One of the most prominent critics of the U.S. church for its actions regarding homosexuals is Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria. He said this week if U.S. Episcopalians agree to the bans there will be a huge celebration. If they do not, "they will be told to walk away."
In the U.S. several officials have already said they prefer leaving the Communion. Meanwhile, the new Presiding Bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, appealed for patience. She was in Tanzania and signed the communique. Also there was Kim Lawton of this program. Here is her report.
KIM LAWTON: It was a moment of history and controversy as U.S. Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori took her place among the highest ranking leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The leading bishops worshipped together in public but in private debated intensely as they hammered out a new plan to try and cure what they called the "illness" of disunity that has jeopardized their church. In the end, no one left fully pleased.
Bishop KATHARINE JEFFERTS SCHORI (U.S. Episcopal Church): It was a challenging meeting. There was significant unhappiness with the Episcopal Church, and in some sense I think we are the identified patient in this issue.
LAWTON: American conservatives said the meeting did not ultimately solve any of the differences and may have made things worse.
Bishop ROBERT DUNCAN (Diocese of Pittsburgh): The division in Anglicanism has gone deeper. It's harder than it was when we started this meeting.
LAWTON: Relationships in the 77-million-member global Communion have been severely strained since 2003, when the Episcopal Church consecrated an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, and permitted the blessing of same-sex unions. Leaders of more conservative Anglican churches in Africa, Asia and South America accused the Episcopal Church of violating Scripture and disregarding centuries of church teachings.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of the Communion, appointed an emergency panel to study how schism could be avoided. In 2004, that commission called for an indefinite moratorium on actively gay bishops and same-sex blessings and urged the U.S. church to express regret for the pain its actions caused.
Delegates to the 2006 Episcopal General Convention passed resolutions designed to address those concerns. But Anglican leaders meeting here in Tanzania said the U.S. church still needs to do more work.
Archbishop ROWAN WILLIAMS (Archbishop of Canterbury, speaking at press conference): The response of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church to the recommendations of the Windsor Report -- the response made at General Convention last year -- represented some steps in a very encouraging direction but did not yet represent a situation where we could simply say business as usual.LAWTON: The leaders' 11-page final communique wasn't released until shortly before midnight, with the intense debate extending hours beyond the scheduled ending time of the meeting.
The statement called on the U.S. Episcopal Church to unequivocally agree to follow the Communion's previous demands to ban same-sex unions and openly gay bishops. Failure to do that, the leaders said, would damage the future relationship between the Episcopal Church and the Communion.
While reconciliation efforts continue, the communique called for the appointment of a senior American bishop to provide pastoral oversight for conservatives who don't want to be under the authority of Bishop Jefferts Schori and the Episcopal Church. They hope this may stop the trend of conservative U.S. parishes affiliating with Anglican churches in places like Africa and South America.
And the leaders called for a ceasefire in legal battles over church property.
Archbishop WILLIAMS (speaking at Press Conference): None of us believe that litigation and counter-litigation can be a proper way forward for the Christian body. And we don't see that we can move towards sensible, balanced reconciliation while that remains a threat in wide use.
LAWTON: Anglicans, they said, have long sought unity amid their diversity.
Archbishop BERNARD NTAHOTURI (Anglican Church of Burundi): I have appreciated that diversity which is a gift from God, that though we may not have the same views, but still we have the same vision of serving the kingdom of God.
Bishop JEFFERTS SCHORI: I don't think it was any, you know, substantially different than any of the other new primates. There were 14 of us who were new to this gathering.
Rev. SCOTT GUNN (Inclusive Church): The sooner the church is fully inclusive of gay and lesbian people, and bisexual and transgender people, and women, people of color and all people, the sooner we'll be living the Gospel fully.
Bishop JEFFERTS SCHORI: Nothing will change until the House of Bishops has had a chance to talk about this.
