thursday and Friday, June 3-4, 2004 at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center in Long Beach, California. The San Diego Chapter of the AAC will assist AAC-Los Angeles in hosting the gathering. The event, "An Historic Gathering of Anglicans Committed to the Great Commission," is designed as a follow-up to two other meetings of orthodox Episcopalians in the United States. "A Place to Stand: Michigan": Episcopalians upholding orthodox teaching in the Upper Midwest are invited to attend this two-day event in the Diocese of Michigan on May 21 and 22, 2004. The event will feature a session for clergy, Friday night Eucharist, several prominent speakers, and a panel discussion. PRO LIFERS HAVE A NEW WEBSITE. ABOUT LIFENEWS.COM is an independent news agency specifically devoted to reporting news that affects the pro-life community. With a team of experienced journalists and reporters, LifeNews.com reaches tens of thousands of pro-life advocates with timely, accurate pro-life news. lifeNews.com also acts as a service provider to furnish news content to media that share the pro-life perspective. The topics covered by LifeNews.com include abortion, assisted suicide and euthanasia, bioethics issues such as human cloning and stem cell research, campaigns and elections, and legal and legislative issues. TODAY'S STORIES INCLUDE AN ANALYSIS of Frank Griswold's review of the Passion, a story about how giving to churches is not in decline in the US even though it is in the ECUSA. The deep thinkers at national headquarters said it was the economy. Not true. More spin. The down trend in giving to The Episcopal Church is about the Robinson consecration. WELCOME TO VIRTUOSITY. THE WEBSITE NOW HAS NEW STORIES being posted daily. If you want to stay completely current then go to www.virtuosityonline.org and scan through the categories that interest you. The dates will show how current the story is. And please invite people to read and join Virtuosity. You have nothing to lose. Nothing. There is no copyright on truth, and it comes to you free. Please know that your financial support and encouragement makes this ministry worthwhile. This is a critical year in the life of the Anglican Communion and VIRTUOSITY is pulling out all the stops to keep you informed on a daily basis. Please be generous and make a donation through PAYPAL at my website or send a check by snail mail to VIRTUOSITY, 1236 Waterford Rd., West Chester, PA 19380. Thank you. British readers can send their tax deductible cheque to: VIRTUOSITY c/- Brycedale 105 Ridgeway Northaw Herts EN6 4BG Thank you for your support. All blessings, David W. Virtue DD

Tuesday, April 13, 2004 Canterbury Cathedral, Sunday 11 April 2004 [Anglican Communion News Service] A good few years ago, I heard a distinguished American scholar of ancient history commenting on the proclamation of the resurrection as it would have been heard in the classical world. 'If an educated Greek or Roman had been told that someone had been raised from the dead', he said, 'his first question would have been "How do you get him back into his grave again?"'. The point was that most of those who first heard the Easter gospel would have found it grotesque or even frightening. Resurrection was not a joyful sign of hope but an alarming oddity, something potentially very dangerous. The dead, if they survived at all, lived in their own world - a shadowy place, where they were condemned to a sort of half-life of yearning and sadness. So Vergil at least represents it in his great epic, unforgettably portraying the dead as 'stretching out their hands in longing for the other side of the river'. But for them to return would have been terrifying and unnatural; the boundaries between worlds had to be preserved and protected. Even the ancient Hebrews, who first made resurrection a positive idea, thought of the condition of the dead in just such a way: and resurrection was something that would happen at the end of time, when the good would be raised to receive their reward and the wicked their punishment, as in the prophecy of Daniel. But the news that someone had been raised from the tomb now would have been as disturbing for the Jew as for the Greek, if not perhaps quite so straightforwardly frightening. When St Matthew tells us that between the death and the ascension of Jesus many holy people of older days left their tombs in Jerusalem and appeared to many in the city, he is portraying not a scene of happy reunion but a true earthquake in the established order of the universe. It all helps us make sense of that unmistakable element in the resurrection stories in the gospels that speaks of terror and amazement. But why might resurrection be such a problem? Apart from the total confusion of present and long-term future which resurrection involved for the Jew, and the untidy blurring of boundaries between worlds for the Greek, there is another factor. When the dead did appear in vision or dream in the ancient world, it was often to denounce their killers; and the ancient empires specialised in mass slaughter. What would it have meant to a Roman to be told not only that the dead could return but that the 'firstborn from the dead', the first fruits of the harvest, was one who had been among the victims of the empire's legal system? Ancient empires grew and survived by assuming that enormous quantities of human lives were expendable and unimportant; those who fell victim to the system simply disappeared. But what if they didn't? Here was a message that might well cause alarm: an executed criminal, instead of disappearing into oblivion, is brought back into the world and his friends are told to speak in his name to his killers, telling them that for their life and health they must trust that he has made peace for them with God. And what was worse still was that this was seen not as an isolated matter: the risen one was only the first. His rising from death guaranteed that all would be raised, that no life would be forgotten and obliterated, or even relegated to the everlasting half-light of Hades. Death does not end relationships between human persons and between human persons and God; and this may be sobering news as well as joyful, sobering especially for an empire with blood on its hands. We forget so readily what Christianity brought