Episcopalians plan summer dialogue

Congregations, bishops to discuss gays' role in church
Saturday, April 28, 2007 6:30 AM
By Meredith Heagney
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Rank-and-file Episcopalians will have the chance to talk to their bishops this summer on the role of gays and lesbians in the church, Presiding U.S. Episcopal Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said yesterday in a visit to Columbus.

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The summer discussions between bishops and their congregations will help inform a September meeting of the bishops in New Orleans, Jefferts Schori said. The Archbishop of Canterbury and other Anglican Communion leaders have agreed to attend, she said.

"We'll have some more conversation," Jefferts Schori said. "I can't tell you what's going to happen."

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A task force of the church's executive council has been assigned the job of developing a response to the Anglican leaders' concerns, which should be complete in June, House of Deputies president Bonnie Anderson said.

The document primarily will be for the Episcopal Church and its bishops, Anderson said, though she hopes it "will be circulated and understood and received by others in the Anglican Communion."

Breidenthal, 56, said he already has been in touch with gay and lesbian members of the diocese, which is based in Cincinnati and includes Columbus.

He has said that he is "convinced that a faithful same-sex union, like any covenanted relation, is a way of following Jesus."

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