TANZANIA: Anglican church gives U.S Episcopal church deadline over same sex unions

The Aniglican Church reitereated its position on homosexuality as it warned the north American Episcopal church over its same sex union controversy. The Anglican Communion gave the U.S. Episcopal Church a September deadline on Monday to stop blessing same sex unions, but did gave no clear indication of what action it would then take. Anglican Church leaders are meeting in Tanzania to reconcile conservative and liberal views on homosexuality, exacerbated by the U.S. Episcopal Church's consecration of openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson in 2003. In a statement issued in the final hour of the tense meeting, the Anglican Communion gave the U.S. church the September 30 deadline to meet the request first issued in 2004. "If the reassurances requested of the House of Bishops cannot in good conscience be given, the relationship between the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion as a whole remains damaged at best, and this has consequences for the full participation of the church in the life of the communion," the statement said. The spiritual leader of the world's 77 million Anglicans, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, said it offered "an interim solution that certainly falls very short of resolving all the disputes". Williams has no power to force a solution in the Communion, a loose federation of 38 self-governing churches, which has traditionally run on consensus. However, he said the U.S. church might not be invited to the 2008 Lambeth Conference -- a once in a decade meeting of all Anglican bishops -- if it did not comply. Earlier, a group of senior Anglican bishops released a draft covenant that would allow the Communion to sever ties with churches that stepped out of line. But officials expect it to take years for the draft to be finalised. The consecration of Robinson sparked uproar among traditionalists particularly in Africa, home to more than half the world's Anglicans. They have demanded the Americans repent and are now pushing ways to redraw the Anglican world map to exclude liberal-leaning provinces.

ITN Source | February 20, 2007

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