http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/26/nbish26.xml

 

Anglicans tell US Church to 'repent' over gay bishop

By Elizabeth Day

(Filed: 26/09/2004)

 

The American Anglican church is to be told to "repent" for consecrating a homosexual bishop and to remove him from his post or face exclusion from the Anglican Communion.

 

A commission headed by the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, Robin Eames, and made up of senior churchmen from across the world, will tell the Episcopalian Church in America next month that it needs to apologise for creating a damaging schism in the worldwide church.

 

Its report, to be published next month, is expected to recommend that the Episcopalian Church should be excluded from the Anglican Communion if the Bishop of New Hampshire, the Rt Rev Gene Robinson <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=4T4S2XHTDNDFPQFIQMGCNAGAVCBQUJVC?xml=/news/2003/11/03/wbish03.xml> , a homosexual, does not step down from his present post.

 

Many African Bishops are likely to call for Bishop Robinson's immediate resignation.

 

The Nigerian Church is already founding new evangelical churches in America in response to the crisis and Ugandan Bishops have taken three US parishes under their "care."

 

Liberals, however, could regard the move as a capitulation to the conservative evangelical lobby.

 

One member of the commission, the Archbishop of Kaduna, Josiah Iduwo-Fearon, of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, last week compared the American church to a misbehaving child that had to be taught a lesson. The archbishop, who has never before spoken publicly on the issue, said that the American Church would have to admit that the consecration had been harmful to the overall interests of worldwide Anglicanism, or face suspension.

 

He said that the 17-strong Lambeth Commission, set up last October to seek ways of maintaining the Anglican Communion that was divided between evangelicals and liberals over the issue, had agreed that the only way forward was for the Episcopalians to apologise for their actions.

 

"The thrust of our concerns is that our communion is a family and if you have a family there has to be give and take for us to keep the family together," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

 

"That is what we are expecting and we hope that the American Church will be willing to behave the way members of the family should behave.

 

"If you've done what is not acceptable to the other members of the family, why don't you consider the overall interest? [I would say to them] For the sake of our communion, accept what we are offering.

 

"I believe that the American Church will do this for the sake of the family and to make the ministry of the Archbishop of Canterbury less stressful," the archbishop said.

 

"Personally, I would not want anything to break up this communion but there are parameters, there are limits to what a member can do - for instance the consecration.

 

"Since this has been flouted, there has to be an acceptance [by the American Church] of what we've done has not been accepted by the family, we are sorry, therefore where do we go from here?"

 

The archbishop called for the American Church to "retract" its ordination of Bishop Robinson. "I believe that the American Church's leadership will recognise the need for this beautiful communion to stay together and retract," he said.

 

"I'm hoping and praying that they will try to persuade their membership that the more we're together, the better."

 

The archbishop conceded that if the Episcopalian Church did not accept the commission's findings, to be published on October 18, it would be "difficult" to proceed.

 

The commission's recommendations are likely to prove controversial, however. Many African bishops are likely to call for Bishop Robinson's immediate resignation.

 

The Nigerian Church is already founding new evangelical churches in America in response to the crisis and Ugandan bishops have taken three US parishes under their "care".

 

Liberals, however, may regard the findings as a capitulation to the conservative evangelical lobby <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=4T4S2XHTDNDFPQFIQMGCNAGAVCBQUJVC?xml=/news/2004/09/11/nbish11.xml> .

 

The commission's recommendations must first be discussed by the primates next February and then go before the Anglican Consultative Council, the representative body of the Anglican Communion, before they can be enforced.

 

The recommendations are also likely to provide a further test of the Archbishop of Canterbury's leadership skills.

 

In June, Dr Rowan Williams was accused of cowardice by liberals for persuading Dr Jeffrey John, a celibate homosexual, to stand down as Bishop of Reading.

 

Dr John has subsequently been appointed the Dean of St Albans. Last week, Dr Williams was further criticised for his handling of the homosexual issue.

 

The former Bishop of Newark in New Jersey, Jack Spong, wrote in an internet article: "His actions have revealed a fatal character flaw. He has no courage, no backbone and no ability to lead.

 

"He is now destined to be a long-serving but ineffective and empty man who has been revealed to be incapable of carrying the responsibility placed upon him."

 

 

 

 

 

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