TIME: An Anglican Schism: Headed for US?

By DAVID VAN BIEMA
Monday, Jun. 30, 2008

A group of conservative bishops meeting in Jerusalem have raised anew the possibility of a schism in the worldwide Anglican church, largely over the contentious issue of gay priests. But a nearly simultaneous court ruling in Virginia has increased the chances that the battle over Anglican unity could come to a head in the United States. Says conservative Canon Kendall Harmon with the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina: "[The U.S.] has become a hot zone, and it's going to become much hotter."

The Global Anglican Future conference (GAFcon), the group of conservative Anglican bishops and believers that ended its weeklong meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday, released a statement that stops short of outright schism with the Anglican Communion. However, it seems to set up an alternative fellowship of conservative Anglicans within the Communion, made up of its own group of key archbishops, or primates. It also states an unwillingness to recognize as fellow Anglicans all whom the Archbishop of Canterbury designates as such. the rest