Anglican split?

Anglican split comes closer as US church rejects demand over gays

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2104502,00.html

Stephen Bates Religious affairs correspondent
Saturday June 16, 2007
The Guardian

The impending division of the worldwide Anglican communion came a step closer yesterday as the rift over the way the church deals with homosexuality descended into acrimony.

The US Episcopal church rejected the demands of the rest of the church, headed by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, that it should fall into line by refusing to conduct blessing services for gay couples or elect more gay bishops and allow disaffected conservative US congregations to have their own leadership.

The rejection of the demands, made by the church's archbishops in Tanzania in February, means there is little chance of the US church meeting the end of September deadline for compliance and will increase the insistence of conservative and evangelical forces in the communion that it should be forced out. The US church is a small part of the worldwide communion but its financial support underwrites much of Anglicanism's activities.

Dr Williams - currently on sabbatical in Washington - is due to meet the US bishops in New Orleans in mid-September in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the split.

Canon Gregory Cameron, deputy secretary general of the Anglican Communion, who is the church's chief mediator in the crisis, told the Guardian yesterday: "My fear is people are starting to behave less like a world communion and it is becoming more like ecclesiastical chaos."

The rejection came after a four-day meeting of the US church's executive council, in a statement insisting that the leaders of other parts of the communion could not impose deadlines and demands.

Next week Canadian Anglicans meet in synod in Winnipeg to decide whether they should authorise official blessing services for gay couples.