ANCHORAGE, ALASKA-With an ease that orthodox Anglicans in British Columbia can only envy, the Episcopal bishop of Alaska was quick to give his blessing earlier this year to one of his churches that requested alternative episcopal oversight.

"I want to honour the fact that from their perspective, they can’t in good conscience have me as their primary pastor,” says bishop Mark MacDonald.

All Saints Episcopal Church in Anchorage had asked to come under the temporary authority of another bishop, after MacDonald-despite grave personal misgivings-supported the election of Gene Robinson, who is openly homosexual, as bishop of New Hampshire.

"Our bishop understood our position,” says All Saints rector Jim Basinger. "He said, ‘If I were in your shoes, I probably would do the same thing.’”

But not only did MacDonald approve their request, he even helped the church find a new overseer in Yukon Bishop Terry Buckle. Buckle was unavailable for comment.

"Bishop Buckle is the person I hoped we could be under,” Basinger says. "He’s geographically close and he’s from a diocese similar to Alaska, which has a lot of small churches and ministries to natives.”

"I trust Terry. I like him,” MacDonald adds. "We’ve worked together, and we will continue to work together. I feel very comfortable with him doing this.”

In contrast, Buckle had been facing censure by B.C. Archbishop David Crawley for offering to oversee the parishes in the diocese of New Westminster which broke with Bishop Michael Ingham over his support of a rite of blessing for gay couples.

In a deal brokered in October by the national House of Bishops, Buckle withdrew his offer and Crawley suspended disciplinary action against him.

According to Crawley, canon law forbids a bishop from interfering in the affairs of another diocese. "That can’t happen. It’s not part of our structure to do that,” he says.

But MacDonald says the acrimony generated within the worldwide Anglican Communion over homosexuality warrants a more sensitive approach.

"This is a real deep divide,” he says, "and if there is any chance we can stay together, we’re going to have to bracket this time with a little bit of extra grace toward each other.”

The result is that All Saints still maintains close ties to the diocese, says MacDonald. "I think they have a trust in our [evangelical] mission focus, though not necessarily in our connection with the national church.”

Basinger agrees that MacDonald’s cooperative approach has fostered a "win-win” situation for all involved, at least for the time being.

"Our parish,” he says, "is waiting to see how the Network [of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes] develops-the realignment of churches that wish to remain faithful to the Scriptural teaching.

"Once that emerges, then we are hopeful of aligning ourselves with that. And that would then bring us possibly under the authority of yet another bishop.”

Basinger says while many of the state’s 6,000 Episcopalians affirm the biblical teaching on sexual morality, "I just know of maybe two other churches which would seriously consider doing what we’ve done.”

Yet MacDonald believes all 49 of his churches "feel somewhat safer” now that they know where he stands on alternative episcopal oversight. "They were all afraid that I was just going to start telling them what to do-and that certainly is not the case,” he says.

"You have to see things from other people’s points of view, and so I’m trying to do that with them.”

A spokesperson for the New Westminster parishes that have been told they have no choice but to submit to Ingham’s authority suggests MacDonald has a better grasp than either Ingham or Crawley of the role of an overseer.

"There are three functions-to be a symbol of unity, to preach the gospel, and to provide pastoral care for his ministers. Here is a bishop who has seen his job and done it,” says Nancy Buan.

"And so the solution to all of this is a willing bishop. If a bishop were to decide that [alternative episcopal oversight] could happen, it could happen.”