Mourners gather to remember ex-bishop of Episcopal Diocese

CINCINNATI (AP) -- The Rt. Rev. Herbert Thompson Jr., the former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio, was remembered at his funeral Saturday as a man of tolerance and compassion.
During a 2003 General Convention that confirmed the first openly gay bishop in the denomination's history, Thompson voted against V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire but welcomed him nonetheless, said the Rev. Canon James Hanisian, Thompson's longtime friend.
About 800 people, including more than a dozen bishops from around the country, attended the funeral at Christ Church Cathedral. Thompson, 72, died Aug. 16 while swimming on a vacation in Italy.
Thompson, who was black, led the diocese for 17 years and was praised as a healing force in 2001 after three days of race riots in Cincinnati, sparked by an unarmed black man's fatal shooting by a white police officer trying to arrest him.
Thompson, who took over as the eighth bishop of the diocese in 1992, stepped down last year after he reached the church's mandatory retirement age.
His children -- Kyrie Thompson, the Rev. Owen Thompson and Herbert Thompson III -- each took part in Saturday's ceremony, reading scripture.
The family intends to hold a private interment at a later date.
The diocese serves nearly 30,000 Episcopalians in 40 counties across southern Ohio including the cities of Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, Marietta, Athens, Zanesville and Portsmouth.