NEWS STORY: Anglican Leaders, With Little Maneuvering Room, to Meet on Gay Crisis

c. 2003 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Although conservative Episcopalians are urging the head of the Anglican Communion to renounce the church’s first openly gay bishop, scholars say that is unlikely to happen when Anglican leaders gather for an emergency meeting in England next week. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world’s 77 […]

c. 2003 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Although conservative Episcopalians are urging the head of the Anglican Communion to renounce the church’s first openly gay bishop, scholars say that is unlikely to happen when Anglican leaders gather for an emergency meeting in England next week.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the world’s 77 million Anglicans, does not have the authority to remove the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, elected earlier this year as bishop of the diocese of New Hampshire.


Robinson’s election was ratified by the denomination’s General Convention in Minneapolis in August, leading to a crisis some believe could result in a schism in the Communion. Earlier this week, opponents of Robinson met in Dallas to consider their options in the crisis.

But a top church spokesman said Williams has few resources to meet the conservatives’ demands.

“Beyond the shores of the mother country, he has only moral persuasion at his disposal,” said Episcopal church spokesman James Solheim. “He calls meetings.”

Days after the controversial decision by the U.S. church, Williams called an “extraordinary meeting” of the 38 Anglican leaders, or primates.

As the archbishop of Canterbury, Williams has legal authority only over the Church of England and is considered the spiritual leader of other Anglican churches around the world, including the American Episcopal church.

Although many conservatives hope the Oct. 15-16 meeting will result in Robinson’s removal or the disciplining of the American denomination, it will probably not be decisive, but rather a forum for agitated factions to air their complaints, said the Rev. Ruth Meyers, academic dean at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary.

Such gatherings “are vehicles where church leaders can take counsel with one another and come to some sort of understanding, some sort of common mind,” Meyers said. Such meetings, she said, emphasize cohesion and reconciliation, even when controversial theological issues are at hand.


Although some note a difference in the degree of agitation, many have likened Robinson’s election to the debate over women’s ordination in the 1970s.

“We have historically struggled to come to understandings with one another over a range of issues,” Meyers said, while acknowledging the opposition to Robinson’s election is extraordinary.

Some dioceses in the United States have said they will split from the Episcopal church if Robinson is installed in November. There are more than 40 splinter groups in existence already, most of which left the church over its decisions to modernize the Book of Common Prayer and ordain women in 1976. The groups are not recognized as members of the Anglican communion and they are constantly subdividing over internal disputes.

Earlier this week, some 2,700 conservative Episcopalians gathered in Dallas to renounce Robinson’s election and appeal to Williams and the primates to remove him as bishop. They also threatened to withhold funds from the national church if Robinson’s election is allowed to stand.

“Although there are a lot of expectations building up around conservatives about resolving the `pastoral emergency,’ the options are very few and none of them are very good,” Solheim said.

Neither Williams nor the primates have authority over the other members of the Anglican Communion, Solheim said. The group does not make laws to govern the association of churches; instead, it issues “statements presenting a variety of voices” on theological topics.


Episcopal theologians say Williams could rescind the Episcopal church’s membership in the Anglican Communion. A break from communion would prevent church leaders from presiding over spiritual ceremonies in other countries or attending international Anglican meeting such as the every-decade Lambeth Conference.

But the ramifications in American churches would be few, said the Rev. Don Armentrout, academic dean of the University of the South’s School of Theology.

“If you go to St. So-and-So, it’s not going to impact your life,” Armentrout said. “It’s not going to impact my life over here. We’re going to keep doing chapel every day like before.”

Many doubt Williams will break communion with the Episcopal church because one of his responsibilities as the archbishop of Canterbury is to serve as a unifying force in the Anglican Communion.

“I think he’s going to do everything he can to hold the church together; one of the main jobs of (any) bishop is to maintain the unity of the church,” Armentrout said. “And I’m sure Rowan Williams doesn’t want to be known as the archbishop who oversaw the splintering of the Anglican Communion.”

If Williams and the primates fail to remove Robinson or censure the Episcopal church, dioceses in opposition could form a new association, Armentrout said.


Another option is aligning with African churches, many of which are very opposed to gay leadership in the church.

The Rev. Robert Bruce Mullin, a history professor at New York’s General Theological Seminary, said Anglican groups’ opinions about gay leadership divide along geographical lines. More established churches in the Northern Hemisphere tend to be more liberal, and up-and-coming churches in the Southern Hemisphere are more conservative.

But Mullin believes Williams will try to reconcile warring groups rather than asking the Episcopal church to leave the communion.

“The Anglican Communion needs both the churches of the north and the churches of the south,” Mullin said. “The southern churches have a lot of growth, vitality. But the churches of the north have the resources. The south needs the largess of the north, and the north needs the vitality of the south.”

The Episcopal church’s considerable resources _ it is one of the wealthiest members of the Anglican Communion _ add to the list of reasons for Williams to remain in communion with the Episcopal church, Armentrout said.

But in the end, it is the degree of gravity Williams assigns Robinson’s election that will decide the Episcopal church’s fate.


During the crisis of mass genocides in Rwanda in the early 1990s, two African bishops were believed to have been involved in the crisis, Mullin said. George Carey, the archbishop of Canterbury serving at the time, declared a crisis situation and asked the bishops to step down.

At the regular meeting of the Anglican Communion in 1998, the primates upheld the archbishop of Canterbury’s right to intervene in a crisis situation, but whether or not the Episcopal church is bound to that decision is questionable, Mullin said.

Furthermore, it is difficult to determine whether or not Robinson’s election is truly a “pastoral emergency” on the level of genocide, as critics claim.

“I don’t think the archbishop of Canterbury has called the meeting with the intention of having a vote if they are going to keep the Episcopal church in the Anglican Communion,” Armentrout said. “I think he called the meeting to see if they can talk and agree about whether they can hold the ship together.”

DEA END GABRIEL

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