Too Little, Too Late
Facing Schism, Anglicans Turn to Commission
Many expect the Canterbury panel to recommend a rebuke of the U.S. church over the consecration of a gay bishop last year.
LONDON — A panel appointed by the archbishop of Canterbury is poised to unveil recommendations Monday on how to head off possible schism in the worldwide Anglican Communion triggered by the consecration of a gay American bishop.
Although the Lambeth Commission's recommendations are known to only a few, there is widespread speculation that the Episcopal Church, the self-governing U.S. member of the Anglican Communion, will be disciplined or rebuked over the consecration last year of the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire.
Two knowledgeable church sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said they had been informed that, at the very least, American bishops who consented to Robinson's consecration would be expected to express regret. They would be given a deadline for apologizing for failing to seriously consider how their actions would affect the rest of the 77-million-member worldwide communion.
"This is a very significant moment, there's no question about it," said the Rev. Canon Ian T. Douglas, a church historian at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. "It is a defining moment of how we as Anglicans are going to be in the world."
The Rev. Canon Kendall Harmon, theologian for the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina and a leading conservative voice in the U.S. church, said the commission could call for an international canon, or law, that would bind all 38 self-governing Anglican provinces — national or regional churches like the Episcopal Church in the U.S. — to minimal standards of discipline. At the moment, all operate under their own canons.
Reports here Saturday also described a "covenant" that would require national churches to surrender some of their autonomy in the name of unity.
"It's a major proposal about the whole structure of how we operate as the Anglican Communion," another source told The Times. Word of the covenant was first reported Saturday by the Times of London.
Presumably, such a covenant could not only bar the Episcopal Church from ordaining gay bishops, but rein in conservative African bishops who have assumed jurisdiction over dissident American parishes. However, it would take at least several years for all the provinces to ratify such an agreement.
"What we choose in the interim will be more important than what ultimately is suggested by the Lambeth Commission because the communion is so fragile," Harmon said.
Conservative Anglican bishops in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, along with several in the U.S., have charged that the Episcopal Church had broken with Christian moral teaching by consecrating Robinson, who is in a committed relationship with a man.
About 17 Anglican provinces declared their communion with the U.S. church impaired or broken, refusing to recognize Robinson's election. In addition, 10 of the American church's 110 dioceses have affiliated themselves with the conservative Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, which said it upholds the Scriptures and traditional teaching on homosexuality.
Three Episcopal parishes in Southern California have broken away from the Los Angeles diocese and placed themselves under the jurisdiction of a conservative Ugandan bishop.
Few believe that the Lambeth panel will call for the 2.3-million-member American church's summary expulsion, at least not immediately. American church officials noted that all 17 commission members, representing liberal, moderate and conservative viewpoints, endorsed the report. That signaled that the report would take a middle ground, said one churchman.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual head of the worldwide communion, directed the panel to recommend ways for holding it together. He excluded theological examinations of homosexuality from the agenda.
Archbishop Robin Eames, chairman of the Lambeth Commission and Anglican primate of Ireland, recently told his own synod in Armagh that his panel had not dodged the issues.
"It is not a set of conclusions that will please everyone. That is not why we were established," he said. "But it is not the bland report some feared. It has teeth. It has integrity."
Last month, the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, presiding bishop and primate of the American church, indicated that change was in the works. Griswold, speaking in Spokane, Wash., at the end of a meeting of U.S. bishops, said he expected "a great deal of painfulness."
"There is a great deal of dying that needs to go on in order for a resurrection reality to emerge that reveals communion in its fullness."
Larry B. Stammer, Times Staff Writer
Many expect the Canterbury panel to recommend a rebuke of the U.S. church over the consecration of a gay bishop last year.
LONDON — A panel appointed by the archbishop of Canterbury is poised to unveil recommendations Monday on how to head off possible schism in the worldwide Anglican Communion triggered by the consecration of a gay American bishop.
Although the Lambeth Commission's recommendations are known to only a few, there is widespread speculation that the Episcopal Church, the self-governing U.S. member of the Anglican Communion, will be disciplined or rebuked over the consecration last year of the Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire.
Two knowledgeable church sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said they had been informed that, at the very least, American bishops who consented to Robinson's consecration would be expected to express regret. They would be given a deadline for apologizing for failing to seriously consider how their actions would affect the rest of the 77-million-member worldwide communion.
"This is a very significant moment, there's no question about it," said the Rev. Canon Ian T. Douglas, a church historian at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. "It is a defining moment of how we as Anglicans are going to be in the world."
The Rev. Canon Kendall Harmon, theologian for the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina and a leading conservative voice in the U.S. church, said the commission could call for an international canon, or law, that would bind all 38 self-governing Anglican provinces — national or regional churches like the Episcopal Church in the U.S. — to minimal standards of discipline. At the moment, all operate under their own canons.
Reports here Saturday also described a "covenant" that would require national churches to surrender some of their autonomy in the name of unity.
"It's a major proposal about the whole structure of how we operate as the Anglican Communion," another source told The Times. Word of the covenant was first reported Saturday by the Times of London.
Presumably, such a covenant could not only bar the Episcopal Church from ordaining gay bishops, but rein in conservative African bishops who have assumed jurisdiction over dissident American parishes. However, it would take at least several years for all the provinces to ratify such an agreement.
"What we choose in the interim will be more important than what ultimately is suggested by the Lambeth Commission because the communion is so fragile," Harmon said.
Conservative Anglican bishops in Africa, South America and Southeast Asia, along with several in the U.S., have charged that the Episcopal Church had broken with Christian moral teaching by consecrating Robinson, who is in a committed relationship with a man.
About 17 Anglican provinces declared their communion with the U.S. church impaired or broken, refusing to recognize Robinson's election. In addition, 10 of the American church's 110 dioceses have affiliated themselves with the conservative Network of Anglican Communion Dioceses and Parishes, which said it upholds the Scriptures and traditional teaching on homosexuality.
Three Episcopal parishes in Southern California have broken away from the Los Angeles diocese and placed themselves under the jurisdiction of a conservative Ugandan bishop.
Few believe that the Lambeth panel will call for the 2.3-million-member American church's summary expulsion, at least not immediately. American church officials noted that all 17 commission members, representing liberal, moderate and conservative viewpoints, endorsed the report. That signaled that the report would take a middle ground, said one churchman.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual head of the worldwide communion, directed the panel to recommend ways for holding it together. He excluded theological examinations of homosexuality from the agenda.
Archbishop Robin Eames, chairman of the Lambeth Commission and Anglican primate of Ireland, recently told his own synod in Armagh that his panel had not dodged the issues.
"It is not a set of conclusions that will please everyone. That is not why we were established," he said. "But it is not the bland report some feared. It has teeth. It has integrity."
Last month, the Most Rev. Frank T. Griswold, presiding bishop and primate of the American church, indicated that change was in the works. Griswold, speaking in Spokane, Wash., at the end of a meeting of U.S. bishops, said he expected "a great deal of painfulness."
"There is a great deal of dying that needs to go on in order for a resurrection reality to emerge that reveals communion in its fullness."
Larry B. Stammer, Times Staff Writer
posted by R7 | 10/17/2004 12:26:00 PM
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