Antigay Clergy Get the Boot

The Episcopal Church has ousted 61 clergy over an ongoing dispute around LGBT issues in the church.

The members, the church said, had aligned with former bishop John-David Schofield, who was ousted from the church and stripped of his title in 2008. At the time, the church said he “repudiated the doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Episcopal Church.”

In late 2007, Schofield led his 8,800-member diocese to secede from the church and align with the South American Province of the Southern Cone. In a statement to The New York Times, he credited the Episcopal Church with “undermining the authority of the Bible and ultimately leading to lifestyles that are destructive.”

The former bishops turned against the church in part because of the Episcopal Church’s 2003 decision to ordain the Reverend Gene Robinson, who is openly gay and partnered, as bishop of New Hampshire.

[This article appears courtesy of The Advocate. Be sure to visit their site for more information on gay & lesbian current events]