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Church faces split as report fails to heal gays row The future of the worldwide Anglican Church remained precarious last night after a report intended to heal divisions over homosexuality failed to reassure conservatives. The Windsor report challenged liberals to end their defiance of the majority view but imposed no serious sanctions on those involved in consecrating the Church's first bishop to admit being a practising homosexual.
The 120-page report, commissioned a year ago by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, provoked mixed reaction, with protesters, including the gay rights activist Peter Tatchell, gathering outside St Paul's Cathedral to await its publication. One conservative archbishop said: "I am not optimistic for the future of Anglicanism." Among its key proposals was a call for the bishops who consecrated Canon Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire to express regret for causing "deep offence" to conservatives. It said they should withdraw from representative positions within the Church until they voiced regret, and that Bishop Robinson should not immediately be invited to join Church councils. Most significantly, the report said that there should be a moratorium on consecrations of homosexuals and same-sex blessings until the Church came to a consensus. It also sketched out how the Anglican Communion's 38 provinces could agree to a covenant designed to prevent them acting unilaterally if they might damage other parts of the Church.
Officials conceded that they could not impose these proposals on provinces, which govern themselves, and one described the report as a "road map" rather than a prescriptive solution to the crisis. Even the report described itself as a "pilgrimage" and the commission chairman, Archbishop Robin Eames, the Primate of Ireland, conceded that reconciliation happened only "when people wanted it to happen". Dr Williams said the report offered "neither easy nor simple solutions" and there should be no rush to judgment. The report asked for provinces to respond with generosity, but it concluded: "There remains a very real danger that we will not choose to walk together. Should the call to halt and find ways of continuing in our present communion not be heeded, then we shall have to begin to learn to walk apart." It said sanctions could be imposed on reluctant bishops, from withdrawing their invitations from summits to "as an absolute last resort" withdrawing their membership of the Communion. Last night, however, the consensus called for by the report was already under strain as liberals hinted that they would resist efforts to restrict their freedom. Bishop Frank Griswold, the presiding bishop of the liberal American Episcopal Church, expressed his regret that the decisions of his Church had been "difficult and painful" for other parts of the Church. But his statement also "affirmed" homosexual clergy, including Bishop Robinson, and suggested that he would not favour proposals that excluded those who "value boundaries that are broad and permeable". He said: "Throughout our history we have managed to live with the tension between the need for clear boundaries and for room in order that the spirit might express itself in fresh ways in a variety of contexts." The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement said it felt "great pain" that a moratorium would be imposed, but said it welcomed the conciliatory tone of the report. Inclusive Church, the liberal pressure group, said it was pleased that the report had not recommended the suspension or expulsion of the American Episcopal Church or called for Bishop Robinson to resign. But a leading conservative, Archbishop Gregory Venables, the Primate of the Southern Cone in South America, said he feared for the Anglican Communion. "Sadly, the speed with which Frank Griswold's statement came out indicates that the American Episcopal Church will continue to avoid listening and to push the same agenda which has already split the Communion. "I am deeply disappointed that the report does not address the real problems, and I am not optimistic for the future." However, the Rev Chris Sugden, a spokesman for the evangelical group Anglican Mainstream, said the report was "with the conservatives". "This is the second yellow card," he said. "It is a very English slap on the wrists for the liberals. If they do not pull back, if they do not express remorse, then they are no longer part of the Church. That is very clear."
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