Former Bishop's Clergy Credentials Revoked

In another example of ignorance and unrestrained homophobia - and a rejection of modern medical and mental health knowledge - David C. Bane Jr. (pictured at left), Southern Virginia's Episcopal bishop from 1998 to 2006, has joined the gay hating Anglican Church in North America organized under African Anglican bishops who take homophobia to new heights. Presiding Episcopal Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori stripped Bane of his clerical authority in the Episcopal Church after he informed her of his affiliation with the Anglican Church. My personal thought as one who briefly joined the Episcopal Church is good riddance. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

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Bane said Monday that he became part of the Anglican Church in North America when Episcopal clergy ostracized him following his retirement from the Diocese of Southern Virginia, which includes Hampton Roads. "I feel much more at home and at comfort," Bane, 66, said of his decision. "I wouldn't have done it if they'd let me express myself in the Episcopal Church."

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Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori stripped Bane of his clerical authority in the Episcopal Church after he informed her of his affiliation with the Anglican Church this spring. The Anglican Church formed after the Episcopal Church endorsed the ordination as bishop of a non-celibate gay New Hampshire priest, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, in 2003. The group represents clergy and congregants who contend the Episcopal Church is straying from orthodox interpretation of the Bible and church traditions on extra marital sex.

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Bane said he was more conservative than many members of the Southern Virginia diocese. In 2003, he voted against Robinson's ordination; other clergy and parishioners representing the diocese voted unanimously for ordination.

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Bane said he is an assistant bishop, serving Bishop Robert Duncan, an Anglican in Pittsburgh. He hopes to help new Anglican Church congregations on the East Coast. He will continue to live in Elizabeth City, N.C., where he moved after leaving the Southern Virginia diocese.

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To me, it is very sad when one's faith is ultimately determined by one's dislike and dehumanizing of other human beings, but that sums up the Anglican Church in America denomination.