c. 1996 Religion News Service

WILMINGTON, Del. (RNS)-Invoking Scripture, age-old tradition and even speed-limit laws, a pair of secular lawyers Tuesday (Feb. 27) thrashed out the question of whether the Episcopal Church has a “doctrine” forbidding the ordination of homosexuals to the priesthood.

The day-long argument before a panel of nine bishop-judges was the first stage in the historic heresy trial of retired Bishop Walter Righter, accused of violating church doctrine when, in 1990, he ordained a gay man as a deacon, the initial stage to becoming a priest.

Righter, only the second Episcopal bishop to be tried for heresy in the church’s 206-year history, does not deny performing the ordination but maintains the church does not have a doctrine forbidding such action. He contends his accusers are confusing church resolutions and other statements with formal doctrine, the basic beliefs of the church.

“The church can’t solve a damn thing with this trial,” Righter told reporters before the hearing began. “There is no doctrine that I violated.”

But A. Hugo Blankingship Jr., the church advocate, as the prosecuting attorney is called, insisted that there is such a doctrine and it is found in church teaching on marriage.

“This case is about the doctrine of Christian marriage … and it is about family values,” Blankingship said. “From the biblical perspective, human sexuality remains confined to heterosexual marriage.”

The outcome of the hearing, not expected for some weeks, will determine whether the court will proceed in the case against Righter and decide whether his ordination of Barry Stopfel, now an Episcopal priest in Maplewood, N.J., was indeed contrary to church doctrine. Righter, the former bishop of Iowa, was serving as an assistant bishop in the diocese of Newark when he ordained Stopfel.

If found guilty, Righter could be admonished, suspended from the ministry or removed from the ministry.

A finding of guilt could also pave the way for heresy trials of other Episcopal bishops who have ordained gays and lesbians to the priesthood. In addition, it could put an end to the church’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on homosexuals in the ministry.

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Tuesday’s hearing took place in the Great Hall of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, a spacious meeting room off the main sanctuary. The nine-judge panel sat at tables covered with green linen clothes. Two large sprays of yellow forsythia flanked the judges’ table. Spectators filled the 100 blue folding chairs and spilled over into the sanctuary where they could hear but not see the proceedings.

Righter’s wife, Nancy, sat in the second row next to Stopfel and his partner, the Rev. Will Leckie, an ordained United Church of Christ minister.

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Under Episcopal court rules, Blankingship made an opening two-and-a-half-hour presentation, defending the accusers’ view that ordination of non-celibate gays violates longstanding church teaching. He said Righter’s action was a “scandal” and threatened the institutional life of the church.

“This case first and foremost is about authority, it is about the authority of Holy Scripture and the role it will play in our church,” Blankingship said.

The church’s teaching against homosexuality “has been there a very long time,” he said. The essence of the church’s doctrine of human sexuality was in “the Bible’s teaching … on Christian marriage,” Blankingship said.

But under questioning from the judges, especially Bishop Frederick Borsch of Los Angeles, considered the most liberal on the nine-bishop panel, Blankingship appeared to concede that there are levels or hierarchies of church teaching.

Borsch and Bishop Cabell Tennis of the diocese of Delaware suggested, for example, that the church may have changed its doctrine on marriage in that it now permits divorce in apparent contradiction of biblical teaching. They also suggested the church had changed its position on such issues as slavery and pacifism. At one time the Episcopal Church considered it permissible to hold slaves, and it barred soldiers from being baptized.

Blankingship has objected to Borsch’s remaining on the panel because in January Borsch authorized the ordination of a gay man in his diocese.

In making his case, however, Blankingship argued that “the doctrine (of marriage) itself has remained the same. What has changed is the discipline.”

Blankingship also said “the doctrine of the church can only be changed by the church itself” and must be compatible with Scripture.

Michael Rehill, chancellor of the diocese of Newark and Righter’s lead attorney, suggested Righter’s accusers had changed the basis of their argument. In bringing the charges, he said, they had never cited the Bible or Christian marriage.

“Nowhere can they point to a document that puts doctrine and the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals together,” he said.

Rehill is arguing that Righter could not have violated church doctrine because there is no doctrine forbidding ordination of non-celibate homosexuals. Doctrine, Rehill said, “regulates what we believe” and covers a very narrow range of matters.

“What we (the church) have is a lot of things we loosely call doctrine,” Rehill said. “We talk about `the doctrine of marriage’ but we don’t have a doctrine of marriage.”

Matters of morality and immorality, he said, are matters of discipline.

“What worries me is … that this case trivializes what doctrine is,” he said.

MJP END ANDERSON