Rowan Williams warned by North American Bishop over Homosexual Debate

Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury has been warned that Anglican Bishops in North America will attempt to cut off funds from the Church in Africa if they are disciplined because they supported the election of the gay bishop Gene Robinson.

The row has threatened to split the Anglican worldwide Church for months now and the tension is building up as the time for the Lambeth Commission report approaches. The commission headed by Archbishop Robin Eames, the primate of All Ireland, and made up of senior churchmen from across the world, has recently completed a year-long deliberation into the future of the church.

Their report is due to be published next month, and there has been much speculation recently that bishops who supported the US Episcopal church's decision to endorse election of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire last year will be disciplined.

Conservative evangelicals and traditionalists in western churches have backed church leaders in the developing world in demanding that supporters of Bishop Robinson, the church's first openly gay bishop who lives with a partner, should be expelled from the communion.

Among the moves the commission has considered is excluding the American and Canadian bishops from meetings such as the 10-yearly gathering of all 780 bishops for the Lambeth conference in Cape Town in four years' time. They also want sanctions against bishops of the Anglican Church in Canada, who are considering authorising blessings services for gay couples.

A number of developing world provinces have declared themselves out of communion with the US church and the Canadian diocese of New Westminster, which has started blessing services.

The latest warning, from a senior North American bishop, means both sides in the row are now threatening to split the 77 million-strong church unless they get their way. Disciplining bishops could involve between 50 and 100 of them. Last year 62 US bishops voted for Bishop Robinson's appointment, and 50 bishops, from several countries, assisted at his consecration service.

The North American bishop, who is one of those who may be disciplined after the commission report, said that the American church, which underwrites the funding of many dioceses in the developing world, might then cease paying for the rest of the communion.

The bishop said, ``If Rowan snubs 10% of the communion's bishops, I predict others will not go to Lambeth 2008 in sympathy - other Canadians and Americans, plus some from New Zealand, Australia, and perhaps even the Celtic fringe. It would no longer be the Lambeth conference - more like an anti-homosexual society.''

The bishop concluded saying that most African bishops were financially supported to attend the Lambeth conference by North American dioceses. A member of the Eames commission said it was concentrating on the church's future structure, not expressing a view on the position of homosexuals in the church.