A quarrel over whether to install an openly gay
bishop in the United States is a painful test for the Archbishop of Canterbury,
seeking to avoid a schism among the 77 million Christians he leads around the
world. Dr Rowan Williams, the soft-spoken Welsh cleric who took office as
spiritual leader of the church earlier this year, is from the liberal wing of
Anglicanism and known personally to support the appointment of gay priests. But
he has taken pains to avoid a split in the worldwide church over an issue that
has inflamed passions even greater than those stirred up by a 1970s debate over
women priests.
Leaders of the US Episcopalian Church - one of 38 largely autonomous
"provinces", nominally led by the Church of England that make up the Anglican
community - dismissed sexual misconduct allegations against its first
openly gay bishop on Tuesday.
It cleared the way for a vote of bishops likely to approve the installation
of New Hampshire bishop-elect Gene Robinson.
In a similar case in Britain weeks ago, Williams avoided a split by
persuading Jeffrey John, a celibate gay priest, to withdraw from consideration
for the post of bishop of Reading.
Nigeria's Anglicans -with 17 million members, the largest province -had
threatened to break away over the issue. Britain's Prince Charles views the
renovation of the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, as he stands in front of
The Douanier`s Post by Monet, Tuesday Aug. 5, 2003. The Monet: The Seine and The
Sea 1878-1883 exhibition at the academy features 90 paintings by the
impressionist master borrowed from galleries around the world and is expected to
draw big crowds.
If Robinson is installed, Williams will have little choice but to express
misgivings, to avoid alienating the Nigerians and other fast-growing
congregations in developing countries, said British religion commentator
Clifford Longley.
MAJORITY CONSERVATIVES
"If he just accepts the American decision, then he will lose the 'new
Anglican' communities in Africa, Asia, Latin America and so on, which are much
more conservative than the Episcopalians in the US," he said.
"He will choose the majority opposition, the conservatives in the Third
World, against the liberals with whom he is in much more personal sympathy.
There's a Shakespeare play in here somewhere."
Some commentators say the issue should not be enough to split a church that
survived the battle over women priests.
"Homosexuality is a social and cultural issue far more than a theological
one. In the history of Christianity, the present dispute hardly signifies on the
schismatic scale," wrote the right-leaning Daily Telegraph in an editorial.
But Longley said that view underestimates the extent to which the issue
reflects the gulf between "evangelicals", who read the bible literally, and
"modernisers".
Several biblical passages ban homosexuality. But liberals say those laws are
like other ancient customs in scripture-superseded by the teaching of Jesus
Christ himself, whose own views on homosexuality they say are not recorded.
"The problem is that the evangelicals are attached to scripture, not just
over this issue of homosexuality -to them the whole of Christianity rests on the
authority of scripture," said Longley.
"This is a collision between a certain kind of traditionalism and modernity,
frankly, and that is very much the stuff of schisms."
