Russian Orthodox Church ceases contacts with Episcopal Church USA The Layman Online Thursday, November 20, 2003 The Russian Orthodox Church has suspended its official contacts with the Episcopal Church USA because the Episcopalians elected and consecrated Bishop V. Gene Robinson, a homosexual who has an open relationship with another man. In a strongly worded statement in English and Russian, the Russian Orthodox Church said it wants "to maintain contacts and cooperation with those members of the Episcopal Church in the USA who clearly declared their loyalty to the moral teaching of the Holy Gospel and the Ancient Undivided Church." The statement is titled "The Church Cannot Approve of the Perversion of Human Nature Created by the Creator Himself." "We see a great danger to a modern man in the processes, which are going on in the Episcopal Church in the USA and in some other Christian communities of Western world," the Russian Orthodox Church warned. "People are becoming accustomed to the notion that homosexualism is nor a deviation, neither a perversion, but just a kind of 'love,' which even the Church blesses. For instance, the leadership of the Episcopalian Church in the USA at the General Convention in Minnesota last summer approved of a possibility of blessing the unisexual marriages. The document adopted by the Convention gives the 'local communities' and parishes the right to elaborate the rituals for the blessing of unisexual couples." In the Presbyterian Church (USA), which does allow services to bless homosexual couples but does not permit ordination of practicing homosexuals, renowned missiologist Harold Kurtz has repeatedly warned that the approval of homosexual behavior by the church could break relationships with Christians throughout the world.

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