So, The Episcopal Church has decided to go its own way, making official its view that whatever heterosexuals may do, so may gays. The dissenting bishops, which included John Howe of the Diocese of Central Florida, essentially said that in their dioceses, they will not go along with the new policies, and there is no plausible way they can be compelled to do so. These bishops also expressed a commitment to “our communion with the See of Canterbury.”<\/p>\n
That is a reference to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. The dissenters are pinning their hopes on the chance that Williams will declare The Episcopal Church is no longer in fellowship with his office. That would have little practical effect, because each constituent part of the Anglican Communion is independent, but it would have a lot of symbolic meaning. For one thing, it would mean that even so cultured and thoughtful a leader as Williams might refuse to go along with The Episcopal Church’s decision.<\/p>\n
The Americans have put Williams in a difficult position. The Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefforts Schori, wrote to Williams following the convention, explaining why her church has not broken faith with their fellow Anglicans, but that is wishful thinking.<\/p>\n
Williams has 36 other Anglican churches around the world to deal with, a majority of which think that The Episcopal Church has done a radical and unsupportable thing. As one conservative, Bishop Tom Wright of Durham, England, wrote in The (U.K.) Times, last week’s action marks a break: “In the slow-moving train crash of international Anglicanism, a decision taken in California has finally brought a large coach off the rails altogether. Both the bishops and deputies (lay and clergy) of (The Episcopal Church) knew exactly what they were doing.”<\/p>\n
But ousting The Episcopal Church from the Anglican Communion would be an unprecedented step, very un-Anglican, and it’s more likely Williams will play for time, hoping to find some way to keep all his constituent Anglican churches in the same orbit.<\/p>\n