Ultimatum on Anglican church gays
Pastor Dale Morgan
Ultimatum on Anglican church gays*
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones
Last Updated: 12:16am BST 30/09/2007
Conservative Christians will throw down the gauntlet to the Archbishop
of Canterbury this week by demanding that he openly disowns the American
church over gay bishops.
A letter to be sent to Dr Rowan Williams tomorrow by Reform, an
evangelical group representing 1,000 parishes, urges him to make it
clear that he opposes the American position
The group warns that his failure to do so would split the Church of
England from "top to bottom" and lead to a further demand that the US
church is barred from the Lambeth Council, the annual gathering of bishops.
Reform also says it will bring in foreign archbishops to ordain priests
in dioceses where incumbent bishops refuse to disassociate themselves
from the American church, which appointed the openly homosexual Bishop
of New Hampshire in 2003.
The ordination of three clerics last year in the diocese of Southwark by
a South African bishop ignited a battle between conservatives, who
initiated the move, and liberals, who regarded it as an attack on the
traditional authority of all bishops.
The Rev Rod Thomas, the chairman elect of Reform, said: "The situation
in the Anglican communion is so serious now that we have to plan for an
inevitable split in the Church of England from top to bottom."