Nov 4, 2003 / 22:00 pm
Episcopal leaders are scrambling to address the requests of two New Hampshire churches to become part of another diocese, following the ordination of an openly gay man as bishop of New Hampshire this week.
Robert Newton, a lay leader at St. Mark’s Church in Ashland, said he already spoke to the conservative bishops at the diocese of Albany, N.Y., who have agreed to give his church an “oversight” and supervise his congregation.
Bishop Douglas Theuner, who will continue to serve the diocese of New Hampshire until his retirement in March, said he and incoming Bishop Gene Robinson would be happy to consider alternative pastoral care for congregations within their diocese.
However, pastoral care is not the same as "oversight," which removes a church from the leadership of its original diocese and places it under the leadership and care of another.