Conservative Anglicans meet as rift threatens church
Tue Oct 25, 2005 6:39 PM GMT
By Edmund Blair

CAIRO (Reuters) - Traditionalist Anglican clerics from the developing world said on Tuesday that liberal U.S. and Canadian churches had not done enough to heal a rift over gay rights that is threatening to tear apart the Anglican church.

The 77 million-strong Anglican church has been divided since 2003 when the U.S. Episcopal Church ordained a gay bishop and Canadian Anglicans began blessing same-sex marriages.

The move outraged traditionalists who dominate the Anglican church in Africa, Asia and Latin American, a grouping known as the Global South. They say the Bible condemns homosexuality and add that their position represents the majority of Anglicans.

"I still believe there is room for us to walk together," said Drexel Gomez, archbishop of the West Indies, speaking on the sidelines of a six-day meeting of the Global South group which began in Egypt on Tuesday.

"But if they (the United States and Canada) refuse to buy into what we call the Anglican consensus then I believe that those people who cannot accept the consensus are the ones who must leave," he told Reuters.

In a bid to end divisions in the 450-year-old church, a report by Anglican leaders called for steps by the U.S. and Canadian churches, including expressing regret for their actions. A dispute now rages about whether those conditions have been met.
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Gathering of Conservative Anglicans Rekindles Debate on the Unity of Communion
Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2005
Posted: 12:25:46PM EST

Over 120 conservative Anglicans, mostly from the Global South, have gathered in Egypt for a major meeting as fear over the further division between liberals and traditionalists in the warring worldwide Communion intensified.

The six-day Anglican Global South to South meeting, which began Tuesday at All Saints Episcopal Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt, has brought together the leading opponents of the liberal stance on homosexuality from Africa, Asia and Latin America. It is the third of such meetings.
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