Anglican leaders urged their churches Thursday to maintain a 5-year-old moratorium on consecrating another openly gay bishop and developing prayers for same-sex unions, as they try to restore unity in their fractured fellowship.
An Anglican advisory panel also raised deep concerns about a North American province sought by theological conservatives to rival the Episcopal Church.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican spiritual leader, will arrange professional mediation for all leaders involved in the North American conflict, leaders said.
“If a way forward is to be found and mutual trust to be re-established, it is imperative that further aggravation and acts which cause offense, misunderstanding or hostility cease,” the Anglican leaders said Thursday.
Ok, so the primates are not going to take sides. Sit back, and see who is left standing. Fair enough….
So who will be left standing at the end of all of this? The church that grows – numerically and financially. Is TEC growing? Is ACNA growing? Are the communion partners growing?
Time for each side to get back to the basics.. make disciples, convert the lost. That church will win this battle. The church that spends the next decade fighting their opponents instead of focusing on their mission will be the one that fades into history.
Rowan hasn’t been reading his morning papers lately, has he?
Rowan clearly has not paid attention to what he characterises as the fundamental unit of the Church – the diocese. If the poor thing could get the message sent by, say my former diocese of Missouri, along with all the others disavowing BO33 and calling for same sex blessings and same-sex blessing liturgies from the national front organization, he might have to consider what schism really means, what mediation really means, and what the multiply demonstrated reasons for mis-trust are founded upon. But methinks he chooses not to know.