In defiance of their diocesan bishop, more than 800 Episcopalians gathered on March 14 from across northern Ohio at Presentation of Our Lord Orthodox Church in Akron for the confirmation of 110 people at the hands of five retired Episcopal bishops and one ordinary from the Anglican Province of Brazil.

The clergy and parishioners of Church of the Holy Spirit, Akron; St. Anne’s in the Field, Madison; St. Stephen’s, East Liverpool; St. Barnabas’, Bay Village; St. Luke’s, Akron; and the denominationally unaffiliated Hudson Anglican Fellowship were joined by the Rt. Rev. C. FitzSimons Allison, retired Bishop of South Carolina; the Rt. Rev. Maurice Benitez, retired Bishop of Texas; the Rt. Rev. William Cox, retired Assistant Bishop of Oklahoma; the Rt. Rev Alex Dickson, retired Bishop of West Tennessee; the Rt. Rev. William C. Wantland, retired Bishop of Eau Claire; and the Rt. Rev. Robinson Cavalcanti, Bishop of Recife in Brazil.

The confirmation service, held without the knowledge or permission of the Rt. Rev. J. Clark Grew II, Bishop of Ohio, and the Ven. Mark Hollingsworth, Jr., bishop-elect, was not an act of schism, but an act in response to schism, Bishop Benitez stated. “The schism we have in the Church today was not caused by us or by those who believe as we do,” he said, “but rather by the leadership of the Episcopal Church at General Convention who voted to approve local option for blessing of same-sex unions as well as to confirm the election of V. Gene Robinson as Bishop Coadjutor of New Hampshire and by those who subsequently consecrated him.”

Diocesan leadership was unanimous in its condemnation. Bishop Grew described the service as unfortunate, and denied that the Church was in crisis. Bishop-elect Hollingsworth also expressed his outrage, stating that “an action of this sort … has no place in our polity” as “no one group can define for the whole Church what constitutes an ‘emergency.’”