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Secondary role suggested for rebel Episcopal church
Jul. 28, 2009
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Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury (CNS/Reuters)
Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionArchbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams suggested Monday, July 27, that the Episcopal church may have to accept a secondary role in the Anglican Communion after voting to allow gay bishops and blessings for same-sex unions.
Williams, the spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, said "very serious anxieties have already been expressed," about the pro-gay resolutions approved this month by the Episcopal church at its General Convention in Anaheim, Calif.
While "there is no threat of being cast into outer darkness," Williams said, certain churches, including the Episcopal church, may have to take a back seat in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue because their views on homosexuality do not represent the larger Anglican Communion.
Many of the world's Anglican churches oppose homosexuality as sinful and unbiblical.
"It helps to be clear about these possible futures," Williams said, "however much we think them less than ideal, and to speak about them not in apocalyptic terms of schism and excommunication but plainly as what they are -- two styles of being Anglican ..."
Williams said the mechanics of a two-track system "will certainly need working out," but could well include the kinds of "co-operation in mission and service" that is currently shared between sister churches in the communion.
The Episcopal church declined on Monday to respond to Williams' statement.
As head of the Church of England, Williams serves as spiritual guide of the Anglican Communion, a worldwide fellowship of churches that includes the 2.1 million-member Episcopal church as its U.S. branch. While he lacks the power of a pope to enforce his will on the communion, Williams remains extraordinarily influential among Anglicans; he has proposed the two-tiered system several times in recent years as a way to make the communion's 38 provinces more mutually accountable.
Before the Episcopal convention, Williams had urged the U.S. church not to take steps that would exacerbate tensions in the Anglican Communion, which has been brought to the breaking point by the consecration of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2003.
Despite the warning, Episcopalians overwhelmingly voted to lift a de facto ban on consecrating other gay bishops and approved a broad local option for bishops who wish to allow gay and lesbian couples to receive nuptial blessings from the church.
Episcopal leaders later sought to cut off criticism with a letter to Williams that described the measures as simply "descriptive" of a church ministering to a culture with rapidly changing understandings of homosexuality.
Williams responded Monday with a nuanced, five-page reflection that gently chided Episcopalians for overturning centuries of Christian understanding of marriage and homosexuality without wider consensus from other Anglicans.
"The doctrine that 'what affects the communion of all should be decided by all' is a venerable principle," Williams said.
The archbishop also suggested that Anglicans could settle their differences with a proposed covenant, which would outline acceptable beliefs and practices, particularly on divisive issues like homosexuality. Churches that could not agree to the covenant would be given a reduced role in the communion.
"Perhaps we are faced with the possibility rather of a `two-track' model, two ways of witnessing to the Anglican heritage, one of which had decided that local autonomy had to be the prevailing value," he wrote.
The Rev. Susan Russell, president of the pro-gay Episcopal group Integrity USA, said it is clear the steps her church took in Anaheim "were contrary to what the archbishop said he hoped would happen."
But Russell said she does not expect Episcopalians to back off on consecrating gay bishops or blessing same-sex unions. In fact, she said, the Diocese of Los Angeles, where Russell is a priest, is expected to consider electing a gay or lesbian candidate as suffragan, or assistant, bishop later this year.
"I expect this church to move dramatically forward in the rest of the year," Russell said, "and our deepest hope is that the rest of the communion, or at least large portions of it, continue to be at the table with us."
This is a sad state of
This is a sad state of affairs. Pray for all concerned...
I suppose Archbishop Williams
I suppose Archbishop Williams means well but he clearly prefers organizational unity over truth. It will not work.
Seems to me he wants more
Seems to me he wants more truth than to keep false communion with a group of radicals who clearly do not accept or believe what the rest of the Anglican Communion accepts and believes.
We have plenty of examples of
We have plenty of examples of people who prefer their "truth" over organizational unity. Arius. Luther. The ECUSA.
Gotta love the journalistic
Gotta love the journalistic integrity. "While he lacks the power of a pope to enforce his will on the communion, Williams remains extraordinarily influential among Anglicans." But then again why not throw some shots at the papacy in an article that should be about the utter failure of the Episcopal Church to the point that they are barely even in communion with the Anglicans worldwide.
This is actually very good
This is actually very good for ecumenical relations. If the Anglicans remove the Episcopal Church from all dialogue, then perhaps the Anglican-Catholic dialogue can move forward towards the goal of communion (with most of the the Anglican Communion, that is. Sadly communion with the Episcopal Church will probably never happen).
This is a hideous and
This is a hideous and shameful development and will come back to haunt The Archbishop of Canterbury. Many equally valid branches of the Holy Catholic Church are NOT in communion with The Church of Rome. They are not in communion out of legitimate and long standing issues in which Rome has been and remains in error. Christ never intended his church on Earth to be modeled as Roman and Imperial. It is supposed to represent a universal understanding between ALL Christians and Christ never gave a blank check to the Latin Rite Catholic Churches to be superior to all other Catholic rites (and I include the Reformation churches as they too, are very much a part of the universal church) and not, as Joseph Ratzinger or The Bishop of Rome would have us believe, are "sects." The Episcopal Church is to be praised and held up as an example of true Catholicism in the very best meaning of the word and the example Christ Himself set to include ALL of His children at His table. Ignorance and hatred have prevailed in the fundamentalist wing of the Anglican Communion, just as it has in the Latin Rite and many other branches of the church universal. Rowan Williams will be seen as a hypocrite and a false teacher for his latest statement on LGBT Christians, based on his published theological writings in which he says the complete opposite on this subject. At the end of the day, Rome and Canterbury both have blood on their hands in regards to the treatment of women, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual people. Christ is not on the side of bigotry, hatred, ignorance and exclusion.
Thank you for noting all of
Thank you for noting all of my personal aruements so that I don't have to. Christ's mesg is about peace and love for all people.
If statistics mean anything
If statistics mean anything then the Roman Catholic church has consecrated many, many gay bishops---and continues to do so. But of course hypocrisy is hypocrisy and will always be with us. The honesty of the Episcopal church is admirable. So we should pray for all concerned, especially ourselves.
Not only gay bishops, but
Not only gay bishops, but gays saints as well. Good Ol' St. Francis the Sissi.
I am not at all
I am not at all surprise...But I am surprise that people are surprise by this situation. Perhaps the catholics do not appreciate it as much as the protestants. The situation in the Anglican communion is typical of a protestant tradition; in fact, this is exactly what is suppose to happen: when there is a disagreement, groups will be formed and then they will move in different directions. Is that, after all, the glorious idea of religious freedom espoused by protestantism? Look at how many different Protestant denominations there are: Why are we surprise then that there will be yet another branch of the Anglican communion?
I get the feeling (and perhaps I am wrong) that we expect protestants to act like catholics. But the core of protestant ecclesiology is decentralization. Well...here it is: decentralization!
In short: "Thank Arch. Williams, for your kind suggestions. But no thanks. We'll do what our forefathers had done before: go off and form our own communion with like-minded people..."
Heaven forbids a community actually stays together, compromise, make room for both both the extreme liberal AND the conservative; the progressive AND the traditionalist, and maybe, just maybe, work it out? What are we? Catholics? Not!!!
RA is being a weak
RA is being a weak leader.
It's simple:
- America is big and influential
- ECUSA is big and important
- Excluding ECUSA, for the sake of reactionary third worlders and fundies, is kooky.
Not a graduate thessis, but there it is.
There IS unity among all
There IS unity among all people. God has created that. People are arrogant if they think that these little disagreements and differences of political opinion are so powerful that they can destroy that unity.
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