Primates give green light to Episcopal Church
Thursday, 4th October 2007
By: Ed Beavan.

CONSERVATIVE groups have reacted with dismay to a report which affirms the outcome of the make-or-break meeting of the US House of Bishops and the Archbishop of Canterbury in New Orleans last week.

The talks, which were held in a bid to hold the worldwide Communion together, saw the Episcopal Church (TEC) of the USA agree to refrain from consecrating any more gay bishops or authorising public rites for same-sex unions.

And a report by the Joint Standing Committee of Primates and the Anglican Consultative Council, which was released yesterday, says the Anglican Church in the US has given all the ‘necessary assurances’ to remain in the worldwide church, and called for ‘closure’ on the long-rumbling arguments over homosexuality.

In conclusion the JSC report acknowledges that ‘the life of the Anglican Communion has been much damaged in recent years following the tensions raised by the consecration in TEC of a bishop living in a committed same-sex relationship and the authorisation in some dioceses of Rites of Blessing for same-sex unions’. the rest