The head of the
Anglican Communion said Sunday that the global fellowship
faces ''one of the most severe challenges'' in its history,
and he urged bishops at their once-a-decade Lambeth
Conference to do the hard work of finding solutions.
Archbishop of
Canterbury Rowan Williams said the Anglican family's most
immediate need is for ''transformed relationships'' so they
don't break apart over homosexuality and the Bible.
''We all know
that we stand in the middle of one of the most severe
challenges to have faced the Anglican family in its
history,'' he said in an address to the 650 bishops at
the assembly.
But he said the
world fellowship has survived other crises in its
centuries-long history, and he has faith that church leaders
can overcome the most recent troubles.
''Whatever the
popular perception, the options before us are not
irreparable schism or forced assimilation,'' Williams said.
''It is not an option to hope that we can somehow just
carry on as we always have.''
Williams made the
comments as church leaders in Canterbury emerged from
days of prayer and turned to the business of their meeting.
In Bible study and small group discussion, they will
try to rebuild the ties among Anglican national
churches that shattered after the 2003 consecration of
the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, V. Gene Robinson of
New Hampshire.
The work of the
meeting, which runs through Aug. 3, is complicated by a
boycott. About one-quarter of the invited bishops --
theological conservatives mostly from Africa -- stayed
away because Williams invited bishops from the U.S.
and elsewhere who accept gay relationships.
Williams called
their absence a ''wound'' and asked participants to pray
for the boycotters. He barred Robinson and a few other
problematic bishops from the conference.
Still, Robinson
is in Canterbury, staying on the outskirts of the
meeting, working with advocates for Anglican gays and
lesbians and hoping to meet as many overseas Anglican
bishops as possible.
The
77-million-member Anglican Communion is a global fellowship
of churches that trace their roots to the missionary
work of the Church of England. It is the
second-largest group of churches in the world, behind
Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians.
Anglicans have
long held together divergent views of Scripture and
ritual. But those divisions have been widening as Anglican
churches in the developing world, where strict Bible
interpretation is the norm, have become the biggest
and fastest-growing in the communion.
Last month, a
group of Anglican conservatives from Africa, Australia and
elsewhere formed a new network within the fellowship that
challenges Williams' authority, but stops short of
schism. Some of the network organizers are attending
Lambeth, but most are staying away.
Other religious
groups are facing similar divisions over how they should
interpret Scripture, and they are closely watching the
outcome of the assembly. Several Vatican officials are
among the ecumenical participants at Lambeth.
The meeting was
designed without any votes or legislation, and no one
expects the Anglicans to resolve their problems by the
assembly's end. Organizers instead hope their
discussions will help clarify what direction they
should take to stay together.
''A Lambeth
Conference is not a political meeting about organization or
structure alone, but it is a spiritual meeting,'' said
Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, head of the Anglican
Church of Australia. ''We must go into this confident
that a way has been found to the Father ... . We must be
confident that that way is there.'' (Rachel Zoll, AP)
