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[Back to index of September 2008 articles] Canterbury Tales: 2008 Lambeth Conference Is Prayerful, Inspiring, but Ends on Bitter Note for Some By Jim Naughton
Canterbury – The bishops of the Lambeth Conference walked a novel route to a familiar destination. For two weeks, 670 bishops from around the Anglican Communion prayed, studied the Bible and engaged one another in intense but respectful conversation, all the while avoiding the parliamentary-style resolution-making that had turned the 1998 Lambeth Conference into a bitter affair. But on the final afternoon of the gathering, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, once again called upon the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to refrain from acting on their beliefs regarding the position of gays and lesbians in the Church. In his third presidential address, delivered just a few hours before the conference’s closing Eucharist, Williams asked the two North American churches to observe moratoria on the consecration of gay bishops who live openly with their partners, and on the development of rites to bless same sex relationships. “I think if the North American churches don’t accept the need for moratoria then at least we are no further forward,” Williams said at the conference’s concluding press briefing. “As a Communion we would be in great peril.” The Episcopal Church has already affirmed a de facto moratorium on the consecration of a gay bishop—first in passing Resolution B033 at its General Convention in 2006, and again when its House of Bishops met with Williams in New Orleans last year and pledged not to confirm a gay candidate if one were elected to the episcopacy. However, a number of dioceses have passed resolutions asking the General Convention to overturn B033 when it meets next July in Anaheim, Calif. No Episcopal diocese has an authorized rite for the blessing of same-sex relationships. The Diocese of New Westminster in Canada, where same sex marriage is legal, has approved such a rite, and four other Canadian dioceses are considering a similar step, according to Archbishop Fred Hiltz, the Canadian primate. A number of Episcopal dioceses—including this one—permit the blessing of same sex relationships, a practice also common in the Church of England and other provinces of the Communion which were not singled out by the archbishop. Some church leaders have argued that the moratoria require an end to such blessings, but at his press briefing, Williams made it clear that he was speaking about the authorization of rites. “As soon as there is a liturgical form it gives the impression that this has the church’s stamp on it,” he said. “There are those in the USA who would say pastoral care means rites of blessing. I am not very happy about that.” In his closing address, the archbishop also requested a moratorium on so called “border-crossings” in which a bishop from one province of the Communion claims parishes or a diocese in another. Five conservative primates have crossed the borders of other provinces, including the Episcopal Church, to claim theologically conservative parishes or dioceses. Four of the five primates, and almost all of their bishops, boycotted the Lambeth Conference because Williams had invited Bishop John B. Chane and other bishops who had participated in the consecration of Bishop Gene Robinson. Robinson is the only bishop in the Anglican Communion who lives openly with a partner of the same sex. These primates and an unknown number of diocesan bishops had attended the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), a gathering of theological conservatives held in June in Jerusalem. Williams’ plan to preserve the Communion calls for the adoption of an Anglican Covenant that would be used to resolve future disputes, and the creation of a pastoral forum to intervene in situations in which individual parishes or dioceses were out of sympathy with their province on the issue of homosexuality. “I take this to be a profound and generous idea,” Andrus said. “In not abiding by the moratorium on same-sex blessings I take it as incumbent on me and on us in the diocese to actively labor to both understand the position of those to whom that moratorium is important, and to convey the reality of our life together to the world. I must redouble my efforts at inhabiting a deeper unity.” Bishop Mark Sisk of New York said he valued the opportunity to learn about the context in which other provinces discussed human sexuality. During a webcast from Episcopal Church Center, he said he was pleased at “the number of other provinces across the Communion who are very supportive of the kinds of concerns we are trying to address.” However, he added, in many parts of the Communion, association with a church that is perceived to be “pro gay” is dangerous, especially in areas where Christians constitute a small religious minority. “Their lives are quite literally in danger,” he said. “[It is] yet another excuse for the dominant culture to demean them and sometimes violently so.” For additional coverage of the Lambeth Conference visit: Episcopal Café’s Lambeth coverage The Lambeth Conference Web site Episcopal Life Online’s extensive coverage The Church Times blog Trinity Wall Street’s Video Journal [Back to index of September 2008 articles]
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