Church faces schism today
The Substance
Stephen Bate, religious affairs correspondent
Friday February 25, 2005
The Guardian
The 78 million-strong worldwide Anglican communion appeared to be heading for schism last night after days of wrangling over the future of the church by its archbishops, meeting in seclusion in Northern Ireland.
A draft six-page communique is understood to call upon the US and Canadian churches to withdraw voluntarily.
Their representatives will not be invited to church meetings for the foreseeable future as a means of enforcing the ban. It was unclear whether the churches would be offered a form of associate or lesser status in the communion.
The committee drawing up the communique includes the archbishops of Australia, Wales and the West Indies. Senior church sources were insistent that the wording would not be finally agreed until all the primates meet this morning. Thirty five of the church's 38 primates have been in attendance, with three missing for personal reasons.
The North Americans have precipitated the split because of their progressive stance on homosexuality, still regarded as anathema in many other parts of the communion, particularly in the developing world.
In 2003, the US Episcopal Church (Ecusa) endorsed the election of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in the diocese of New Hampshire. At the same time the diocese of New Westminster in Vancouver, Canada, became the first in the communion to introduce a service of blessing for same sex couples.
The move, which is likely to be disclosed formally today at the end of the primates' five-day meeting at a country mansion at Dromantine, near Newry, effectively splits the third biggest Christian denomination, which has the Church of England as its mother church. The move will dismay liberals and gay activists across the western church.
Conservatives and traditionalists have been demanding that the liberal North American churches should be punished unless they either withdraw or publicly repent their actions over the gay issue.
Last night their leading critic, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, was said to be entertaining his supporters among the archbishops and the traditionalist American and English evangelicals who have been circling the meeting clandestinely all week to what was described as a "celebratory" dinner party, paid for by the Americans.
One of those in attendance was expected to be the US Episcopal bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh who has led the opposition and has been staying locally all week - apparently holidaying in Newry in February. His supporters may well demand that he be recognised as the leader of the US church in place of Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, who has been attending the meeting and conducted the consecration of Bishop Robinson in November 2003.
Some of the other primates have been refusing to attend communion with Bishop Griswold and some African leaders were said to have spent the week fasting, pending the outcome of the meeting.
If the Americans and Canadians are effectively banned today, that would be in line with recommendations made in last October's Windsor report, drawn up by a commission of senior church representatives under the chairmanship of Archbishop Robin Eames, the primate of All Ireland.
That suggested the US church should be invited to express its regret for breaching the bonds of affection with other churches and that those bishops who took part in the legal consecration of Bishop Robinson "should be invited to consider in all conscience whether they should withdraw themselves from representative functions in the Anglican communion ... in order to create the space necessary".
Discussion of the Windsor report has effectively crowded other issues, such as world poverty and Aids, off the archbishops' agenda this week, with neither side seemingly prepared to back down or compromise on their stances. The mood of the meeting was described as quiet and sombre, with Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury who chaired it, said to be resigned to the division.
A senior English church source said: "No one has been pushed out yet and no one has walked out."
Dr Williams, although personally sympathetic to the plight of gay clergy and an old friend of Bishop Griswold, has attempted to provide impar tial leadership all week and is likely to go along with whatever is formally decided.
American sources stressed privately that voluntary withdrawal did not amount to either suspension from the communion or, worse, expulsion.
How the withdrawal would work remained unclear last night, or indeed what the Americans and Canadians would need to do to resume full membership. That may have to wait until after their decision-making convention and national synod in 2006 and 2007 respectively and the stance they take then. The next meeting of all the world's Anglican bishops at the so-called Lambeth conference is scheduled for 2008.
The 78 million-strong worldwide Anglican communion appeared to be heading for schism last night after days of wrangling over the future of the church by its archbishops, meeting in seclusion in Northern Ireland. A draft six-page communique is understood to call upon the US and Canadian churches to withdraw voluntarily. Their representatives will not be invited to church meetings for the foreseeable future as a means of enforcing the ban.
