A Split in the Anglican Church may be necessary to overcome gay clergy issue

Since the ordination of the openly gay canon, Jeffery John, appointed as the Dean of St. Albans, the whole Anglican community is shaking with a division of opinion between the conservative evangelical and liberal viewpoints.

The conservative evangelicals are furious at the decision, which was approved by Prime Minister Tony Blair. They tried get Blair to hold a conversation with them to express their angry. Some of them even decided to cap quotas to the Church of England in protest of this unethical trend spreading in the Anglican community.

The incident has been ongoing for more than a week now without much advancement, but a proposal is being prepared that may bring the deadlock to an end. The proposal is about a formal split in the Anglican Church, transforming the Anglican Communion into an Anglican confederation - in an attempt to resolve differences over attitudes towards homosexuality.

The concept of confederation is similar to the Geneva-based World Lutheran Federation, which allows them to adopt almost any practice or doctrine they wish while keeping looser ties between the national provinces in the Church.

Under the new system, the churches at the conservative and liberal ends of the spectrum would still describe themselves as “Anglican” and remain in communion with the mother Church of England headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

But where a national church went too far in embracing modern secular mores, it could be reduced to an observer status or not invited at all to meetings such as the Lambeth Conference, held every ten years.

Due to the schism in gay clergy issue, already it is proposed severely to reduce the number of bishops invited to the next Lambeth Conference in 2008 in South Africa. Bishop Gene Robinson, the openly gay American bishop recently consecrated in New Hampshire, is unlikely to be on the guest list.

The system will in turn create a stronger central force close to the Anglican Mainstream, so it is expected to be welcomed by most conservatives. While they urged for disciplinary measures against churches which ordained an openly gay bishop in the United States, this system will even permit more effective excommunication to those “unqualified” gay bishops or priests by refusing to recognise them. At the same time, there is still room for these "excommunicated" ones to remain in the loose international Anglican confederation connecting to the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Under the blueprint, drawn up by Prof Norman Doe, a commission member and director of the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University, provinces are prevented from acting unilaterally against the greater good of the communion as a whole. If disputes arise, a final appeal could be made to the Archbishop of Canterbury, possibly assisted by a "bench" of senior churchmen and theologians. Ultimately, a province defying the archbishop's judgment could be expelled.

According to a source close to the Lambeth Commission, canon lawyers are preparing for its second meeting next month in Kanuga, North Carolina, by studying the set-up of the worldwide Lutheran church, which embraces wide degrees of theological and ecclesiological difference, to see if this model could be adapted to suit the Anglican Communion.

“The quality of the communion depends on how far the Western Church is willing to sacrifice its lesbian and gay members," said the source. The source indicated that the sort of federation created will probably mirror the Lutheran model, with full members, non-voters and observers.

Some commented that the Lutheran model is particularly appropriate because Anglicans and Lutherans are already in a “shared fellowship” agreement with each other through the Porvoo declaration, a British-Nordic-Baltic initiative signed by the Church of England in 1995.
The proposal is to be considered by the Lambeth Commission, the international body of 18 members aimed at discussing and providing answers for issues within the Anglican community.

However, Dr Robin Eames, the Primate of Ireland, who chairs the Lambeth Commission made a plea for restraint in a letter issued yesterday.

Dr Eames said, "I do not underestimate the complexities of our tasks nor the difficulties." Trying to keep the painful division within the Anglican Communion as a last resort, he pleads strongly with conservatives not to split by forming new provinces or dioceses until the commission has completed its work at the end of this year. He acknowledges the divisions that exist but urges dissenting groups not to break from their parent churches.

“It would be my hope that once the report is published we can take such decisions as necessary in a manner which is unrushed, in Christian charity and by means of due process.” Dr Eames writes.

“It is my prayer and earnest hope that the report we are preparing will enable the Anglican Communion to move forward together in ways which will stand the test of time whatever difficulties may arise in future years for our world family.”