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VIRGIN ISLANDS GETS NEW BISHOP
Other Archbishops Boycott Consecration
Impaired Communion with ECUSA cited
By David W. Virtue
7/17/2005
The Diocese of the Virgin Islands which is a diocese of the Episcopal Church USA (Province II) got a new bishop, its fifth, in the person of the Rt. Rev. E. Ambrose Gumbs formerly rector of St. Andrews Church in St. Thomas. The consecration of Bishop Gumbs took place at the University of the Virgin Islands in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas in June.
But a number of orthodox bishops and archbishops refused to attend the event because they say they are in impaired communion with the Episcopal Church over the consecration of V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man to the episcopacy. Furthermore several of the bishops who consecrated Gumbs are openly pro-gay.
One Archbishop who did not attend was the Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, Archbishop of the Province of Nassau and the Bahamas.
VirtueOnline spoke by phone with the new bishop who said all the bishops of the region were invited but they all declined to come. "They would not show because they say they are in impaired communion with The Episcopal Church," said Gumbs.
Among the consecrators was the Bishop of Long Island, Orris Walker whose hostility towards orthodox priests in his diocese is notorious. When confronted by The New York Times recently as to whether he had AIDS, Walker would neither confirm or deny that he was infected. The Rt. Rev. Arthur B. Williams Jr., retired Bishop Suffragan of Ohio and Director of the Office of Ethnic Congregational Development at the Episcopal Church Center, served as chief consecrator.
Other bishops who co-consecrated were the Rt. Rev. Telésforo A. Isaac, retired Bishop of the Dominican Republic; the Rt. Rev. C. Clayton Matthews, of the Office of Pastoral Development; the Rt. Rev. W. Michie Klusmeyer, Bishop of West Virginia; the Rt. Rev. Rodney R. Michel, Bishop Suffragan of Long Island; and Lutheran Bishop Margarita Martínez. Some 2,000 were in attendance.
"We are an evangelical diocese with a touch of Anglo-Catholicism; we follow in that tradition and that of my predecessor Theodore Daniels," Gumbs told VirtueOnline.
Asked by VirtueOnline what his plans were, Bishop Gumbs, who is a graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary said he had a formidable task and challenge ahead of him and he is looking to do aggressive evangelism with the cooperation of his clergy.
In February of this year the diocese voted to elect Bishop Gumbs to replace ECUSA Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold as the chief pastor and spiritual leader of the diocese.
The bishop said that approximately half of the diocese's income comes from the national Episcopal Church to support 12 congregations which is spread over five islands in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.
Province II includes Albany, Diocese of Central NY, Rochester, , WNY, NY, NJ, Haiti, Long Island, the Convocation of American Churches in Europe and the Virgin Islands.
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