Posted on 10/16/2003 3:28:18 PM PDT by patent
Anglicans Chastise North Americans on Homosexuality
By Gideon Long
LONDON (Reuters) - The world's leading Anglican clerics said Thursday that clergy in the United States and Canada threatened church unity by defying conservative policy on homosexuality, but stopped short of expelling them as some conservatives had sought.
After two days of crisis talks in London, the 37 clerics said in a statement they "deeply regret" the actions of U.S. Episcopalians for electing openly gay cleric Gene Robinson as a bishop and of Canadian Anglicans for voting to allow same-sex unions.
"These actions threaten the unity of our own communion," they said in a statement.
"If his (Robinson's) consecration proceeds, we recognize that we have reached a crucial and critical point in the life of the Anglican Communion and we have had to conclude that the future of the communion itself will be put in jeopardy."
The Anglican Communion unites 38 churches spread over 160 countries, from Africa to Australia. The two-day meeting in London brought together 37 of the 38 leaders of the provinces of the church. The 38th, the Philippines, was unable to attend.
While the statement was strong in tone, it was short on a plan of action. The only concrete proposal was to set up a commission to establish how the crisis and other similar crises in the future should be handled.
The commission must complete its work within 12 months.
That may not be enough to satisfy conservative Anglicans, who had called on church leaders to expel American liberals from the communion for ignoring the Anglican movement's position on homosexuality.
That position, agreed to at the Lambeth Conference of 1998, says the communion cannot support "the legitimizing or blessing of same-sex unions or ordaining of those involved in same-sex unions."
Conservatives in the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion, last week repudiated leaders of their 2.3 million-member church for approving an openly gay bishop and issued a "Call to Action" it said might be the first step toward a permanent church schism.
NOVEMBER CONSECRATION
The issue is likely to flare up again on Nov. 2, when Robinson is due to be consecrated as bishop of New Hampshire.
If the Americans refuse to back down and press on with his consecration, traditionalists -- notably in Africa -- might sever their ties with the Episcopal Church.
The presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, the most Rev. Frank Griswold, told a news conference after the meeting, "I stand fully behind the careful process used by the diocese of New Hampshire to discern who it wishes to have as its next bishop."
Griswold has said he believes "different points of view can be held ... without the issue of sexuality becoming church dividing."
Anglicanism's spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, welcomed the end of "a remarkable couple of days in the life of the Anglican church."
"It has been anything but easy," he told reporters.
He said the Anglican Communion had grown closer as a result of a meeting that spawned "no winners or losers."
He accepted that the delicate issue of gay bishops was not likely to melt away.
I've heard statements like that before. Usual translation: "I hide behind the process (sometimes: that I influenced)..."
Griswold has said he believes "different points of view can be held ... without the issue of sexuality becoming church dividing."
I daresay Griswold's belief system will be put to the test, some 17 days hence.
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