MINNEAPOLIS — The archbishop of Canterbury on Friday summoned the world's Anglican primates to an extraordinary meeting in London to head off the deepening division in the Anglican Communion over the U.S. Episcopal Church's approval of the first openly gay bishop.
Meanwhile, a major conservative group that has remained within the Episcopal Church announced that its member churches wanted out. The American Anglican Council said it would petition the archbishop of Canterbury for the creation of a separate Anglican church in the United States and Canada.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday August 12, 2003 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 78 words Type of Material: Correction
Gay bishop -- An article in Section A on Saturday about the archbishop of Canterbury's call for a meeting of the world's Anglican primates to discuss deepening divisions over homosexuality misspelled a word in a statement by the Rev. Canon David Anderson. He was quoted as saying the Episcopal Church's approval of the first openly gay priest as a bishop "took us out of the mainstream and took us into schematic, false doctrine." The correct word is schismatic.
With tensions mounting in the U.S. church and the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams called the emergency meeting for Oct. 15-16 of the world's 38 Anglican primates, including the head of the U.S. Episcopal Church.
"I am clear that the anxieties caused by recent developments have reached the point where we will need to sit down and discuss their consequences," Williams said in a statement released in London. "I hope that in our deliberations we will find that there are ways forward in this situation which can preserve our respect for one another and for the bonds that unite us."
The developments came just three days after the Episcopal Church's highest law-making body consented at its meeting here to the unprecedented election by the Diocese of New Hampshire of an openly gay priest, the Rev. Canon V. Gene Robinson, as its next bishop. The convention, which ended today, also gave local bishops tacit approval to allow their priests to perform marriage-like ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples.
Reaction to the votes has been heated.
Archbishop Peter Akinola, primate of the 17.5-million-member Anglican church in Nigeria, condemned Robinson's election as "a Satanic attack on God's church." Other protests were lodged by Anglican bishops in Egypt, Kenya and the Bahamas. Conservative U.S. bishops two days ago called their church's decision a "pastoral emergency" and called on the archbishop of Canterbury to intervene.
But liberal bishops in the U.S. hailed the church's controversial stands as a prophetic movement toward full inclusion of gays and lesbians in the church. The U.S. church also won support from Archbishop Winston Ndungane of South Africa, and the Rt. Rev. Edward Neufville, bishop of Liberia.
"Who am I to question the people of the United States about how to interpret God's message?" Ndungane said.
