US Anglican Church head attacks impatience on gays
Pastor Dale Morgan
US Anglican Church head attacks impatience on gays*
By Michael Conlon, Religion Writer
Reuters
Wednesday, February 28, 2007; 4:08 PM
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Anglican church leaders and others demanding the
U.S. Episcopal Church harden its stand on gay issues may be yielding to
unwarranted impatience instead of waiting for divine guidance, the head
of the U.S. church said on Wednesday.
Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the 2.4-million-member
U.S. church, acknowledged "we could lose our voice at the table" of the
Worldwide Anglican Communion by not complying with demands handed down
by leading Anglican bishops when they met recently in Africa.
But in the face of possible schism within the 77-million-member
worldwide church, she said, gays and lesbians in the U.S. church should
be assured "We are about affirming the equal dignity of all human beings
... I see no desire from anyone to retreat from this position."
"We are being pushed toward a decision by impatient forces within and
outside this church who hunger for clarity," she said in a conference
broadcast over the Internet from New York to church members worldwide,
who were allowed to pose questions.
"That hunger for clarity at all costs is an anxious response to
discomfort in the face of change," she added. "The impatience we are now
experiencing is an idol, a false hope that is unwilling to wait on God
for clarity, an idol that fails to ... expect that the spirit will lead us."
But in the end, she said, "God is with us and will continue to be with
us whatever this church decides."
At the recent meeting in Tanzania the top Anglican bishops, called
primates, asked that the Episcopal Church bishops make by September 30
an "unequivocal" statement that none of them will authorize the blessing
of same-sex unions. A handful of the U.S. bishops currently do authorize
them.
The primates also asked for a clear-cut statement that the U.S. church
won't elevate to bishop people living in openly gay relationships. Last
summer, the U.S. church passed a resolution asking members to refrain
from such moves.
The Anglican world has been in turmoil since 2003 when it made Gene
Robinson of New Hampshire the first openly gay bishop in more than 450
years of Anglican Church history.
REMAIN SILENT?
The primates also asked for a halt to litigation involving church
property. So far 45 out of 7,200 U.S. congregations have placed
themselves under the supervision of more orthodox bishops from Africa,
and a few have tried to take church property with them, landing the
issue in the courts.
Asked by one listener what the September 30 deadline really meant,
Jefferts Schori said, "a decision not to decide is also a decision." The
Episcopal bishops are to meet in mid-March in Texas and may take up the
issue of a response to be decided when they meet again in September in
New Orleans. Or they may remain silent.
She said not satisfying the primates could mean a lost seat at the world
Anglican table and "it could mean we will lose our ability to influence"
church policy generally.
But she said the church would never be alone and "the body of Christ is
never meant to be divided up into pieces."
Responding to claims some have questioned the primates' authority to
make the demands they did, Jefferts Schori said her fellow leaders were
"assuming authority" that they saw as part of their teaching mission.
The fact that Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has respected the
stand they took "may be the only thing that matters at this point," she
added.
She also said it would be "premature" for the U.S. church to pull back
from legal disputes over property.
The Anglican Communion is a loose federation of national churches that
lacks a hierarchical structure, though the Archbishop of Canterbury is
considered first among equals when it comes to presiding bishops.