Anglican bishop sees schism over US church head

ABC News & Reuters ^ | June 19, 2006 | Paul Majendie

[bd476]

ABC News U.S.

Anglican bishop sees schism over US church head

June 19, 2006

Reuters

LONDON - Anglicans faced a new crisis on Monday after a liberal female bishop became head of the U.S. branch of the church and an English bishop warned that Anglicanism was in danger of splitting into "two religions."

The consecration of openly gay American bishop Gene Robinson and the blessing of same sex marriages in Canada three years ago have deepened differences between liberals and conservatives among the world's 77 million Anglicans.

Now the broad church, which prides itself on governing by consensus, is braced for fresh turmoil after the U.S. Episcopal Church chose Katherine Jefferts Schori as its first female head.

"It will be a great adventure," Schori promised after her election at the weekend -- but the already battered and bruised Anglican community was not so sure.

"Having a woman primate is an exciting complication," said Church Times Editor Paul Handley.

"The problem is her views. She is quite permissive toward local churches giving blessing to same sex couples and she supported the ordination of Robinson," he told Reuters.

But he felt talk of a definitive split, although African Anglicans are strongly opposed to homosexuality, was premature.

"The genius of Anglicanism is that it has been able to cope with huge variations in doctrine and practice. Talk of schism is exaggerated," he said.

But the Church of England Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, said the divisions were now so deep that compromise was no longer possible.

"Nobody wants a split but if you think you have virtually two religions in a single Church, something has got to give sometime," he told The Daily Telegraph.

"A Critical Time"

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the head of the worldwide Anglican church, said Schori was taking up "a deeply demanding position at a critical time."

"We are continuing to pray for the general convention of the Episcopal Church as it confronts a series of exceptionally difficult choices," Williams said in a statement after talking to Schori by telephone earlier in the day.

The issue of a "stained glass ceiling" stopping women from rising in the hierarchy ranks alongside the ordination of gay clergy as one of the most disruptive in the Anglican Church.

Anglicans in Canada, the United States and New Zealand already have women bishops.

Archbishop Williams won backing in February for the ordination of women bishops in the Church of England but theological and legal hurdles remain to be cleared.

One in six of England's parish priests is a woman and, a decade after they were first ordained, liberals say it is insulting not to let them hold positions of power.

But traditionalists argue that as Jesus Christ's apostles were men, there is no precedent in the Bible for women bishops.

Reverand David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council, a conservative group that opposed Schori's nomination, said her election made a schism more likely.

"We would expect the Episcopal Church will continue its acceleration into outer space," he said in the United States. "The fabric of the communion is being torn at its deepest level. This will simply accelerate and continue the tearing."

(Additional reporting by Gideon Long)

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BBC NEWS

New model schism for Anglicans?

By Robert Pigott
BBC News, religious affairs correspondent, Columbus, Ohio

19 June 2006

The US Anglican Church's ruling convention in Columbus, Ohio, is attempting a last-minute escape from the crisis over homosexuality, which threatens the whole worldwide Church with a permanent split. But what sort of schism might it be?



Bishop Gene Robinson has defended
his appointment

Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop whose ordination put the worldwide Anglican Communion into its current crisis, preached this week to a congregation of liberal delegates attending the Episcopal Church convention.

"Look at you", he exclaimed, waving at the youthful congregation gathered in front of a band of clergy dressed in rainbow coloured stoles. "This is what Heaven will be like!"

At the same time, a few miles away, another set of Episcopalians - this time traditionalists who want their bishops to be strictly heterosexual - were reciting an identical creed.

With a gesture not unlike Gene Robinson's, the Rector of St Matthew's Fr Ron Baird, surveyed his white middle-class congregation and black visitors from the conservative Anglican Church of Liberia and declared: "This is what it will be like in Heaven!"

It has been said before that if you were to gather any group of Anglicans - perhaps including both Gene Robinson and Ron Baird's congregations that night - and compare them with a group of secular humanists, you would find the Anglicans shared 95% of their beliefs and values.

What divides the Anglican Communion, and its US branch, are a tiny number of details. But they are pushing the two sides inexorably apart.

It is happening because those details spring from how you interpret the Bible, something the traditionalist majority in the wider Communion regard as central to what it is to be Anglican. They cite the ruling by the Lambeth Conference of 1998 that active homosexuality is contrary to scripture.

After Gene Robinson's ordination, the Anglican Communion sent the Episcopal Church a set of demands.

In summary they were as follows; end the blessing of same sex unions in church and the ordination of gay bishops, and say sorry (and really mean it) for ordaining Bishop Robinson. It became more or less an ultimatum - toe the line by the end of this Columbus convention, or be expelled.

Buying time

Traditionalists - including high-profile ones such as the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu - say a look at the wording of the resolutions on the table suggest that Communion's requirements are not being met.

One example that demonstrates it rather neatly is the demand by the Communion that the Americans should repent their ordination of Gene Robinson. That is, admit it was inherently wrong.