In 2003, the US Episcopal Church (Ecusa) endorsed the election of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in the diocese of New Hampshire. At the same time the diocese of New Westminster in Vancouver, Canada, became the first in the communion to introduce a service of blessing for same sex couples.
Conservatives and traditionalists have been demanding that the liberal North American churches should be punished unless they either withdraw or publicly repent their actions over the gay issue.
Stephen Bate, religious affairs correspondent
Friday February 25, 2005
The Guardian
The 78 million-strong worldwide Anglican communion appeared to be heading for schism last night after days of wrangling over the future of the church by its archbishops, meeting in seclusion in Northern Ireland.
A draft six-page communique is understood to call upon the US and Canadian churches to withdraw voluntarily.
Their representatives will not be invited to church meetings for the foreseeable future as a means of enforcing the ban. It was unclear whether the churches would be offered a form of associate or lesser status in the communion.
The committee drawing up the communique includes the archbishops of Australia, Wales and the West Indies. Senior church sources were insistent that the wording would not be finally agreed until all the primates meet this morning. Thirty five of the church's 38 primates have been in attendance, with three missing for personal reasons.
The North Americans have precipitated the split because of their progressive stance on homosexuality, still regarded as anathema in many other parts of the communion, particularly in the developing world.
In 2003, the US Episcopal Church (Ecusa) endorsed the election of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in the diocese of New Hampshire. At the same time the diocese of New Westminster in Vancouver, Canada, became the first in the communion to introduce a service of blessing for same sex couples.
The move, which is likely to be disclosed formally today at the end of the primates' five-day meeting at a country mansion at Dromantine, near Newry, effectively splits the third biggest Christian denomination, which has the Church of England as its mother church. The move will dismay liberals and gay activists across the western church.
Conservatives and traditionalists have been demanding that the liberal North American churches should be punished unless they either withdraw or publicly repent their actions over the gay issue.
Last night their leading critic, Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, was said to be entertaining his supporters among the archbishops and the traditionalist American and English evangelicals who have been circling the meeting clandestinely all week to what was described as a "celebratory" dinner party, paid for by the Americans.
One of those in attendance was expected to be the US Episcopal bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh who has led the opposition and has been staying locally all week - apparently holidaying in Newry in February. His supporters may well demand that he be recognised as the leader of the US church in place of Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, who has been attending the meeting and conducted the consecration of Bishop Robinson in November 2003.
Some of the other primates have been refusing to attend communion with Bishop Griswold and some African leaders were said to have spent the week fasting, pending the outcome of the meeting.
If the Americans and Canadians are effectively banned today, that would be in line with recommendations made in last October's Windsor report, drawn up by a commission of senior church representatives under the chairmanship of Archbishop Robin Eames, the primate of All Ireland.
That suggested the US church should be invited to express its regret for breaching the bonds of affection with other churches and that those bishops who took part in the legal consecration of Bishop Robinson "should be invited to consider in all conscience whether they should withdraw themselves from representative functions in the Anglican communion ... in order to create the space necessary".
Discussion of the Windsor report has effectively crowded other issues, such as world poverty and Aids, off the archbishops' agenda this week, with neither side seemingly prepared to back down or compromise on their stances. The mood of the meeting was described as quiet and sombre, with Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury who chaired it, said to be resigned to the division.
A senior English church source said: "No one has been pushed out yet and no one has walked out."
Dr Williams, although personally sympathetic to the plight of gay clergy and an old friend of Bishop Griswold, has attempted to provide impar tial leadership all week and is likely to go along with whatever is formally decided.
American sources stressed privately that voluntary withdrawal did not amount to either suspension from the communion or, worse, expulsion.
How the withdrawal would work remained unclear last night, or indeed what the Americans and Canadians would need to do to resume full membership. That may have to wait until after their decision-making convention and national synod in 2006 and 2007 respectively and the stance they take then. The next meeting of all the world's Anglican bishops at the so-called Lambeth conference is scheduled for 2008.
posted by JimG at 7:55 PM
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