By Beau Bowman | [email protected]
After a year of victories for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, Anglican bishops have banned the Episcopal Church.
Same-sex marriage was legalized in the United States, Ireland, Greenland, and many more countries in 2015. However, 2016 will continue to be an uphill battle for LGBT groups, and the Anglican Communion, the world’s largest Protestant denomination, will provide one of the mountains.
Last week, after the Episcopal Church in America came out in full support of gay marriage, it seemed the Anglican Communion had finally had enough. Soon after, news was released that the Church of England was suspending the Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion for three years.
Jim Naughton, a communications consultant for the Episcopal Church, said the church does not regret its blessings.
“We can accept these actions with grace and humility,” he said. “But the Episcopal Church is not going back. We can’t repent what is not a sin.”
The Anglican Communion is an international association of churches consisting of the Church of England and of national and regional Anglican churches across the globe in full communion with it.
The Episcopal Church, the American branch of the Anglican Communion, hired Gene Robinson as the bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire and the first openly gay member of the Episcopalian clergy in 2003. Since then, the Episcopal Church has drifted further and further away from the beliefs of the Anglican Communion.
The suspension in question means that the Episcopalian Church in America will not be represented in the Anglican Communion or any of the legislative bodies responsible for making decisions within the church during this time.
Some University of Iowa students see the flaw in the Anglicans’ position.
UI junior Marching Band member Jay Rowat, who identifies as a Baptist, said he thinks the Anglican Communion’s actions further isolate it in the modern world.
“I feel like the Anglicans are behind the times, seeing as this is such a popular controversy,” he said. “They need to realize what Jesus’s message is really about. And by punishing the Episcopal Church, they are now isolating them from interaction with the rest of the Anglican Church.”
The decision to suspend the Episcopalian Church came one day after Ugandan Archbishop Stanley Ntgali left the meetings after his proposal to ask the U.S. and Canada branches of the church to voluntarily withdraw was disregarded.
Other Anglican religious leaders from Africa, Asia, and South America also threatened to leave the meetings if the U.S. and Canada were not punished for their views on same-sex marriage.
Episcopalian pastors all around the nation back the support of gay marriage by the church. Rev. Carolyn Keck of Church of the Messiah in Tennessee said she supports the Episcopalian Church and its views on gay marriage, no matter the circumstances.
“I’ve been serving this church for a long time now,” she said. “I fully support the ideas and beliefs set by the church and stand by it. This is a very serious issue, and I hope it all blows over smoothly for us. It is not ideal to leave the Anglican Communion, but if it’s what we have to do, then we will.”