EPISCOPAL ODO CONDO
Fears Grow For Anglican Church Split Over Gay Rights
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The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is to meet with all 38 national Primates of the Anglican Church this week in a “last throw of the dice” to avoid a permanent schism.
The church faces a de facto split in the worldwide Anglican Communion over the issue of homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
Church leaders from six African countries are expected to walk out of the talks if, in the words of Ugandan Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, “discipline and godly order is not restored.”
The beleaguered Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby
Archbishops from Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, South Sudan, Rwanda and Congo are incensed by the move to consecrate gay bishops and are insisting on sanctions against the US Episcopal Church after it consecrated gay priest Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire back in 2003.
Welby has called the meeting, the first in over a decade, in a last-ditch effort to move the global church – which claims 85 million followers worldwide – beyond the issue of homosexuality.
Conservative Nigerian bishops
Church sources have said there is a 90% chance the six African countries will walk out, which would effectively lead to a permanent divide between the conservative and liberal wings of the church.
Welby is proposing that, in the face of intractable differences, the communion should restructure as a loose confederation of churches rather than adherents to a common doctrine.
The rift over sexuality is even greater than that over women bishops, with those who oppose homosexuality on biblical grounds openly calling for the liberal wing of the church to repent for consecrating gay bishops and clergy.
Controversial gay bishop Gene Robinson
Many liberal Anglicans are horrified by the homophobic stance of the conservative churches in Africa and believe that a split is inevitable.
Liberal members last week threatened a walk-out of their own, after Welby invited the leader of the conservative breakaway Anglican Church in North America to participate in the meeting.
In a separate letter to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York on the eve of the conference, more than 100 senior British Anglicans urged the Church of England to repent for discriminating against lesbian and gay Christians.
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