Canterbury faces pressure to disown US Episcopal Church

Conservative members of the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion will this week demand that the Archbishop of Canterbury disown the US arm of the Church over the gay controversy.

|PIC1|Reform, a UK evangelical group representing around 1,000 parishes, is reportedly to send a letter to Dr Rowan Williams urging him to openly oppose the homosexual stance of the US Episcopal Church.

The letter will warn that a failure to take a firm stand will split the Church of England and demands that the US Church be prohibited from joining the Communion's annual gathering of bishops.

The development will show clearly that the potential split in the worldwide Anglican body is not just a US Episcopal problem, but has ramifications for the wider Communion.

Reform will even threaten to use foreign archbishops to ordain priests in dioceses where incumbent bishops refuse to disassociate themselves from the American church, The Daily Telegraph reported.

The controversy has been building up since the installation of the first openly homosexual Bishop, Gene Robinson in New Hampshire, USA in 2003. Anglicans conforming to the traditional biblical teachings that homosexuality is a sin say it is unacceptable for the US Episcopal Church to have allowed such a move and have urged the Archbishop of Canterbury to take a firm stance against the US Church's actions.

Rev Rod Thomas, chairman elect of Reform, said: "The situation in the Anglican Communion is so serious now that we have to plan for an inevitable split in the Church of England from top to bottom."

The Reform head was speaking following last week's meeting of the US House of Bishops in New Orleans.

Last week, bishops from 13 Episcopal and other Anglican groups in the US announced they had formed a partnership as the first step to creating a rival to the Episcopal Church.