Ex-archbishop of Canterbury to preside at confirmation

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Several hundred Virginia Episcopalians are so unhappy with their bishop's support for homosexuality that they are bringing in the retired archbishop of Canterbury to preside over a confirmation ceremony later this month.

The Sept. 15 event will feature a mass choir, confirmation candidates from 11 churches in Northern Virginia and former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, who will place his hands on the heads of each person being confirmed as an adult Christian.

Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax will split the confirmations into two evening services to accommodate 200 to 300 confirmands, their guests and dozens of musicians and clergy.

The event is being organized by conservative Episcopalians who split with Bishop Peter J. Lee of Virginia a year ago after he assented to the election of Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire as the denomination's first openly practicing homosexual prelate.

"This will be an occasion for celebration but also a sign of the serious brokenness of the Episcopal Church and a tragic reminder of our alienation from the ministry of our own bishop," said the Rev. Martyn Minns, the rector of Truro.

Bishop Lee was one of 62 bishops to approve Bishop Robinson's election, which has caused huge divisions in the 2.3-million-member Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

In Virginia, the country's largest diocese at 89,000 members, some of the biggest parishes canceled the usual annual appearances by Bishop Lee or his two assistants, Bishops David Jones and Francis Gray. Bishops typically visit each of the diocese's 187 congregations at least once a year for confirmations, a rite that only bishops can perform.

Dissenting parishes also staged an economic boycott, causing a $900,000 shortfall in the 2004 diocesan budget. They formed a Virginia branch of the American Anglican Council (AAC), another national Episcopal group that opposed Bishop Robinson's election.

A year later, local resentment remains so high that Mr. Minns, leader of the Virginia AAC, suggested Archbishop Carey be invited to perform confirmations as a neutral party.

Bishop Lee officially invited the archbishop in May, then issued a statement saying the "supplemental confirmation service" was designed "especially for those congregations that are unhappy with [Bishop Lee's] consent of the consecration of the bishop of New Hampshire and feel the need for alternate episcopal ministry."