Anglican leaders struggling to resolve explosive differences over homosexuality have asked the US Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada to temporarily withdraw from a key council of their global communion because of the election of a gay bishop in the US and the blessing of same-sex unions there and in Canada.
The request was made following a Northern Ireland meeting that the Anglican leaders, or primates, convened on the crisis this week.
The Episcopal Church, which is the US province of Anglicanism, precipitated the most serious rift in the communion's history when it consecrated Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire in November 2003. Robinson lives with his longtime male partner.
Conservatives have also criticized North American dioceses for allowing blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples.
DISINVITED
The North American churches have been asked not to attend the next meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, which is a body of bishops, priests and lay people from national Anglican churches who meet and consult in between the once-a-decade Lambeth Conferences for the primates.
However, Anglican leaders also recommended that a special hearing be organized at the council's June gathering to allow the North American churches to send representatives to explain their views on homosexuality.
"In the meantime, we ask our fellow primates to use their best influence to persuade their brothers and sisters to exercise a moratorium on public rites of blessing for same-sex unions and on the consecration of any bishop living in a sexual relationship outside Christian marriage," the statement said.
Conservatives who lead the Anglican Communion Network, which represents dissenting Episcopal dioceses and churches in the US, argued that the primates' request meant that the two North American provinces "have been effectively suspended" from the communion.
COMPROMISE
But James Naughton, a spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, and a supporter of Robinson's, disagreed, calling the report an "elegant compromise." He said Episcopalians could easily accept temporary withdrawal from the council, if it would create more time for Anglicans to find ways to remain unified.
Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, head of the Episcopal Church, stressed in a brief statement after the meeting that discussions were continuing:
"These days have not been easy for any of us and the communique reflects a great deal of prayer and the strong desire to find a way forward as a communion in the midst of deep differences which have been brought into sharp relief around the subject of homosexuality."
"Clearly, all parts of the communique will not please everyone. It is important to keep in mind that it was written with a view to making room for a wide variety of perspectives," he said.
The primates' communique reaffirmed a 1998 resolution adopted by all Anglican bishops which declared that gay sex was "incompatible with Scripture" and opposed gay ordinations.
The communique said many of the primates who met this week were alarmed that "the standard of Christian teaching on matters of human sexuality" had "been seriously undermined.
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