c. 1996 Religion News Service
(RNS)-Did retired Episcopal Bishop Walter Righter commit heresy when he ordained a non-celibate homosexual as a deacon in 1990?
A nine-member Episcopal Church court was scheduled to decide that question Feb. 27-29 at a trial in Wilmington, Del. But now the church has announced that before the court can weigh Righter’s guilt or innocence, it first must decide an even more basic question:
Does the church have a doctrine forbidding homosexual ordination? If it doesn’t, Righter’s trial-now moved to May 13-may never occur.
The decision to split the proceedings into two parts is the latest in a series of maneuvers leading up to the 71-year-old cleric’s trial, which would mark only the second time this century that an Episcopal bishop has been tried for heresy. In 1924, a retired bishop was found guilty of heresy for writing a book that said communism was replacing Christianity and that Jesus’ divinity was a myth.
Righter, a former bishop of Iowa, is charged with teaching false doctrine and violating his ordination vows for ordaining Barry Stopfel, a non-celibate gay, as a deacon in September 1990.
At the time, Righter was serving as assistant to Bishop John Shelby Spong of Newark, N.J. Stopfel is currently a priest at St. George’s Church in Maplewood, N.J.
Righter’s accusers, known as Presenters, asked the court during a Dec. 8 pre-trial hearing in Hartford, Conn., to settle the question of church doctrine”prior to the factual issues relating to (Righter’s) conduct.” In a memorandum issued Jan. 10 and released Friday (Jan. 12), the nine-bishop court said it will hold six hours of debate on the question of doctrine Feb. 27 in Wilmington.
Episcopal Church spokesman James Solheim said no witnesses, such as theologians or other authorities on church law and doctrine, will be called during the Feb. 27 hearing. After public presentations by lawyers for Righter and his accusers, Solheim said, the court is likely to go behind closed doors to decide the question.
The memorandum also spelled out the church court’s response to a number of other pre-trial motions brought by lawyers during the Dec. 8 hearing.
In one, the court denied a motion to disqualify four of its nine judges. The motion said the four had”knowingly ordained a non-celibate homosexual person”and signed a statement in support of such ordinations drafted by Newark’s Spong in 1994.
The four challenged judges are Bishops Edward Jones of Indianapolis, the president of the court; Bishop Douglas Theuner of New Hampshire; retired Bishop Arthur Walmsley of Connecticut; and Bishop Frederick Borsch of Los Angeles.”The court polled its members and each and every judge confirmed that he is, in fact, unbiased and impartial regarding the case at hand,”the memorandum said.”All of the judges believe they have an open mind and are ready, willing and able to judge this case on its merits, in a fair and independent manner, and not on any preconceived ideas they may have about the issues involved.” The judges also rejected a request by Bishop William Wantland of Eau Claire, Wis., to be a lawyer for the bishops bringing the charges against Righter”since he himself is one of the Presenters and a potential witness in the case.”
MJP END ANDERSON
