Anglican Head Downplays Split Over Gays
By RACHEL ZOLL
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The archbishop of Canterbury indicated Friday that the Episcopal Church isn't on the brink of losing its place in the world Anglican fellowship, despite the uproar over Episcopal support for gay clergy.
Anglican leaders, called primates, had set a Sept. 30 deadline for the Americans to pledge unequivocally not to consecrate another gay bishop or approve an official prayer service for gay couples. Episcopal bishops have dedicated their meeting here to crafting a response.
But after two days of private talks with Episcopal leaders, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, said "there is no ultimatum involved." The goal, he said, is "compromise."
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Archbishop prays for miracle in gay rights row
Jonathan Wynne Jones
London Sunday Telegraph
23/09/2007
Tense times on the steamy streets of New Orleans. On the TV screens, the evening weather reports bring news of a gathering tropical storm in the Gulf of New Orleans and the population shivers at the thought of a repeat of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Behind closed doors in the private suites and meeting rooms of the city's InterContinental hotel, a very different storm is gathering.
Just a short walk from the muddy waters of the Mississippi, the Anglican bishops of the United States have gathered to decide whether they will provoke the biggest schism in the Church of England since its foundation by Henry VIII.
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Homosexuality not a 'disease', says Archbishop
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones
London Sunday Telegraph
23/09/2007
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has said that homosexuality is not a "disease" on the eve of a crucial decision that could split the Anglican Church worldwide.
Dr Williams's support for gays will fuel anger among conservative Church members who will see his message of support as direct challenge to their deeply held view that homosexuality is a sin.
In his address to a key -gathering of 159 American bishops in New Orleans, the Archbishop insisted: "I do not assume that homosexual inclination is a disease."
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Anglican Archbishop moves to unite traditionalists, US branch
ABC (Australia)
Sep 22, 2007
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has denied suggestions that the US branch of the Anglican communion is on the brink of expulsion, despite what appears to be its reluctance to conform with demands to abandon its liberal approach to homosexuality.
Dr Williams has spent two days in New Orleans trying to persuade bishops of the Episcopal Church to compromise with traditionalists.
In February, Anglican archbishops demanded that the Americans promise not to repeat their ordination of a gay bishop, to end the blessing of same-sex relationships in church and to provide an independent church organisation in the US for traditionalists.
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Episcopal church calls for civility
09/22/07
By RICK MALWITZ
Central Jersey (NJ) News Tribune
September 22, 2007
In calling for civility in the dispute that threatens to cause a split between the worldwide Anglican Church and the the Episcopal Church in the United States, the head of the American church used the Rutgers women's basketball team as an example of how to ease tension.
In a last-ditch effort at reconciliation over the potential split - caused when the Episcopal Church approved the ordination of gay bishops - a delegation of American bishops met in New Orleans in a closed-door session Thursday with Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the head of the Anglican Church.
During an address at the convention, Katharine Jefferts Schori, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, lamented how language can be "violent," and made mention of Don Imus's derogatory references on the radio directed at the Rutgers' women's team.
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Crisis talks over US gay clergy
Dr Rowan Williams has made an eleventh-hour plea to US bishops
BBC News
22 September 2007
The Archbishop of Canterbury has held a crisis conference with US bishops in an attempt to prevent a split over gay clergy in the Anglican church.
Meeting in New Orleans, Rowan Williams told leaders of the US Episcopal Church to stop the election of gay bishops.
The dispute was triggered by the US church's consecration of an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in 2003.
After the meeting in New Orleans, Dr Williams left for Armenia where he will meet faith leaders in the Middle East.
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Williams in showdown with US church over gay bishops
Stephen Bates
September 19, 2007
The Guardian
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, will demand concessions from the bishops of the US Episcopal Church tomorrow at a crisis meeting aimed at staving off the most damaging split in the churchs modern history, over the issue of homosexuality.
They will be asked to give guarantees that they will not allow the election of any more openly gay bishops or authorise public blessing services for same-sex couples and will create a structure for separate episcopal oversight for conservative congregations who disagree with the churchs liberal leadership.
The continuing unity of the 77 million-strong worldwide Anglican communion, the worlds third largest Christian denomination, hangs in the balance, not in an ancient cathedral but the incongruous surroundings of a hotel in downtown New Orleans.
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Williams escapes bishops' poison to see church at work in New Orleans
Archbishop praises mission to bring succour to victims of Hurricane Katrina
Stephen Bates
September 22, 2007
The Guardian
After seven hours spent listening to American bishops talk about gay sex Rowan Williams probably felt he deserved a break. So they took him to view something the much-derided US Episcopalians still do well - offering aid and comfort to the residents of New Orleans' ninth ward, the region of the city most devastated when the levees broke in the wake of Hurricane Katrina two years ago.
Lush vegetation now grows over the wreckage of what were once homes, with only concrete foundation slabs and rusting fire hydrants to show there was once a crowded neighbourhood there.
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Anglican gay deadline looms in New Orleans
By Ed Stoddard
Reuters
Sep 23, 2007
NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - The U.S. Episcopal Church is in the middle of a wrenching debate that could end with its departure from the worldwide Anglican Communion over the issues of gay clergy and same-sex unions.
Episcopal bishops are expected to wrap up six days of meetings and ministry in New Orleans on Tuesday with an answer to a request by senior Anglican bishops who met in Tanzania earlier this year.
They have asked that the U.S. church, by the end of this month, renounce the blessing of same-sex marriages and agree not to allow more non-celibate gays to become bishops.
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Anglican leader cites strain over gay issue
By Russell Working
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
09/22/2007
NEW ORLEANS — Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams of England came to a hurricane-damaged town hoping to spark frank dialogue about gay ordination issues that have divided the U.S.-based Episcopal Church from many of its Anglican brethren abroad.
He seems to have gotten just that, saying Friday that the 77 million-member Anglican Communion is "under the greatest possible strain at the moment."
The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States and has a more liberal view of Scripture than most Anglicans overseas.
Episcopal Bishops are meeting through Tuesday to draft a response to the worldwide communion's call to stop consecrating gay and lesbian bishops — a conflict that has divided the worldwide body since the U.S. election of an openly gay bishop in 2003.
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Bishops unveil plan for Episcopal conservatives
September 22, 2007
Daniel Burke
Religion News Service
As the Episcopal Church began a crucial meeting in New Orleans, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori named eight bishops to take her place in overseeing conservative dioceses that reject her leadership.
Because of Jefferts Schori's progressive theology and pro-gay politics, six U.S. dioceses have asked to be placed under the guidance of another bishop. The eight bishops will be called "episcopal visitors" and will assume the duties of visiting parishes, ordaining and consecrating bishops and overseeing church discipline, according to the Episcopal Church.
"This gives dioceses the pastoral guidance and care they need while remaining faithful and loyal members of the Episcopal Church," said the Rev. Charles Robertson, an adviser to Jefferts Schori.
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