Word: communionism
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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...
...significant number of critics, far from bridging a gap, Akinola, 63, is actively involved in widening one. As primate to 17 million Nigerian Anglicans and head of an African bishops' group with a total flock of 44 million, he is one of the most influential leaders in the Anglican Communion, the global 78 million-- member confederation that includes the 2.2 million congregants in the Episcopal Church (U.S.A.). Indeed, he is the highest-profile figure in the southward shift of Christianity as a whole. Yet he may exercise that influence by helping pull his communion apart, largely over the issue...
...conviction that Robinson's ordination in the U.S., along with support in other provinces for gay unions, is the last straw in a series of offenses indicating a massive Western disregard for the authority of the Bible. They say he is not so much trying to blow up the communion as force it, by negotiation and a certain degree of brinkmanship, to rein itself...
Anglicanism's great achievement--and one of the reasons people outside the communion may care about its fate--is that since its 16th century origins as a kind of Roman Catholic and Protestant amalgam, it has often seemed like a mini-experiment in what a global Christian church might look like: one that managed to span the distance between incense-saturated Catholic-style rite and tongues-talking low-church Protestantism, that eschewed hyperdetailed doctrinal tests to maintain a looser Christian understanding, adjusted at regular meetings under the low-voltage, first- among-equals leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury...
...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...