Two Consecrated in Singapore to Minister to "divided" American Church
Episcopal News Service. January 31, 2000 [2000-027]
(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.
Harry Goodhew, 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 Carolina; Alex Dickson, former bishop of West Tennessee, and David Pytches, former bishop of Chile, Bolivia and Peru.