New archbishop faces hurdles to Anglican unity

The first Archbishop of Canterbury was St. Augustine, who was sent by the pope to England as a missionary in AD 597.

The 104th Archbishop of Canterbury - who is being enthroned today - is head of the Church of England and spiritual leader of 70 million Anglicans worldwide. A Welsh theologian and poet, the Rev. Dr. Rowan Williams takes St. Augustine's chair at a time of unsettling change in the global Anglican Communion.

As the denomination has declined dramatically in the West in recent decades, it has surged in the developing world, particularly in Africa. So great is the disparity that some Africans are heading to the North as missionaries to help reevangelize the English-speaking field. The new archbishop shares this priority.

But as global leader, he faces yet another challenge - a potential split in the Communion that his predecessor, George Carey, termed "of crisis proportions." A cultural divide between an orthodox South and a liberal Western church has sharpened in recent years over issues of gender and sexuality, and particularly homosexuality.

Dr. Carey warned, as he prepared to step down, that unilateral actions by bishops and dioceses were "steadily driving us towards serious fragmentation and the real possibility of two - or more likely more - distinct Anglican bodies."

For example:

• Two bishops in the Episcopal Church (Anglicans in the US) have publicly stated a willingness to bless same-sex unions, and others are doing so behind the scenes; some bishops are ordaining gay clergy.

• Archbishops in Africa and Asia took the unprecedented step in 2000 of consecrating US priests as bishops to serve under them to bring the US church "back to its biblical foundations."

• A diocese in western Canada has voted to permit rites for same-sex unions, leading eight of its parishes to withdraw.

• Evangelical groups in the Church of England have threatened to look abroad for alternative spiritual leadership because of the new archbishop's views on homosexuality.

The Anglicans are far from alone in their tribulations.

"The problem of what to do about homosexuality runs across most denominations from the pope to the Mennonites," says Martin Marty, professor emeritus of the University of Chicago Divinity School. "But the Episcopal Church - which was also out front on race relations - has been more hospitable to the gay movement than any other except the United Church of Christ; and a tremendous number of gay people and clergy find it their home."

Yet at the last global conference of Anglican bishops in 1998, the majority passed a resolution rejecting homosexual practice as incompatible with scripture and opposing the legitimizing of same-sex unions or ordaining gays. Some complain that Western church leaders are not reining in bishops who stray from biblical authority.

Complicating the situation is that Dr. Williams, a respected theologian, has been an outspoken liberal on social issues and admits to ordaining a gay priest. This led evangelical groups in the church to call for his resignation when he was appointed. He has assured them he will not seek to impose his views on the church.

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