Schism in a Church or Religious Evolution?

Re “Anglicans Say Split May Occur if Gay Man Ordained as Bishop,� Oct. 17: I don’t get what all the fuss is about in ordaining a gay priest as a bishop. This is why we have so many different religions.

Religions are constantly, and should be, evolving as the times change. (Remember fish on Fridays? Ordaining of women as priests? Those were recently highly volatile and “fabric-tearing� divisions in their day.) As various factions within a religion have to deal with differing issues, those who accept or disapprove of the rift branch off to form their own belief system. And that’s healthy. You don’t choke off dissidence. It will just pop up elsewhere. Things change whether we want them to or not. That’s life.

Wendy Averill

Culver City

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I am deeply offended by the remark attributed to the Rev. Canon David C. Anderson that the hands laid on the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson in his coming consecration as bishop of New Hampshire would be “contaminated.� If those hands are contaminated, then it is with a 21st century rational understanding of our humanity. They are blessedly free of the contamination of a bigotry and intolerance grounded in superstition.

Peter Coppen

Santa Ana