From Religion News Service:<\/p>\n
The church’s 40-member Executive Council, which is headed by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, also declined a proposal from Anglican archbishops to create a separate church structure for conservatives who reject her leadership.<\/p>\n
The panel, meeting in Parsippany, N.J., questioned overseas archbishops’ power to “impose deadlines and demands upon any of the churches of the Anglican Communion or to prescribe the relationships within … our common life.”<\/p>\n
The Executive Council declined to give a “yes or no, up or down decision,” to all of the archbishops’ demands, said the Rev. Lee Alison Crawford, a council member and rector of St. Mary’s Parish in Northfield, Vt.<\/p>\n
But Crawford said the council provided “a strong affirmation that the Episcopal Church is not going to go backward from the commitment to our (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) brothers and sisters.”<\/p>\n
Last February, primates — or top archbishops — in the worldwide Anglican Communion demanded Episcopalians pledge to stop consecrating gay bishops, halt blessings for same-sex unions and cede some authority to oversees Anglicans to minister to disaffected U.S. conservatives. The U.S. church was given a deadline of Sept. 30 or face “consequences.”<\/p>\n
Generally, the Executive Council is charged with making decisions for the 2.2 million-member church between its triennial General Conventions. On Thursday, the council said the archbishops’ demands could only be considered at General Convention — next scheduled for 2009 — thus essentially putting off the primates’ demands.<\/p>\n