into the world; we are so used to it that we think it is obvious. In the ancient world there was absolutely no assumption that every life was precious. Fathers had the right to kill their children in certain circumstances, masters their slaves; crowds flocked to see criminals or prisoners of war killing each other in the theatres; massacre was a normal tool of war. Some philosophers defended a theory of abstract human equality, but they were untroubled by the political facts of life in which lives were expendable in these familiar ways. It is a shock to realise just how deeply rooted such an attitude was. And when all is said and done about how Christianity has so often failed in its own vision, the bare fact is that it brought an irreversible shift in human culture. Human value could not be extinguished by violence or death; no-one could be forgotten. The gospel of the resurrection announced many great things, but this must have been one of the most disturbing of all. Here and now, God holds on to the lives of all the departed - including the lives that have been wasted, violently cut short, damaged by oppression. All have worth in his sight. If God can raise as the messenger of his word and the giver of his life a man who has been through the dehumanising process of a Roman state execution, a process carefully designed to humiliate and obliterate, then the imperial power may well begin to worry. We don't live under an empire like that, thank God. Yet we look back on a century in which imperial powers have in so many ways sought to obliterate their victims, as if the resurrection never happened. At Auschwitz there is an inscription in Hebrew from the Old Testament, 'O earth, cover not their blood'; the Holocaust, along with the mass killings of the thirties in the Soviet Union or the revolutionary years in China, went forward at the hands of people who assumed as blandly as any ancient Roman that the dead could be buried one and for all and forgotten. Cambodia and Rwanda and the Balkans remind us that it doesn't need to be an imperial power; it may be your closest neighbours who turn into murderers. Now we may not have that kind of blood on our hands; but there are times when we are convicted of sharing something of that assumption about the dead. Who is there who has not felt a little of this conviction, reading in these last few weeks the heartbreaking stories that mark the tenth anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda? It is not that we wielded the weapons; but the nations of the world stood by in indecision and distractedness while the slaughter went on. Some lives, it seems, are still forgettable; some deaths still obliterate memory, for those of us at a distance. And as I speak, the carnage in Northern Uganda continues; just a matter of weeks ago, a mass killing there failed to make anything like an adequately serious impact on great tracts of the media; and most people here are not aware of the nearly one million displaced persons in that region, living in continual fear, and the nightmare situation of the hundreds of thousands of children kidnapped to be soldiers, to kill and be killed. When deaths like this are forgotten, the gospel of the resurrection should come as a sharp word of judgement as well as of hope. But hope, of course, it is. We may and we should feel the reproach of the risen Christ as we recognise how easily we let ourselves forget; and nearer home, we might think too of those who die alone and unloved in our own society - the aged with no family (or forgotten by their family), the homeless addict, the mentally disturbed isolated from ordinary human contact. But Easter tells us to be glad that they are not forgotten by God, that their dignity is held and affirmed by God and that their lives are in his hand. In that gladness, we should be stirred to turn our eyes to look for those likeliest to be forgotten and to ask where our duty and service lies. God's justice rebukes our forgetfulness; and the truth that he will never let go of the lost and needy, so far from being an alibi for us not to bother, is a reminder of the responsibility of service and reverence laid upon all of us. But the goodness of the resurrection news is most evident for those who have lost people they love to any sort of incomprehensible evil - the tragedies of dementia, the apparent meaninglessness of accident, the horrors of violence or injustice. Think back for a moment to the days when death squads operated in countries like Argentina or El Salvador: the Christians there developed a very dramatic way of celebrating their faith, their hope and their resistance. At the liturgy, someone would read out the names of those killed or 'disappeared', and for each name someone would call out from the congregation, Presente, 'Here'. When the assembly is gathered before God, the lost are indeed presente; when we pray at this Eucharist 'with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven', we say presente of all those the world (including us) would forget and God remembers. With angels and archangels; with the butchered Rwandans of ten years ago and the butchered or brutalised Ugandan children of last week or yesterday; with the young woman dead on a mattress in King's Cross after an overdose and the childless widower with Alzheimer's; with the thief crucified alongside Jesus and all the thousands of other anonymous thieves crucified in Judaea by an efficient imperial administration; with the whole company of heaven, those whom God receives in his mercy. And with Christ our Lord, the firstborn from the dead, by whose death our sinful forgetfulness and lukewarm love can be forgiven and kindled to life, who leaves no human soul in anonymity and oblivion, but gives to all the dignity of a name and a presence. He is risen; he is not here; he is present everywhere and to all. He is risen: presente. The Most Revd Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury Easter Sunday 2004

