October (Web-only) 2003

ARTICLE TOOLS

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D.C.'s Episcopal Bishop intends to authorize blessings of gay unions
It looks like the race launched when the Episcopal Church USA's General Convention passed a resolution on blessing same-sex unions is going to be won by Washington, D.C., bishop John Chane.

"Local faith communities are operating within the bonds of our common life as they explore and experience liturgies celebrating and blessing same-sex unions," the General Convention's resolution said. That resolution would be much bigger religion news, and certainly a major point of contention within the Anglican Communion, if it weren't for this Sunday's consecration of openly and practicing gay bishop Gene Robinson.

Chane interpreted the ECUSA resolution in a letter to the American Anglican Council, the large orthodox group that's opposing Robinson's consecration and gay unions in the church. The statement "permits the [bishop] of the diocese to set a standard of authorizing local or diocesan rites for congregations that may wish to engage in such blessings," he wrote, according to a report in The Washington Times. "You and I know of several congregations in the Diocese of Washington where this practice has been ongoing for some time long before my election as bishop of Washington."

Therefore, Chane said, "In keeping with good Anglican liturgical order, it is my intention at some point to form a task force to study those liturgical rites that have clearly been in use for some time within the Diocese of Washington to see if there is a form that could be uniformly used by parishes, should they request it."

The letter was in response to a question from four AAC members who asked Chane whether they would be forced to perform and recognize same-sex blessings. Chane promisd ...