"An Impossible Moment"
By Hans Zeiger and Auburn Traycik
www.VirtueOnline.org

COLUMBUS, OH, 6/14/06--The breadth of the chasm over homosexuality in the U.S. Episcopal Church (ECUSA) was on full display here Wednesday evening, at a General Convention legislative committee hearing that filled a 1,500-seat hotel ballroom and overflowed into the hall outside.

During a two-and-a-half hour meeting that heard comments from nearly 70 bishops, deputies and others - including the Archbishop of York, a guest at the convention - it became painfully clear how difficult it will be for the convention to find agreement on legislation that could determine whether ECUSA remains part of the "official" Anglican fold.

"I think we've reached an impossible moment in holding it together," said Pittsburgh Bishop Robert Duncan, Moderator of the conservative Anglican Communion Network. Duncan cited Dr. N.T. Wright, the Church of England's Bishop of Durham, who called on ECUSA in an essay published Wednesday to repent or face the alienation of the Anglican Communion. Wright was a member of the panel that produced the 2004 Windsor Report, which recommended steps for ECUSA to take help repair damage to Anglican relationships caused by its 2003 approval of actively gay bishop V. Gene Robinson and same-sex blessings.

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