US Anglicans rapped for stand on gay unions

THE Anglican Church has slapped sanctions on its liberal US branch for supporting same-sex marriage, a move that has averted a formal schism in the world’s third-largest Christian denomination but left deep divisions unresolved.

The Anglican communion, which has about 85 million members in 165 countries, has been in crisis since 2003 because of arguments over sexuality and gender, between liberal churches in the West and conservative clerics, most of them in Africa.

Following four days of talks, the heads of the world’s 38 Anglican provinces said the liberal US Episcopal Church would be barred for three years from taking part in decisions on doctrine or governance.

The sanctions also bar the US church from speaking on behalf of Anglicans on interfaith or ecumenical bodies and from certain committees for three years.

Episcopal Church presiding Bishop Michael B Curry said the decision would “bring real pain”, but he was “committed to ‘walking together’ with fellow primates in the Anglican family”.

Before the talks, some African primates threatened to walk out unless “godly order” was restored.

Although a schism has been averted, early reactions suggest deep divisions remain and will continue to disrupt the communion.

Peter Jensen, the conservative former archbishop of Sydney, called the primates’ statement “inadequate” for not reaffirming traditional Christian teachings on marriage strongly enough. He did, however, approve of the sanctions.

“This represents something of a warning to liberal-thinking Christians,” Jensen told BBC Radio 4. “They need to repent and turn back from this to what the Bible says.”

At the other end of the spectrum, Alan Wilson, the bishop of Buckingham in England, said the primates’ statement was “a triumph for ecclesiastical politics and diplomacy”, but the people at the heart of the issue had been forgotten.

“The unity of the church includes LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual) people,” he told BBC Radio 4.

The primates said the Episcopal Church had caused deep pain and worsened mistrust in the communion by changing its canon on marriage to include same-sex couples. – Reuters