Episcopal Church Given Ultimatum

According to a communiqué from a recent primates’ meeting in Tanzania, the Episcopal Church must make an unequivocal common covenant that its bishops will not authorize any rite of blessing for same sex unions in their dioceses or through general convention and that a candidate for Episcopal orders living in a same-sex union shall not receive the necessary consent, "unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the Communion."

The Episcopal Church – the U.S. arm of the Anglican Church – has been given until September 2007 to respond. The Church was expected to hand down its decision on the issue last year.

But according to Bahamian Archbishop Drexel Gomez its answer was ambiguous and "simply not good enough."

"If the reassurances requested of the House of Bishops cannot in good conscience be given, then the future of that church and its relationship with the rest of the Anglican Communion will be in doubt," Archbishop Gomez said at a press conference at his office in Nassau on Monday.

"So it’s really in a sense a veiled threat to them that they either comply with the rest of the Communion or they will have to walk apart."

Archbishop Gomez has been instrumental in addressing this crisis in the Anglican Church, having also sat on the Lambeth Commission, which first dealt with the divisive issue.

At the heart of tensions is the belief that the Episcopal Church has departed from the standard of teaching on human sexuality accepted by the Communion in the 1998 Lambeth Resolution by consenting to the Episcopal election of a candidate living in a committed same sex relationship.

"This is not acceptable to the majority of the union," Archbishop Gomez said.

"We regard this as non-negotiable and totally unacceptable. And so, we have made this abundantly clear to the American church and we have asked them to respond. This is their final opportunity."

The matters that perplexed Anglican leaders had to do with a decision by the 74th General Convention of the Episcopal Church to give consent to the election of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson to the Diocese of New Hampshire and the authorizing by a diocese of the Anglican Church of Canada of a public rite of blessing for same sex unions.

Additionally, there was concern about the involvement in other provinces by bishops without the consent or approval of the incumbent bishop to perform Episcopal functions.

Conservative Anglican leaders have snubbed liberals on the issue, pushing the Church toward schism.

"The responses (to the primates’ request) so far are not official. But from what I have read so far (the responses) have been negative. Some bishops are angry they have been challenged in this way, but they have time to reflect," Archbishop Gomez said

The archbishop added that should the Episcopal Church fail to respond positively to the primates’ request, the Anglican Communion would have to make a decision.

"We did envisage that the covenant process would take us to 2009 and that by that time every member of the Anglican Communion would be called upon to sign up – or not sign up – to the covenant. And if the Episcopal Church cannot agree to the terms we have given, it means that they will not be able to sign up. They would be placing themselves outside the present relationship or they might seek some associate status," the archbishop said.

Among key non-negotiable recommendations, Anglican primates also suggested the implementation of a pastoral scheme that would provide adequate protection for the two sides – conservative and liberal Anglicans in the U.S. – to work together toward reconciliation.

The communiqué – the 8th version – followed a five-day meeting that the leaders held in Tanzania, which Archbishop Gomez also attended and an initial meeting of the Covenant Design Group in Nassau last month.

Archbishop Gomez was on the drafting committee for the communiqué.

"This was an extremely difficult meeting (the one in Tanzania) because it involved a lot of negotiations," he said.

"I didn’t get much sleep. We only got consensus at 11pm on the night of our last meeting, but everyone accepted the communiqué including the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church."

The archbishop said the Covenant Design Group’s report was extremely well received by both the Joint Standing Committee and the primates as a mechanism for holding the Anglican Communion together.

The Covenant Design Group was appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the request of the Joint Standing Committee appointed in March 2006.

It consists of 10 members drawn from around the Communion with a range of expertise.

Its report now offers a draft text for a covenant, a document viewed as urgent in order to restore trust within the communion.

The primates admitted that the proposal for the covenant was born out of a specific context in which the communion’s life was under severe strain.

However, the document stopped short of focusing on specific issues as the group felt that it was important that the strength of a covenant would be greater if it addressed broad principles.

The text falls into six major blocks, which are considered extremely important in determining the future of the Anglican Church.

They included: The response of the Episcopal Church in The United States to the Windsor Report; the ongoing relationship between the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion; an Anglican Covenant; The Lambeth Conference 2008; theological education on the Anglican Communion, and ecumenical relations.

"We basically sought to present a series of affirmations – stating who we are and what we believe – and commitments to behave in such a way. And so this was the first time the Anglican community received such a framework which – if accepted – would apply across the worldwide communion," Archbishop Gomez explained.

"It is a document that seeks moral authority and moral commitment for the member churches…And so we believe that this covenant would help us to live in communion by mutually subjecting ourselves one to another to follow the general mind and to uphold the general position across the communion."

Archbishop Gomez added, "I can honestly say in the annals of the Anglican Communion across the globe, it would be recorded that this work started in Nassau. So, it will be in a prominent position and the West Indies would be seen as playing a pivotal role. Our first attempt was so successful."