The Canterbury Travails

08/06/2008
Susan Easton

On August 3rd, Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury, released a statement at the end of the Lambeth Conference urging the Church’s hierarchy not to consecrate any more openly gay bishops. Held once every ten years, the Lambeth Conference is a meeting of all bishops serving in the worldwide Anglican Communion and derives its name from the Palace of Lambeth, the official London residence of the ABC. In Williams' summary remarks, he also petitioned the 77 million members of Anglican Communion -- which includes the U.S. Episcopal Church -- to give its leaders “further space for study and free discussion without pressure” on matters of human sexuality.

The space to which Williams refers opened up first in 1992, when the Church of England (HQ for the Anglican Communion) began ordaining women as priests. This resulted in a mini-exodus of male traditionalists who contended that Jesus only wanted men in leadership positions. Taking its own counsel, the Episcopal Church forced the issue. It began independently ordaining women bishops and eventually elected a woman as its national Presiding Bishop. When the dust cleared at Lambeth, a resolution was passed which will now allow women to become bishops throughout the worldwide Communion. That put a high hurdle in the Anglican-Catholic dialogue, but Rowan Williams and Co. no longer risk being labeled as “misogynists.” The sexuality hurdle has proved insurmountable at present. the rest