Crackup of Anglican Communion at Hand, Evangelical Bishops Say

Gloomy assessment comes from two leading Anglicans at Lambeth.
Timothy C. Morgan
7/21/2008

Excerpt:
The crackup of the Anglican Communion is at hand, evangelical bishops attending the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury tell Christianity Today, and to them, the 400-year-old Anglican project appears over.

"I'd like to expect a miracle," said Bishop Venables, a leader of the evangelical alliance at Lambeth, but said he feared the prospects for the church holding together were grim.

"Humanely speaking, there is little hope for even a peaceful separation" between the liberal and evangelical wings of the 80-million-member communion of churches, Bishop Venables said on July 18.

The 20-day gathering of bishops from across the worldwide communion began on July 16, on the campus of the University of Kent in Canterbury. The conference, held every 10 years, is one of four institutional ties for the 38 provinces, or member churches, of the Anglican Communion. While it has no juridical power, Lambeth has exercised a moral authority over the communion and has been the venue for resolution of past controversies, such as the ordination of women and the morality of contraception. the rest