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Top Anglican cleric warns against gay rights split

Posted on: Thursday, 6 October 2005, 12:31 CDT

PARIS (Reuters) - A senior Anglican archbishop has said the worldwide Anglican church must not become so polarised over the issue of gay rights that other Christian denominations can no longer take it seriously.

Archbishop Robin Eames, head of a task force that tried to bridge the gap between Third World conservatives and North American liberals, said the 77 million strong Anglican Communion had to create a stronger central authority to mediate disputes.

Traditionalist Anglican provinces, mostly in Africa, have cut off ties with their liberal western brethren amid condemnations so strong they come close to declaring a schism.

Led by Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, provinces from the so-called Global South will meet in Egypt later this month but Akinola has said the session will not discuss breaking away from the Anglican Communion led by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

"There needs to be much greater understanding of the long-term consequences of developments which could turn the diverse voice of the Anglican Communion into a divided family that other traditions of the Christian Church would find it hard to take seriously," Eames said on Wednesday.

Eames, who is primate of Ireland, called for more authority for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and added: "We can no longer live with the danger of major crisis such as at present."

The Anglican Communion has been tearing itself apart since 2003, when the U.S. Episcopal Church ordained a gay man a bishop and Canadian Anglicans began blessing same-sex couples. The traditionalists condemn homosexuality as a sin and a scandal.

In a lecture at an Episcopal seminary outside Washington, the text of which was distributed by the Anglican Communion, Eames noted the Windsor Report he presented in October 2004 concluded that Anglican provinces should give up some of their autonomy in the interest of keeping their Communion together.

It recommended that the traditionally autonomous member churches should adopt a covenant of agreed belief and resolve future disputes by referring them to the Archbishop of Canterbury and a panel of advisers.

But he stressed this would not create so much central authority that the Communion could issue a blanket condemnation of a member church if it tried "to accommodate the reality of faithful Christians who happen to be homosexually oriented.

"To do otherwise is to court schism," he declared.

Source: REUTERS

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