Correction: Anglican-Conference Story

In a Feb. 15 story about the Anglican conference, The Associated Press reported erroneously that Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said a parallel church within the United States was contrary to Episcopal teachings.

That statement was from Robert Williams, an aide to U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. “The canons and the written laws of the Episcopal church do not provide for any sort of parallel structure,” Robert Williams said. The corrected version appears below.

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania (AP) – Leaders of the world’s 77 million Anglicans spent Thursday locked in discussion about the church’s American wing, whose leader is under increasing pressure to reconsider her support for ordaining gays and blessing same-sex couples.

Leaders of the global Anglican Communion are holding a closed six-day meeting and the Episcopal Church – the U.S. branch – is at the top of the agenda. They were discussing U.S. response to a 2004 report by an Anglican panel that called for a moratorium on consecrating gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions.

“The task before the primates now is to discern what response they want to make to the report and beyond that to the Episcopal Church itself,” said Phillip Aspinall, the Archbishop from Australia at the conference.

Splits between Anglicans have been growing for years, but reached a crisis in 2003 when the Episcopal Church consecrated its first gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. The problems only mounted last year with the consecration of Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first female leader of the U.S. church.

Supporters of ordaining gays believe the Bible’s social justice teachings take precedence over its view of sexuality. However, most Anglicans outside the United States believe gay relationships are sinful, and they are distancing themselves from the U.S. church.

Africa is home to half the world’s Anglicans and is dominated by conservative leaders.

The Anglican leaders discussed a report by a church committee that has been monitoring the U.S. response to the 2004 Windsor Report, which called for a moratorium on consecrating gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions.

The committee report, which was completed about six months ago but not released publicly, found that the Episcopal Church was taking the Windsor Report “extremely seriously” and had complied with the report’s request for a moratorium on confirming any more gay bishops.

However, the committee said the wide range of practice in American dioceses on blessing same-sex partnerships made it hard to know “exactly what has and has not been approved.”

Earlier Thursday, an aide to Jefferts Schori said she will not soften her views even as the issues threaten to break apart the Christian fellowship.

“The spirit of Anglicanism will prevail here and there will be a middle way forward,” Robert Williams told The Associated Press. But Jefferts Schori “will not waver in her stand for justice and inclusion of all people in the body of Christ.”

Conservatives have formed a rival network in the U.S., under the leadership of Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who has called the acceptance of gay relationships a “satanic attack” on the church.

Other conservatives have called for a parallel church for within the United States – an idea that Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Williams, the spiritual leader of the communion, called contrary to Episcopal teachings. “The canons and the written laws of the Episcopal church do not provide for any sort of parallel structure,” Williams said.

Williams lacks any direct authority to force a compromise.

The Anglican Communion is the world’s third-largest Christian body behind the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox churches. The Anglican fellowship was founded in the 16th century by King Henry VIII and spread worldwide by the British Empire.

An eventual breakup of the communion would be the most stunning fallout from struggles over gay relationships that also have gripped Roman Catholics, Lutherans and others.

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