Feb 23, 2007  |  By: ELIZABETH A. PERRY  | COMMENTS     

Leaders of the worldwide Anglican Communion this week ordered the U.S. Episcopal Church to comply with strict new rules on gay issues, renewing concerns over a possible schism.

The draft or “communiqué” issued by Anglican primates at a six-day meeting in Tanzania, gives the U.S. church until Sept. 30 to reject rites or blessings for same-sex unions and to refuse to ordain any more openly gay bishops, “unless some new consensus on these matters emerges across the Communion.”

John Gibson, director of communications for Integrity, an organization for gay Episcopalians, said he is disappointed with the communiqué and that Integrity leaders will have to meet with Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church, to sort out the ramifications and decide what’s next.

“The Church of Nigeria is its own entity,” he said. “The meeting was a room full of men and one woman deciding what the Episcopal Church USA is supposed to do. That’s the way it works in the Roman Catholic Church, not in our communion. They are telling us that if we don’t shape up we will be placed outside the circle.”

The draft could be seen as an ultimatum for the U.S. church, though no one is calling it that publicly. It’s unknown how the edicts will be enforced as there are no guidelines in place for expelling the Episcopal Church and its 2.2 million members from the 77 million-member Anglican Communion, should the U.S. church not comply. The Anglican Communion has no pope or legislative body, though Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams can seek consensus on such matters from the 38 Anglican primates, or national and regional church leaders.

Gibson said the meeting did not yield good news for gay Episcopalians and that Integrity will need to rethink its evangelization efforts toward gays as the deadline approaches.

“We’re going to sit down and pow-wow with Katharine Jefferts Schori,” he said. “We want to work with her and strategize with her, but we want to set the bar very high. We want inclusion of all the baptized in the body of the church.”

The communiqué makes strategy difficult for the U.S. church, Gibson said, because the primates’ demands are aimed at the House of Bishops with no mention of the laity. He said the document conflicts with the democratic process by which the American church is governed.

“The bishops don’t run the church,” he said. “They could say the sky is pink, but if the House of Bishops disagrees, then it isn’t.”

Some gay Episcopalians saw encouraging signs in Tanzania, though.

Rev. Caroline Hall, director of Anglican Communion affairs for Integrity, attended the meeting and maintained a blog while there. She said she was surprised to see the primates making the effort to welcome their only female member. During the second day of the conference she wrote that Williams stood up to some of the primates who objected to Schori’s presence by declaring that she had “… an ‘absolute’ right to be there as a duly elected primate.”

Another surprise came when Hall noticed primates from the Nigerian church interacting with gays and lesbians. South African Archbishop Ndungane sat down for an in-depth conversation with the leaders of three progressive gay Anglican organizations. Even anti-gay Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, with whom several Virginia churches have aligned, greeted three meeting attendees, one of whom was director of Changing Attitude Nigeria, a gay Nigerian Anglican organization.

“Archbishop Akinola shook hands with three gay and lesbian persons, including Davis Mac-Iyalla, who the Nigerian church has declared to be non-existent,” she wrote. “No longer can Akinola claim that there are no Nigerian gays or that he has never met one.”

Many U.S. Episcopalians are waiting to hear from Jefferts Schori, who signed the communiqué, before proceeding or strategizing.

In an interview with Episcopal News Service upon her return from Tanzania Tuesday, Jefferts Schori called the meeting “challenging” and said the next step will be for the House of Bishops to discuss it at a special meeting next month. She urged Episcopalians in the pews to “be of good faith.”

“We’re entering Lent and there’s probably not a better time for us to receive this communiqué from the primates’ meeting,” she said. “It will be hard news for a number of members of this church. It will be welcome news for other members of this church. This is a season to ...