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House of Bishops defers debate on Robinson election The House of Bishops announced Monday it would defer its debate on the election of the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson, bishop elect of New Hampshire, until two allegations of misconduct made against Robinson can be investigated. The announcement, made by Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, came as spectators and press packed into the gallery and several hundred people waited in the convention center’s auditorium, expecting to watch the debate on a giant screen. Robinson’s relationship to a Web site of outright.org, a secular outreach program for gay and bisexual youth where a link to a pornographic site was discovered, is being examined. An e-mail accusation of inappropriate conduct that has been circulated to a group of bishops is also being investigated, Griswold said. The investigation will be overseen by Bishop Gordon Scruton of Western Massachusetts, he said. “We are following a standard process of the Episcopal Church that whenever any allegation is raised about anyone in orders in this church, we have a process that we’re going to follow and that process in under way,” he said. Shortly after Griswold’s announcement, Outreach issued a statement that Robinson had no past or present connection with that organization, and that an unauthorized link had been removed from its site. Returning to business after a Monday afternoon recess, Bishop Griswold cautioned the bishops to be careful about making offhand remarks, as rumors could result. He mentioned a “somewhat facetious” remark one bishop made to another that “I guess we’ll all get pizzas in here and work this thing out tonight,” and said that remark had been overheard and quoted in a news report. “Some comments that you make to a friend that might be somewhat less than true – I suggest you make them quite fantastical,” he said. “I suggest we now curtail the rumors we’ve heard and return to the business at hand.”
Several bishops spoke out Monday against the proposed dates for the next General Convention, which is scheduled to be held in Columbus, Ohio in June 2006. “The date selected for this is in early June,” said Bishop David B. Joslin of New Jersey. “That time would make it very difficult for young people to attend – can it be moved?” After the same point was made by several other bishops,
the decision was postponed until Aug. 8 to see if the General Convention
office could find any alternate sites.
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