Service Celebrates Decision Dismissing Heresy Charges Against Bishop Righter
Episcopal News Service. May 23, 1996 [96-1468]
(ENS) A regularly scheduled confirmation service at St. George's Church in Maplewood, New Jersey, the afternoon of May 19, was turned at short notice into a diocesan-wide affirmation of an ecclesial court's decision the previous week that could mean the end of a case against Bishop Walter Righter.
On behalf of Bishop John Spong of the Diocese of Newark, Righter ordained the Rev. Barry Stopfel, a non-celibate homosexual who is now rector of St. George's, as a deacon in 1990. Five years later, a presentment or ecclesiastical accusation brought by 10 other bishops charged Righter with violating the doctrine of the church and his own ordination vows.
On May 15, meeting in Wilmington, Delaware, the Episcopal Court for the Trial of a Bishop announced that it had dismissed the charges against Righter, having found no prohibition in either church discipline or "core doctrine" against such ordinations.
The court was clear that it was not establishing policy for the Episcopal Church, referring the matter to General Convention, the chief legislative body of the Episcopal Church, and at the time of the service the bishops who brought the original presentment had not yet announced whether they would appeal. But in a diocese long associated -- negatively by many -- with its bishop's radical statements on behalf of homosexual rights, and in a congregation that felt that the charges against Righter were attacks against one of their own, the day had come to celebrate.
Nearly 250 members of St. George's and other parishes packed the church for the two-hour service, their high spirits barely dampened by the sweltering weather. In a sermon interrupted repeatedly by applause, laughter and several standing ovations, Spong praised the congregations, Stopfel and his partner, the Rev. Will Leckie, as well as Righter and his wife, Nancy, who attended as guests of honor.
He also highlighted the role his diocese has played in the Episcopal Church's debate over human sexuality.
"I want to bid you to rejoice, but not at a victory," Spong said. "Rather, I want you to rejoice that the witness to the inclusive love of God that this diocese of Newark has made has now rooted itself in the Christian consciousness of the world in an indelible way."
Noting that "people love to take shots at the Diocese of Newark," and reporting that a conservative religious publication recently called the diocese "an insignificant flyspeck," Spong proclaimed, "Today this insignificant flyspeck has become God's agent in doing nothing less than defining the very nature of the Christian church."
The international media attention to the trial of Bishop Righter should not be seen as "publicity for a victory," he said. "We are news-worthy, we believe, because a church is news-worthy when it dares to live as it speaks. It is news-worthy when the love of God is seen to stop at no human barrier, nor to bend at any human prejudice."
The press coverage "is a testimony to the fact that there is still enormous power to be found inside religious integrity," he said. "This church of ours has done an audacious thing. We will not now tremble at our audacity. Rather we will step boldly into the future that we have helped to build."
Spong praised the congregation for its courage in calling Stopfel as its priest three years ago, and in supporting him as he and St. George's became a focal point for media attention during the 17-month legal process. He also thanked Stopfel and Leckie for having endured being "debated across this country and across this world" through "no choice of your own." Calling Stopfel one of the diocese's "most gifted and dedicated clergy," he told Stopfel and Leckie, "I have been inspired by the depth of your commitment to your ministry and your commitment to each other."
He also praised Righter, who celebrated the Eucharist, for responding to the charges against him with "grace and dignity," despite the rude intrusion the case had made on his retirement. "You were neither vindictive nor hostile," Spong said. "'School-yard bullies' was the harshest epithet you hurled at your adversaries."
When the presentment was brought in January, 1995, "you were a retired bishop living in rural New Hampshire with your wife and your memories of a distinguished but not well-known career," Spong said to Righter. "Today you are the best-known bishop of the Anglican Communion in the world."
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