New archbishop faces hurdles to Anglican unity

"Archbishop Williams is very sensitive and prayerful and brings a broad sense of the multiple realities in which Anglican Christians live - their very distinct historical, political, and religious contexts," says the Most Rev. Frank Griswold, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Some churches in Africa, for example, which neither accept homosexuality nor have the latitude for broad debate, at the same time make room for people in polygamous marriages because that is their cultural reality. The key, Bishop Griswold adds, is "recognizing that what unites us is more important than what divides us."

Griswold recently chaired a three-year International Anglican Conversation on Human Sexuality. "While there was suspicion at the start, we found we were profoundly one on the basics of the Christian faith, and we discovered the importance of context," he says. "They saw our situation wasn't just wild liberalism but an attempt to deal pastorally with our particular situation" - a society where homosexual issues are being openly dealt with.

Those taking bold steps say they are doing it for pastoral reasons. The Rev. William Smalley, bishop of the Diocese of Kansas, last summer announced a limited plan for blessing nonmarried couples, including homosexuals. The rite cannot resemble a marriage ceremony and the rector and parish must approve before the request comes to him.

"What led me to it after a long struggle was Jesus' model of compassion in the gospels," Bishop Smalley says. "We have a group of people who are shut out and almost treated as modern lepers, yet they are Christians committed to a lifelong relationship." Some parishes in the diocese support the idea and some oppose, he adds; none has yet requested a blessing.

The Diocese of New Westminster in Vancouver, British Columbia, which last June voted for a rite for same-sex unions, has tried to reconcile the parishes who oppose it. But this month the parishes indicated they were more interested in separation.

One direction they may turn is to the Anglican Mission in America (AMiA), the group started by US clergy under the supervision of the archbishops of Rwanda and Singapore. "The Anglican Communion is in flux," says the Rev. Jay Greener, AMiA spokes-man. The group formed, he says, because of US bishops taking positions "apart from historic Anglicanism" and "a lack of action" to hold them to account.

AMiA now has 55 churches and 12,000 members. Most are disaffected Episcopal churches, but the focus now, Mr. Greener emphasizes, is on converting the unchurched. Yet, he adds, "there are a number of scenarios the international community is working on" to help the parishes in Vancouver.

The Anglicans are divided globally and locally, Dr. Marty says. And the new Archbishop of Canterbury has only moral suasion, no power to intervene. The reality is that, since the 16th century, "they have always been a church of 'comprehension' - one that is not supposed to force boundaries that throw people out.... That's been its history."

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