Anglican leader in showdown with US church over gay clergy

Section: Religion

Russell McCulley

NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) - Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams held crisis talks Thursday with US bishops to prevent a split in the global communion as a deadline approaches for the US church to reverse its liberal stance on homosexuality.

Bishops described as "respectful" the seven hours of closed-door deliberations with Williams, who leads the 77-million-strong worldwide Anglican communion and is the highest-ranking cleric in the Church of England.

But at the end of the first day of meetings, it remained unclear whether the US branch of Anglicanism, the Episcopal church, would agree to demands to bar official blessings of same-sex unions and the consecration of more openly gay bishops.

Bishop Robert O'Neill of the Diocese of Colorado told reporters that Rowan had not demanded that the bishops forge a response to calls from conservative East African for an end to such practices or risk a rupture in the communion.

"In our conversations today there have been no specific requests," O'Neill said. "We have been having conversation about a lot of different aspects of our life together."

O'Neill described the meetings as cordial, despite the explosive topic of ordaining gay bishops that greeted the conference.

"I think the general posture was simply one of having a very open and forthright conversation," he said. "I don't think anybody was holding back, but everybody was conducting themselves with respect and courtesy and honesty."

A summit of worldwide Anglican leaders who met in Tanzania in February agreed that the Episcopal Church must unequivocally bar official blessings of same-sex unions and the consecration of more openly gay bishops.

In a communique issued after the meeting, the Episcopal Church was given until September 30 to reverse its position or the primates said its relations with other Anglicans would remain "damaged at best."

Bishop John Rabb of Maryland sought to downplay talk of an impending split.

"The specific conversation was not about the communique," Rabb said of Thursday's session. "It was one part of many issues that are before us as we look at our life as a church and as a communion."

The Anglican church has been divided since Gene Robinson, an openly gay priest, was elected as bishop of New Hampshire four years ago, outraging traditionalists, particularly in Africa.

Tensions were heightened last year when the Episcopal church elected a woman as its leader.

Robinson was scheduled to deliver a sermon in New Orleans Sunday.

"For many Episcopals the decision they made (to ordain a gay bishop) was one they felt morally obliged to take," said Joseph Britton, an Episcopal priest who is the dean of Yale University's divinity school.

"There are some who are looking at this as a real watershed moment in the life of the communion and are expecting the Episcopal church to either give a positive response or to say they will part ways," he told AFP.

"There are others who feel the Episcopal church could make a response that would not completely fulfill all that was asked but will be sufficient."

The leader of the Episcopal church offered an olive branch Thursday by inviting eight bishops to serve as "visitors" to parishes in six US dioceses which are dissatisfied with the more liberal leanings of their existing leadership.

Williams, who was snubbed by Australia's archbishop earlier this month, was assured by US Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori that he will be received "with great respect and hospitality," the Episcopal News Service reported.

"Both he and we recognize the importance of this time, and that it is natural to experience some anxiety" in the current context, the Reverend Dr. Charles Robertson, who serves as cannon to Jefferts Schori, told the news service.

"Our call is to respond to one another, not out of anxiety, but out of an even deeper respect for ourselves and one another, honoring our relationships," he said.