Times Herald-Record | Episcopal bishop has faith that controversy won't split church

by John Sullivan
Times Herald-Record
March 12, 2007

Episcopalians should relax.

They need not worry about a break with their Anglican brethren, said the Rev. Don Taylor, bishop vicar of the Episcopal Diocese of New York.

Taylor said he had faith that American Episcopalians could reconcile gay and lesbian issues that threaten to split them from the larger Anglican body. As in all democratic decision-making processes, differences of opinion can look like division instead of a process toward consensus, he said.

"The (Episcopal Church) is not in a position of kicking people out, it's in a position of reconciliation," said Taylor, one of New York's highest-ranking Episcopal officials.

...

"There was a time when I couldn't be a bishop in New York, because I was black," said Taylor, whose native country is Jamaica. "But times have changed, because we have allowed people to change and to reach their own conclusions."

...

The Rev. Carl Lunden, the rector at St. James, said most churches within the New York diocese are unified in their support of gays and lesbians. He has not yet performed an official blessing of a same-sex union in his church, but the Rev. Mark Sisk, the head bishop of New York, has made it clear that "we must do what's important to bring those people into the fold," he said.

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