Anglican bishops
meeting in New York on Monday have called for a kind of
temporary truce in an effort to avert a full-blown
schism in the Episcopal Church over the issue of
homosexuality. The most likely outcome is a
"two-church solution" for the United States,
reports The [London] Times, allowing
conservatives and liberals to exist, separate but side
by side, as members of the worldwide Anglican
communion.
The bishops are
planning on drawing up a pact this week, giving the
appearance of unity and enabling a final deal to be
hammered out at the Lambeth Conference in 2008. They
will will consider a paper from the seven conservative
dioceses of the Episcopal Church that oppose the
leadership of liberal U.S. bishop Katharine Schori and have
appealed to the archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan
Williams, for alternative oversight. The conservatives
argue that there are already, in effect, two churches
under one roof in the United States and appeal for a special
"commissary" to be appointed to look
after them and enable a "cease-fire" until a
peace treaty is reached at Lambeth, The Times reports.
Sources have told
The Times that the aim is for Williams to
invite all 890 bishops and archbishops to the Lambeth
Conference. That would include gay New Hampshire bishop Gene
Robinson, whose consecration in 2003 triggered the
crisis, and any other openly gay bishops consecrated
since. Although the Nigerian bishops are among those
who have have pledged to boycott the conference if Bishop
Robinson is present, sources hope that they might be
persuaded to turn up if a settlement can be reached.
"It is
remarkable that they are even talking to each other,"
said one senior source of the bishops meeting in New
York. "There is a seriously big go-wrong factor
here. This is an internal meeting, but it has huge
external implications for the whole church." (The
Advocate)
