wfn.org | Two priests consecrated in Singapore

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2000-027

Two consecrated in Singapore to minister to "divided" 
American church

by Kathryn McCormick

     (ENS) Two Anglican primates and four other bishops 
consecrated a pair of American priests as bishops in Singapore 
on January 29 to help "reestablish the unity that has been 
violated by the unrebuked ridicule and denial of basic Christian 
teaching" in the Episcopal Church.

     The two new bishops, Charles H. Murphy III, currently head 
of First Promise and rector of All Saints Episcopal Church  in 
Pawley's Island, South Carolina, and the Very Rev. Dr. John H. 
Rodgers, Jr., dean emeritus of Trinity Episcopal School  for 
Ministry in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, will also "actively seek to plant
Anglican missions in areas where there are receptive communities," 
according to a press release issued after the consecration in St. 
Andrew's Cathedral. The release pointed to declining membership 
of the church in recent years, calling the decline "a crisis of the 
Christian Faith that has left the Episcopal Church divided."

     "I am appalled by this irregular action and even more so by
 the purported 'crisis' that has been largely fomented by  them 
and others, and which bears very little resemblance to the church 
we actually know, which is alive and well and faithful, as the 
Zacchaeus report so clearly indicates," said Presiding Bishop 
Frank T. Griswold in a letter sent January 31 to all the bishops
in the Episcopal Church. 

     He also sent copies of the letter to the 37 other primates of the 
Anglican Communion, who have long been scheduled to meet in 
Lisbon, Portugal, in March.

     One of those primates, Harry Goodhew, conservative archbishop 
of Sydney, had already said, "While I appreciate the concern and 
frustration that has prompted this action, I wish to express my profound 
disappointment that these consecrations have taken  place at this time 
and in this manner." Goodhew heads one of the largest dioceses in the 
Anglican Communion and was a member of a group of church leaders 
invited to visit the U.S. last year. He wrote the group's report that was 
largely critical of the Episcopal Church in which the acceptance of 
homosexuality and the ordination of women have received support.

     Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, who is currently on a visit 
to the Province of Southern Africa, also expressed regret at the action in 
a statement released by his office. "It has come as a grave disappointment 
to the archbishop," the statement read, "as it is his view that such consecrations 
are irresponsible and irregular and only harm the unity of the communion."

     The consecrators included Emmanual Kolini, archbishop of the Province 
of Rwanda, and Moses Tay, archbishop of  the Province of South East 
Asia, as well as John Ruchyahana, bishop of Shyira in Rwanda; Fitzsimmons 
Allison, former bishop of South Carol ina; Alex Dickson, former bishop of 
West Tennessee, and David Pytches, former bishop of Chile, Bolivia and Peru.

--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of the Office of News 
and Information of the Episcopal Church