Word: anglicanism
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...world' s Anglican bishops barely paper over their cultural differences on women clergy, homosexuality and other matters...
...great organ thundered beneath the medieval arches of England's Canterbury Cathedral, 525 bishops last week joined in a sung Eucharist to conclude the Lambeth Conference, the once-a-decade meeting of the international Anglican hierarchy. The bishops' matching robes of red, white and black gave a superficial impression of unity, as did the compromise measures they had enacted. "Some thought this conference was impossible. Reason and experience suggested we would fall apart. But by keeping our eyes on the Lord, we have not sunk," said a relieved Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie, the Anglicans' spiritual leader...
Though the latest Lambeth Conference (named after the Archbishop's palace in London) did not sink, there is rough water ahead for the Anglican Communion, with its 60 million believers. Vast cultural differences are straining the customary tolerance within this family of 27 self-governing branches, which span 164 countries. One sign of this diversity was the simultaneous translation of Lambeth sessions into French, Spanish, Japanese and Swahili. Among the current areas of conflict: doctrine, liturgy, ecumenical relations, abortion, divorce, polygamy, homosexuality and violent revolution...
Despite such resistance, the more liberal Anglican branches are now determined to go beyond women priests and consecrate women as bishops. The opposition to this step is formidable: 40% of the conference voted in favor of an Australian's motion to stall elections of women bishops. Nonetheless, facing up to the inevitable, the meeting decided to let each branch do as it pleases and then directed Runcie to appoint a commission to deal with the resulting disputes...
...Mikhail Gorbachev's Kremlin during the celebrations marking the country's 1,000th year of Christianity. Church bells, so rarely heard in the land of Lenin, pealed joyously as rituals unfolded in the gilded Russian Orthodox sanctuaries. Some 500 spiritual dignitaries from 100 nations were in attendance. Among them: Anglican Leader Robert Runcie, the Archbishop of Canterbury, American Evangelist Billy Graham, and no fewer than nine Cardinals and 27 bishops, the largest and clearly the most estimable Roman Catholic assemblage ever to visit the Soviet Union. In a remarkable display of glasnost, night after night the officially sanctioned events...