Hopes of a solution for the split in the Anglican Communion over homosexuality have been further diminished after a rescue plan endorsed by the Archbishop of Canterbury was rejected by conservative bishops.
By Martin Beckford, Religious Affairs Correspondent
The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/2646689/Archbishop-of-Canterburys-rescue-plan-for-Anglican-Communion-rejected.html
August 29, 2008
Clergy who have defected from their liberal national churches to join traditionalist provinces overseas said the scheme to put them in a "holding bay" before returning them home was "demeaning and unacceptable".
Meanwhile orthodox Anglican leaders have pledged to press ahead with the creation of their rival movement, claiming that it is an "illusion" to believe that the damage caused by the election of an openly gay bishop can be undone.
It comes just days after Dr Rowan Williams said that the Lambeth Conference gathering of Anglican bishops last month had exceeded expectations and showed that most wanted the 80 million-strong worldwide Communion to stay together despite deep divisions over sexuality.
A letter written by five bishops who have defected from the ultra-liberal Episcopal Church of the USA to conservative churches in Africa and South America was highly critical of the plan announced at Lambeth to create a "pastoral forum", headed by Dr Williams, that would try to resolve new crises in the Communion and act as a "holding bay" for parishes that have left their home countries.
It said: "We note that the pastoral forum proposal has been developed without any consultation with those most directly affected in North America. This had led to a number of serious misunderstandings with regard to the situation at the local level and the relationship between the bishops, clergy and congregations and their sponsoring provinces.
"We would also observe that the various analogies offered, for example, that we are disaffected children being reunited with our parents or that we are being placed in a holding bay before being restored to our proper province are both demeaning and unacceptable."
They said the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada, by electing a gay bishop and sanctioning the blessing of same-sex unions, are now "diametrically opposed" to their beliefs and Anglican teaching, and added: "We can envision no way in which we could be part of pastoral forum in which either Church exercises any leadership role."
Six heads - or Primates - of Anglican provinces who are leading members of the orthodox Gafcon movement met in London last week and have now issued a statement on the outcome of their summit.
They said it was clear that some Anglicans will continue to sanctify "sinful" practices regardless of pleas to stop doing so by Dr Williams.
The Gafcon leaders also said it was right that churches who disagree with the liberal direction of some provinces should "withdraw their fellowship", and that there is "widespread impaired and broken" communion between Anglicans.
They said they were "saddened" that Lambeth did not offer a new way to resolve differences and just repeated calls for liberal innovations, and border-crossing by disaffected clergy, to stop.
The primates pointed out how long the new plans would take to come into effect and added: "Delay itself seems to be a strategy employed by some in order to resolve the issue through weariness."
END
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