Gay Anglican Bishop Says No to Ultimatum*

Feb 27 4:11 PM US/Eastern

By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer

(AP) -- The first openly gay Anglican/Episcopal bishop, whose
consecration has brought the world's Anglicans to the brink of schism,
said Tuesday that the Episcopal Church should not give in to demands
that it roll back its acceptance of gays.

New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson said in a statement that
Episcopalians should set aside the Anglican Communion's request for now
"and get on with the work of the Gospel" even at the risk of losing
their place in the Anglican fellowship.

"Doesn't Jesus challenge the greater whole to sacrifice itself for those
on the margins?" Robinson said. "Now is the time for courage, not fear."

It was Robinson's first public statement on an ultimatum that Anglican
leaders issued last week during a meeting in Tanzania. They gave the
U.S. denomination until Sept. 30 to unequivocally pledge not to
consecrate another gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-
sex couples. If it doesn't, the church risks a much-reduced role in the
Anglican family of churches that trace their roots back to the Church of
England.

The Episcopal Church is the U.S. wing of world Anglicanism.

Robinson's comments were a direct criticism of Episcopal Presiding
Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who has been regarded as a liberal
leader but left the Tanzania meeting saying the denomination should make
concessions "for a season" until relationships with fellow Anglicans can
be healed.

Jefferts Schori personally supports ordaining gays and voted to confirm
Robinson in 2003; but, noting that the season of Lent was beginning, she
said Anglican leaders _ called primates _ were asking for a "fast" by
both sides in the debate. Conservative Anglican leaders have been asked
to stop crossing into Episcopal territory to take control of breakaway
conservative parishes.

Robinson said gays and lesbians were being asked to sacrifice much more
than others. He compared Anglicans who oppose full acceptance of gays
and lesbians to the Pharisees, and said Jesus would never have been
asked to halt his ministries out of sensitivity to them.

"How will we explain this 'forbearance' to all those gay and lesbian
Christians who have come to the Episcopal Church because, for the first
time ever, they have believed that there is a place for them at God's
table, not simply beneath it, hoping for fallen scraps?" he wrote.

Meeting these latest demands of the primates may not even avert a
communion-wide split, so Episcopalians should decide in their own time
whether accepting gays and lesbians is the right thing to do, he said.

"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?" he asked. "For the first
time in its history and at the hands of the larger communion, the
Episcopal Church may be experiencing a little taste of the irrational
discrimination and exclusion that is an everyday experience of its gay
and lesbian members."

In a companion statement to gay and lesbian Christians, Robinson said
they should not be "intimidated into doubting our own vision of God's
will for the church."

Canon Bob Williams, a spokesman for Jefferts Schori, said she "is
unwavering" in her commitment to a church open to all. "Her call to
Lenten reflection provides space for individuals and for the church
corporately to contemplate next steps forward," he said.

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The Episcopal Church: http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/