Associated Press – July 20, 2008
CANTERBURY, England – The head of the Anglican Communion said the global fellowship faces “one of the most severe challenges” in its history, and told bishops at their once-a-decade Lambeth Conference that they must find solutions beyond schism.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said that the most immediate Anglican need is for “transformed relationships” so their fellowship doesn’t break apart over the Bible and homosexuality.
The communion has been in an uproar since 2003, when the Episcopal Church, the U.S. Anglican body, consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
“We all know that we stand in the middle of one of the most severe challenges to have faced the Anglican family in its history,” he said in a speech Sunday to the 650 bishops at the assembly.
But he said the communion has survived other crises in its centuries of existence, and can overcome these troubles. The 77-million-member communion is a global fellowship of churches that trace their roots to the missionary work of the Church of England. It is the second-largest group of churches in the world, behind Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians.
“Whatever the popular perception, the options before us are not irreparable schism or forced assimilation,” Williams said. “We need to get beyond the reciprocal impatience that shows itself in the ways in which both liberals and traditionalists are ready – almost eager at times, it appears – to assume that the other is not actually listening to Jesus.”
Williams made the comments as the bishops emerged from days of private prayer.
They held opening public worship Sunday in Canterbury Cathedral, the Anglican mother church, processing into the nave, not grouped by nationality, but mixed together to symbolize their bonds across provinces.
The meeting was designed without any votes or legislation. Instead, bishops will hold daily Bible study and small group discussion before issuing “reflections” on the Anglican future by Aug. 3, when the event ends.
About one-quarter of the invited bishops – theological conservatives mostly from Africa – boycotted the meeting because Williams invited bishops from the U.S. who had consecrated Robinson and included other bishops who also accept gay relationships.
Williams called their absence a “wound.” He barred Robinson and a few other problematic bishops from the conference to ensure broader participation from other church leaders.
Still, Robinson is in Canterbury on the outskirts of the meeting, working with Anglican gay and lesbian advocates and trying to informally meet with Anglican bishops.
Anglicans have long held together divergent views of Scripture and ritual. But those divisions have been widening as Anglican churches in the developing world, where strict Bible interpretation is the norm, have become the biggest and fastest-growing in the communion.
Last month, a group of Anglican conservatives from Africa, Australia and elsewhere formed a new network within the communion that challenges Williams’ authority, but stops short of schism. Some of the network organizers are attending Lambeth, but most are staying away.
Already, many of the network leaders have taken oversight of breakaway conservative parishes in the U.S. and Canada – crossing the historic boundaries of those provinces. They have defended their actions as critical to protecting Anglicans from the “false gospel” of local leaders.
Other religious groups are facing similar divisions over how they should interpret Scripture, and they are closely watching the outcome of the assembly. Several Vatican officials are among the ecumenical participants at Lambeth.
No one expects the Anglicans to resolve their problems by the end of the conference. Organizers instead hope their discussions will help clarify their next steps.
“A Lambeth Conference is not a political meeting about organization or structure alone, but it is a spiritual meeting,” said Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, head of the Anglican Church of Australia. “We must go into this confident that a way has been found to the Father … . We must be confident that that way is there.”
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posted July 21, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Hmm. It seems to me that the issue really comes down to this: and two sides are headed for a split, because their views really are irreconciliable, but Archbishop Williams says that shouldn’t matter, that they should stay in communion with each other despite such differences; he is smart enough to realize that he’s never going to get the conservatives to go liberal or the liberals to go conservative. This to me brings up the rather interesting philosophical question of to what degree different sides can disagree about an issue and still really be “one church.” What exactly connects the Africans (and other conservatives) with the European and American liberals? Given their huge differences, what bonds them, what do they have in common, and how does one define if it’s enough to really, truly keep together this church, which, as far as I can tell, has not really been united for several years?
