Posted on 03/05/2006 5:44:18 PM PST by sionnsar
My gracious lord of Canterbury issues yet another Dire WarningTM:
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said he fears that divisions over gay priests and gay bishops may tear the Anglican Communion into two irreconcilable factions.
Dr Rowan Williams warned that it may take decades to re-establish relations if there was a split.
In an interview with Sir David Frost for BBC News, he said: "If there is a rupture, it’s going to be a more visible rupture, it’s not just going to settle down quietly into being a federation.
"I suppose my anxiety about it is that if the Communion is broken we may be left with even less than a federation."
In response to which, the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey flipped off the Anglican Communion once again.
The Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey affirmed at its annual convention Saturday that it welcomes all people regardless of their sexual orientation, and that gay people may become priests or hold other church offices.
Delegates rejected two other resolutions calling for moratoriums on blessing same-sex unions and on the ordination of "any person who is in a sexual relationship other than holy matrimony."
Does Dr. Williams' statement mean anything? That remains to be seen. But it increasingly looks as though this coming June will be the Anglican tipping point. It will be for me anyway.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that the worldwide Anglican Church faces a fundamental "rupture" on the issue of homosexuality.
Dr Rowan Williams told BBC One's The Heaven and Earth Show he feared any split could take decades to heal.
Traditionalists have given the Church in the US until June to reverse its approach on ordaining gay clergy - or face expulsion from the Communion.
Some liberals back a looser, federal structure for the Anglican Communion.
Dr Williams said he feared any split would run too deep to make this possible.
The archbishop, who is visiting Sudan, was speaking in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday.
"If there is a rupture, it's going to be a more visible rupture, it is not going to settle down quietly to being a federation," he said.
"And I suppose my anxiety about it is that if the communion is broken we may be left with even less than a federation."
'Starkest warning'
He warned that it could take decades to re-establish some sort of relationship between the different factions in the Anglican Communion.
BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Piggott said the comments were "Dr Williams' starkest public warning about the impending schism in the Anglican Communion over sexuality".
Our correspondent said the archbishop seemed to be aiming his remarks at the American Church.
The church has been given until its governing convention meets in June to reverse its liberal approach to the ordination of gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex relationships.
Traditionalists insist that active homosexuality is outlawed by the Bible.
The ordination in the US of openly-gay Gene Robinson as a bishop has been threatening to split the communion.
Anomaly
His appointment as Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003 sparked a row across the Anglican Communion, with many conservative, evangelical and developing world priests outraged.
In a separate interview, Dr Williams criticised the US government's detention without trial of people at Guantanamo Bay.
He branded the detention camp in Cuba as an "extraordinary legal anomaly".
Dr Williams told Sir David Frost, in an interview for BBC News: "Any message given that any state can just over-ride some of the basic habeas corpus-type provisions, is going to be very welcome to tyrants elsewhere in the world, now and in the future.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.
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