Bishop Warns Same-Sex Unions Carry Eternal Cost
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
June 05, 2006

(CNSNews.com) - The crisis within the world's 77 million-strong Anglican (Episcopalian) Church over homosexuality goes beyond an issue of human sexuality, to the far deeper questions of the authority of scripture and eternal salvation, a leading conservative bishop has warned.

As such, it is a make-or-break issue, and more serious than previous doctrinal disputes within the denomination, he said.

How the church deals with the crisis will show Christians' willingness to obey biblical teachings "despite the unpopularity which this may bring in the world and in the church," Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Peter Jensen told a conference in New Zealand.

"I seriously believe that we have before us a struggle for the soul of the Anglican Church," he said, acknowledging that those who shared his point of view were labeled "obsessed, fanatical, homophobic, negative, fundamentalist and puritan." the rest