Embattled Anglicans look to U.S. gathering for signs of calm or confrontation
Updated 6/8/2006
By Brian Murphy, The Associated Press

In an Easter season letter to leaders of the Anglican Communion, the Archbishop of Canterbury set out his priorities for a once-a-decade summit planned for 2008. The note was all about survival: How do we heal the feuds over gay clergy and other rifts and manage to hold together 77 million followers around the world?

But a deeper question — being asked with increasing urgency — is whether it's worth the effort.
Some critical judgments may emerge when the Episcopal Church — the American branch of the embattled Anglican family — begins its General Convention on Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio.

What's at stake seems profound: A nearly 500-year-old religious tradition going back to King Henry VIII's famous break from the Vatican to establish the Church of England. But the modern reality is much more messy. the rest