Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop whose election touched off the current crisis

Washington—The Episcopal Church will not elect any new bishops — gay or straight — anywhere in the United States until mid-2006 under a self-imposed moratorium adopted by church bishops on March 15. 

The bishops, facing international condemnation for the election of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire, also agreed not to bless same-sex unions, at least until the entire church gathers next year in Columbus, OH.

The twin moratoriums suggest that the June 2006 General Convention is likely to be a pivotal showdown between conservatives, who want the U.S. church to conform itself to the wider Anglican Communion, and liberals, who have urged the church to set its own course. 

In a nod to overseas pressure, the bishops agreed to slow their actions, but said it will be the entire church — parishioners, priests and bishops — who ultimately have final say on the American church’s future.

“This extraordinary moment in our common life offers the opportunity for extraordinary action,” the bishops said.

In their meeting outside Houston, the bishops agreed to:

• Not exercise their right to ratify the election of any bishop chosen by any diocese until summer 2006. The bishops asked dioceses with pre-scheduled elections to postpone them.

• Wait until summer 2006 to authorize or conduct any rites of blessing for same-sex unions. The church has no national policy for or against gay unions, but acknowledged them as “part of our common life” in 2003.

• Not cross from one diocese into another. Liberals have complained that conservative bishops are poaching flocks and meddling in other dioceses’ affairs.

Bishop V. Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop whose election touched off the current crisis, was one of 16 bishops who worked on the statement and agreed to all its components, church leaders said. 

At least a dozen dioceses that were scheduled to elect new leaders will be forced into a kind of limbo. But the church’s top leader, Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, said the temporary freeze won’t paralyze the church’s hierarchy. 

Griswold, who supported Robinson’s election in 2003, called the decision on the moritoriums “an amazing, positive and life-giving moment for the bishops.”

“There was overwhelming support and ... very much a sense that if there’s going to be a moratorium, we should all fulfill it, bearing one another’s burdens,” he said in a phone interview. 

Conservatives, however, dismissed the action as too little, too late. The Rev. Kendall Harmon, a conservative leader from South Carolina, accused the bishops of trying to dictate the terms and timetable of their own discipline.

“While it’s nice to see movement, the reality is it’s a form of defiance couched as compliance,” Harmon said. “They’re not actually doing what was called for.”

The “covenant statement” adopted by the bishops answers, in part, a call from sister Anglican churches for the U.S. church to temper its defiant embrace of homosexuality. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion. 

Last month, the 38 primates, or chief bishops, of the worldwide Communion asked the U.S. and Canadian churches to “voluntarily withdraw” their members from a global steering committee until 2008, and asked both churches to explain their actions this coming June. 

The U.S. bishops deferred to their church’s executive council to decide whether to withhold the church’s three representatives to the Anglican Consultative Council. 

Bishop John Chane of Washington, one of the church’s liberal bishops, helped draft the statement and said he was not concerned that a short-term moratorium would lead to a long-term permanent prohibition on gay unions.

“As soon as we hit the first day of General Convention, this covenant is terminated, it’s over,” he said. “We’re going to have to address how we’re going to work together.”

The top leader of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, issued a statement commending the U.S. bishops for their “constructive response” to the disunity within Anglicanism.

“It is clear that there has been a real willingness to engage with the challenges posed,” Williams said on March 16.

The bishops offered their “sincerest apology and repentance for having breached our bonds of affection” with other Anglicans, but for the third time stopped short of conceding that their actions were wrong. 

Under church rules, bishops have no power to enforce a moratorium of any kind without the consent of clergy and laity. The bishops insisted on keeping the church’s democratic structures intact, Griswold said. 

“They don’t in any way want to appear to be usurping the authority of the General Convention,” he said, referring to the triennial U.S. churchwide meeting.