The benefits of ambiguity.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Lost amid the controversy accompanying the Episcopal Church's greenlighting of its first openly gay bishop during its tumultuous convention in Minneapolis was news of the approval of Oregon's new bishop-elect. Having been elected by clergy and laity in the diocese in May and ratified at the convention on Monday, the Rev. Johncy Itty will be installed next month as the ninth Episcopal bishop of Oregon.

The divisive issues of human sexuality that dominated the Minneapolis convention also swirled around Itty's election at Portland's Trinity Cathedral. The six candidates for the bishopric were closely questioned about their views on proposals to add a rite to the church's liturgy recognizing the union of gay couples. Itty's responses to these questions clearly resonated with Oregon Episcopalians.

Itty distinguished himself by stressing a desire to avoid alienating opposing factions in the church. An Asian-American of East Indian descent, Itty is a former research consultant at the United Nations who represented Anglicans at the U.N. Human Rights Conference in Geneva. Deeply committed to social justice, Itty nonetheless maintained that "ambiguity serves a healthy purpose" in church doctrine on such matters as human sexuality - a position worthy of a diplomat, and one likely to be put to the test soon in a diocese that covers the state's most conservative and liberal parishes.

Itty's denomination is a 2.3 million member body that is part of the 77 million strong Anglican Communion, which traces its roots to Henry VIII's break with Pope Clement VII in the 16th century. The Minneapolis convention's ratification of an openly gay bishop was unanimously opposed by Asian, African and Latin American members of the House of Bishops. The decision thus puts the relatively small number of American Episcopalians at odds with fast-growing congregations elsewhere in the world, raising the threat of schism in a way that a diplomat might have sought to avoid.

Itty's embrace of ambiguity was characterized by some as fence-sitting, a refusal to say whether Episcopalians should or should not welcome gay members in all aspects of church life, including leadership and liturgy. A definitive answer either way, however, pushes church members apart, as the Minneapolis convention has demonstrated. A majority can win an argument in a fashion that satisfies convictions on matters of equality and justice, but which also excludes those whose convictions, rooted in other cultures, traditions and understandings, are different - while precluding the possibility that study and prayer might eventually lead to a consensus.

Rowan Williams, the newly installed archbishop of Canterbury and head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, will meet with church leaders in October to discuss whether unity can be restored. It's possible that the Episcopal bishops have taken steps that can't be reconciled with the views of the larger communion, in which case the American church will go its own way and could expect to lose many parishioners to new traditional Anglican congregations. In Oregon and beyond, Episcopalians may soon come to wish that Itty's appreciation of ambiguity had been more widely shared.