Gledhill: New fears of schism in Anglican Church

September 1, 2008
commentary

The day in 2003 when the Archbishop of Canterbury forced his friend Dr Jeffrey John to reject his appointment as Bishop of Reading became a defining moment of his archiepiscopate. The consecration of Gene Robinson as Bishop of New Hampshire became a defining moment for the entire Anglican Communion.

Now Britain could be about to have its own “Gene Robinson moment” with growing support in the province of Wales for his election to a bishopric, possibly as soon as in Bangor next month.
The Church in Wales is outside the Church of England, having been disestablished early in the 20th century, and with just six dioceses is one of the smaller of the 38 provinces with 75 million Anglicans worldwide.

But it has a tradition of liberal Catholicism, having nurtured this in Jeffrey John himself in his childhood in the province.

If Dr John is elected next month, voices in opposition will be strong on both sides of the Atlantic. Only last week, the bishops of the Global Anglican Future Conference, a “rival” Lambeth Conference set up in opposition to the liberal agenda of the West, met in London to plan their strategy. the rest