St. John the Evangelist considers withdrawing from U.S. General Convention after a gay priest was elected as Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire.

09:24 AM EST on Wednesday, October 29, 2003

BY RICHARD C. DUJARDIN
Journal Religion Writer

NEWPORT -- Longtime visitors to the 13th-century-style stone church overlooking the bay from Washington Street could not help notice the difference.

The sign out front that used to proclaim St. John the Evangelist as an Episcopal church has been altered, with the word Episcopal replaced by Anglican.

Admittedly, says the church's rector, the name change may be viewed by some as merely a symbolic act, an attempt by the parish to distance itself from the actions of the U.S. Episcopal Church's General Convention, which voted this summer to authorize the consecration of a noncelibate gay man as New Hampshire's next bishop.

Indeed, as of today, the 250-member parish church, which started 128 years ago in the home of a free black man from Maryland, still considers itself a part of the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island as well as the 2.3-million member U.S. Episcopal Church.

But that could change.

In a phone interview yesterday from Washington, D.C., where he is attending a conference of Anglo-Catholic clergy, the Rev. Canon Jonathan Ostman said no one should assume they've heard the last from his and other like-minded parishes that believe the church's General Convention broke from Scripture and 2,000 years of Christian teaching when it voted to allow the consecration of the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson despite his openly homosexual behavior. Canon Robinson is to be installed in a ceremony on Sunday.

Canon Ostman said he hopes and expects that the world's Anglican leaders are going to allow his and other parishes to join a new Anglican province "without boundaries." Such churches would be able to receive episcopal oversight by more like-minded bishops, with the blessing of the Archbishop of Canterbury and other Anglican primates around the world.

Yesterday, Rhode Island Bishop Geralyn Wolf phoned Canon Ostman about the sign change at the Newport parish.

Later yesterday, Bishop Wolf said the priest assured her that his parish had no intention of pulling St. John's out of the diocese, at least not right now.

Journal photo / Bob Thayer SIGN OF THE TIMES: The sign in front of St. John the Evangelist Church in Newport has been changed from "Episcopal" to "Anglican," as unhappy parishioners distance themselves from the U.S. Episcopal Church.

Recounting the conversation, Bishop Wolf said she had no problems at all with his changing the sign in front of the church, since other churches around the country have made similar moves in order to make it clear, particularly to visitors from other countries, that the Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide, 77-million member Anglican Communion.

She said that she understood that the sign change was Canon Ostman's way of disassociating his church with the action of the General Convention.

"We both said to one another how we value each other's ministries," Bishop Wolf said. "We've always had good communication, and he assured me that if there were any decision to pull out of the diocese he would have telephoned me first."

The rector, however, put it slightly differently, saying that if the Anglican primates who met in London earlier this month live up to their promise of creating a separate province within the Anglican Communion, he and possibly other Rhode Island clergy would jump at the chance.

"I told her [Bishop Wolf] that we're waiting to see what the primates do. Personally, I believe we will make a move. We're just waiting for some leadership from the primates."

Another church that may consider switching is St. Mary's Church in Warwick, whose rector, the Rev. Mark Galloway, was the only one from among eight Rhode Island deputies to the General Convention who opposed the consecration of Canon Robinson as New Hampshire's bishop.

Father Galloway said he believed that a new province for traditionalist Episcopalians in the United States is inevitable, and if given the chance, the vestry in his 250-member parish would opt to join it.

"The fact is that the overwhelming majority of the Anglican Communion around the world is in a different place from the Episcopal Church here in the United States," he said.

Father Galloway said the action of the General Convention, flaunting the widespread understanding of the rest of the Anglican Communion, is in many ways similar to President Bush's decision to go to war with Iraq against the strong advice of its allies.

"This is a major problem, and it can't be emphasized enough how the rest of the Anglican Church is dismayed at the arrogance of it all," Father Galloway said. "Our church [the Episcopal Church] sees this as prophetic, but the rest of the world sees it as an intrusive unilateral action."

The nub of the issue, as Father Galloway sees it, is that an official endorsement of a noncelibate gay priest to become bishop is tantamount to saying that homosexual behavior is itself normal for a Christian, putting the church at odds with what the Christian church has taught for two millennia.

He said he's not certain how many Rhode Island churches would opt for some kind of pastoral oversight or membership in a new Anglican province, but believes there are "a few thousand" members of parishes across the state who may decide to vote with their feet and transfer into more traditionalist parishes.

Originally founded as a mission of Newport's Trinity Church, St. John's had its beginnings in the 1870s when Peter Quire, a free black man from Maryland, donated some land and space to begin a church closer to where many of the poorer people of Newport lived.

The church struggled financially for the first few years until Sarah Titus Zabriskie decided to give the congregation a new church building in honor of her mother, erecting an edifice in the style of a 13th-century English parish church. From its consecration in November 1895, the parish has always prided itself in being a very traditional Anglo-Catholic parish, featuring sung Masses on Sundays. Eschewing the prayer book put in place in 1979, the parish continues to use the 1938 Book of Common Prayer.

Amy Garrison, a retired naval intelligence officer and the newly named clerk of the parish's vestry, said as recently as this summer she belonged to Trinity Church, but decided to quit when priests there refused to criticize the position taken by the General Convention.

Garrison said her hope and the hope of many in the parish is that the situation will eventually resolve itself in a way that St. John's will be able to stay in the Anglican Communion.

In this regard, she said, she has great respect for Bishop Wolf, who has visited the parish a number of times and has not "persecuted" the more orthodox and conservative members of her flock as some Episcopal bishops in other dioceses have done.

Although most parishes in Rhode Island hold title to their own property, provisions in the Episcopal Church's canon law make clear that the property is held in trust for the diocese and that no parish can dispose of property without the express consent of the bishop and the eight-member diocesan standing committee.

Bishop Wolf, when asked whether she would approve a request for a parish that sought membership in a separate Anglican province, said she would have to wait and see how the situation develops, and that she would particularly look for guidance from the U.S. Episcopal Church's presiding bishop, Frank Griswold.