TIME: The Anglicans Get Ready to Rumble
Wednesday, Sep. 26, 2007
By DAVID VAN BIEMA

An uneasy peace has brooded over the 2.3 million member Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. and its global parent body, the 77-million member Anglican Communion, for some four years now. And a key voice vote Tuesday evening at the American bishops' conference in New Orleans has set up a decisive showdown that could well end the unity of the Communion.

At the end of their five day meeting in New Orleans, the Episcopal House of Bishops made their response to three demands presented by the Communion's leaders last February: that the generally liberal U.S. church accept the Communion input in creating conservative bishops to pastor some of its more disaffected members; that it cease to make any more gay bishops, as it did in 2003 with the Right Rev. V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire; and that it stop blessing same-sex union ceremonies.

The Americans certainly seemed to want to come up with a formulation that would enable them to continue on their own track while still remaining part of the Communion. The global Anglican body disapproves of the American stance on homosexuality but, nevertheless, takes about a third of its funds from its U.S. affiliate. In the first few days of their parley they met with Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Communion's embattled titular head, who has become somewhat adept at the art of forestalling a schismatic confrontation. Consistent with this goal, Williams, who didn't stay for the final vote, clearly tried to take the pressure off the conference by saying that there was "no ultimatum involved" in the Communion's demand. the rest