ESA Members Move to Block Confirmation of Dixon
Episcopal News Service. July 30, 1992 [92165A]
Members of the traditionalist Episcopal Synod of America (ESA) in the Dioceses of Virginia and Southern Virginia have formally petitioned their bishops and standing committees to "withhold their consent to the confirmation of the election" of the Rev. Jane Dixon, selected on May 30 as suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Washington (D.C.). "We believe such confirmation will further polarize [the Episcopal Church] and inhibit the primary concerns of the church... [in] the worship and adoration of God and the propagation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ," the ESA resolution said. The "withhold consent" plea was adopted unanimously at the ESA's Convocation 2B, meeting in June in Richmond. Episcopal bishops-elect need the approval of a majority of the Episcopal Church's 119 diocesan bishops and diocesan standing committees in order to be consecrated. The ESA based its objections, in part, on Dixon's position on the ordination of homosexuals.