Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, on Monday addressed for the first time the possible break-up of the 70 million-strong worldwide Anglican communion which he leads.
In an article in an obscure religious periodical, Williams upped the ante in the church's row over homosexuality by warning of the destruction of Anglicanism's unity, which bishops have traditionally held to be one of its most important attributes.
The 104th Archbishop of Can-terbury, enthroned only six months ago, faces the very schism in the church that he has striven to avoid and which his opponents have gleefully anticipated ever since he was nominated. His latest warning follows both sides' wilful disregard of his appeals for peace and reflection in recent weeks.
Some observers believe that the communion is inevitably heading for a split this autumn following the decision of the US Episcopal Church to appoint the openly gay canon Gene Robinson to the diocesan bishopric of New Hampshire at its convention last month. Evangelicals in the US and England have joined some church leaders, mainly from the developing world, in warning that they cannot remain in communion with a church that would make such an appointment.
The crunch may come next month when evangelicals meet at a church in Plano, a suburb of Dallas, to plot their next moves. Days later Williams has summoned the 38 archbishops who lead the Anglican communion to an emergency meeting at Lambeth Palace.
In his latest statement, authoritatively described at Lambeth as being "not a bluff" and "a whiff of grapeshot" across the bows of both sides, the archbishop warned: "Unity becomes finally unintelligible and unworthwhile when it itself ceases to be a theological category. Staying together is pointless unless it is staying together because of the Body of Christ."
With his customary opacity, Williams added: "I think it worth working at structures in Anglicanism that don't either commit us to a meaningless structural uniformity or leave us in mutual isolation. I suspect that those who speak of new alignments and new patterns, of the weakening of territorial jurisdiction and the like, are seeing the situation pretty accurately....
"I don't expect the next few years to be anything other than messy as far as all this is concerned. The question is not whether we can avoid a mess, but whether we can hang on to common convictions about divine grace and initiative."
The article in New Directions, a polemical journal published by the traditionalist Forward in Faith group, caused consternation on both sides of the row about homosexuality. Both have argued that they represent the traditional spirit of Anglicanism and that their opponents are striving to split the church.
The journal, published by a group which a decade ago opposed the ordination of women but ultimately did not leave the church, may have been chosen as a means of preaching to would-be splitters. Or, as some at Lambeth believe, it may have just been an opportunity that presented itself to the unworldly archbishop. He is understood not to have consulted staff before writing the article shortly before last month's US decision.
But Williams' warning follows a summer of divisions over the authorization of same sex blessings in Canada and the appointment of gay bishops in the US and England. The latter was aborted when the chosen candidate for Bishop of Reading, Jeffrey John, was forced to step down by the archbishop, who had earlier approved the appointment, once he saw the opposition it had generated.
Evangelicals and some traditionalists have used increasingly apocalyptic language to warn of schism, with some third world bishops openly saying that they regard themselves as out of communion with the US Episcopal Church.
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