Groups of conservative Anglicans were disappointed but not surprised at the Episcopal bishops' response last week. With little hope that the Episcopal Church will reverse course, the Anglican dissidents timed their first Common Cause Council meeting to take place on the heels of the gathering of Episcopal bishops. The Common Cause Partners, an alliance of 10 conservative and breakaway Anglican groups, announced Friday that they have taken the first steps toward forming an alternative structure to the Episcopal Church as a way to remain faithful to Anglican tradition and Christian orthodoxy.
"The church in the West has lost its way," the Rt Rev Robert Duncan, the Bishop of Pittsburgh, said in the announcement, adding that the US church body is "weak, in decline and uncertain about Jesus".
"A schism of sorts seems inevitable," said the Very Rev Alan Jones, dean of Grace Cathedral and moderator of Sunday's forum.
As many continue to predict the split within the third largest Christian denomination in the world, Jefferts Schori noted that there are many Anglican churches around the globe who think the way the Episcopal Church does.
"We have friends everywhere," she said, noting that there are churches worldwide in accord with the direction of the Episcopal Church.
Meanwhile, many of the leaders in the Global South, where some of the largest Anglican provinces are housed, have remained fierce critics of the US church body's liberal direction.
Believing the Anglican Communion should minister to a variety of views, Jefferts Schori said, "The pastor's job as shepherd is to mind the whole flock," alluding to the biblical parable of the shepherd who leaves 99 sheep in search of the one lost one.
"I am continually, prayerfully reminded of those who are wandering off. The job of the church is to reach ever wider to include the whole."
Anglican leaders who made the request for an unequivocal pledge from the Episcopal Church not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorise same-sex unions are now expected to respond to the Episcopal statement. Meanwhile, the Common Cause bishops plan to hold their first constitutional convention late next year for the forming of a separate ecclesiastical structure and seek recognition from Anglicanism's spiritual leader, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams.
