By Dionne Walker
Associated Press Writer
Sat, May. 26 2007 07:19 AM ET
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The man chosen to lead Virginia Episcopalians will look to the heavens as he shepherds the centuries-old diocese threatened by divisions over homosexuality - and to the 1960s Alabama of his youth.
The Very Rev. Shannon Johnston poses before a wall lined with portraits of his predecessors at the Headquarters of the Episcopal Diocese on Wednesday, May 22, 2007 in Richmond, Va.
Jackson will be installed as the bishop coadjutator of the Virginia Episcopalian Diocese on Saturday. Then a small boy living in the Jim Crow stronghold, the Very Rev. Shannon Johnston paid close attention to sit-ins and freedom rides unfolding around him, as well as resistance by bristling segregationists.
"I saw how those who stayed in the middle, and tried to keep people together and talk and understand ... set a strong example of how to build up community," said Johnston, 48, who spoke to The Associated Press from the diocese's Richmond headquarters. "That was a witness I think I've never forgotten."
The former Mississippi rector will rely on those lessons of cooperation as he steps Saturday into a new role as bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia - the nation's largest Episcopal gathering, and a flash point in a conflict over gay rights that's shaken the faith worldwide.
Back in Tupelo, Miss., Johnston used his centrist theories to smooth congregation quibbles.
In Virginia, where the church is split between those who support gay-friendly policies and others who feel the church has flouted biblical texts, Johnston hopes to again sweep people from both sides into the peaceful middle.
"Being in the center means finding a place and the ways in which people who are on either side of an issue can come together," Johnston told The AP. "Virginia has been known for decades, if not centuries, for being just such a place."
As bishop coadjutor, Johnston will be next in line to lead the 195-congregation diocese when the Rt. Rev. Peter James Lee retires.
By church law, Lee must depart within three years of the election of a bishop coadjutor, and it must happen by age 72.
The diocese tapped the former rector of Tupelo's All Saints' Episcopal Church in January; Lee is 69.
For now, Johnston will share duties with Lee while learning the ins and outs of a diocese that's changed dramatically in the last two decades.
"We had just authorized the ordination of women eight years before, so the diocese was still getting used to the idea," Lee said, recalling his 1984 ordination as bishop coadjutor. "We've certainly gone beyond that."
A schism has split the faith since the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay bishop, New Hampshire's V. Gene Robinson. Conservative Episcopalians - mostly overseas - have called the American church's growing acceptance of gay relationships a "satanic attack" on the denomination, and organized to form a rival denomination in the U.S. under Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria.
Several Virginia churches have voted to break away from the U.S. church, including two of the most prominent and largest Episcopal parishes in Virginia: Truro Church in Fairfax and The Falls Church in Falls Church.
Truro rector Martyn Minns has been tapped to lead Akinola's Convocation of Anglicans in North America.
The split is not unlike what Johnston encountered when he arrived at All Saints'.
"Anything there could be divisions about, there were divisions," said Bishop Duncan Gray III, head of the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi.
Johnston offered unbiased and consistent guidance on matters from leadership to liturgy, Gray said. The church flourished.
"I could very easily see him function that way - with a clarity of vision - in Virginia," Gray said. "Not in an oppressive way, but just saying 'This is where we need to go.'"
Yet he's going from a 20,000-member diocese with strong roots in the civil rights era, to a 90,000-member gathering that traces its origins back to the original English settlers. In Mississippi, he wrangled one church split largely over pastoral leadership; here, he'll manage an entire diocese debating a fundamental tenet of faith.
"I do not believe that the issue is homosexuality in and of itself," he said. "I think that's the way that many tensions have come to be expressed."
Johnston pointed back to the once touchy subject of ordaining women.
"The communion found a way to stay in communion with each other," Johnston said. "It was in other words, not a deal breaker. It was agree to disagree.
"I continue to be confident that we're going to find that ability."
Johnston, who is pro-choice and rallied to have a Confederate symbol removed from the Mississippi flag, said he will also work to boost youth involvement in the faith and diversify the largely white diocese.
Sitting near a portrait of the first Virginia bishop, James Madison, Tuesday, Johnston balanced excitement over Saturday's ceremony at the Washington National Cathedral with anticipation of his new role.
"Christians and churches are at their best when we are challenged."
