Bishop M. Thomas Shaw of Massachusetts said that he told Williams that gay rights issues should not depend on approval from the majority of the Anglican Communion, but urged Williams to recognize that gay rights supporters, such as Shaw, believe they are acting in a prophetic way.<\/p>\n
“There are certain times in history when you simply have to act – the majority isn’t going to do it,” Shaw said in an interview. “Speaking truth isn’t just liberal thinking, but it’s something that has a deep place in biblical literature, in the life of Jesus and the prophets.”<\/p>\n
Shaw said he also told Williams that it is difficult to seek consensus in the American church “when these American bishops are going to Africa and making promises and playing on the fears of the African church.”<\/p>\n
Shaw was referring to the fact that Anglican leaders in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Uganda have consecrated American priests, including the Rev. William Murdoch of Massachusetts, as bishops to minister to the alienated conservative minority in the United States who no longer feel comfortable in the Episcopal Church.<\/p>\n
The Anglican Communion has been facing the possibility of schism since 2003, when the Episcopal Church approved as the bishop of New Hampshire the Rev. V. Gene Robinson, who is openly gay and lives with his longtime partner. The approval, which conservatives said violated the Bible’s teachings on homosexuality, exacerbated long-developing tensions over the liberal direction of the Episcopal Church.<\/p>\n
The bishops in attendance are so divided that they are not all staying in the same hotel. The official meeting hotel is the InterContinental, but Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh, the leader of the wing of the church most upset by the Robinson consecration, is staying down the block at the Parc St. Charles with a handful of other conservatives.<\/p>\n