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By Jim Coggins
ANGLICANS were divided on whether the 2008 Lambeth Conference had fostered a sense of unity or deepened an existing schism, following the conclusion of the conference, which brings together Anglican bishops from around the world every ten years, last Sunday.
Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican Church in the United Kingdom and nominal head of the 77-million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, said the conference had produced "wide agreement" on how to proceed with controversies that are currently affecting the church, such as the blessing of same-sex unions.
"We may not have put an end to our problems but the pieces are on the board," said Wiliams in a formal address at the conclusion of the July 16 - August 3 meeting at the University of Kent.
His words were echoed by Colin Johnson, Bishop of Toronto, who told Globe and Mail reporter Michael Valpy that the Holy Spirit deserves the credit for avoiding an open split between liberal and conservative Anglican bishops.
However, Don Harvey, a bishop with the Anglican Network in Canada, which has split from the Anglican Church of Canada and aligned itself with Anglicans from Africa and South America, said, "Division has already taken place."
"What do you need to see happen before you say we are divided?" Harvey asked, noting that while over 600 bishops had been present at Lambeth, over a quarter of all Anglican bishops -- over 200 -- had boycotted the conference.
The worldwide Anglican Communion has been deeply divided since the Episcopal Church USA ordained openly homosexual bishop Gene Robinson in 2003 and the Canadian Diocese of New Westminster voted in favour of blessing same-sex unions in 2002. A majority of the "primates" who lead the 38 national Anglican bodies, particularly those from the Global South, have protested these actions. The prime issue, they say, is not homosexuality but the authority of scripture.
As a result, a number of parishes in Canada and the US have chosen to disaffiliate from their national Anglican bodes and have come under the authority of these other primates.
Archbishop Williams's optimism was based on the "broad support" he saw at Lambeth 2008 for the report of the Windsor Continuation Group (WCG), which was appointed by Williams to carry forward the work of the 2004 Windsor Report, which had attempted to deal with the crisis. Both documents call for a moratorium on same-sex blessings, on the ordination of homosexual bishops and on "interventions", in which bishops from one territory offer oversight to parishes which have left their dioceses in other territories.
However, the WCG moratorium would be "retrospective," meaning that the Diocese of New Westminster would have to withdraw its practice of same-sex blessings. The WCG also recommended a "covenant" which Anglican bishops would have to agree to -- including the moratorium -- and which would be overseen by a "pastoral forum."
While Lambeth discussed the WCG report, no formal action was taken on it. The proposal will be further revised in September and will be presented for discussion to the primates when they meet early next year and to the Anglican Consultative Council, which meets in Jamaica in May 2009.
However, it is not at all clear that the boycotting bishops will agree to participate in the further discussion of the WCG proposals in 2009. Harvey said he would have to see more evidence of change "before even remotely becoming part of the process."
Harvey said he was annoyed by the whole process. While he was not at Lambeth, he said the results of the conference were "identical to what we expected."
The lack of concrete action at Lambeth was due to the "indaba" process decided on 18 months earlier, said Harvey. Under this process -- named for a kind of gathering held by the Zulu people in South Africa -- the bishops discussed issues in small groups, and those discussions were compiled into 'reflections' at the end of the Conference, but no formal decisions were made. "Even if they had wanted to do something, the structure wouldn't permit it," said Harvey.
The ongoing discussions are "a ploy to wear down the opposition by talking and talking," said Harvey, until those church leaders opposed to homosexual practice have retired and people will have become so used to the idea of same-sex unions that they just accept them.
A moratorium on the approval of same-sex unions was passed in Resolution 1.10 at the 1998 Lambeth Conference but it was "ignored completely," said Harvey, adding, "I don't see the [WCG proposals] having the remotest possibility of working."
The primates have called on the American and Canadian churches to repent of their actions in endorsing homosexuality but there has been "no public or private indication" of that happening, said Harvey. In fact, four more Canadian dioceses -- Niagara, Ottawa, Huron and Montreal -- have formally asked their bishops for permission to perform same-sex blessings.
Other Anglicans have openly resisted the call to revoke the blessings that have already been conferred upon same-sex couples. "It would be absolutely devastating to even think about moving back to where we were before," Toronto suffragan bishop George Elliott told the Anglican Journal.
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Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, told the same paper that the proposals would be a challenge for both those who have approved of same-sex blessings and those who have engaged in "interventions" since both believe they are doing the right thing.
Michael Ingham, Bishop of New Westminster, was even more blunt. He said that accepting the WCG proposals would "put the Anglican Church of Canada in the position of having to support and defend irrational prejudice and bigotry."
Harvey suggested that the bishops from the Global South are no more willing to compromise. In June, more than 200 bishops who boycotted the Lambeth Conference attended the Global Anglican Futures Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem instead and set up their own structure for accountability called the 'Primates' Council.'
One of those primates, Archbishop Orombi of Uganda, wrote in the British newspaper The Times that the current system of having the English primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury, serve as leader of the Anglican Communion is "a remnant of British colonialism" and needs to be changed. "The spiritual leadership of a global communion of independent and autonomous provinces should not be reduced to one man appointed by a secular government," he wrote.
In a later letter, Orombi said the other primates would have to take appropriate action to discipline those who advocate heretical teachings if the Archbishop of Canterbury does not do so himself.
Some bishops from the Global South have been refusing to share the Lord's Supper with some bishops from the West since 2003, Harvey noted. "The Anglican Communion was divided before Lambeth started. GAFCON was not held as a means to prevent division but because division had already taken place," he said.
The GAFCON leaders are planning to meet later this month to discuss their formal response to Lambeth.
Victoria Matthews, former Bishop of Edmonton and now Bishop of Christchurch in New Zealand, is a member of the WCG. Regarding the difficulty of the Canadian and US churches in stepping back from their approval of same-sex unions, she told the Anglican Journal, "I don't think they actually mean 'can't', I think they actually mean 'won't'."
The Anglican Network in Canada would be "very happy to reassess" its position if the Anglican leaders in Canada who approve same-sex blessings would repent of their actions and return to a biblical position, said Harvey. "It would be nothing short of a miracle" if that happened, he said, but he also suggested that as a Christian he believes in miracles.
However, for now, "We are still part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, still part of an Anglican province" -- even if it is an Anglican province based in South America rather than one based in Canada. However, that does not mean that the Anglican Communion is not divided, either in the world or in Canada. "There are two branches of Anglicanism in Canada," he said.
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