Anglican Head Calls for Urgent Episcopal Talks to Resolve Gay Dispute

The spiritual head of the worldwide Anglican Church has called for a meeting to be held with six American Episcopal bishops next month, in efforts to reconcile the Church’s divisions over homosexuality.

|PIC1|The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has called for the meeting to take place in New York in September, to offer renewed hope that the Anglican Communion can remain united despite continued talks of a schism over whether Biblical authority calls homosexuality sin.

The Anglican Communion Office in London announced the summit in a brief news release Friday, but did not give any specific details about the date and location.

The Episcopal Church USA is the American-branch of the Anglican Church, and the six representatives called to the meeting by Dr Williams, will correspond to the range of beliefs currently existing across the American Church.

Virginia Bishop Peter Lee, who is one of the six U.S. invitees, said the participants “have agreed not to talk at length with the press” about the gathering.

“The archbishop of Canterbury is encouraging American bishops to try to work on these questions,” Lee said in a phone interview, according to AP. “We're trying to hold together people who have differing views and to respect those differing views.”

|TOP|Even though it is the Archbishop of Canterbury who has called the meeting together, he is not expected to attend. Instead, Canon Kenneth Kearon, who is the Secretary General of the 77 million-member Communion, will be present.

In addition, exiting Episcopal Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and controversial Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori, who takes office in November, have been invited to the meeting.

In June at the Church’s General Convention, Anglican leaders asked delegates for a moratorium on confirming any more openly gay bishops.

Although the present divisions over homosexuality within the Church can be traced back as a problem which has existed for decades, it was the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson to the post of Bishop of New Hampshire that has instigated the present furore over the matter.

|AD|Even though a moratorium was called for, Episcopal delegates could not agree on the exact wording of the resolutions after days of debate.

Therefore, as a replacement the convention adopted a last-minute, non-binding measure that asked church leaders to “exercise restraint” in electing future gay bishops.

Dr Williams has said the Episcopalians have “not produced a complete response” to Anglican concerns.

In fact, the General Convention, rather than allaying fears and divisions, actually increased tensions, as the June meeting also elected Schori, and outspoken supporter of gay relationships, as the ECUSA’s next Presiding Bishop.

Since that time, 7 conservative dioceses, including Pittsburgh and Fort Worth, have rejected Jefferts Schori's leadership and asked Williams for oversight from another.

Some individual parishes have also announced plans to leave the American Episcopal Church, which has about 2.3 million members.

Dr Williams has already proposed a new two-tiered system for the Communion, to keep those Church’s with the traditional Biblical views on homosexuality as full-members, and to offer a lesser role to those with new ideals on the matter.

Though the idea has received praise from some corners of the Communion, there is still a large proportion of the Church saying it cannot accept being in “communion” with those promoting Scripture in a way that is in complete contrast to their own beliefs.

Other participants set to attend the September meeting are Bishop Jack Iker of Fort Worth, Texas; Southwest Florida Bishop John Lipscomb; and Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, head of the Anglican Communion Network, an association of 10 conservative Episcopal dioceses and more than 900 parishes considering splitting from the national church.