Former Anglican prelate visits Wickford
Monday, October 22, 2007
By Richard C. Dujardin
Journal Religion Writer

NORTH KINGSTOWN — Anglican Archbishop George Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, told a gathering at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church yesterday that it is “pretty obvious” the 78-million-member body is deeply divided over the issue of homosexuality, and it is “terribly important that we pray for the unity of the church.”

Archbishop Carey stepped down as the primate of All England and titular leader of the worldwide communion in 2002, a year before the U.S. Episcopal Church’s General Convention authorized the ordination of V. Gene Robinson, who is gay, as the bishop of New Hampshire. Archbishop Carey was in North Kingstown to take part in the local church’s celebration of its 300th anniversary.

He said yesterday that the continuing conflict over Bishop Robinson’s ordination and concerning same-sex relationships could seriously weaken all the churches in the communion, not only those in Africa and other parts of the developing world that view the ordination as a violation of the Gospel but those U.S. churches that supported the New Hampshire ordination. the rest