‘Dire’ split looms as Anglican rivals use separate rooms at summit
THE global Anglican Church faces “dire consequences” unless it enforces a traditionalist line on homosexuality at a crucial summit in Canterbury this week, says a leading cleric taking part.
Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt, convenor of Anglican primates in the “global south” – the bulk of the church’s 80million members, told The Sunday
Telegraph unless the issue is resolved there will be “irreparable” splits not just between countries and dioceses but even individual parishes.
The heads of almost 40 separate churches meet for the first time in more than a decade in what the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, sees as a “last roll of the dice” to save the Anglican Communion. The split is said to be so deep he is providing separate chapels amid fears the groups will not even pray together.
It is expected to be a stormy week-long primates’ meeting to discuss a plan the Rev Welby hopes will avert a permanent schism between liberals and conservatives.
The faith has been in turmoil for 12 years since its US branch, The Episcopal Church (Tec), ordained its first openlygay bishop, Gene Robinson, causing traditionalists especially in the southern hemisphere to break from more liberal wings and the creation of a separate American church. The Anglican Church in Canada has endorsed blessings for same-sex unions and Tec altered its marriage definition.
Some conservatives have called the leadership of the liberal US and Canadian churches heretics. They in turn were accused of homophobia for backing strict anti-gay laws in Africa.
After many reports, commissions and meetings failed to reconcile the factions, Archbishop Welby wants to recast Anglicanism as a loose confederation. Individual national churches would be formally linked only to Canterbury, rather than to each other, to let them disagree on issues such as gay bishops without severing ties. One of his aides likened the move to “separate bedrooms” rather than divorce.
Such a move would effectively scale back the once-powerful Anglican Communion and formalise a rift, rather than trying to heal it. Lambeth Palace advisers privately admit it is a “last throw of the dice” to save the Communion.
Sources close to key southern primates called the plan unworkable. There are fears the closed-door summit could founder in days with separate sides issuing their own communiques, deepening the crisis. Bishop Anis said there would be no solution unless the meeting upholds unenforced agreements which would have put a moratorium on North American churches ordaining further openly gay bishops.
He said: “Failure to allow this to happen will have dire consequences and cause irreparable divisions at all levels of the Communion.” Although firmly in the conservative camp, he is a strong supporter of Archbishop Welby’s efforts to reunite the communion.
Aides said the Archbishop hopes accommodating both sides separately, will help them come together – like the Northern Ireland peace process where parties initially met separately, before signing the Good Friday Agreement.