Episcopalians Protest Visits By Female Bishop

Saying they are being persecuted by their bishop for holding traditional beliefs, a group of Episcopalians marched past the National Cathedral on Saturday to protest church visits by a female assistant bishop.

At a rally preceding the march, the group of about 60 Episcopalians from the Washington area protested recent appearances at two churches by Jane Holmes Dixon, one of six female assistant Episcopal bishops in the United States.

The event was organized by a group called Concerned Parishioners of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, which opposes the ordination of women and practicing homosexuals.

Carrying signs saying “Save Souls, Jane Dixon Resign” and “Save Us From False Doctrine,” the marchers chanted a slogan taken nearly verbatim from the 1549 Book of Common Prayer and aimed at Washington Episcopal Bishop Ronald Haines: “From the tyranny of the bishop of Washington and all his detestable enormities, good Lord deliver us.”

The word enormities, in that context, means deviation from moral rectitude or extreme wickedness. The chanters substituted the word Washington for Rome in the original.

Haines, who sent Dixon to the churches, has said that while he could have avoided confrontation, he wanted to push the issue to attempt to unite the diocese around Episcopal Church acceptance of women priests. Haines also has ordained gay men.

Dixon presided over Sunday morning services on Jan. 14 and Feb. 4 at the churches in Bladensburg, Md., and Washington over the objections of their rectors and parishioners, who opposed her consecration. Dixon plans a visit next Sunday to a third church in Washington.

Traditionalists view Dixon’s actions as a way of forcing women priests on unwilling parishioners.