Madam, - On Sunday, November 2nd it was my privilege to be in Durham, New Hampshire for the consecration of Gene Robinson. As a friend and guest of Bishop Robinson's I robed for the consecration liturgy along with hundreds of other clergy from a great variety of Christian Churches. It is in the light of this experience that I would like to comment on Bishop Richard Clarke's analysis of the ramifications of this event for the Anglican Communion (Rite and Reason, November 10th).
Bishop Clarke, like many within the Anglican Communion, is particularly concerned for the "unity" of the Communion. A bishop, says Bishop Clarke, is to be a "focus of unity". His principal difficulty with Gene Robinson's consecration would appear to be the new bishop's homosexual lifestyle, which he describes as "dis-unifying in the wider community".
I am not convinced this is in fact the case. Bishop Doug Theuner, the outgoing Bishop of New Hampshire, in his sermon at Bishop Robinson's consecration, made the very valid point that Gene Robinson, because of who he is, would stand as a symbol of unity in a way that no others could. Referring to the consecration of Barbara Harris (the first female bishop), which "brought over half of Christendom into visible unity within the episcopate", Bishop Theuner pointed out that Gene's consecration would "bring representation of another group whose gifts have always been accepted while their identity has been denied".
Theuner's inclusive model of unity is much more appealing than the exclusive concept of unity towards which the Anglican Communion is being coerced by an increasingly powerful, fundamentalist lobby which is being appeased in order to preserve the "unity" of the Communion. The complete absence of integrity in this position must be obvious to many.
One has only to read Rev Gordon Fyles's letter of November 11th to witness the depths to which this lobby will sink.
Bishop Clarke, like many other observers, refers to the American Church as "arrogant" and displaying a "total lack of respect for the wider Christian Church" by proceeding with Bishop Robinson's consecration. The implication that the consecration should not have gone ahead until worldwide Anglican consensus had been achieved seems to allow little room for the prophetic voice.
From my own experience of the people of the diocese of New Hampshire I am convinced that it was not "arrogance" or a "lack of respect" that brought them to where they are but rather a sincere conviction that God was calling Gene Robinson to be their bishop. I believe it really was that simple! They were aware of his sexuality but, perhaps naïvely, were not prepared for the reaction to his election. To ascribe arrogance to their actions is certainly mistaken.
I think it is interesting that Bishop Clarke compares Gene Robinson unfavourably with Canon Jeffrey John of the Church of England who was prepared to live a life of celibacy so he could fulfil his role as a bishop. While one has to admire Jeffrey John in his sacrificial spirit, one also has to ask whether it would have been desirable to have as a bishop one who had to deny an essential part of his being in order to be a bishop.
Bishop Clarke concludes his considerations by calling for a "holy space" in which we can "accept the damage that has been done" and allow for "deliberate distancing" between the provinces in disagreement.
I think "damage" is a completely inappropriate word. Certainly our understanding of "unity" has changed and will never be the same again.
The boundaries of that unity have been pushed out and those who were once considered outsiders can now find in at least a part of the Anglican Communion a place where they can be the people that God has called them to be, without fear or shame. That surely is what the Gospel is all about. Bishop Theuner summed it up in this one phrase: "To show compassion to the poor and strangers, and defend those who have no helper".
I firmly believe that the Anglican Communion has an even greater potential to exercise this ministry because of the consecration of Bishop Robinson and that in the fullness of time this will be seen to have been an incarnational moment in the life of the Church. - Yours, etc.,
STEPHEN NEILL,
Modreeny Rectory,
Cloughjordan, CoTipperary.