Conservative Anglicans to target 'liberal gospel'
Pastor Dale Morgan
Conservative Anglicans to target 'liberal gospel'*
* Story Highlights
* Plan to challenge liberal thinking is expected to come as summit
ends Sunday
* Conservatives say it's the beginning of a new era for Anglican family
* Consecration of gay U.S. bishop in 2003 ignited Scripture controversy
* Some bishops plan to boycott next month's once-a-decade meeting
NEW YORK (AP) -- Conservatives from the world's largest Anglican
provinces who are angered by liberal thinking in churches in North
America and elsewhere plan to create a global fellowship that challenges
worldwide Anglican unity but stops short of a formal split.
The plan is expected to be adopted Sunday, on the final day of the
Global Anglican Future Conference in Jerusalem. The summit was called by
Anglican leaders in Africa and parts of North America and Australia who
are outraged by what they consider a "false gospel" in liberal churches.
Opponents played down the significance of the new fellowship, contending
that the Anglican Communion already has networks of like-minded
churches. But theological conservatives insist that they are at the
beginning of a movement that will alter the centuries-old Anglican family.
"A major realignment has occurred and will continue to unfold," they
said in their Statement on the Global Anglican Future.
The Anglican Communion is a 77 million-member family of churches that
trace their roots to the Church of England. It is the third-largest
grouping of churches in the world, behind Roman Catholics and Orthodox
Christians, and has always held together different views. However,
longstanding divisions over how Anglicans should interpret Scripture
erupted in 2003, when the U.S. Episcopal Church consecrated the first
openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
The Episcopal Church is the U.S. Anglican body. Anglicans in developing
countries -- where the fastest-growing and largest churches in the
communion are located -- mostly hold to a strict interpretation of the
Bible. The archbishops, or primates, of the provinces of Uganda,
Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and the Southern Cone based in
Argentina were among those at the Jerusalem event.
The Jerusalem meeting was held just ahead of a once-a-decade gathering
of all Anglican bishops, called the Lambeth Conference. The upcoming
assembly is viewed by many as a test of the leadership of Rowan
Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury and the Anglican spiritual head.
Williams does not have the power to force a compromise among conflicting
Anglican factions and has faced criticism from many Anglican camps for
his actions in the crisis.
Some of the more than 200 bishops in Jerusalem plan to boycott Lambeth,
which begins July 16 in England. Williams has invited U.S. bishops who
consecrated Robinson but has barred Robinson and a few other bishops
from attending. Still, conservatives at the Jerusalem event repeatedly
criticized Williams for failing to fully discipline the Episcopal Church.
In their official statement, conservatives said they "do not accept that
Anglican identity is determined necessarily through recognition by the
archbishop of Canterbury," a direct challenge to his leadership. And
they called the current setup for the communion, with the archbishop of
Canterbury at its center, "a colonial structure."
As part of their new fellowship, conservatives said they would continue
to take oversight of breakaway churches in the U.S. and other Anglican
territories who reject their liberal leaders. Conservatives hope to form
a North American province, counter to the Anglican tradition that
archbishops oversee parishes only in their own provinces.
"We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied
the orthodox faith in word or deed," they wrote.
Conservatives are a minority in the 2.2 million-member Episcopal Church.
Still, the denomination is fighting several legal battles to bar
secessionists from leaving with church assets.
On Friday, a judge in Virginia said state law allows 11 breakaway
parishes to hold onto their property worth tens of millions of dollars.
An appeal is expected.