Walter Righter, a bishop in the Episcopal Church and a staunch LGBT supporter among faith leaders, died Sunday at his home outside Pittsburgh. He was 87 years old.
Walter Righter
Righter was bishop of Iowa from 1972 to 1988, during which time he ordained the first female deacon in Iowa. From 1989 to 1991, he was an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Newark, N.J.
Righter became a lightning rod for dissent over the ordination of gays in the Episcopal Church when he was an assistant bishop in Newark, N.J., under Bishop John Spong, an outspoken supporter of ordaining lesbians and gays.
In 1990, with Spong’s approval, Righter ordained Barry Stopfel, whom he knew to be gay, as a deacon, a rank below that of priest. The next year Spong ordained Stopfel as a priest.
Church conservatives focused their outrage on Righter but did not file formal charges against him until 1995, when a five-year statute of limitations was set to expire. He was tried in 1996 by a panel of eight bishops, who, in voting 7 to 1 to dismiss the heresy charges, ruled that there was no church doctrine forbidding the ordination of gays and lesbians who are in a committed relationship.
Righter wrote about his experience in a 1998 memoir, “A Pilgrim’s Way,” and once said that his accusers were “irrational,” did not understand “the tides of history” and focused only on their fears.
In 2009, the Episcopal Church affirmed that “gays and lesbians in lifelong committed relationships,” could be ordained, saying that “God has called and may call such individuals to any ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church.”
The Episcopal Church currently has two openly gay bishops.
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RIP Bishop Righter, you’ll be missed.
RIP
may you rest in peace
Rest peacefully, you epic, epic person.
O that is so sad:(:::
RIP Bishop.
Rest in Peace. May God praise you for your stance against inequality for all his children.
Thank you for your long life of goodness. Peace.
May he RIP.
Strategy: How to settle the gay marriage debate in your favor.
Start a church and give it a fancy name like the Equality Life Church. Now, this church has a philosophy that marrying gay couples is ok. Find a gay couple who want to pledge their lives to one another and marry them. Go to the state you’ve married the couple in, and tell them that the two were just married at your church and you wish to have the union officially approved by the state for tax reasons. When they tell you that they will not do such a thing, you sue them (perhaps the ACLU would fund the case). When making your case, you point out that the actions of the state has violated both the 1st and the 14th amendments.
Amendment 1 says “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF…”
Amendment 14 says “…No state shall abridge the PRIVILEDGES or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state… DENY TO ANY PERSON WITHIN ITS JURISDICTION THE EQUAL PROTECTION of the law.” Marriage is classified in law as a priviledge as you need a lisence for it.
Now, I am not gay, so this isn’t the fight for me, but I agree that you guys should have equal rights and be able to marry the person you love like anyone else.
To the page mods: Please repost this so your entire community can see it. Ciao :)
RIP kind soul…
thanks for everything. RIP