Anglican Archbishop warns American church leaders to curb their pro-gay agenda
Pastor Dale Morgan
From The Times
December 15, 2007
*Anglican Archbishop warns American church leaders to curb their pro-gay
agenda*
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, asserted his authority
over Anglican leaders yesterday in a document sent to all archbishops
that said that those who went against the “mind” of the Church risked
being excluded from its councils.
The warning, spelt out in his long-awaited Advent Letter to the Church’s
38 Primates and other leaders, could lead to The Episcopal Church of the
US and the Anglican Church of Canada forfeiting their seats at the top
tables of the Anglican Church if they do not curtail their liberal
pro-gay agenda.
The admonition applies equally to conservative bishops and archbishops
who have been carrying out “irregular” ordinations. Dr Williams condemns
this as illicit interference in other provinces and says these newly
ordained conservative bishops will under no circumstances be invited to
next year’s Lambeth Conference, the ten-yearly meeting of all Anglican
bishops.
Dr Williams is to set up a small group of archbishops and other leading
clergy “to consider whether in the present circumstances it is possible
for provinces or individual bishops at odds with the expressed mind of
the Communion to participate fully in representative Communion agencies,
including ecumenical bodies.” He is also to arrange “professionally
facilitated conversations” between the leaders of The Episcopal Church
and those with whom “they are most in dispute”.
The letter is the clearest indication yet from Dr Williams that he will
not be taken hostage by either the liberals or conservatives in the
dispute, which has taken the Anglican Communion to the brink of schism.
It represents Dr Williams’s determination to reclaim the Anglican middle
ground, the “via media” outlined in the mid-19th century by Cardinal
Newman, who converted to Roman Catholicism. This is the doctrinal
territory that is occupied still by the majority of the 75 million
Anglicans worldwide.
Liberals immediately criticised Dr Williams for behaving like “an
Anglican Pope” while conservatives condemned him for failing to demand
repentance from the US Church over its consecration of the openly gay
Gene Robinson as the Bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.
The Archbishop said he was writing out of a “profound conviction” that
the Anglican Communion was a gift of God and that everyone in it would
be “seriously wounded and diminished” if the Church fractured any further.
Showing clear leadership skills he set down boundaries regarding
Scripture and “ecclesiology” beyond which even Anglicans, with their
historical tradition of broad fuzziness, should not stray. “Our
obedience to the call of Christ the Word Incarnate is drawn out first
and foremost by our listening to the Bible and conforming our lives to
what God both offers and requires of us through the words and narratives
of the Bible,” he said. “Radical change in the way we read cannot be
determined by one group or tradition alone.”
Arguing that the debates about sexuality were “symptoms” of Anglican
confusion, Dr Williams said that it was far too easy to make the debate
a stand-off between those who were “for” and those who were “against”
homosexual people in the church.
The Rev Ian Douglas, Professor of Mission and World Christianity at the
Episcopal Divinity School in the US, described the letter as “a
significant statement” but declined to comment on the apparent warning
to Episcopal leaders about their seats at the councils of the Church.
The Rev Giles Fraser, Vicar of St Mary’s, Putney, and founder of the
liberal Inclusive Church, criticised Dr Williams for planning yet more
meetings and bureaucracy in an attempt to resolve the crisis. “We do not
want an Anglican Pope,” he said.
A broad Church
77m people in the worldwide Anglican Communion
26m Anglicans in England
1m Attended Sunday services by the Church of England in 2004
Sources: Anglican Communion and the Church of England