New Site Chosen For Bishop’s Heresy Trial

The upcoming heresy trial of a retired Episcopal bishop may be a historic occasion within the Episcopal Church, but that does not mean it will be an event popular with Episcopalians, if reaction in Connecticut provides a gauge.

After receiving an outpouring of complaints from church members in his diocese, Bishop Clarence Coleridge of Connecticut this month withdrew his offer to allow a church court to try Bishop Walter C. Righter at Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford on Feb. 27-29.

Righter, only the second bishop in Episcopal Church history to be charged with heresy, will now be tried in Wilmington, Del., on the same dates.

Righter, 72, a retired bishop of Iowa, has been charged with teaching “doctrine contrary to that held by the church” for signing a document supporting the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals. He has also been charged with violating his ordination vows for ordaining a gay man as a deacon, a rank in the church just below that of priest.

The second charge stems from Bishop Righter’s ordination of Barry L. Stopfel, a graduate of Union Theological Seminary, as a deacon in the Diocese of Newark, N.J., in September 1990. Righter was then an assistant to Newark Bishop John S. Spong, an outspoken supporter of ordaining gay men and lesbians.

Possible penalties include admonition, suspension from clerical duties and being stripped of church rank.

Righter has strongly denied that he is a heretic and has added that neither church canons nor traditions forbid the ordination of homosexuals.

The accusations against Righter, which reflect a long and bitter debate within the Episcopal Church over whether to allow ordination of homosexuals, were contained in a document called a presentment.

It was drawn up by 10 bishops last year, circulated nationally and eventually signed by 76 bishops, some active and some retired.

The number represented a quarter of the church’s bishops, enough to require a trial before a court of nine bishops.

Officials of the Connecticut Diocese did not return a telephone call seeking comment.