It is possible that instead of the top-to-bottom split-in-two of olden days there will be something closer to overlapping networks of Anglicans

The resolution, painfully arrived at for debate at the convention, talked only about "deep regret for the pain others have experienced". A revised version apologises for breaking ranks by deciding to ordain a gay bishop. But the regret is for the breaking of ranks, not for the act itself.

It is a sign of how the other crucial resolutions will be worded... those dealing with the demand for a moratorium on gay bishops and same-sex blessings.

Half measures - even ones fudged as elegantly as they have been - will not satisfy the traditionalist majority.

But the real calculation going on in Columbus is how small the concessions can be, while nevertheless persuading enough moderate conservatives that they are sufficient to buy the Episcopal Church some more time inside this fractious family.

It may work. The signs are that despite all the stern words from conservative Anglicans in developing countries, they may lack the resolve and the unity to create a schism by walking out of the Communion.

If and when delegates in Columbus vote for watered-down resolutions suspending same-sex blessings and the ordination of gay bishops, traditionalists are likely to declare the concessions inadequate (some are actually hoping they will be).

The Communion will look to the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams for a reaction.

Nuanced outcome

But it may not come quickly. Dr Williams has a committee of four wise advisers to consult, and they may consider the Episcopal Church's failure to comply with what was demanded of it not sufficiently egregious to warrant immediate disciplinary action.

What would it consist of anyway? Not inviting the Americans to the next Lambeth Conference in 2008 perhaps. Dr Williams and his advisers may feel that such punishment would require the support of other Anglican bodies. It might have to wait until the archbishops heading the world's 38 autonomous Anglican Churches meet next February.

It is possible that instead of exclusion for the Episcopal Church, there will be a more nuanced outcome.

The American traditionalists already breaking away to "join" Anglican churches in Africa would like to have the "Anglican franchise" removed from the Episcopal Church and given to them.

But perhaps instead they will be encouraged to evolve into a parallel Anglican entity in the United States.

Perhaps, one day, liberals, unhappy with the traditionalist restrictions elsewhere in the world, will find patronage from Episcopal bishops across the sea. In short, perhaps a brand new model of schism will emerge.

Anger and conflict

This is just my version of the speculation surrounding Anglicanism's uncertain future, but it is possible that instead of the top-to-bottom split-in-two of olden days - such as England's break from Rome in the Reformation, or the splitting off of the Methodist Church - there will be something closer to overlapping networks of Anglicans.

Hierarchies seeking discipline and order could acquire a more flattened structure as they seek to adapt to the needs of changing and diverse societies.

There are already one or two signs in the Church of England, such as the ability of a parish in one diocese to plant a church in another.

Homosexuality poses the sort of issues to a Church with a solid basis in scripture, that it would expect to need a couple of hundred years to resolve.

A looser Anglican "franchise" might keep alive the possibility of one day achieving some sort of "synthesis" in the divergent Anglican thinking on how to interpret the bible, and thereby on sexuality too.

As others have pointed out this week, the Anglican tradition of taking two extremes and trying to achieve a synthesis - successful in marrying the Church's Catholic and Protestant wings for 450 years - can sometimes result simply in angry conflict.

Anger and conflict have been apparent in the relentless flow of amendments and counter-amendments coming from the two sides in Columbus.

A visitor to the convention from the Anglican Communion recalled for delegates a long-ago ecclesiastical conference in Ireland.

The chairman, bamboozled by the deluge of conflicting demands, eventually suggested to the meeting, "would it be helpful if you were to pass the resolution... and will I not just fill in the details afterwards".

It could be one other way for Anglicans to avoid an old-fashioned schism.

Story from BBC NEWS:

New model schism for Anglicans?

[Coldwater Creek]

I see Ichabod written above the doors of the Episcopal churches!!!!!

[bd476]

There will be some interesting sermons nationwide this Sunday morning.

[rjp2005]

Fear not. Weed behavior wont last among the Wheat. The Wheat is coming back and will come back to the Bread of Life.

[bd476]

It's a big surprise, that's for sure. After all the years many in the Episcopal Church have railed against politicians in general, one would think they would have picked up a few lessons here and there, such as pick a leader who can and will lead, and not one who will bring further discord.

[Dane]

"Having a woman primate is an exciting complication," said Church Times Editor Paul Handley.

I guess Mr. Handley thinks that the word of God is akin to a reality show ala Survivor.

The Episcopal Church has fallen into an abyss.

[bd476]

From the BBC article written by Robert Pigott:

"...This is just my version of the speculation surrounding Anglicanism's uncertain future, but it is possible that instead of the top-to-bottom split-in-two of olden days - such as England's break from Rome in the Reformation, or the splitting off of the Methodist Church - there will be something closer to overlapping networks of Anglicans..."

It's doubtful the current American Anglican community will tolerate any future overlapping with the ECUSA.

[bd476]

Dane, you're probably right. It's just that I am still having a difficult time accepting the apparent plunge.

