I just saw these two headlines juxtaposed on a Google news serach for “Anglican.” This is from the BBC:
Leaders of the Episcopal Church in the United States have agreed to halt the ordination of gay clergy to prevent a split in the Anglican Church. The Church will also no longer approve prayers to bless same-sex couples.
Many African Anglicans threatened to leave the worldwide Anglican Communion after the ordination of the first openly gay bishop four years ago.
The American Church was told to meet the conditions by 30 September or lose membership of the communion.
US bishops made the decision after a six-day meeting in New Orleans.
The meeting was attended in part by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who urged the Episcopal Church to make concessions for the sake of unity.
The Episcopal Church is the American wing of the Anglican Communion, which has 77 million members worldwide.
Plea for unity
The BBC’s religious affairs correspondent, Robert Pigott, says the agreement will help defuse the crisis triggered by the US Church’s consecration of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in 2003.
And this is from the New York Times:
NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 25 — Bishops of the Episcopal Church on Tuesday rejected demands by leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion to roll back the church’s liberal stance on homosexuality, increasing the possibility of fracture within the communion and the Episcopal Church itself.
After nearly a week of talks at their semiannual meeting in New Orleans, the House of Bishops adopted a resolution that defied a directive by the Anglican Communion’s regional leaders, or primates, to change several church policies regarding the place of gay men and lesbians in their church. But the bishops also expressed a desire to remain part of the communion, and they appeared to be trying to stake out a middle ground that would allow them to do so.
So… who is correct?
And why was Bishop Wolf of RI the only Bishop to vote against the measure. (update: I’ve seen some rumors that the “no” vote may not have been +Wolf, but another Bishop… who knows.)
Update: more news is coming out (slowly) about other Bishops who opposed the statement. It will take a while to work this out, I’m sure. I look forward to hearing our Bishop’s thoughts, though I wouldn’t begrudge him a desire for a break after that meeting!