‘Buddhist bishop’ losing support

Thursday, 18th June 2009
By George Conger

The election of the “Buddhist Bishop” of Northern Michigan will be rejected by the Episcopal Church, a survey of the standing committees of the 111 domestic and overseas dioceses of the Episcopal Church conducted by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.

Frank Lockwood, religion editor of the Democrat-Gazette on June 4 reported that a survey of the church’s 111 diocesan standing committees found that a majority, 56, had refused to give their consent to the election of the Rev Kevin Thew Forrester.

On April 24 Religious Intelligence reported that early returns from the US House of Bishops found that Dr Forrester had been unable to hold together the left-liberal bloc of bishops that backed Gene Robinson’s 2003 election as Bishop of New Hampshire. An unofficial tally kept by Religious Intelligence finds the gap has widened against Dr Forrester in the last six weeks among the bishops as well, with only 14 of the church’s 102 bishops voting to affirm his election while 39 have voted “no” --- and the rest not having reported on their vote. the rest