Episcopal Bishop Who Pushed Gay Ordination Dies at 87

Walter C. Righter, an Episcopal bishop who pushed for the ordination of gays and women and was once charged with heresy for his actions, died Sunday at the age of 87.

The Los Angeles Times reports on the death and life of Righter, a retired Episcopal bishop of Iowa. He passed away at home outside Pittsburgh after a long illness, according to a spokesman for the diocese there.

"Righter became a lightning rod for dissent over the ordination of gays in the Episcopal Church when he was an assistant bishop in Newark, N.J., under Bishop John Spong, an outspoken supporter of ordaining lesbians and gays," reports the Times.

"In 1990, with Spong's approval, Righter ordained Barry Stopfel, whom he knew to be gay, as a deacon, a rank below that of priest," according to the Times. "The next year Spong ordained Stopfel as a priest."

Opponents of the move filed heresy charges against Righter in 1995. He was tried in 1996 by a panel of eight bishops that voted 7 to 1 to dismiss the heresy charges and ruled that no church doctrine prevented the ordination and gay men and lesbians in committed relationship. The first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, was ordained in 2003.

The Times reports that during his trial, Righter introduced himself as "Walter Righter, the heretic," and his wife, Nancy, who survives him, wore a tag that called her the "heretic's wife."