Word: communion
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...schism long forecast for the Anglican Communion over the church's liberal stand on homosexuality may be getting closer. A document released by a group of conservative churchmen called the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFcon) made it clear that the more than 250 bishops who belong to the group intend to transform the 77-million-member global Communion, the world's third-largest affiliation of churches, because of their differences over the church's stance on gay priests and other issues...
Just days before the group's conference is set to begin in Jerusalem, GAFcon's leader, Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, declared in a 94-page theological statement: "There is no longer any hope, therefore, for a unified Communion ... Now we confront a moment of decision ... We want unity, but not at the cost of relegating Christ to the position of another wise teacher, who can be obeyed or disobeyed. We earnestly desire the healing of our beloved Communion, but not at the cost of rewriting the Bible to accommodate the latest cultural trend. We have arrived...
Strong words, and ominous for Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who next month will convene the Communion's once-a-decade Lambeth Conference. If all the conservatives walk out, they will diminish attendance at the July 20 conference by more than one-quarter. (Liberals assert that the number of abstainers will be much smaller.) The entire process could well result in the diminution of the power of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the titular head of the Communion and the closest thing the denomination has to a Pontiff...
That potential boycott and Akinola's strong language this week will make it much harder for Williams to ignore the fact that a sizable chunk of his Communion, particularly from Africa and conservative dioceses of North America, is no longer interested in discussing questions of how the Communion will deal with homosexual bishops and the blessing of homosexual unions, and appears ready to act unilaterally to get its way. Failure to deal with the conflict could result in a shift in the Communion's center of power away from its English roots and toward its growing, disgruntled churches...
Some observers, however, caution against too much doomsaying. The GAFcon statement, they point out, does not necessarily mean that Communion will break in half in the near future. For one thing, the document expresses the GAFcon bishops' intention to break specifically with churches like the Episcopal church in the U.S. and the Anglican Church of Canada, which make gay bishops or support such decisions - and does not call for secession from the worldwide group. Indeed, the conservatives say they would prefer that the Communion either become a looser confederation than it currently is or be "realigned" along more conservative principles...