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Anglican Church holding meet to confront division

The Archbishop of Canterbury's hopes this week of preventing the 78 million-strong worldwide Anglican communion from finally sliding into schism over the issue of homosexuality appeared slim on Sunday as he prepared to fly to Tanzania for a meeting of the Church's primates.

Conservative archbishops, mainly from the developing world, have gathered in Dar es Salaam for a separate two-day conference in advance of a formal meeting tomorrow to plot tactics and agree on a strategy before Rowan Williams arrives today.

If the meeting does split, the divisions within the third-largest Christian denomination would have repercussions for the "mother" Church of England, some of whose bishops have weighed in on the side of the conservatives.

Opposition

Archbishops from the developing world have told Williams privately that they are opposed to his invitation to Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the US Episcopal Church, to attend the meeting because she supported its election of the openly gay bishop of New Hampshire, Gene Robinson, in 2003.

Schori is the first female primate of a leading Christian denomination in Church history and some Africans have threatened that they will not sit down in the same room with her or recognize her authority.

"I think it is going to be a very bloody meeting and it is impossible to predict which way it will go," said one primate who will be attending what is scheduled to be a four-day meeting.

Archbishops, particularly those from Africa, want the US Church to be thrown out of the Anglican communion because the Church has been supportive of gay relationships, which they see as being in defiance of biblical injunctions.

They are being supported and lobbied at the meeting by English and US conservative, mainly evangelical, factions who also want to overthrow the US Church's liberal leadership and claim it for themselves.

In a further uncompromising sign, the Most Reverend Peter Akinola, the primate of Nigeria and leader of the so-called "global south" archbishops opposed to any accommodation with the Church's homosexual members, has told Williams that he objects to the presence of John Sentamu, Arch-bishop of York, at the meeting.

Support

Williams invited Sentamu to speak for the Church of England at the meeting, but also to give himself extra support.

Williams chairs the meetings of the primates but finds it difficult independently also to represent the position of the English Church.

Suspecting that Sentamu, despite his African and evangelical credentials, is too accommodating to the liberal Americans, Akinola has called for him to be barred from the meeting.

One senior English bishop has criticized the Americans.

Michael Scott-Joynt, Bishop of Winchester, wrote in the Church of England newspaper at the weekend that if Schori is allowed to attend, "I am in no doubt that this would destroy the authority of the communion ... the Episcopal Church and its new presiding bishop are increasingly departing from basic Christian belief in the lordship and uniqueness of Christ."
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