The priest, the Rev. F. Earle Fox, read an explicit list of what he said were the sexual practices of gay men, but was interrupted by the official leading the consecration, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold of the Episcopal Church.
After the consecrations, the Episcopal Church's top official, the Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold III, declared in a letter to American bishops that he was "appalled" by the event, and "even more so" by the accusations that the church was in a crisis, which he said was not true.
In London, moreover, senior church officials are pressing for decisive steps to approve the consecration of women as Anglican bishops, a step supported passionately by Archbishop Welby but anathema to Roman Catholic doctrine.
To commemorate the congregation's 45th anniversary, and the 25th anniversary of the consecration of the Greenlawn church, St .Paraskevi officials have commissioned what they say is the first Byzantine mural to depict the Seven Days of Creation and the Preparation of the Throne of Christ in one continuous scene in a church in the United States.
At the time, the consecrations were denounced by the Episcopal Church's top official, Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold III.
When Chinese church officials gathered in Leshan last week for the ordination, the planned consecration of another bishop in northern Hebei Province ended much differently.
The bishop had been under house arrest since he shocked Communist Party officials and his faithful by renouncing his government position during his consecration in July.
BEIJING — A Roman Catholic bishop who stunned congregants and Communist Party officials last July when he renounced his government position during his consecration has been stripped of his religious title, according to two Catholic Web sites that cited contacts in the Chinese church.
A magnificent evening of consecration.
