Global South Anglicans vow to act against US Churchs pro-gay shift

Some 130 Anglican leaders from the Global South have condemned The Episcopal Church in the US (TEC) over its plans to consecrate a second openly gay bishop despite huge opposition from within the Anglican Communion.

Canon Mary D Glasspool, a partnered lesbian, will be consecrated as a bishop suffragan in the Diocese of Los Angeles in a ceremony next month.

Anglican leaders from 20 Global South provinces concluded a meeting in Singapore today with a statement declaring their intention to continue speaking out against TEC, the Anglican Church of Canada and “all those churches that have rejected the way of the Lord as expressed in Holy Scripture”.

The leaders said TEC’s intended consecration of Glasspool demonstrated “a total disregard for the mind of the Communion”.

“These churches continue in their defiance as they set themselves on a course that contradicts the plain teaching of the Holy Scriptures on matters so fundamental that they affect the very salvation of those involved,” they said.

“Such actions violate the integrity of the Gospel, the Communion and our Christian witness to the rest of the world. In the face of this we dare not remain silent and must respond with appropriate action.”

The statement praised the “courageous” actions of Global South primates who refuse to participate in meetings where representatives of TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada are present. They include the Archbishops Mouneer Anis, of Jerusalem and the Middle East, Henry Orombi, of Uganda, and Ian Ernest, of the Indian Ocean.

The leaders went on to say that the refusal of TEC to honour the recommendations of the Windsor Report, which included a moratorium on the consecration of clergy in same sex unions, had “brought discredit to our witness”.

The Global South leaders called for a review of structures within the Anglican Communion and encouraged other provinces to reconsider their communion relationships with TEC and the Anglican Church of Canada “until it becomes clear that there is genuine”.

In a video greeting to the Global South to South Encounter at the start of the week, the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams told the leaders that the recent actions of TEC had made the “confusion, brokenness and tension” in the worldwide Anglican family “still more acute”.

He added that there would be “no quick solutions” to the divisions and that only the Holy Spirit could heal the body of Christ.