Word: communion
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Episcopal Church in the U.S. was expecting a moderate message on homosexual equality from its Anglican counteparts at their annual meeting in Tanzania this week - or even some kind of benign stalling action - it was sorely mistaken. The communique issued by the Communion's collected primates (regional archbishops) ended up presenting a fairly stark choice for more the liberal-minded Episcopalians: either back off on officiating at gay commitment ceremonies and ordaining gay clergy - fast - or be shunned by the Anglican Communion...
...primates of the Anglican Communion, the 77-million member body that includes the Episcopal Church in the U.S., gave the Episcopalians (with 2.2 million members) less than eight months to swear off officiating at gay commitment ceremonies and set in motion a system of "alternative oversight" for Episcopal congregations so disgruntled with the positions of the American church that they have been demanding their own set of conservative bishops as the price of staying within the church. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, Anglicanism's first primate among equals and the man responsible for trying to hold the Communion together, made...
...Prior to the move, most observers thought that there were only two vehicles to resolve the differences between Anglican conservatives and American Episcopaliansim - which in 2003 made an openly gay man bishop, in contravention of a 1998 Communion statement that only married heterosexuals should have sex, and has refused to swear off gay union ceremonies. The slow one was a new Anglican core covenant to the margins over a period of years. The fast one was an explosive schism of the worldwide communion into halves: the conservative party, led out of Africa, with the majority of members; and a more...
...Yesterday's action was a more surprising third way. By allotting the Episcopal leadership less than a year to back off of gay unions (or face taking a second-class status within the global group), the Communion has made it clear that it values its unity more than American participation (and funding). And in establishing "alternative oversight" by bishops more to the liking of U.S. conservatives - under a complicated system that still gives Episcopalian Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori some say in their regulation - the Communion has engaged in unusual interference with the polity of a member church...
...conservative Anglican bodies throughout Africa, Latin America and Asia (known as the Global South). Long seen as Western Anglicanism's missionary stepchild, the South has eclipsed it in energy and size, and yearns for corresponding clout. One obstacle is money: funds from liberal Western churches support both the communion and many dioceses, perpetuating what southerners see as a kind of neocolonialism. Akinola announced in 2004 that he would reject money from churches he disagreed with, becoming the unfettered champion of the Global South majority...