Gay bishops retirement doesnt change anything, say orthodox Anglicans

The US Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop has announced his retirement but it does not change the fact that the Church has chosen to “walk apart”, say Orthodox Anglicans in the UK.

V Gene Robinson announced on Saturday that he will retire as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2013 in part because of the strain that the controversy over his role has placed on him and his family.

In an address to the Diocese of New Hampshire’s annual convention, Robinson said: “Death threats and the now-worldwide controversy surrounding your election of me as bishop have been a constant strain, not just on me but on my beloved husband Mark, who has faithfully stood with me every minute of the last seven years, and in some ways, you,” he said.

“While I believe that these attitudes, mostly outside the diocese, have not distracted me from my service to you, I would be less than honest if I didn’t say that they have certainly added a burden and certain anxiety to my episcopate.”

Robinson has been in a relationship with Mark Andrew for more than 20 years. He became TEC’s first partnered homosexual bishop when he was consecrated in 2003, to the consternation of large parts of the Anglican Communion, particularly provinces in the Global South.

Robinson’s consecration and other strides towards liberalism in TEC have pushed the Anglican Communion to the brink of schism and moratoria were introduced in subsequent years on the consecration of bishops in same-sex relationships and the blessing of same-sex unions in a bid to preserve unity.

However the measures were not enough for some conservative parishes in TEC and the deposed Bishop of Pittsburg Bob Duncan spearheaded the establishment of a new Anglican body adhering to traditional Christian principles, the Anglican Church in North America. The split has led to court battles over the ownership of property between TEC and parishes that have voted to leave.

In the UK, Anglican Mainstream leaders Philip Giddings and Chris Sugden suggested Robinson’s resignation would have little impact on the course taken by TEC.

“Gene Robinson’s retirement does not change anything,” they said in a joint statement. “The issue is the refusal of TEC to adhere to the agreed doctrinal standards of the Communion and their leadership’s determinate to promote – and in North America enforce – ethical and doctrinal standards which are contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture as received by the universal church.

“They have chosen to walk apart.”

The process for finding Robinson’s successor will begin in December. He gave no indication of what he planned to do after his retirement except that he would remain in New Hampshire.

TEC was suspended from participating in ecumenical dialogues and stripped of any decision-making powers in the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order after its consecration of partnered lesbian Rev Canon Mary Glasspool as a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Los Angeles in May.