c. 2004 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) An openly gay Episcopal bishop whose consecration was criticized by an Anglican church panel said Wednesday (Oct. 20) he is “deeply sorry” for the disarray his election has caused and will adopt a personal moratorium on blessing same-sex unions.

“I do feel regret, a deep and abiding regret, that this has been so painful to so many people in the Anglican Communion,” said Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, in his first day of reacting to Monday’s report by a commission headed by Irish Archbishop Robin Eames.

“It certainly was not the intent of the Diocese of New Hampshire or the (Episcopal Church) in giving consent. I’m deeply sorry about that.”

Robinson said he feels it is “God’s will” to remain in his post, and noted the panel never asked for his resignation. Because he is “sensitive” to the fragile unity of the Communion, Robinson said he would refer gay couples seeking a blessing to another priest.

But, while Robinson agreed to stand back, other U.S. and Canadian bishops defiantly said they would continue to bless gay unions, a sign that the American churches are not likely to change the behavior that has drawn the wrath of sister Anglican churches around the world.

And Robinson, defending his election, said it was possible to express regret for the pain the decisions have caused and not “regret the decision we made.”

The American intransigence prompted a stern rebuke from Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who has summoned conservative Anglican prelates from Africa to an emergency summit Oct. 26-31 in Lagos.

“They are hell-bent on destroying the fabric of our Communion and we are told to sit and wait,” Akinola said, noting that “the report falls far short of the prescription needed for this current crisis.”

Angered that the report did not discipline the American church, Akinola abruptly left a London meeting of Anglican primates (presiding bishops) that included the head of the Episcopal Church and returned to Nigeria.

Robinson, speaking by phone from New York City, said the panel’s call for a moratorium on gay bishops and same-sex unions would have a “chilling effect” on gay Episcopalians, but predicted it would not last long.

“I do think that this moratorium is an attempt to contain the Holy Spirit in a neat and tidy little box, and we know that the Holy Spirit is that part of God who will not be contained,” he said.

In his sole criticism of the Eames report, Robinson said it should have called on church leaders to also “express regret” for the “pain caused to gay and lesbian people in the church.”

“It’s been going on for centuries, and an expression of regret from those who are party to that pain would have been helpful,” he said.

He also agreed with the report that the head of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, should exercise “very considerable caution” when including Robinson at Communion meetings. “I intend to be his ally in that and work with him so as to minimize any negative effects that my presence might have,” he said.

In the U.S. church, bishops who had been holding their breath for the Eames report let out a sigh of relief that the Episcopal Church escaped serious discipline. The report will likely take center stage over the next five weeks as nearly half of U.S. dioceses hold their annual conventions.

Bishop Carolyn Tanner Irish of Utah, who will host a meeting of U.S. bishops in Salt Lake City in January, set the tone for bishops who considered a moratorium insulting to gay and lesbian parishioners.

“It is entirely unlikely that we will be willing to set the clock back on the actions themselves, or to cease acting inclusively … as we promise in our baptismal vows,” she said. “What would a reversal say to our gay sisters and brothers? Go back to the closet? To deceit and dishonesty?”

In one of the church’s largest dioceses, Virginia Bishop Peter Lee said the disciplinary “alternatives” could have been worse.

“Whether Americans, who are so accustomed to going our own way in our foreign policy as well as in our ecclesial life, can live with these recommendations remains to be seen,” Lee said. “I think they offer hope.”

The report did not stem a slow trickle of conservative parishes out of the church. On Tuesday, two churches in Washington state announced they had left the Episcopal Church and sought membership in a Brazilian diocese.

On the eve of the report’s release, some 250 members of the conservative Anglican Communion Network gathered in Providence, R.I., on Sunday to plan a series of “church plants” throughout New England. “It is much easier to give birth than to resurrect the dead,” the Rev. George Beaven of Woodbridge, Va., told the crowd, according to the Providence Journal.

_ Robert Nowell contributed to this report from London.

MO/PH END ECKSTROM