c. 2004 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The top bishop of the Episcopal Church said Tuesday (Oct. 19) he cannot impose a moratorium on either gay bishops or same-sex unions, two demands made by a top-level Anglican church panel.

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold said he has no power to stop a diocese from electing a gay bishop or blessing gay unions. However, he said the American church is now more “intensely aware” of the ripple effects its decisions have on the wider Anglican Communion.

Griswold’s comments signal that, at least for now, the U.S. church will likely continue on the same course that angered other churches in the Anglican Communion and prompted Monday’s stern rebuke from a blue-ribbon panel headed by Irish Archbishop Robin Eames.

“We are more aware of the complexity of confirming the ordination of gay people, but that doesn’t mean for a moment that the church won’t continue to exercise it’s own freedom and judiciousness in how it chooses persons for ordained ministry,” he said in a telephone interview from London.

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In Canada, where Anglicans came under similar rebuke from the Eames panel, there appears to be little sentiment for change. A Vancouver bishop who has allowed same-sex unions said he will continue to permit them, and the country’s top Anglican bishop said Monday’s long-awaited report “binds no one.”

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The Eames report asked Griswold and other bishops who supported openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire to “express regret” at the pain their actions caused. It did not, however, demand an outright apology.

Following the panel’s report, Griswold issued a spirited defense of gays and lesbians, saying, “I regret that there are places within our Communion where it is unsafe for them to speak out of the truth of who they are.”

The Rev. Kendall Harmon, a conservative leader from South Carolina, said Griswold’s “unfortunate” statement raises doubts about the American church’s commitment to reform. “It’s clear he’s going to go ahead by embracing this theology,” he said.

At the same time, one prominent bishop who supported Robinson said he would not vote to approve another gay bishop _ at least for now. Bishop John Bryson Chane of Washington also said he would personally abstain from blessing same-sex unions, but would not impose that policy to his clergy.

Chane said another gay bishop would “minimalize the report and show great disrespect for the report. But, at the same time, you can’t be in that holding pattern for a long time.”

Both Chane and Griswold said they will continue to represent the American church at meetings of the Anglican Communion, rejecting a suggestion from the Eames Commission that their presence might threaten the Communion’s fragile unity.

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“When there are tensions in a community, the only way forward is for the people who embody the tensions to be present together in the name of Christ,” Griswold said from London. “You can’t have any reconciliation if the people who need to be reconciled will not enter into one another’s presence.”

In Canada, where the Vancouver-based Diocese of New Westminster has faced equal pressure to halt the blessing of same-sex unions, Bishop Michael Ingham said those ceremonies will continue, and without apology.

“It’s not surprising people in Africa would have great difficulty in accepting our decision to be a church that fully includes same-sex people,” Ingham said. “I have always felt that homosexuality is not a primary issue … and so it should not be a cause of schism among us.”

Top Canadian Archbishop Andrew Hutchison on Monday said the report cannot force a change of course for the Canadian church. “There’s nothing authoritative about this,” he said. “It binds no one.”

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In New Hampshire, Robinson has made no public statement about the report that focused on the fallout from his consecration, but New Hampshire church leaders said they stand by their bishop.

“We acknowledge and regret the pain and confusion caused by the election and consecration of our bishop,” the diocesan standing committee said in a statement on Tuesday. “We now realize more fully that our action … has caused deep distress for many in our Communion.”

While the Americans were warned not to elect other openly gay bishops, many concede that another election is probably inevitable. In order to be approved, a bishop-elect would need the approval of the bishops and standing committees in a majority of 112 dioceses.

Griswold said, despite his position, he has no authority to stop such an election. “We have our own process of decision-making and I’m sure it will be used under the aegis of the Spirit’s guidance,” he said.

Speaking Tuesday at a forum in London, Griswold invoked an incident from the New Testament book of Acts, when some Jewish followers of Jesus had trouble accepting Gentiles as genuine Christians. Robinson’s election, he implied, may be divinely inspired. “I cannot say that what has happened is fundamentally contrary to the Spirit,” he said.

_ Douglas Todd contributed to this report from Vancouver and Robert Nowell from London.

MO/JL END ECKSTROM