Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter

A group of Anglican church bishops gather around Rev. William Atwood and Rev. William Murdoch during a consecrated ceremony by Kenyan Archbishop of the Anglican Church, Reverend Benjamin Nzimbi (centre), at the All Saints Cathedral Church in Kenya's capital Nairobi on Thursday. - Reuters

On Thursday, two American Episcopal clergymen were consecrated to the office of bishop by the Most Rev. Benjamin Nzimbi, archbishop of Kenya. This sacred rite was conducted in Kenyan capital Nairobi and was attended by several Anglican bishops from Africa.

The two American clergymen, Rev. William Leo Murdoch and Rev. William Atwood, form part of the conservative wing of the Episcopal church in the United States (ECUSa), that strongly opposes the homosexual lifestyle, gay marriages and the 2003 consecration of the openly homosexual and non-celibate Gene Robinson, bishop of New Hampshire.

Last year the Truro Church and the Falls Church - both located in northern Virginia voted to bring themselves under the authority of Archbishop of Nigeria, the Most Rev. Peter Akinola, who leads 37 million Anglicans as chair of the Anglican Church in Africa.

Fifteen of the 29 provinces that make up the Anglican Communion globally have already severed relationship with the Episcopal Church of the United States.

Conservative Anglican congregations in America are increasingly frustrated by that province's failure to emphatically distance itself from the gay lobby within the church. Some of these congregations ar themselves to Anglican bishops in Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and other African dioceses.

Archbishop Peter Akinola, being the leader of the largest Anglican diocese is seen by many in the church as a natural replacement for the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams.

Response of the US church

Atwood

At the centre of this tension within the global Anglican communion is the response of the U.S. church to conform to the recommendations of the Windsor Report which was published in October 2004. In the wake of the consecration of Gene Robinson, the Archbishop of Canterbury established the Lambeth Commission on Communion to look at what the Scriptures teach concerning homosexuality and what it means to be an Anglican. The Lambeth Commission, included bishops from all provinces of the global church, speaking about the Windsor Report in an interview with this reporter published June 4, 2005, the Anglican Archbishop of the West Indies, the Most Rev. Drexel Gomez, a member of the Lambeth Commission, said

Jefferts schori

"We concluded on the basis of who we are and on the basis of our own Anglican self-understanding that the actions of the Church in the United States and the Church in Canada have departed from the Anglican way of doing church. We said it (homosexual behaviour) is not only un-Anglican but contrary to Scripture. In that context, we called on the churches involved to express 'regret'. The language was chosen deliberately. Some of us wanted to put 'repent.' But we felt, let us put it in the language that is the lowest common denominator to get a response. To express regret and say you won't do it again is very close to what the New Testament calls repentance. We felt that if we went that way, we had a far better chance of evoking a response as opposed to just coming up to them and saying repent. We asked them to have a moratorium - not to do it again. And to explain the theological reasons why they acted that way."

The 2.3-million member Episcopal Church in the United States, which is led by Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, convened the general convention in June of 2006 but did not fulfil the wishes of the Windsor Report.

Canon Dr. Chris Sugden was among those in attendance in Ohio when the Episcopal Church in the United States responded to the Windsor Report.

Canon Sugden, who is the executive secretary of Anglican Mainstream, a network of orthodox Anglicans was in the island earlier this week on a short visit.

Creating a middle ground

Murdoch

According to Sugden, "Bishop Peter Lee of Diocese of Virginia an effort to create a kind of middle ground that would satisfy the pro-homosexual lobby and the orthodox Anglicans.

"First, people were saying that there are 15 per cent of the Anglicans who are the activists for gay inclusion. Second, there are 15 per cent who are biblically convinced that while people with gay orientation are welcomed like anybody else, there can be no gay practice. And third, there were 70 per cent in the middle who are saying that there is a plague on both your houses - we want to get on being Christians and will that 70 per cent please stand and be counted.

Sugden

"Bishop Peter Lee was arguing that the average person in the pew just wanted to get on, so let's have something that accepts the Windsor Report with certain caveats. But there was a very strong opposition to that. Peter Lee's argument was we can do nothing and we should do nothing that gives any signal to our active gay and lesbian members that they are anything else but fully members of this church and fully open to all the senior positions in the church - priests, bishops. Therefore, any agreement you come to with the rest of the Anglican communion, should not be at price these people who we fully accept with all their gay practices as being perfectly acceptable members of the Anglican community."

But, Bishop Lee's argument, Canon Sugden said, was crushed because that sort of middle of the way view - was acceptable to neither the gay lobby nor the conservative lobby. So the idea of a solid middle ground collapsed.

Following the general convention of the Episcopal church in the United States, the Archbishop of Canterbury created a panel to consider the way forward. The panel drew from the Primates Committee and the Anglican Consultative Council. This group met in September 2006 but they kept their report secretive until a meeting with all primates in Tanzania last February.

The report delivered at the Tanzania meeting by the Archbishop of Canterbury was that the Episcopal Church in America had, as their polity allowed, substantially met the recommendations of the Windsor Report.

Rejecting clerics position

Gomez

Canon Sugden reported that Archbishop Gomez rejected the Canterbury clerics position, arguing that panel's report was unacceptable and was not an accurate or fair representation of the positions of the Episcopal Church in the United States.

The primates gave the Episcopal Church seven months to clarify their reaction to the Windsor Report. That seven month expires on September 30.

Canon Sugden said it seems the mood of the primates is that gay issues have rocked the Anglican Church long enough and it was time to forge ahead.

He cited the response of Archbishop Akinola in a recent speech to the House of Bishops, who said that the matter has dragged on long enough and there can be no semantic appeasing of the various factions in the church. Hence, Akinola stressed, the time had come for the church to choose.

Canon reported too that Archbishop Gomez, has said twice in recent times "that we can no longer have the assurance that the Episcopal Church in the United States is in continuity with the faith once delivered to the saints." That Canon Sugden conceded is "very strong language for him".

Though public gay scandals have been rocking the church since 2003, there has hardly been even a feeble mumble out of the Archbishop of Canterbury in defence of the orthodox position in the United States.

Among his critics is, Robert William Duncan Jr., the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh. At present, on the Anglican Mainstream website (www.anglican-mainstream.net), there is an article penned by Bishop Duncan which decries the leadership of Rowan Williams on thematter. The article, published in July states: "Never, ever has he (the Archbishop of Canterbury) spoken publicly in defence of the orthodox in the United States," adding that "the cost is his office". "To lose that historic office is a cost of such magnitude that God must be doing a new thing," he said.

"In other words, since the Archbishop of Canterbury has not provided for the safe oversight of the orthodox in the United States, he has forfeited his role as the one who gathers the Communion. This has become further obvious with the refusal of the invitation to the Lambeth Conference by the leaders of over half the Anglicans in the world and the questioning by some English bishops as to whether they will attend".

Schism or a revolution?

Nzimbi

" So are we seeing a schism or a revolution? A long overdue development is taking place, namely that significant and meaningful leadership is now being given in the Anglican Communion by Christians from Africa and Asia. This is being expressed in the very practical issues of first determining to stand by the teaching of the Communion; second, refusing to attend a dumbed-down Lambeth Conference which will not address this issue decisively and which will include those who have deliberately defied that teaching; and third, by providing the orthodox oversight that orthodox Anglicans are requesting.

The world waits to see how the Episcopal Church will respond as its deadline of September 30 fast approaches. Meantime, the Episcopal diocese of Chicago on Tuesday included a lesbian priest among five nominees for bishop.

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