…So, not really a comment so much as a series of maieutic questions. God bless.
posted July 21, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Good grief, if this is what splits them up, maybe they should go their separate ways. Can’t they just agree to disagree and live in the tension that has been Anglicanism since 1560?
posted July 21, 2008 at 7:07 pm
The Africans have boycotted, and don’t want to recognize that there are already homosexual priests in the church…so as I mentioned in a previous article on a simular subject, split already…and Africa and the other conservatives can do their own conservative thing.
posted July 21, 2008 at 7:13 pm
This article reads like two people who can’t get along and think it would be better to divorce each other; but they decide instead to go into counseling first to try to figure out if there is a way to mend their fighting. Perhaps the Archbishop and lesser Bishops should be counseled by the American Medical Societies so they understand what they are fighting about.
posted July 21, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Joey-
You ask what holds us together. I would tell you that our shared faith and in God and the teachings and message of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Though I dare say the fact that the Episcopal Church provides roughly one third of the Anglican Budget even though we make up less than 3% of the total members of the Anglican Communion probably also has something to do with it. Most of that money goes to Anglican Churches in third world countries such as the ones advocating punishment for the Episcopal Church. Funny that!
Peace!
posted July 21, 2008 at 9:25 pm
I know that Williams realizes the with the homosexual issues and the fact they will lose all or much of the conservatives of the church it will be the beginning of a real world of hurt for TEC, that loss will be show up big in time. They will trade the Bible and all of the hard work their forefathers have did to connect with the African church for homosexuality not only is it not biblical but without the Bible and the great commission they end up being little more than a social club.
posted July 21, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Maybe better to be a “social” club that seems to hold G-d dear than to use Him as a tool for hate.
How many more high school kids need get killed by those brought up to believe homosexuality is a sin and therefore it’s okay to taunt, harrass, and kill those “sinners”? Read the current issue of Newsweek for details of the latest front page example of anti-gay bias.
Despite some people’s interpretation that there is just no quarter when it comes to how G-d views homosexuality, many of these gay people still seem to find a deep and unabiding love for G-d. It would seem that it’s possible the love could be mutual.
posted July 21, 2008 at 9:41 pm
“they end up being little more than a social club”
Yes a social club is far better than a spreader of nonsense. Of course TEC will continue to spread plenty of nonsense but hopefully not the nonsense that says homosexuality, with which some people are born, is evil.
posted July 22, 2008 at 10:06 am
Money and property is the main glue that holds the Anglican Communion together. If it weren’t for those monetary issues that attend every divorce, the schism would have occured long before.
Mind you, I’m not suggesting that this is only true of the Anglican Communion.
posted July 22, 2008 at 11:38 am
A social club that happens to believe in a loving God who accepts all of His/Her human creations…no matter what their sexual orientation. That works!
posted July 22, 2008 at 11:50 am
Read another quote from Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. the other day that seems to fit here: “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why “right”, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant”.
posted July 22, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Good Quote, Henrietta!
posted July 22, 2008 at 8:03 pm
It’s a good quote but unfortunately it doesn’t apply to homosexuality King did believe the Bible as truth, and the Bible says…
posted July 22, 2008 at 8:51 pm
He meant exactly what he said, Ck. It applys to everything that is “right”.
posted July 22, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Do I detect the old shell game?
Homosexuality is not “right” according to the Bible that he believed in so everything right is not homosexuality and King never spoke in favor of the behavior or the lifestyle.
posted July 23, 2008 at 9:18 am
What is the old shell game? He didn’t live long enough to. His wife compared homosexuality to racial bigotry, though. His wife is an extension of everything MLK was. That’s how it is with people who love, respect and have the same goals in life ck.
posted July 23, 2008 at 2:02 pm
My wife is not an extention of what I am, she is herself, your misinformation is inspired by your agenda.
posted July 24, 2008 at 9:13 am
“Homosexuality is not “right” according to the Bible”
Show us one place where homosexuality is even mentioned in the Bible? Remember, the word was only coined about a hundred years or so ago.
posted July 24, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Re-ex even your lawyer type tactics cannot undo what the Bible says about homosexuality or man lying with man.
posted July 25, 2008 at 10:23 am
“lawyer type tactics”??? (I knew you couldn’t quote even one place where the Bible refers to homosexuality, and that’s because it doesn’t.)
The Bible says nothing about homosexuality. If you were to actually ‘pull’ the ENTIRE quote, you would realize it continues … “as with a woman”. Homosexual men do not lie with women – in any fashion. Must be bisexuals (or “str8″ guys actually “abandoning that which is natural” for them) that is being referred to. I’ve met lots of those types. I think Senator Larry (“I’m not gay!”) Craig is among them, if ya catch my drift.
Feel free to try again, but do better.