“It was the right thing to do,“says Episcopal bishop accused of heresy

c. 1995 Religion News Service (RNS)-Walter C. Righter is a white-haired grandfather who lives with his wife in a small hillside house in rural New Hampshire. He’s 72, an age when many people are enjoying retirement. But Righter is facing charges of heresy-the second bishop ever to stand so accused in the 206-year history of […]

c. 1995 Religion News Service

(RNS)-Walter C. Righter is a white-haired grandfather who lives with his wife in a small hillside house in rural New Hampshire. He’s 72, an age when many people are enjoying retirement. But Righter is facing charges of heresy-the second bishop ever to stand so accused in the 206-year history of the Episcopal Church.

The presentment, or formal charge, was made by 10 diocesan bishops who accuse Righter of having violated church teachings when he ordained Barry L. Stopfel, a non-celibate homosexual, as a deacon in September 1990. Stopfel, a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York, openly acknowledged that he was living with his partner throughout the four-year process that led to his ordination.


The trial against Righter, the retired bishop of Iowa, is scheduled for Jan. 3-5 in Chicago before a court of nine bishops. It is a lengthy and expensive process, but the 10 bishops who brought the presentment have indicated that Righter is only the first to be brought to trial on charges of heresy.

Also among them is John S. Spong of Newark, N.J., one of the Episcopal Church’s most liberal bishops and an outspoken supporter of homosexual ordination. The other bishops are from Washington, Philadelphia and Detroit. Righter was retired and working part-time in the Newark diocese when Spong asked him to ordain Stopfel.”What more is there to dialogue about?”challenges a flyer from the 10 bishops. They say their action is a call for clarity and unity, and urge the House of Bishops, part of the governing body of the Episcopal Church,”to discipline its members who flout this teaching (on sexual intercourse). … We’re watching. We’re waiting. We’re praying.” Righter agrees that it is time for clarity. He says he seeks it in the shape of a new social contract. This from a man who appears to be neither flamboyant (he trained to be an accountant before World War II) nor confrontational.

Righter spoke with RNS by telephone from his New Hampshire home.

Q: Did you have to think long and hard about ordaining Barry Stopfel?

Righter: No, because I thought it was the right thing to do. And I knew I was not the first person to (ordain an openly gay person), nor would I be the last.

You see, I didn’t decide to ordain a gay male. I decided to ordain a qualified person. Stopfel had been screened by a parish vestry. He’d gone to seminary school for three years. He was screened by a psychologist and a medical doctor, by the standing committee of the diocese, and by the bishop. So when Bishop Spong of Newark came and asked me, `Are you willing to do this?’ I said yes.

(BEGIN FIRST OPTIONAL TRIM)

Q: You’re not a confrontational person, I don’t think. How did you come to this place in your retirement? Is there anything that stands out in your moral development?

Righter: I remember my brother got a job to make money for college when he was about 17. It was in a movie theater and he was going to be an usher, but then he found that he was expected to put black people up in the balcony. So he quit his job before he even went to work. My father was the same way.

I became a bishop in 1972 and, within a year’s time, people in my diocese were asking me to make a pronouncement against homosexual ordination. I sought help from the American Psychiatric Association, which, at that time, considered homosexuality an illness-they no longer do. So I wrote a paper on my thoughts and the thoughts of the American Psychiatric Association. And then I came to my own point of view. …


You see, I’m not the kind of person who goes out on a trek through the woods and comes to great revelations. Things happen in my life quietly and slowly, and one day I wake up and it’s all settled.

(END FIRST OPTIONAL TRIM)

Q: I recently read an interview with a prominent Episcopal priest in San Francisco who commented that this question of whether or not to ordain gays into the priesthood is really moot, since half of all Episcopal priests are gay.

Righter: I don’t know about half. But yes, there’s no question that there are a lot of clergy who are gay and lesbian. (Homosexuality) is very much in place in the Episcopal Church, in its lay ranks as well as ordained.

A committee of the House of Bishops and House of Deputies met several years ago with representatives of homosexual priests and lay people. It was a committee of thoughtful, caring people appointed to use their ears and mouths in the same ratio that they had them. They were supposed to find out how the church could respond to the needs of lesbian and gay people. You see, it has come up before. The General Convention has been asked several times to deny homosexuals the right to ordination, and it has turned those requests down.

Q: So there is no policy?

Righter: The Episcopal Church has always been a little messy and it has thrived on being messy. It’s a church that can deal with ambiguity. There’s a sign on my desk that says,”A cluttered desk is a sign of genius.”Well, we’ve always been a messy church. So we don’t have to be clear about this. In our baptism vows, we promise to respect the dignity of every human being. That’s pretty inclusive.

Q: A document on sexuality has been prepared for study and discussion within parishes across the country. What’s the purpose of that?


Righter: By 1997, we’re supposed to have a report based on the fact that people all over the United States have studied that document. But this presentment to try me has been thrown up as a red herring, to (cause the church to) avoid studying it.

We have to deal with questions that have never been settled. Like the Pill. Or how come men can abuse women in marriages? How come kids can take guns to school? And homosexuality. The social contract began to crumble 100 years ago, with the advent of the automobile, the telegraph, the washing machine. And then the Pill and the television. All these things have contributed to the destruction of a social contract that was pretty intact before the formation of the Industrial Revolution. Now it’s crumbling and we have this marvelous opportunity to reshape it.

If you can’t see it as an adventure, as something very exciting, then it becomes a threat. These people who are trying me for heresy, they’re caught between the past and the future, and they’re scared.

But the real adventure is to walk into the future as people of faith, certain that God exists, certain that grace exists. And with God, you can create a new social contract that’s better than the old one. I really think, deep in my gut, that’s what’s at stake here. It’s a pivotal point in the history of the church. Are we going to participate in shaping a new contract, or are we going to cling to the one that’s crumbling?

Q: So, in your view, you’re being tried for heresy by people who are desperate to preserve the old order?

Righter: The people who are doing it represent a kind of mean spiritedness that’s alive in the church today. They’ve been trying-ever since we voted to ordain women. The idea of ordaining women immediately gave rise to,”Are we also going to ordain homosexuals?”In fact, it came up before we even approved the ordination of women.


Homophobia and misogyny are linked together. Four of the people who presented me (for heresy) are bishops who have refused to ordain women. They refuse to give a woman priest who moves into their diocese any assignment. They refuse to honor the ordination of male priests if a woman bishop did the ordination.

(INTERVIEW CAN END HERE. SECOND OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)

Q: Are you getting lots of mail?

Righter: I get mail from all over the country and it’s been overwhelmingly favorable. With one exception: from a cousin of mine, who was very negative.

I think a phenomenon is beginning to happen. People are starting to think about homosexuality. It’s been tucked under the rug for so long. Last week, a woman priest (Tracy Lind) stood up in her pulpit in Paterson, N.J., and said, `I’m a lesbian and I’m coming out now in support of Barry Stopfel and Bishop Righter.’

Q: That must have been pretty scary for her.

Righter: Being different in the Christian church today is scary. The Christian church is not a safe place to be. There’s a struggle going on; we say we’re an inclusive church but we’re still arguing over women and homosexuals. How inclusive is that?

MJP END SOLOVITCH

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