Archbishop Warns Church May Still Fall Apart Over Homosexuality

The Anglican Communion may still fall apart over homosexuality in spite of the eleventh-hour truce agreed by its leaders in Tanzania this week, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, warns today.

But the effort to keep the worldwide Church in one piece was worthwhile, even though it might look like a dysfunctional family heading for the divorce courts, Dr Williams said in an article for The Daily Telegraph.

The Archbishop said that the “painful intensity” of the talks, which very nearly ended in a split, had not represented the “easy option”.

But there was a need for a worldwide Christian Church that “could balance unity and consent” for the sake of human society.

The Archbishop’s comments, his first since the end of the five-day meeting near Dar Es Salaam on Monday, follow growing outrage from liberals over the final statement issued by the primates.

The strongly-worded, unanimous communique gave the liberal American Episcopal Church just seven months to prove that it has fully reversed its pro-gay agenda or face expulsion.

A number of liberal American bishops, from New York to California, have already said that they would prefer schism to reversing their pro-gay policies and others are expected to follow.

The Bishop of Connecticut, the Rt Rev Andrew Smith, said: “If the primates are asking us to undo what we have already done, that is a step many of the bishops would be unwilling to take.”

The mood in the Church of England, which is facing a highly-charged debate on homosexuality and civil partnerships at its General Synod in London on Wednesday, was also tense.

The Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Tom Wright, said the outcome of the primates’ meeting had been a triumph for Dr Williams as many people had feared that it would end in schism, and he called for calm.

But the Rev Richard Kirker, the chief executive of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, said that the primates’ policy was “as worthless as Chamberlain’s piece of paper from Hitler.”

He added: “Stalling for more time, equivocating, appeasing, and colluding with homophobia will not stand the test of time or close scrutiny. At a time when we are celebrating the end of slavery, the Anglican Primates, perversely, seem willing to enslave and scapegoat gays. Who wants to belong to such a cruel Church?”