Archbishop Urges ECUSA Apology to Stop Rift over Gay Bishop Debate

The 4-day General Synod of the Church of England closed yesterday evening. The agenda on the final day saw the Windsor Report discussed in depth and has pushed the Synod to the climax of its gathering.

In the report of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams warned of the "no-cost free" outcome of the action taken by liberals of the USA Episcopal Church (ECUSA) to embrace homosexuality in the Church. Therfore, he urged an apology from the ECUSA as recommended by the Lambeth Commission in the Windsor Report. His comments have become the key area of decision for the Synod. Dr Williams has generally endorsed the Windsor Report and as has the Synod.

Keeping his conciliatory stance in resolving the homosexuality controversy in the Church, Dr Williams has not rebuked homosexuality directly. Rather, he condemned the consecration of Anglicanism's first openly homosexual bishop Gene Robinson by ECUSA as having caused "hurt, misunderstanding, rupture and damage" in the Anglican Communion worldwide.

As the head of the 77-million Anglicans all around the world, Dr Williams admitted that the current rift over gay bishops in the Church will be costly no matter how it is resolved.

"Part of the cost involved in the repercussions of recent events is that it has weakened, if not destroyed, the sense that we are actually talking the same language within the Anglican Communion," he said. "Not having a common language, a common frame of reference, has been one of the casualties of recent events and there is every indication that that is not going to get better in a hurry."

Dr Williams endorsed the Windsor Report which urged liberals to express regret for their actions and to impose a moratorium on further gay consecrations and blessings of homosexual "marriages". However, still a number of American bishops are resisting the recommendation.

Dr Williams admitted the problem in fact has already become very deep, "There will be no cost-free outcome from this...to put it as bluntly as I can, there are no clean breaks in the Body of Christ."

"It does us no good to pretend that the cost is not real," he added.

Yesterday the Synod also overwhelmingly passed a motion moved by the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Tom Wright, backing Dr Williams and accepting the broad principles of the report.

Bishop Wright, a member of the Lambeth Commission, said the document was a call for action. He added, "Wrong choices could be disastrous, but to delay would be the worst choice of all."

It is expected that the endorsement of the Windsor Report will stir a row among conservatives and evangelicals, who criticised that the report has not properly addressed the issue of homosexuality. Conservatives in Africa and Asia have made clear that unless some form of discipline is imposed they may walk out and form a rival Church.

In response to this, Dr Willaims pleaded for unity to the Synod, saying both conservatives and liberals had made some erroneous points in the increasingly acrimonious debate on gay bishops.

"The deep sense of lost-ness and confusion that arises from that and the anger that arises from that is something that does not in any sense help...our search for truth together," he said.

All Anglican Primates are to meet next week in Northern Ireland to have a further discussion on the Windsor Report.