By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent The Times April 17, 2004 DR JEFFREY JOHN, the gay canon forced to stand down as Bishop of Reading, is to be the next Dean of St Albans in an appointment that will generate shock waves throughout the Anglican Communion. Conservative evangelicals in the Anglican Church, already on the verge of breaking up after the ordination of the gay bishop Gene Robinson in the US and the authorisation of same-sex blessings in Canada, condemned Dr John's elevation as an "outrage" and predicted that it would take the Church a step closer to schism. The Times has learnt that Downing Street plans to announce on Tuesday that Dr John, who is in a celibate relationship with his long-term partner, another Anglican priest, is to head the chapter at St Albans. His appointment to one of the most senior jobs in the established Church is being seen as a step towards possible episcopal preferment. The cathedral has been without a Dean since the Very Rev Christopher Lewis moved to Christ Church, Oxford, last October. Liberals in the diocese have lobbied for months for Dr John, who many believe was treated unfairly over the Reading appointment and who is considered to have all the gifts needed to make an international impact as a preacher and teacher. The elevation of Dr John is surprising because, in an attempt to prevent further fracture, provinces throughout the Anglican Church had been asked to refrain from controversial actions until the Lambeth Commission, set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams to resolve the crisis, reports at the end of this year. The appointment will further convince African church leaders that the "mother" Church in England is committed in its heart to the liberal agenda already embraced by dioceses in America and Canada. Dr John, a liberal catholic, is one of the Church's most gifted speakers and evangelists. His nomination to Reading provoked vociferous opposition in Oxford and around the world, even though he lives strictly within the guidelines set out by Church of England bishops in the 1991 document Issues in Human Sexuality and his relationship is not sexually active. In spite of Dr John's adherence to his church's rules, Dr Williams gave in to pressure and, in an emotional meeting at Lambeth Palace lasting several hours, persuaded him to withdraw for the sake of Church unity. The initial response to Dr John's appointment in the St Albans diocese was favourable. Christina Rees, a lay member of the General Synod, said: "He will be a very good Dean for St Albans. He is an excellent theologian and has very good pastoral and interpersonal skills. He will be warmly accepted and welcomed." But David Virtue, the evangelical commentator who runs the influential website Virtuosity, said: "This is an outrageous appointment. It is a backdoor attempt to make homosexuality mainstream in the Church of England. END

By David Yonke, Blade Religion Editor The Rev. Mark Hollingsworth, Jr., Episcopal bishop-elect of Ohio, is planning an "inclusionary" consecration service tomorrow in Cleveland in which priests and bishops have been invited to take part in a procession with their wives, husbands, children, and "partners." Processionals at bishops' consecrations normally are reserved for ordained clerics only, and inviting family members marks a break from tradition, church officials said. But Bishop-elect Hollingsworth's invitation to priests' and bishops' partners is a clear show of support for gay clergy at a time when the 2.3 million-member denomination is in turmoil over homosexuality. One local Episcopal priest, who asked not to be identified, said he declined to serve as a Eucharistic minister at the consecration service because of Bishop-elect Hollingsworth's invitation to clerics' partners. The Rev. Brian Wilbert, co-chair of the transition committee, said Bishop-elect Hollingsworth wants to be "as inclusionary as possible" by inviting families to be part of the service. "And families can be defined as your spouse, your partner, your children - about the only thing we're not allowing is four-footed friends," said Father Wilbert, rector of Christ Church in Oberlin, Ohio. Bishop-elect Hollingsworth, 50, served as Archdeacon of the diocese of Massachusetts before being elected in November as the 11th bishop of the Ohio diocese, which covers the northern half of the state and has 27,700 members in 105 churches. The incoming bishop spoke in Toledo Nov. 5 during a public forum as one of three finalists to succeed Bishop J. Clark Grew II, who is retiring after 10 years in office. The bishop-elect told the Toledo audience that human sexuality is a complex issue that is difficult to understand and asked members of the denomination to "make space in the church" for opposing views. "I don't believe homosexuality is a sin or an obstacle to any ministry, lay or ordained. That's my belief, founded on lots of prayer and study," he said then. "I'm a heterosexual, married, white male, and I don't understand heterosexuality, let alone all sexuality," the bishop-elect said. He said he and his wife, Sue, have a "blended family" of four children, ages 4 to 13. Father Wilbert said 32 bishops have accepted invitations to the 10:30 a.m. consecration service at Cleveland State University Convocation Center, which will be able to accommodate 5,000 people with no tickets required. Among those who accepted invitations to the consecration service is Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, a personal friend of Bishop-elect Hollingsworth and the denomination's first openly gay bishop. Bishop Robinson's election at the Episcopal Church USA's general conference in August marked the start of a growing denominational rift over the ordination of homosexual clerics and the blessing of same-sex couples. Even before taking office, Bishop-elect Hollingsworth faced a challenge from within his diocese as several congregations held an unauthorized confirmation service near Akron last month. Five retired Episcopal bishops and one diocesan bishop from Brazil confirmed 110 individuals at the March 4 service. Under Episcopal law, confirmations can be performed only by local bishops or visiting bishops approved by the host diocese. Bishop Grew and Bishop-elect Hollingsworth both chastised the clerics for holding a service without their permission. "I am disappointed that the parish priests from the Diocese of Ohio and the six bishops of the church who were involved in this service chose to begin their relationship with me, not with direct and honest dialogue, but by acting in this manner," Bishop-elect Hollingsworth said. END