Anglican Primates consider 'parallel' Church
Pastor Dale Morgan
Anglican Primates consider 'parallel' Church*
By Jonathan Petre in Dar Es Salaam
Last Updated: 2:04am GMT 16/02/2007
The creation of a "parallel" Anglican Church for conservatives will be
considered by Anglican primates today after a report surprisingly gave
American liberals an almost entirely clean bill of health.
Gene Robinson, first openly gay Anglican bishop
The appointment of Gene Robinson brought the Anglican Church to the
brink of schism
The conservatives told the primates' meeting in Tanzania yesterday that
they felt abandoned and even persecuted by the leadership of the
Episcopal Church, the American branch of Anglicanism. But they were
stunned by an official report that judged that the Church was no longer
out of line with official Anglican policy on homosexuality, a verdict
they will find difficult to accept.
They have been calling for the expulsion of the Americans since they
brought the worldwide Church to the brink of schism by consecrating Gene
Robinson as Anglicanism's first openly gay bishop in 2003.
The Church was given time, however, to respond to the Windsor Report,
which was commissioned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan
Williams, and which urged them to reverse their pro-gay agenda.
The report, which was presented to the primates on the first day of
their meeting near Dar Es Salaam yesterday, said the Episcopal Church
had adequately apologised for its unilateral action and had effectively
imposed a moratorium on the future consecration of gay bishops.
In a significant note of caution, however, the report warned that the
Church had not introduced a similarly unequivocal ban on the blessing of
gay "marriages" and said that further work need to be done in this area.
Most commentators had expected the report to find that the Americans had
fallen some way short, and would be disciplined.
The Primate of Australia, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, said a number of
ideas to address tensions in worldwide Anglicanism had been raised,
including the idea of "alternative primatial oversight" or a parallel
Church, but nothing had been agreed and the primates would discuss them
further today.
One senior insider said that the primates would still have to find a way
of helping conservatives who felt that homosexuality was sinful and
un-biblical.
"There was a lot of pain being heard today, and it was heard with great
patience," he said.