Episcopal liberals say they could accept a schism

WASHINGTON – Several leading liberal Episcopalians said Tuesday that they would rather accept a schism than accede to a demand from leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion for what they view as an unconscionable rollback of the U.S. church’s position on gay rights.

The defiant reaction to the communique issued by the primates, or heads, of the Anglican Communion’s 38 national churches on Monday at the conclusion of a weeklong meeting in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, reflected a growing feeling on both sides of the dispute that time for compromise is running out.

“Yes, I would accept schism,” said Bishop Steven Charleston, president of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass. “I would be willing to accept being told I’m not in communion with places like Nigeria if it meant I could continue to be in a position of justice and morality. If the price I pay is that I’m not considered to be part of a flawed communion, then so be it.”

Conservative primates, many from developing countries, insisted in Dar Es Salaam that the 2.3 million-member U.S. church must comply with the 77 million-member communion’s position that “homosexual practice” is “incompatible with Scripture.” They sought and won a Sept. 30 deadline for U.S. bishops to pledge to stop authorizing rites of blessing for same-sex couples and to promise not to consecrate any more gay bishops.

U.S. conservatives hailed the communique. Martyn Minns, of Truro Church in Fairfax, Va., said it gives the U.S. church just “one last chance.”