Once a decade, the Anglican Communion\u2019s bishops gather in Canterbury to celebrate the ties that bind.<\/p>\n\n
This time around, a global coalition is preparing for the 1998 Lambeth Conference in a most unusual manner. It\u2019s bishops have done everything they can \u2014 short of lighting a beacon in the British cathedral\u2019s high tower \u2014 to issue a warning: \u201cThe Americans are coming! The Americans are coming!\u201d<\/p>\n\n
For two decades, Episcopalians have been fighting over the Bible, sex and marriage, with homosexuality getting the most ink. A month ago, 50 bishops and archbishops from 16 nations met in Dallas to discuss how to keep America\u2019s ecclesiastical sexual revolution from reaching their altars. The oldline Protestant sex wars have gone global.<\/p>\n\n
Now, 37 participants in this \u201cAnglican Life and Witness Conference\u201d have sent an unusually blunt letter to each American bishop asking why so many of them are ordaining priests who are sexually active outside of the Sacrament of Marriage and letting their clergy perform same-sex union rites. The U.S. church now has a de facto policy allowing these actions.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cWhy in this matter have such bishops failed to consider the judgment of their colleagues in other parts of the Anglican Communion, nor taken into account the repercussions of their actions in different areas of the world?\u201d, asked the bishops. \u201cDo those who perform or sanction such ordinations and blessing knowingly set aside the authority of scripture and the doctrine of marriage given by God in creation and affirmed by his Son, Jesus Christ?\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The foreign bishops \u2013 mostly from Africa \u2013 asked American bishops to respond by the first of the year, either in writing or in face-to-face meetings. And, in a publicly released statement, the bishops didn\u2019t duck another painful issue: the possibility that American doctrinal innovations may shatter global Anglican unity at the level of bread and wine.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cAccountability \u2026 calls us to provide a clear understanding of the bounds of eucharistic fellowship,\u201d they said. \u201cThose who choose beliefs and practices outside the boundaries of the historic faith must understand they are separating themselves from communion and leading others astray. Sadly, that reality of broken fellowship can extend to individuals, congregations or even whole dioceses and provinces. Where this happens, we call for repentance and return.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
These statements follow two other pre-Lambeth developments. During a February meeting of archbishops in Jerusalem, several participants \u2013 openly or privately, depending on who describes the scene \u2013 briefly suggested that the Episcopal Church\u2019s delegation be banned from Lambeth. This was followed by the conservative \u201cKuala Lumpur Statement\u201d from 80 bishops in 20 of Anglicanism\u2019s 35 provinces, meeting in Malaysia.<\/p>\n\n
Events at Canterbury will be shaped by two sets of numbers. The first is that 75 percent of the world\u2019s 70 million Anglicans now kneel in the rapidly growing, and strongly orthodox, churches of the Two-Thirds World. The second is that the First World\u2019s shrinking churches still have more bishops and larger trust funds, which provide crucial gifts to foreign churches. Nearly 750 bishops have been sent Lambeth invitations and almost a quarter of those who can afford to go will come from the Episcopal Church, which has about 2 million members.<\/p>\n\n
Plus, it may be hard for conservatives to make a stand because planners have scheduled no plenary legislative sessions. Instead, most of the July 18- August 9 conference will consist of small-group meetings and formal papers on these topics \u2014 \u201cCalled to Full Humanity,\u201d \u201cCalled to live and proclaim the Good News,\u201d \u201cCalled to be faithful in a plural world\u201d and \u201cCalled to be One.\u201d This last topic could, ironically, cause the most division.<\/p>\n\n
Most First World bishops will seek soothing sensitivity sessions that produce nuanced relationships, commitments to further dialogue and, at most, the traditional Anglican response to a crisis \u2013 a compromise conceived in a study committee. The Two-Thirds World bishops want clarity, before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n\n
The coalition that formed in Dallas didn\u2019t mince words: \u201cIt is not acceptable for a pro-gay agenda to be smuggled into the church\u2019s programme or foisted upon our people and we will not permit it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once a decade, the Anglican Communion\u2019s bishops gather in Canterbury to celebrate the ties that bind. This time around, a global coalition is preparing for the 1998 Lambeth Conference in a most unusual manner. It\u2019s bishops have done everything they can \u2014 short of lighting a beacon in the British cathedral\u2019s high tower \u2014 to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n