Bishop Griswold Tries to Focus on Life and Death Issues Not Homosexuality

Members of Episcopal Church in Salt Lake City, Utah welcomed Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold on Wednesday evening, 27 April 2005. After spending some time to talk with international clergy, he presented his workings to the Episcopal Church Communicators during the conference.

He informed that he wants to spend his time working on life and death issues, not on the stir over the homosexual issue, which was the main topic of a majority of discussions over the past year for the Episcopal Church.

Griswold said that the "developing world - Africa in particular - is far more in need of the Church's attention and resources to combat poverty and disease, including the AIDS epidemic that has killed millions."

"Their issues are malaria, HIV/AIDS with no medicines really at hand, they're seeing entire generations disappear...[there are] tensions between various religious groups, particularly with a very militant Islam. The primates say to me, 'Not that we agree with what you all have done with respect to sexuality, but these are the life and death issues with which we live every single day,'" Griswold said.

According to Griswold, there is no escape from the issue of homosexuality, and the most instant danger of schism in the Anglican world comes from the US Church.

"There are entities within my own country, this country, who are determined to make a domestic question an international question," he said. "Certain right-wing forces within this country and the Episcopal Church are driving a lot of the active displeasure among primates in other parts of the world, saying such things as 'If you really are orthodox, then you will sign on to the condemnation of this church in the United States.'"

There are diverse views on how the scripture should be read: Doctrinal absolutists point out that the Bible evidently rejects "disordered sexuality." on the other hand, Griswold belonging to the liberal wing thinks that "In the end, it's about context."

"For instance, in the portion of Romans that talks about homosexuality, clearly the Biblical writers assume that everyone was naturally heterosexual, and therefore any kind of homosexual behaviour was unnatural. Well, I think there's a big question mark there," he said.

In opposition, conservative Episcopalians, led by Bishop Robert W. Duncan Jr. of Pittsburgh in one of the interviews stated: "The battle is about the authority of Scripture. It's about the basics of Christian faith. It's about sin and redemption. It's just so fundamental. The issues have to do with sexuality and morality, but at the very heart of it is whether Scripture can be trusted. In my experience I learned the one person I could trust was Jesus Christ and the only testament that was reliable was what was in Scripture. And I cannot let the Church, of all bodies; challenge the notion that you can't trust the plain meaning of Scripture."

"There's no way to compromise in terms of the truth of the Gospel or the reliability of Scripture or the necessity of salvation in Jesus Christ."