Five Nominees Oppose Same-Sex Blessings

October 19, 2009

All five nominees in the Episcopal Church’s Diocese of Upper South Carolina’s search for an eighth bishop say they would not counsel a rector to proceed with blessing a same-sex couple.

Three of the nominees — the Very Rev. John B. Burwell, the Rev. Canon Neal O. Michell and the Rev. Jerre Stockton Williams, Jr. — advise against the practice because the Episcopal Church is part of the Anglican Communion. The other two nominees – the Rev. David F.O. Thompson and the Rev. W. Andrew Waldo — advise against the practice because General Convention has not formally authorized such blessings.

General Convention said, in Resolution C056, that “bishops, particularly those in dioceses within civil jurisdictions where same-gender marriage, civil unions, or domestic partnerships are legal, may provide generous pastoral response to meet the needs of members of this church.” Such services have occurred openly in the dioceses of California, Massachusetts and Minnesota since General Convention. the rest