The Rev. Dr. Peter Bramble (Courtesy Carib News).

After the Long Island Episcopal Diocese approved same-sex marriages, the Rev. Dr. Peter Bramble, rector of the large and wealthy St. Mark's Church quits insisting, "I could no longer live with my conscience and stay."

St. Mark's, a predominantly West Indian congregation, is the largest Black Episcopal parish in America and certainly one of its wealthiest.

The highly contentious issue of same-sex marriage in New York has claimed a major casualty: the early retirement of the Caribbean rector of the largest Black Episcopal parish in the United States.

"I could no longer live with my conscience and stay in the Episcopal Church," was the way 66-year-old rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Brooklyn, Rev. Dr. Peter Bramble, put it as he announced his decision to leave the predominantly West Indian parish in the heart of Crown Heights. The parish is also one of the wealthiest in the national church.

"I am retiring from active parish ministry and I am not going job hunting somewhere else. I am just leaving and I have communicated my decision to the vestry of St. Mark's and to the bishop of Long Island, the Rt. Rev. Lawrence Provenzano," Bramble told the Carib News.

"My retirement was precipitated at this time by the fact that the Diocese is very, very actively pushing and promoting same-sex marriage in the church in the Diocese of Long Island.

"I just don't believe that is right or good and it is very difficult for me to be part of it. I wouldn't do it myself, but once the larger church from on top is saying that you can do it [perform same-sex marriages] within the church and the bishop is saying you can do it and he is my bishop, I can't pretend or find any language to deny that I am in a church which permits this thing to happen."

I just find that it is a good time for me to take my exit and retire," added Father Bramble.

The St. Mark's rector for almost 15 years was trained at Barbados' Codrington College and holds graduate degrees from Yale University and the University of Connecticut. He has been a highly vocal critic of the Episcopal Church's attitude toward homosexuality and same-sex unions, but when Bishop Provenzano announced that the Diocese was permitting churches to perform such unions he decided it was time to go.

"I never thought that the scripture permits same-sex marriages. It doesn't. It doesn't authenticate it. It doesn't lift it up and it certainly doesn't bless it," argued Father Bramble. "Now the church is saying that something which is called an abomination can be blessed."

In a statement issued shortly after the New York legislature finally passed the same-sex marriage bill and it was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Bishop Provenzano asked rhetorically: "why you strive for justice among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?"

He answered it himself by explaining that the words quoted above were "taken from promises in the baptismal liturgy in the Book of Common Prayer.

"(It) can be prayed more clearly today as gay and lesbian community and all New Yorkers begin to live into the reality and joy that same gender marriages is now the law in New York.

"To many members of the LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] members of the diocese, I celebrate this day with you, your loved ones and families. The Episcopal Diocese of Long Island will engage this new law with a generous and open response allowing, under the provision of our general convention, the use of rites for same-gender marriages by priests and the diocese who believe they are called to preside at the exchange of vows, once the law has taken effect in 30 days."

Provenzano didn't stop there.

"Respecting the dignity of every human being will also be lived out in our continued care or those who celebrate this milestone in the lives of God's people," he said.

But Father Bramble, who was born on the volcanic Caribbean island of Montserrat, disagreed with the bishop, the diocese and the national church and therefore couldn't remain in the parish ministry.

"The church is saying that something that is called an abomination in the Bible can now be blessed," said Dr. Bramble, a priest for almost 40 years.

"An abomination is that on which God turned his back. That is what an abomination is. Homosexuality is one of the few things in Holy Scripture that is called an abomination and therefore I cannot go there."

Interestingly, Father Bramble who insists he isn't homophobic was quick to explain that the issue of homosexuality and same-sex unions had hit home "very close to me and my family and to people I love," but he wouldn't embrace it and certainly wouldn't perform same-sex marriages. Ironically, he pointed out, his daughter had married another woman in a ceremony in which he declined to participate and to attend. "Yes, I love my daughter very much," he said.

St. Mark's has a congregation of 3,600 members, the vast majority of whom come from Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and their neighbors. It is considered very wealthy, with an annual budget of $1.6 million and holds millions of dollars worth of assets including a spacious church school, a large housing complex, a comfortable two-story rectory and several individual homes in Brooklyn bequeathed to the parish. It is a much sought after parish and a flood of applications for the job can be expected from priests across the United States and in the Caribbean.

But Father Bramble has made it clear that he isn't going to leave the parish in the lurch.

"I have advised the vestry of my decision and I plan to stay until its members have set the process in motion to choose my successor," he said. "Hopefully that would be done expeditiously and I can move on. I am not seeking another job in the Episcopal Church. My pension is fully paid up and I simply wish to move on."

He had some very strong words for the church. The West Indian theologian described the Episcopal Church as a "cesspool" and he wasn't comfortable in it any longer.

"I don't even know what the priests I sit next to in the diocese believe anymore," he said.

In a survey, at least 95 percent of the all-Black congregation at St. Mark's rejected the Episcopal Church's stance on same-sex unions, said Father Bramble.