Local Episcopal dioceses hit over election of gay N.H. bishop

Virginia’s Episcopal bishops have received a few hundred letters and e-mails criticizing a decision to allow an openly homosexual man to become the leader of the church’s New Hampshire Diocese.

The office of Bishop Peter James Lee, leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, has received about 200 letters and e-mails in response to the Rev. V. Gene Robinson’s confirmation as New Hampshire’s bishop.

“Some of them have been pointed at Bishop Lee,” said Nancy Jenkins, director of communications for the diocese. “Some of them have called for his resignation. Some have said he will go to hell.”

Bishop Lee’s diocese, one of three in Virginia, comprises the upper third of the commonwealth and has 86,500 baptized members.

Ms. Jenkins said the correspondence mostly speak negatively about the election. Last week in Minneapolis, Bishop Lee voted to allow Mr. Robinson to become bishop of New Hampshire when the Episcopal General Convention confirmed him 62 to 45, with two abstentions.

“In casting his vote, he said he voted that way in order to respect the choices of the people of New Hampshire,” Ms. Jenkins said.

The bishop has said the vote does not mean he agrees with those in New Hampshire on issues of sexual orientation.

Conservative Episcopalians have threatened to halt donations to the Episcopal Church and to break away and form a separate church.

Bishop Lee is trying to respond to each of the letters, has posted pastoral letters on the diocese’s Web site, and will hold public information sessions, Ms. Jenkins said.

The Episcopal Church, with 2.3 million members, is the U.S. branch of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.

Elsewhere in Virginia, Bishop David C. Bane Jr., who leads the Diocese of Southern Virginia, told the Associated Press he has received about 150 “hateful” messages in the week since the decision was made, one of which ended with “See you in hell.”

Bishop Bane said the response is the largest since he took charge of the 33,000-member diocese in 1998. The bishop, who voted against the Rev. Robinson becoming a bishop, said many of the e-mail messages came from out of state and weren’t aimed specifically at him.

Ms. Jenkins said most of the correspondences to Bishop Lee came from the Diocese of Virginia’s constituency.

Bishop Robinson, 56, is a divorced father of two grown children and has lived with his male partner for more than 13 years. In June, New Hampshire clergy and lay Episcopalians selected him for bishop.

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