Three Anglican Episcopal dioceses in the USA that are firmly against the consecrating of gay bishops have voted to reject the authority of the denomination’s newly elected presiding bishop, Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
The move will further widen the divisions in the already-strained worldwide Anglican Church, however, the three dioceses have also announced that they have stopped short of a complete break with the Episcopal Church.In entirely separate meetings, the dioceses of Pittsburgh, South Carolina and San Joaquin, requested to the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, to assign them an alternative leader.
The Diocese of Pittsburgh is headquarters to the Anglican Communion Network, which is the representing body of 10 conservative U.S. dioceses, as well as more than 900 parishes within the Episcopal Church that are currently deciding whether to split from the denomination.
The announcement from the three dioceses was given as the liberal Diocese of Newark ignored the latest Episcopal call for restraint on choosing gay bishops by naming a gay priest as one of four nominees to become its next leader.
The worldwide Anglican Communion is struggling now to hold itself together, after continuing controversies over the Biblical teachings on homosexuality.
Earlier in the week, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in an attempt to keep some unity together as the Communion moves towards a schism, suggested that a new two-tiered “Covenant system” be set up.
Williams proposes that Churches should be asked to sign a formal covenant, which would allow some to be fuller members of the Anglican Communion than others.A dual system is proposed, whereby there would be full “constituent” members to the Communion that have conformed to the traditional Biblical views of the Church, but also another section of “associate” members which will incorporate rebel and more liberally-viewed Churches.
The move has come following the ECUSA’s failure to “repent” for its actions to liberalise the gay agenda of the Church at its General Convention in Columbus, Ohio earlier this month. In addition, the ECUSA also failed to vote through a moratorium on any more gay consecrations.
The debate over homosexuality has raged-on in the Church for a number of years, but the Anglican Church was plunged into crisis when the ECUSA consecrated the first-ever openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson in New Hampshire in 2003.
Most worldwide Anglican archbishops affirm to the faith that gay relationships violate Scripture, and many have now broke ties with the U.S. Church over Robinson.
However, within the US Church conservatives are a minority.
Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan has said that he and his diocese object to the 18th June election of the Episcopal presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori of Nevada, who voted to confirm Robinson in 2003, and has already openly spoken about her support of ordaining gay clergy and blessing same-sex relationships. She will officially be installed on 4th November.
