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Anglican panel says Episcopal bishops met directive

A high-ranking Anglican panel acknowledged Wednesday the effort of Episcopal bishops to keep the worldwide Anglican family together and said they have complied with a directive by Anglican leaders on gay bishops and same-sex unions.

by Lillian Kwon, Christian Today US Correspondent
Posted: Friday, October 5, 2007, 14:20 (BST)
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Despite the praise, the Joint Standing Committee said the US body must do more to support theological conservatives, who are a minority within the church.

Conservative congregations in the United States are breaking with the Episcopal Church and joining orthodox Anglican provinces from overseas.

"Unless some measure of reassurance and security is given to those congregations, parishes, bishops and dioceses who are feeling an increasing sense of alienation from the Episcopal Church, there will be no reconciliation either within the Episcopal Church or within the wider Anglican Communion," the committee wrote.

At the same time, the committee criticised overseas Anglican conservatives who have set up offshoots in the United States to house breakaway parishes.

"We believe that the time is right for a determined effort to bring interventions to an end," stated the panel.

US conservatives, however, have made it clear that after years of dispute and no movement, the intervention of Anglican leaders from the Global South was an act that simply reflected the failure of the current approach, as noted by the Rt Rev Martyn Minns, who leads the breakaway group CANA (Convocation of Anglicans in North America) - the offshoot of the Church of Nigeria. Moreover, the overseas conservatives were responding to cries for help from US Anglicans, Minns has stated.

Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, meanwhile, has said that he would stop the intervention if the Episcopal Church returns to the Bible and gets back in line with the rest of the communion.

So far, one committee member dissented Wednesday's report - the Most Rev Mouneer Hanna Anis, primate of the Province of Jerusalem and the Middle East.

He stated that the response of Episcopal bishops is inadequate and represents "a superficial shift from their previous position" and that their position since 2003 has not changed.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has sent the report to all the primates, the communion's regional leaders, and members of the Anglican Consultative Council, a representative body of bishops, priests and lay people. They are expected to respond by the end of the month.



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