Gay clergy, Liberals to be banned in Anglican Synod deal
Pastor Dale Morgan
Gay clergy, Liberals to be banned in Anglican Synod deal*
By Jonathan Petre Religion Correspondent
Last Updated: 7:32am BST 09/07/2007
The Church of England yesterday agreed to draw up a disciplinary code
that could result in the expulsion of liberals from worldwide
Anglicanism after it heard that the alternative was disintegration.
In an emotive debate at the General Synod in York, liberal speakers
criticised the idea of such a covenant, saying it could be used like a
"blunt instrument" against them.
But conservatives said that if the Church failed to define boundaries of
belief, worldwide Anglicanism could never rebuild the trust destroyed
during the conflict over homosexuality that has brought it to the brink
of schism.
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A draft version has already been drawn up by an international group
appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, one of its
strongest advocates.
Although no final form of words has been agreed, conservatives hope that
it would prevent liberal churches consecrating gay bishops.
The chairman of the group, the Primate of the West Indies, Archbishop
Drexel Gomez, told the Synod that the Church was facing a serious
crisis, and it needed to agree a set of common doctrines to allow its
warring factions to co-exist.
"Anglican leaders are seriously wondering whether they can recognise in
each other the faithfulness to Christ that is the cornerstone of our
common life and co-operation," he said.
"While some feel that there will be inevitable separation, others are
trying to deny that there is a crisis at all. That is hardly a meeting
of minds. Unless we can make a fresh statement clearly and basically of
what holds us together, we are destined to grow apart."
A number of conservative African archbishops are already threatening to
boycott next year's Lambeth Conference, the 10-yearly gathering of all
Anglican bishops in Canterbury, in protest at the liberal American
Church's pro-gay agenda.
But leaders of the worldwide Church are hoping that the covenant can
provide a way of uniting the vast majority of moderate Anglicans who
want to preserve the unity of the worldwide Church, which has 70 million
members.
Archbishop Gomez reassured liberals that the covenant would go through
many drafts before approval, not least a debate at the Lambeth Conference.
"What I understand you are asked on this occasion to consider is this:
are you willing to engage in principle with the process which seeks to
find a common basis for the provinces of the Anglican Communion to move
forward together?"
A number of speakers urged the Synod to resist the development because
it could lead to the exclusion of Churches deemed to have breached it,
undermining the spirit of Anglican tolerance and concentrating power in
the hands of a few senior archbishops.
The Rev Miranda Thelfall-Holmes, from Durham University, warned that
history was littered with pieces of paper that had had no effect on the
subsequent behaviour of those who had signed them.
The Rev John Plant, from the diocese of Leicester, said doctrinal
certainty was "not always a virtue" and Anglicans did not have access to
"an infallible source of truth".
But the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Tom Wright, said a vote against the
covenant was a vote for anarchy.
Tim Cox, from Blackburn, argued that the covenant should be strengthened
to reaffirm traditional teaching that sex should only occur within
heterosexual marriage.
However, his amendment was overwhelmingly rejected, and the Synod
instead agreed to allow the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to
respond to the draft covenant by the end of the year.