[r9etb]

IMO, the very worst part of Ms. Schori's election is not that she's female, and not even her heretical views -- neither of those departs very far from the train wreck we already have.

No, the worst part for me is that this person has so little experience -- she's only been a priest for 12 years, and has never had a parish of her own. (She was an assistant rector, and a "priest in charge," which is a nice way of saying "interim."

What it says is simply this: politics trump everything else.

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r9etb wrote: "IMO, the very worst part of Ms. Schori's election is not that she's female, and not even her heretical views -- neither of those departs very far from the train wreck we already have.

No, the worst part for me is that this person has so little experience -- she's only been a priest for 12 years, and has never had a parish of her own. (She was an assistant rector, and a "priest in charge," which is a nice way of saying "interim."

What it says is simply this: politics trump everything else.


That is exactly right, R9ETB.

I was wondering if she was raised in the Episcopal Church, in other words, is she a cradle Episcopalian?

Or did she join the Church because there were advancement opportunities i.e., The Episcopal Church as a business/employer ?

[Brilliant]

"The genius of Anglicanism is that it has been able to cope with huge variations in doctrine and practice."




I don't know if I'd call that genius. It seems to have encouraged "huge variations in doctrine and practice," and there is eventually a limit to what you can impose on human nature. It seems like they set up a Church which was bound to test and ultimately break those limits.

[Continental Soldier]

I suspect we are at the beginning of a real turning. Change and reform will be the order of the day for a while. But, ultimatley, while Christians may survive in private enclaves, Christianity as a unified system will fall.

[Tarheel]

I was wondering if she was raised in the Episcopal Church, in other words, is she a cradle Episcopalian?

No, she was raised Roman Catholic. At what point did she convert, I d/n know. There a short bio on her on FNC yesterday.

[MountainMenace]

The Episcopal Church has been rotting from the inside out ever since radical homosexuals with their feminist handlers set out to take over the church in 1998 and rewrite the Holy Scriptures. I have been following this circus of reprobates for quite some time now and the following link fairly well summarizes the degree of decay. It isn't about justice for homosexuals; it is about full inclusion and they view the Bible as a huge obstacle. Now that they have a "private label" religion, they can shape their doctrine anyway they want to include: The Bible as “oppressive”, Jesus not divine, the Immaculate Conception not, and that confessing sin and repentance is no longer the standard for receiving salvation. The only thing they had to leave behind was the Old Testament, the witness of the church past and the New Testament of the apostles. This is an example of what happens when you allow the Holy Bible to be unraveled warp and woof without contention. After awhile there is nothing of substance left. We shouldn't be surprised; Paul spelled it out very clearly in Jude 1:12-13.

http://www.americananglican.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=ikLUK3MJIpG&b=675589&ct=2195837

[r9etb]

I was wondering if she was raised in the Episcopal Church, in other words, is she a cradle Episcopalian?

Close enough -- her parents became Episcopalians when she was 9.

[bd476]

R9ETB, see what Tarheel says here.

That's somewhat of a surprise, Tarheel. But in the past 10 years or so, it seems that many new priests have been coming in from different denominations. There must have been a hiring blitz or something.

[r9etb]

I don't know if I'd call that genius.

There's often a thin line between genius and insanity.

"Variations in doctrine and practice" are probably fine, so long as one holds to the core tenets of the faith, as imposed by God and passed on through the Apostles. That's how, for example, we can be Christians today, despite the incredible distance between our culture, and that of the early Church.

The insanity starts when "what I want" replaces "what God wants" as the coin of the realm. In that case, "being mean" (i.e., denying "what I want") is pretty much the only sin left. That pretty much sums up the state of the Episcopal Church today.

If one notices nothing else about homosexuals, one has to notice their self-absorption. (Andrew Sullivan is a particularly good example of this. Nothing he writes can be properly understood if one does not first take into account his homosexuality.)

[r9etb]

But in the past 10 years or so, it seems that many new priests have been coming in from different denominations. There must have been a hiring blitz or something.

More like a lack of prospects coming out of Episcopal seminaries.

[wayoverthehill]

Me too. Very disappointed in this selection. It's not helpful.

[bd476]

Thanks for the link, MountainMenace. You've brought up some excellent points.

Here's something I've thought about for quite some time.

The Episcopal Church, which is the ECUSA is generically "Anglican" but churches which fall under ECUSA umbrella are not real members of any Anglican Church Anglican community.

The breakaway churches who joined the Uganda Diocese did so symbolically and to get away from ECUSA affiliation.

Yet the breakaway congregations did so without completely leaving the Episcopal community as a whole.

There are many fine Anglican Churches which have not yet entertained the bizarre changes of the ECUSA and have no affiliation with the ECUSA.

I wonder if the real Anglican community could and will at some point prevent the Episcopal Church from using the Anglican name.

The ECUSA seems to use the term Anglican as a generic descriptive term.

The real Anglican Community has no female priests, uses services from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, doesn't involve itself with the ECUSA nor any of the ECUSA's issues, etc.