Priest to relocate amid Episcopal Church rift Diocese stance on homosexuality at issue

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One Episcopal priest is leaving his native state, while another has returned to hers amid a controversy over homosexuality that has divided the Anglican Communion for more than two years.

The Rev. Kevin Holsapple bid farewell on Sunday to his flock at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Bangor. Next month, the Dexter native will begin his tenure as rector of St. Ann’s Episcopal Church in Crystal River, Fla., on the Gulf Coast about 85 miles north of St. Petersburg, Fla.

Across the Penobscot River in Brewer, the Rev. Barbara Clarke, who grew up in St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Ellsworth, is settling in with her new congregation at St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church. Her partner of nearly 20 years has been welcomed into the congregation the same way the spouses of Episcopal clergy throughout the diocese have been for centuries.

Neither priest wants to be a symbol for either side of the conflict that has threatened to split the Episcopal Church in the United States and abroad.

The coincidence of his departure and her arrival, however, highlight the deep divide that some believe could lead to a denominational schism.

While many on the liberal side had hoped a split could be avoided, New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, whose election as the first openly gay bishop in the world ignited the dispute two years ago, predicted last week that a schism is coming.

Holsapple, 49, said earlier this month that while the split already had occurred with Robinson’s election, it simply has not been made formal.

“I’m not leaving here in a tiff,” Holsapple said during a recent interview. “This is a liberal diocese, and I want to be in a diocese that will remain in the Anglican Communion.

“I sought a traditional diocese,” he said. “My wife wanted warm weather.”

St. John’s is beginning the process of hiring a new priest while being served by an interim priest. The process is expected to take at least a year.

Although the dispute over homosexuality came to a head two years ago with Robinson’s election, Bishop Chilton Knudsen, head of the Maine diocese, already had chosen sides.

She was one of 113 bishops from around the globe who in 1998 signed a pastoral letter pledging to continue to work for the full inclusion of gay and lesbian Christians in the life and ministry of the church.

Knudsen, 58, also participated in Robinson’s consecration ceremony.

Holsapple became rector of St. John’s in 1997 after serving congregations in Newfoundland for 10 years. He became an Episcopalian after reading the Bible while a student at the University of Maine. While teaching English at Nokomis Regional High School in Newport, he earned a licentiate, or special degree, from Montreal Diocesan Theological College by studying on his own under the guidance of a tutor.

A cradle Episcopalian, Clarke, 64, was baptized in the “holy garage,” a two-car garage that the founders of St. Dunstan’s converted into a worship space in Ellsworth before the church was built on State Street. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in zoology from the University of Maine, and, later, a doctorate in biology from Tulane University in New Orleans.

“There’s no question in my mind that I would have sought ordination after I graduated from college” had the priesthood been open to women before 1976, she said last week.

Instead, Clarke taught at Hope College in Holland, Mich., Chatham College in Pittsburgh and at American University in Washington, D.C. Coincidentally, Knudsen was one of her students in Pittsburgh.

Clarke’s active involvement during the mid-1990s in a Chevy Chase, Md., parish led to her decision to become a priest in middle age. Since her ordination several years ago, Clarke served as interim rector at three Washington, D.C., parishes before being hired in Brewer.

She said that she applied for openings on the Eastern Seaboard, and coming back to Maine “just worked out.” Clarke also said that she was happy to be in a diocese where there is not an ongoing battle.

“It is frustrating to have to constantly battle over homosexuality,” she said last week. “It’s frustrating to spend our energy and time on something that is not central to Jesus’ teachings like fighting poverty and being faithful to the Christian Gospel.”

Holsapple believes that his opposition to the ordination of noncelibate homosexual priests is being true to the Gospel. He made his opinion on Robinson’s consecration public in a sermon on Oct. 5, 2003. He knew that he was out of sync with his congregation, his bishop and his colleagues. He said that the real issue “is love, not sex.”

“The Episcopal Church is now losing something the rest of the country already lost: a Christian understanding of love,” he preached. “The House of Bishops got confused about love. They confused love with acceptance. That’s a very common confusion. You’ve heard it; you might have said it: ‘If you love me, you have to accept me just as I am.’ Wrong! That’s lazy, lazy, lazy! Love is never lazy like that. You never just accept the people you truly love. You lift them up; you push them higher …”

Even though many members of his Bangor congregation disagreed with Holsapple, earlier this month they expressed sadness over his leaving.

Esther N. Rauch of Orono said that what she would miss most about Holsapple was his sermons.

“He preaches wonderfully,” she said. “He has a real gift as a preacher, and good preachers are hard to find. That’s a great loss.”

Rauch, a former professor of literature, was so impressed with Holsapple’s sermons that she edited a collection of them in a 2000 book called “Reckless Spending.” The priest’s sermons also have been posted regularly on the church’s Web site.

Clarke’s sermons were one the reasons she was asked to lead St. Patrick’s, Kyle McGuan, 18, of Holden said Monday. A senior at John Bapst Memorial High School, he was one of three people who earlier this year went to hear Clarke preach in suburban Washington, D.C.

“I just fell in love with Barbara’s sermons and the energy that she has,” McGuan said. “We needed a minister with spark. I believe Barbara has the spark to get the congregation going on the path to growth and outreach to youth.”

Clarke said last week that she was struck by the congregation’s energy and enthusiasm that was apparent to her after a visit to the church’s Web site.

“When they came down to interview me,” she said, “I felt a connection with them. It’s really a gut feeling that I can only describe as the Holy Spirit.”