Episcopal Church in the U.S. gets a decree to reel in the rainbow
LAURIE GOODSTEIN New York Times * Posted on Sun, Feb. 25, 2007
There was a time when the Episcopal Church in the United States was known as "the Republican Party at prayer," but in the past 30 years it has evolved into the Rainbow Coalition of Christianity.
There are hip-hop Masses, Native American rituals to install a new presiding bishop, and legions of gay and straight priests who don the rainbow stoles of gay liberation.
Its pews are full of Roman Catholics and Christians from other traditions attracted by its aura of radical acceptance.
Now the conservatives who numerically dominate the global Anglican Communion have handed their Episcopal branch in the U.S. an ultimatum that requires the church to reel in the rainbow if it wants to remain a part of the Communion.
With a communiqué issued in Tanzania on Monday after a five-day meeting, the leaders of Anglican provinces around the world (known as primates) asked the U.S. branch to bar gays from becoming bishops and to stop official blessings of same-sex unions. The communiqué even specified a deadline: Sept. 30.
There is no certainty at all that Episcopal leaders will comply. In interviews last week, some liberal and moderate leaders who constitute the church's majority voiced everything from confusion to serious misgivings to defiance. Many took umbrage at what they see as meddling by foreign primates imposing their culture and theological interpretations on the American church.
"Being part of the Anglican Communion is very important to me," said Bishop Mark Sisk of New York. "But if the price of that is I have to turn my back on the gay and lesbian people who are part of this church and part of me, I won't do that."
On her way home from the meeting in Tanzania, the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, wrote three pages of "Reflections on the Primates Meeting" that were released late Tuesday.
Many in her church had been eager to hear her explain why she signed on to the communique, when she, as much as anyone, is clearly a product of the church's inclusive culture. In her former diocese in Nevada, she allowed the blessing of same-sex unions and consented to the election of Gene Robinson, a gay man, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003. She is the first woman to be presiding bishop and the first female primate in the Anglican Communion.
In her "reflections," Jefferts Schori struck a tone of respect for those on both sides: "Both parties hold positions that can be defended by appeal to our Anglican sources of authority -- scripture, tradition, and reason -- but each finds it very difficult to understand and embrace the other."
She suggested that the struggle for equality for gay men and lesbians would eventually prevail, just as the slaves in Africa were eventually freed.
Conservatives in the church were also wary about the communique's plan, but generally far more upbeat than the liberals. The communique recommends that the Episcopal Church establish two unprecedented new positions, a council and a "primatial vicar," who will be primarily responsible for the pastoral care of the conservatives within the Episcopal Church, so they don't have to turn to primates from other countries.
Bishop Bruce MacPherson of Western Louisiana, who addressed the primates in Tanzania on behalf of the conservatives, said of the communique's recommendations, "I believe it to be the beginning of a process, a mechanism that will enable us to work toward healing and reconciliation."
The most despairing reactions came from gay men and lesbians in the church who say this is not reconciliation, but capitulation.
"They're trying to make people choose between the Communion and the church's commitment to gay and lesbian people," said the Rev. Michael Hopkins, a priest in Rochester, N.Y., and the former president of Integrity, a long-established organization of gay and lesbian Episcopalians.
Although the Episcopal Church is known as an inclusive haven, Hopkins said, he already knows gay men and lesbians who are leaving. He said, "People like me can only convince other people to hang in there for so long."
Analysis
Q&A on the Rift
Q. What is the Anglican Communion's teaching about sex?
The teaching is that sex is for married heterosexual couples. That teaching states that gay people are children of God and members of the church but that homosexual behavior is "incompatible with Scripture." The Episcopal Church directly challenged those views in 2003 when it consecrated Gene Robinson, a gay man living with his partner, as bishop of New Hampshire.
Q. What happens if the Episcopal Church does not meet the demands?
The primates warned that if the U.S. church does not or cannot give the reassurances they seek, it risks having to play a reduced role in the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.
Q. Who will decide how the Episcopalians will respond?
Church officials say it is not clear that the bishops, who are scheduled to meet for a retreat in March, have the authority to answer the primates' demands on their own. The Episcopal Church's next General Convention, which would include lay and clergy delegates, is not scheduled to be held until 2009.
Q. What has the Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said so far?
Reflecting on the meeting, she noted that Lent was about to begin and said that both sides in the dispute were being asked to undergo a period of "fasting," pointing out that the primates had made requests not just of liberals, but of conservatives, too. Liberals were asked to stop blessing same-sex couples and consecrating gay bishops; conservative primates were asked to refrain from "transgressing diocesan boundaries" during the next seven months.
Q. Where are the largest Anglican churches found?
The Anglican Communion's largest provinces, or national and regional churches, are England, with 26 million members, Nigeria with 17.5 million and Uganda with 8 million. The U.S. branch has 2.3 million members.
The archbishop of Canterbury, currently the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, is the spiritual head of the denomination, but its 38 churches are considered autonomous. Williams, in other words, does not have the authority to force a solution in the current crisis.
