The worldwide Anglican church attempted to stave off disintegration over the issue of homosexuality among the clergy Monday night with a desperate plea for both sides to express regret and seek ways of coexistence.
The report of a commission headed by Archbishop Robin Eames, the primate of Ireland -- set up in the wake of the consecration in the US last November of the church's first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson -- criticized the American Episcopal Church and the Canadian diocese of New Westminster, which has authorized gay blessings, for acting unilaterally.
It called on the US church to express its regret, not for electing Robinson, but for upsetting the rest of the world. The report also called for all Anglican churches to hold a moratorium on gay blessings for same-sex couples and ordinations of openly homosexual clergy.
But the commission also advised traditionalists to moderate their language in condemning gays and for bishops to refrain from trespassing on liberal bishops' dioceses in support of parishes that had fallen out with the authorities.
The recommendations stopped short of demanding the repentance and resignations conservative evangelicals had demanded, though it suggested Bishop Robinson will not be invited to communion meetings.
Archbishop Eames reserved his harshest condemnation for homophobia in the church, showing evident repugnance for the behavior of some church leaders in the language they have used about gays.
The prospects that the report would find a compromise for the 78 million-strong worldwide communion looked bleak last night as factions began to digest its findings.
One senior primate told the Guardian: "It's very, very black, very grim. We are hell-bent on division. It's all down to the grace of Almighty God now."
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who heads the worldwide Anglican communion, said in a statement: "I hope that everyone with the wellbeing of our communion at heart will now take time to study the report and to pray and reflect on its proposals which ... offer neither easy nor simple solutions to real and demanding challenges."
But Frank Griswold, the presiding bishop of the US Episcopal Church, much criticized for presiding at the consecration of Bishop Robinson said that, although he regretted how his church's "difficult and painful actions" had affected other provinces, he could not apologize for supporting Robinson's election.
"I cannot regret that action itself, as difficult as it may be," he said.
American traditionalists gathered in London warned: "We cannot in good conscience support unity at the expense of truth ... The Episcopal Church is now faced with serious and difficult choices."
"They can follow the lead of Bishop Griswold which will ultimately lead to the demise of the Episcopal Church or ... they can reject false doctrine and preserve faithful unity," they said.
The Evangelical Alliance, representing British groups, was concerned that the report called for a moratorium on gay blessings rather than outright prohibition. Anglican Mainstream, a conservative evangelical pressure group, claimed to have serious reservations about the report.
Liberal church groups reacted with pleasure and some surprise to the report.
"We welcome the realization that the debate on homosexuality is not closed. The tenor of the document is itself conciliatory. This is a document we can work with, this is a church we want to continue to be a part of," it said.
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