New York, 1 October (ENI)–A group of North American Episcopal (Anglican) bishops has joined in a partnership to usher in an ‘Anglican union’ they hope will serve as a formal ecclesiastical alternative to the US Episcopal Church.
‘We declare clearly that we are taking this as a first step in the formation of the separate ecclesiastical structure in North America,’the bishops declared in a statement following four days of meetings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The new grouping is needed because of the fall out from the US Episcopal Church’s 2003 consecration of V. Gene Robinson, a divorced man who lives with a same-sex partner, Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan told reporters on 28 September at the end of the meeting.
Thirteen active or former diocesan US Episcopal prelates have pledged support for the new grouping, called the Common Cause Council of Bishops. The new alliance will bring together more than a dozen US and Canadian groups seen as being traditionalist.
Duncan said the bishops hoped the new grouping would be able to forge links with Anglican leaders in other parts of the world angered by the US Episcopal Church’s consecration of Robinson.
A meeting of worldwide Anglican leaders in February gave the US denomination a 30 September deadline to promise that no one living in a same-sex relationship would be made a bishop, and that the US church would not authorise rites for same-sex blessings.
The US denomination’s bishops on 25September said they would exercise ‘restraint’ and not consecrate openly homosexual people as bishops, but they also reaffirmed their commitment to the full participation of gay and lesbian persons in the Church.
Nigerian Anglican Archbishop Peter Akinola, who has played a prominent role among African and Asian prelates angry with the US church, rejected the statement by the bishops of the US Episcopal Church.
‘The unequivocal assurances that we sought have not been given,’ Akinola said, quoted by Episcopal News Service.
He said the leaders of the US Episcopal Church had ‘once again … ignored’ pleas by others within the Anglican Communion to reverse course on sexual issues.
Many Anglican leaders from Africa, Asia and Latin America are opposed to the views of what they say is a minority from the West who are tolerant of homosexuality in the Church.
Ecumenical News International
