US bishops face crunch vote on gay split

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

US bishops face crunch vote on gay split

Fred Attewill and agencies
Tuesday September 25, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

The leaders of the US Episcopal church will today vote on a make or break compromise aimed at preventing a global split in the Anglican communion over homosexuality.


The agreement aims to accommodate conservative Anglicans - predominantly from Africa - who have called on liberal clergy to stop blessing gay couples and ban the appointment of openly gay bishops. Liberal clergy are expected to continue offering pastoral support to gay couples. However, senior bishops were also facing ruptures between traditionalists and liberals within the Episcopal church, the Anglican body in the US.

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, told a meeting in New Orleans last week that Episcopalians should stay within the church and not seek to align themselves with more fundamentalist provinces in Africa.

Today is the final day of the bishops' meeting, and negotiations were expected to continue up to the vote.

The liberal bishop of Los Angeles, Jon Bruno, held out hope for the compromise. "We are working very closely with one another whether we are on the conservative end of the church, the liberal or the moderate middle," he said.

"We're looking to make as full, clear and complete a response as we can."
Dr Williams was strongly critical of African attempts to recruit dissident parishes in the US. However, American conservative bishops complained that he had refused to see them or return their calls.

They are likely to seek oversight from an African province, and their leader, Bishop Bob Duncan of Pittsburgh, predicted that around five of the US church's 112 dioceses would seek to affiliate outside the US.
The compromise being worked on would also allow dioceses out of sympathy with the church's leadership to seek their own Episcopal oversight and enable the setting up of a pastoral council with foreign representatives.
No such compromises, however, are likely to appease conservative groups. The worldwide communion has been in turmoil since the Episcopal church consecrated Gene Robinson, who is gay, as the bishop of New Hampshire.

[source]