Anglican leader in showdown with US church over gay clergy*

NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) - - Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan
Williams held crisis talks Thursday with US bishops to prevent a split
in the global communion as a deadline approaches for the US church to
reverse its liberal stance on homosexuality.

Bishops described as "respectful" the seven hours of closed-door
deliberations with Williams, who leads the 77-million-strong worldwide
Anglican communion and is the highest-ranking cleric in the Church of
England.

But at the end of the first day of meetings, it remained unclear whether
the US branch of Anglicanism, the Episcopal church, would agree to
demands to bar official blessings of same-sex unions and the
consecration of more openly gay bishops.

Bishop Robert O'Neill of the Diocese of Colorado told reporters that
Rowan had not demanded that the bishops forge a response to calls from
conservative East African for an end to such practices or risk a rupture
in the communion.

"In our conversations today there have been no specific requests,"
O'Neill said. "We have been having conversation about a lot of different
aspects of our life together."

O'Neill described the meetings as cordial, despite the explosive topic
of ordaining gay bishops that greeted the conference.

"I think the general posture was simply one of having a very open and
forthright conversation," he said. "I don't think anybody was holding
back, but everybody was conducting themselves with respect and courtesy
and honesty."

A summit of worldwide Anglican leaders who met in Tanzania in February
agreed that the Episcopal Church must unequivocally bar official
blessings of same-sex unions and the consecration of more openly gay
bishops.

In a communique issued after the meeting, the Episcopal Church was given
until September 30 to reverse its position or the primates said its
relations with other Anglicans would remain "damaged at best."

Bishop John Rabb of Maryland sought to downplay talk of an impending split.

"The specific conversation was not about the communique," Rabb said of
Thursday's session. "It was one part of many issues that are before us
as we look at our life as a church and as a communion."

The Anglican church has been divided since Gene Robinson, an openly gay
priest, was elected as bishop of New Hampshire four years ago, outraging
traditionalists, particularly in Africa.

Tensions were heightened last year when the Episcopal church elected a
woman as its leader.

Robinson was scheduled to deliver a sermon in New Orleans Sunday.

"For many Episcopals the decision they made (to ordain a gay bishop) was
one they felt morally obliged to take," said Joseph Britton, an
Episcopal priest who is the dean of Yale University's divinity school.

"There are some who are looking at this as a real watershed moment in
the life of the communion and are expecting the Episcopal church to
either give a positive response or to say they will part ways," he told AFP.

"There are others who feel the Episcopal church could make a response
that would not completely fulfill all that was asked but will be
sufficient."

The leader of the Episcopal church offered an olive branch Thursday by
inviting eight bishops to serve as "visitors" to parishes in six US
dioceses which are dissatisfied with the more liberal leanings of their
existing leadership.

Williams, who was snubbed by Australia's archbishop earlier this month,
was assured by US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori that he
will be received "with great respect and hospitality," the Episcopal
News Service reported.

"Both he and we recognize the importance of this time, and that it is
natural to experience some anxiety" in the current context, the Reverend
Dr. Charles Robertson, who serves as cannon to Jefferts Schori, told the
news service.

"Our call is to respond to one another, not out of anxiety, but out of
an even deeper respect for ourselves and one another, honoring our
relationships," he said.