Sydney's conservative Anglican archbishop has warned that Anglicanism could split into two separate movements over the ordination of gay bishops.
"We must look at the possibility that the Anglican congregation will actually divide," Archbishop Peter Jensen told Australian television's Nine Network. "It is conceivable ... that two world Anglicanisms may develop."
In an interview published by a Sunday newspaper, Jensen said such a split could be caused if the openly gay Bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, were to be invited to a meeting of Anglican bishops known as the Lambeth Conference.
The conference is usually called every 10 years.
"If Gene Robinson is called to Lambeth, there would be a number of people who would feel that they can't go. Some might go but not take communion. There would be difficulties. Then what happens?" Jensen said in an interview with Sydney's Sun Herald Sunday.
"It may be well conceivable that some other leading figure in the communion will call people together, those who adopt the same stance towards the Bible," he added. "It would not be giving such a person more authority than the Archbishop of Canterbury, but it's more a moral leadership."
Nigeria's Archbishop Peter Akinola has been suggested by observers as a possible leader of the conservative arm of the church.
Akinola said in a recent commentary in the Church Times newspaper that homosexuality "is a flagrant disobedience to God."
"For us, therefore, adherence to Scripture is not only paramount, it is also nonnegotiable," said Akinola.
Jensen said he could align his congregation with a movement of churches known as the Global South from countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
"It may be that we find more fellowship with the Global South churches than with old Western churches," he said.
Jensen also threatened to remove the Sydney diocese from the Australian Anglican Church if it allowed homosexuals to be ordained.
Australian Anglican Primate, Archbishop Peter Carnley of Perth, said Jensen's comments were "unhelpful and misleading."
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