Gay issue divides Anglicans
LONG BEACH, Calif. – Conservative Episcopalians called on the world’s leading Anglican archbishops on Friday to recognize their emerging network as a separate church within the worldwide Anglican Communion unless the Episcopal Church reverses its liberal views on homosexuality.
Conservatives associated with the newly developing Anglican Communion Network had been careful not to imply that they wanted the group to be recognized as a legitimate national church separate from the 2.3-million member Episcopal Church.
But at the end of a two-day meeting in Long Beach, the network’s Western states steering committee urged Anglican primates – archbishops of national Anglican churches – to “recognize the Anglican Communion Network as a true Anglican province (church) in North America if the Episcopal Church does not repent.”
The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the worldwide 77-million-member Anglican Communion, whose spiritual leader is the archbishop of Canterbury. Each self-governing national church is known as a province.
The Long Beach statement also urged the primates to “discipline and censure” the Episcopal Church “for its ongoing ungodly actions.”
Despite the strong plea from conservatives in the Western states, there was no immediate support from national conservative leaders for a separate province, although they said they could understand the frustration of those who did. The Rev. Canon David Anderson, national president of the American Anglican Communion, which supports the network, said Friday that his organization was not prepared to join in a call for a separate province.