Newark Episcopalians, Poised to Elect New Bishop, Mull Gay Choices

c. 2006 Religion News Service NEWARK, N.J. _ Back in 1998, a half-decade before Gene Robinson of New Hampshire became the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church and an international figure, the Episcopal Diocese of Newark considered him as a candidate. That year, Robinson made a nominating committee’s short list for bishop of […]

c. 2006 Religion News Service

NEWARK, N.J. _ Back in 1998, a half-decade before Gene Robinson of New Hampshire became the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church and an international figure, the Episcopal Diocese of Newark considered him as a candidate.

That year, Robinson made a nominating committee’s short list for bishop of Newark. He lost, finishing third.


Now, as Newark Bishop John Croneberger prepares to retire, people around the diocese are wondering if any of the candidates to succeed him will be gay _ one early candidate who later withdrew is a lesbian.

Diocesan officials are not saying, but a list of four to six candidates is to be publicized next week (the week of June 26). About 119 priests and 340 lay people will vote Sept. 23 on a bishop to lead the diocese’s 30,000 members.

Newark, whose last Episcopal bishop was liberal icon John Shelby Spong, is considered among the country’s most liberal Episcopal dioceses, and has many people who clearly would welcome a gay candidate.

But the landscape in the Episcopal Church changed Wednesday (June 21), when the national church’s triennial convention in Columbus, Ohio, asked church leaders to “exercise restraint” when considering whether to approve gay bishops. Whenever a bishop is elected by a diocese, he or she must be confirmed by a majority of U.S. bishops and elected leaders from each diocese.

The stated goal of the “restraint” resolution was unity within the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion; many overseas Anglican leaders consider homosexuality sinful and have threatened a split with the 2.2 million-member Episcopal Church _ the U.S. branch of Anglicanism _ since Robinson was elected.

The bishop nominating committee for Newark discussed the vote at its private meeting Thursday, said spokesman Bill McColl, who declined to go into detail. Search committee members have largely kept silent on their deliberations, which began in March.

McColl noted the Ohio vote did not specifically direct nominating committees to avoid putting gay candidates on ballots; rather, it asked church leaders to show restraint when considering whether to approve winners of the actual elections.


“It is something we need to think about, something that would be discussed,” he said. “And if we wind up having any gay or lesbian candidates, I’m sure that would be something that would be discussed by the people who would be voting.”

One person on the 23-member committee, who did not want to be named, acknowledged this week that the committee has considered at least one gay candidate. The Very Rev. Tracey Lind, dean of the cathedral in Cleveland, was nominated by someone in the Newark diocese and initially agreed to be considered as a candidate, the member said.

But Lind, rector of St. Paul’s Church in Paterson from 1989 to 2000, dropped out of the running about two weeks ago, deciding she wanted to stay in her native Ohio.

The search committee did telephone and face-to-face interviews with candidates earlier this spring. Members would not say whether Lind was interviewed in person. But according to Lind’s sermon, which was posted online, she appeared to believe she might be announced as a finalist for the election until she withdrew just a few days before the national convention started June 13.

Lind would not comment for this story.

Even if Newark’s nominating committee does not include gay candidates, the rules allow for a small group of people _ five clergy and five lay people _ to petition to add a candidate to the ballot.

The national measure approved Wednesday in Ohio asked Episcopal bishops to “exercise restraint by not consenting to the consecration” of bishop candidates “whose manner of life presents a challenge to the wider church and will lead to further strains on the (Anglican) communion.”


The outgoing presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, Frank Griswold, asked voters _ bishops, priests and lay people from each diocese _ to approve the resolution, saying it would help heal the rift in the Anglican Communion. The newly elected presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first female presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, then reluctantly backed his plea.

Many provinces of the Anglican Communion, including several in Africa, had earlier demanded the Episcopal Church apologize for consecrating Robinson in the first place.

Croneberger and all eight voters from the Newark diocese at the convention rejected the measure, said the Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton, who was among them.

“I think it’s a cold chill on every (bishop) election,” said Kaeton, who is gay and lives with her partner. “It was coercive and manipulative. The church was strong-armed. What are you supposed to do when that kind of plea is made (by the presiding bishop)?”

(Jeff Diamant writes for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.)

KRE/PH END DIAMANT

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