By The Rt. Rev. John S. Spong, Bishop of Newark.
As the Bishop of the Diocese of Newark, I pledge my full support to theRt. Rev. Walter Righter, former assistant bishop of Newark. I reject thepolitically motivated charges of the religious right within the EpiscopalChurch and expect to see Bishop Righter fully exonerated. The public needsto be informed about a number of factors in this strange episode in churchhistory.
First, the ordination of the Rev. Barry Stopfel was carried out accordingto the letter of the Canons of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Stopfel had thesupport of the vestry of the Church of the Atonement, Tenafly, New Jersey.He had the full endorsement of the Commission on Ministry. He was approvedunanimously by the Standing Committee of the diocese. His ordination to thediaconate by Bishop Righter and his ordination to the priesthood by me wereboth carried out in consulation with the highest authorities in our nationalchurch structure. If Bishop Righter or the authorities of this diocese actedinappropriately in this matter, we did so by following the canons and withthe advice of our national church leaders. If this presentment ever getsto trial, that detail will be fleshed out with specificity.
Secondly, the Episcopal Church has never written into its canon law a prohibitionagainst the ordination of gay and lesbian candidates who meet all otherstandards. The last refusal to do that was at the General Convention of 1991.This attempt was defeated by roll call vote in the House of Bishops, so everyvote was recorded by name and is available today. The conservative minorityof our church is now trying to win by judicial process what it could notwin then by legislative process. That is both dishonest and lacking in integrity.
Thirdly, General Convention resolutions do not have the force of canon law.They are the expressions of the mind of this church to guide our common life,but they have always respected dissent. This church has passed resolutionson abortion, on various boycotts, on foreign policy issues and on a widevariety of other public matters. The suggestion that some bishop or priestwho disagrees with the majority sentiment at a general convention might besubject to presentment is ludicrous. There is not a bishop living who hasnot dissented to some resolution of General Convention at one time or another.Only the canons are mandatory and thus required to be obeyed. Only the canonshave the power to bind our corporate life.
In addition to that fact, the only General Convention resolution to whichthe presentment refers, and which they claim prohibits the ordination ofhomosexual persons, was passed in 1979 and it was specifically called a"recommendation." The day after that vote, 21 bishops issued a public statementnoting that this resolution "was recommendatory and not proscriptive" andthese bishops announced their inability in conscience to be bound by thatresolution. Among those 21 signatories were the Rt. Rev. Edmond Browning,who five years later was elected Presiding Bishop and the Rt. Rev. John Walkerwho was shortly thereafter elected Vice President of the House of Bishops.If Bishop Righter's action is judged by some to be so deep a violation ofthe Church's teaching, it is hard to imagine that we would have elected twopersons who shared his point of view to the highest leadership positionswithin our Church. That illustrates better than anything else I can citethe negativity and the harassing quality of this ecclesiastical version of"ethnic cleansing" that has now been undertaken by the religious right wingof the Episcopal Church.
The public also needs to be aware that 75 bishops, or 25% of the total membershipof the House of Bishops, had to agree to this presentment in order for itto proceed to trial. This right-wing coalition managed to muster 76 votes,one more than the required number, and then only after an intense last-minutelobbying effort. In order to reach their total, they garnered the votes of44 retired bishops, many of whom have not attended meetings or participatedin the debate of the House of Bishops for more than a decade and in somecases two decades. Their signatories even included one bishop who is sufferingwith Alzheimer's disease and who was not capable of signing for himself.Two of their signatories were members of the Bishop's Court that will hearthis case and thus had to sacrifice themselves as judges in order for thispresentment to reach the necessary 25%. When the facts in the case are revealed,I predict a quick dismissal of these charges and a recognition by the vastmajority of our Church that this procedure was nothing more than an unsuccessfulattempt at intimidation.
Finally, I note that four of the ten bishops who filed the original presentmenthave themselves refused to implement the canons which opened the ordinationprocess of our Church to women. They are, therefore at this moment, in violationof the canons, something even they have never accused Bishop Righter of being.This tactic against Bishop Righter is their attempt to postpone the day onwhich they will be called to accountability.
I am saddened that our Church has come to this. I am saddened that gay andlesbian members of this church are subjected to this continuing abuse. Myconviction is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which proclaims the messageof God's unbounded love for all that God has made, including God's gay andlesbian children, is worth defending with all my might and defend that GospelI will. I am also convinced that I do so with the support of the vast majorityof the clergy and lay leadership of this Diocese.
P.S. Eventually, reason and the Holy Spirit prevailed and the bishop's wordswere heeded. The "heresy trial" forces were decisively defeated in '96.