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Archbishop of Canterbury to Meet With U.S. Church to Discuss Gay Priests, Marriage

Posted on: Monday, 16 April 2007, 21:00 CDT

By LAUREN LA ROSE

TORONTO (CP) - An impassioned ideological difference within the Anglican Church over the role of gays and lesbians threatens to create a schism among the faithful, the church's worldwide spiritual leader said Monday in announcing plans to meet with its embattled U.S. wing.

"Yes, these are difficult days," Archbishop Rowan Williams said on the first day of his Canadian visit.

"I think the (church) in recent years has had to face the fact that the division on certain subjects, especially sexuality, has been getting much more deep and bitter and threatens to divide us."

Williams, speaking at the headquarters of the Anglican Church of Canada, said his aim is to "keep people around the table as long as possible on this to understand one another."

"Part of that program later this year will in fact, I can now say, involve a meeting in the United States of America with.... The Episcopal Church," he said.

The Episcopal Church, as the U.S. wing is known, risks losing its place in the international Anglican family for its controversial support of gay rights. A Sept. 30 deadline has been set for the U.S. church to ban the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of gay bishops or face possible expulsion from the international communion.

The question facing the Anglican Church, namely of what forms of behaviour it has the freedom or authority to bless, can't be settled just by decree from the church's leading figure, said Williams.

"If there is to be any change on the church's attitude on gay and lesbian behaviour then I would hope it would be a change of attitude on the part of the church as a whole," he said.

The U.S. Church is among the 77 million-member Anglican communion, a fellowship of churches that traces its roots to the Church of England.

Debate has gone on for decades over how Anglicans should interpret Scripture on salvation, truth and sexuality. Divisions within the church reached a near breaking point in 2003 when Episcopalians consecrated the church's first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

During a private meeting in Texas last month, the Episcopal House of Bishops said in a resolution it views the Gospels as teaching that "all God's children, including gay and lesbian persons, are full and equal participants" in the church.

The bishops also said they would not agree to an Anglican plan for leaders outside the U.S. denomination to oversee the small number of conservative American dioceses that disagree.

A church divided into liberal and conservative segments would be "very, very much impoverished on both sides," isolating churches from the so-called developed world from some of the more vulnerable churches in the global south, Williams said.

While there is a possibility the church will come to a point where there are "irreconcilable differences," Williams said he still hopes unity can be maintained within the global communion.

Williams' visit to Canada comes following remarks from Canada's Anglican leader, Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, who criticized Williams's handling of the issue.

In an article published in Britain's Daily Telegraph last week, Hutchison told the newspaper Williams' handling of the crisis had been "disappointing and lacking" at critical points.

At Monday's news conference, Hutchison had nothing but praise for Williams, whom he referred to as "a man of deep spirituality."

The Canadian church will hold its general synod in Winnipeg, June 19-25, that will vote on resolutions dealing with the issue of same-sex blessings.

The general synod, a gathering of about 400 Anglican delegates, staff, national and international partners, will also include the election of a replacement for Hutchison, who is retiring.

Williams said he hopes whatever decisions are made at synod maintain "the highest degree of communion possible" across the Anglican world.

During his visit, Williams received honorary degrees from Wycliffe and Trinity Colleges in Toronto Monday, and was to lead a one-day retreat at the spring meeting of the Anglican House of Bishops in Niagara Falls, Ont., Tuesday.

Source: Canadian Press

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